Marketing plan for Nike

Nike is a multinational corporation based in the United States that specializes in the creation of sportswear, which includes garments, accessories, and sporting goods. Nike was established in 1964 by William Jay Bowerman and Philip H. Knight, and throughout time, its financial performance has improved (Carsrud, Kotler, and Armstrong 2010, p. 56). The enhancement in the organization productivity has been attributed to the factors such as aggressive strategy and its diversity in the production process. Nike has its headquarters in Washington County, Oregon, United States.

The company’s organizational structure has also played a key role in ensuring that it maintains a competitive advantage over its rivals in the industry. Much of Nike’s success has been attributed to its sponsorship deals and corporate strategies. Some of Nike’s competitors include Adidas, Puma, New Balance, and Under the Armour. At the end of 2015, Nike had registered $30.601 billion in revenues which marked an increase compared to the previous year (Solomon 2017, p. 45). Its net income also increased by 2.5% to $3.273 billion. The current number of employees is 62,500.

Market Orientation

Market orientation refers to the business model that is focused on the delivery of product designs according to the desires of the consumers’ needs and product efficiency (Carsrud et al. 2010, p. 67). The aggressive market competition also comes from the fact that customers will always go for a well-known brand. The company has invested in the development of its brand through advertisement (Solomon 2017, p. 5). Through the use of online marketing and advertisement, Nike has found it easy to capture the attention of various customers across the globe which has in return led to the tremendous increase in its sales across the past decade.

The firm through its CEO believes that for the company to remain competitive in the market, it has to ensure that its products satisfy the changing taste of the consumers. The production of high-quality goods such as footwear sports apparel and equipment has been a major progressive step in the performance of the company (Chaffey, Ellis-Chadwick, Volle, and Mercanti-Guérin 2014, p. 56). Moreover, the company has various opportunities to expand in the American markets. The use of buyer’s divisions has been one of those strategies that have also played a role in the growth of firm’s productivity (Chung 2011, p. 56). Through buyer’s segmentation, Nike has found it easy to reach those untapped buyers and sellers’ places, thus increasing its revenue generations.

Marketing Environment

Components of a Marketing Environment Analysis

Marketing environment refers to the forces and factors that directly and indirectly influence a company’s ability to maintain a good relationship with its consumers (Francois and Wooton 2010, p. 45). These components include micro environment and macro environment. The microenvironment is composed of the environmental and internal tasks while the external environment consists of political, economic and social factors (Denny 2013, p. 56). As a part of the internal environment, Nike has adopted advancement in its technology which has been instrumental in the production of high-quality products that meet the tastes and preferences of the consumers.

The company has a unique culture of diversity that makes it very competitive in the market. The qualified management team has also contributed to the enhancement of its competitive advantage (Gutek and Welsh 2014, p. 56). As for the firm’s external environment, Nike, due to its dominance in the market has gained a lot of knowledge in the footwear and apparel products among the other services that it offers which has been a major boost in its financial performance. Nike has also expanded its consumer base, and this has in return contributed to an enhancement in its net profits.

Macro Environmental Factors

The macro-environmental factors refer to all those external factors that influence the decision making process of an organization in terms of performance and strategies (Balasundara 2012, p. 56). Some of the macro-environmental factors affecting Nike Corporation include politics, economics, legal, and demographics.

Economic

The global economy has in the past two years increased significantly, and this has in return had a lot of positive effect to Nike Company (Singleton-Green 2016, p. 56).As a result Nike has managed to increase its sales in most of the Asian and European countries. Finally, the U.S and China have in the past three years enjoyed major economic growth which has been a major boost to the company in terms of profitability.

Technology

With technological advancement, Nike productivity increased over the past five years as they designed their product in such a way that they could satisfy the tastes and needs of its consumers (Haas 2002, p. 56). The creation of high-quality products by the firm has in return increased its consumer loyalty.

Politics

Political factors play a vital role in the determination of the performance of a given organization (Jobber and Lancaster 2015, p. 56). Due to political tensions, companies will always have their sales impaired negatively (Porter 2015, p. 67). Nike has had political factors across the globe which affected in a negative way their performance. In the UK, for instance, it was significantly declined with the announcement of the UK’s decision to leave the EU. In the U.S., Germany, and China, the serene political climate has in the past five years contributed to an enhancement in its sales.

Nike’s Micro-Environment

The company’s microenvironment refers to its internal environment that enhances its performance (Kumari 2012, p. 90). Various internal factors have over the years boosted the financial performance of Nike as well as its competitiveness in the market. One of these factors has dealt with financial strategies. Nike embraces both equity and debts in the funding of its operation. The financial strategies that are employed by Nike have made it easier for the firm to acquire property, purchase raw materials, and maintain its sustainability regarding financial performance.

The management factor is another micro environmental factor that has enhanced the firm’s competitiveness and financial performance (Braun, Tietz, and Harrison 2010, p. 90). Nike’s structure is designed in such a way that all the employees are qualified and works with the aim of meeting the set goals and objectives of the organization. All the departmental managers have played a key role in the years in ensuring that a unity exists among the employees (Makhija and Hirschey 2009, p. 56). Moreover, mutual understanding between the employees in the firm and its consumers has also been instrumental in boosting customer’s loyalty, thus enhanced demand (Elliott and Elliott 2008, p. 56).

Internal Environment

Some of the internal environment factors that serve as strength to the firm include its organisational structure and financial strategy (Lyons 2001, p.16). However, exploitation of its workforce has been the company’s major weakness over the years. Nike has continually broadened its capacity to ensure that suitable products are delivered to the sports men and women, and this has been attributed to its financial strategies Brigham & Houston 2012, p.88). The organization is also targeting extra consumers to meet their set revenue goals (Thompson 2015, p. 56). As a part of the revenue collection, the firm has been involved in ensuring that it increases its market share as well as securing an environment that meets the expectations of the consumers.

An expansion of sales has also been witnessed in the company as a result of the unique marketing strategies employed by the organisation. The Company has turned the online marketing to capture more consumers in the market. In the quest for an enhancement of its revenue and profitability, the company has, however, been accused of poor working conditions and exploitation of the workforce. Unsatisfactory working conditions have been one of the main weaknesses of the Nike Corporation that has in most occasion ended up leading to a drop in the level of its stakeholders’ trust.

Marketing Strategies

Market segmentation refers to the process of division of large market that is homogenous into segments that have identifiable needs or characteristics, and it focuses on ensuring that the organisation is able to target different consumers’ needs perceiving the full value of specified products or services offered by the company (Bennet 2017, p. 45). Factors such as clear identification of the market segments, accessibility, and appropriateness of the policies to the company and measurability of the sector's size affect market segregation in one way or the other (Christensen, Cottrell, and Budd 2006, p. 56)

There are various types of segmentation that are embraced by Nike, and they include geographic, behavioral, demographic, and psychographic (McDonald and Dunbar 2013, p. 56). The company has in the past decade mainly embraced demographic and psychographic division in capturing the attention of its consumers. The firm, for instance, produces certain footwear products that are aimed at capturing the attention of specified consumers in Asia and Africa.

Targeting Strategy

Nike uses a differentiated targeting strategy for its women product range which takes place when an organisation decides to create campaigns that are aimed at appealing to more than two segments (Kim and Mauborgne 2009, p. 34). The surge in the sale of the women product in the recent past has been attributed to the adoption of the differentiated target strategy. Based on the strategy, the company produces goods that are aimed at capturing the attention of various women. Some of the products, for instance, are designed for the gym goers while other products are created for those women that engage in sporting activities such as athletics and football.

The differentiation process has made it easy for the Nike Corporation to come up with goods that satisfy the tastes and preferences of different women that are a part of the firm’s consumers. Nike has also been involved in the marketing of the low-cost items to a budget conscious segment of its female consumers and product quality to its affluent market segmentation especially in the American and Europe suburbs. This move by the Nike has in the past two years bore a lot of fruits, especially in terms of an enhancement in the entity’s revenues. The organization also uses the varying technique regarding messaging in its quest of capturing the attention of the consumers in various market segments that it has its operational base(Bull 208, p.94).

Marketing Mix

Production mix refers to a combination of ideas and plans that are followed by a marketing representative or organisation with the aim of promoting particular services and products offered by the company (Hsu, Huang and Lai 2014, p.32). Consequently, marketing mix can also be defined to as the marketing tools that an organisation employs to follow its promotion objectives in its target markets (Knight and Mcgee 2015, p. 90). The production mix has been one of the tools that have been instrumental in the growth of most of the companies falling under the financial service industry in the past two decades. Promotion mix is made of various elements.

They include product offered by the organisation, the prices of the products and services offered by the organization, promotion of the products and services offered by the organization and the place or location for the distribution of the company’s products and services (Wierenga 2002, p. 54). Nike Corporation has embraced both the 4Ps of the marketing mix and the 7Ps of the marketing as a part of increasing its productivity (Richter 2002, p.87). Some of these elements have been incorporated in the organization include promotion, prices of the products and services offered by the company, physical environment and target location for its products and types of products and services by the firm (Paley, Norton 2015, p. 89).

One of the components of promotion strategies that have been employed by the Nike has been the promotion of its products and services to the female part of the consumers. Promotion is a marketing communication that plays an integral role in the enhancement of brand recognition the company’s sales (Brigham and Houston 2012, p.98). Through aggressive online and paid television advertisement and marketing, Nike has managed to capture the attention of various women consumers. Another component of the marketing mix offered by the Nike is the products and services. Some of its products include footwear, apparels, sporting equipment and recreational.

In the quest for its production, the company has in the past two decades ensured that their products also meet the needs of the female consumers. The prices of most of these products by the Nike Corporation are sustainable, and this makes them affordable to most of the female buyers. The implementation of market segmentation technique has made it easy for the company to identify the product tastes for various women consumers, and this has in return also led to a boost in its distribution thus increased revenue generation (Reddy 2012, p.76.)

Conclusion

In conclusion, the US economy has experienced tremendous growth in the past years, pushing the local industries to expand in productivity. Based on the above argument, it is clear that the success of Nike Corporation across the past decade has been attributed to the unique business strategies that it has put in place. The implementation of product differentiation and market segmentation has played a key role in the enhancement of the company’s sales and financial performance.











References

Braun, K., Tietz, W., and Harrison, W. (2010). Managerial accounting (1st ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

Brigham, E. and Houston, J. (2012). Fundamentals of financial management. Mason, Ohio: Thomson/South-Western.

Bull, R. (2008). Financial ratios. Oxford: CIMA.

Carsrud, A., Kotler, Ph., and Armstrong, G. (2010). Principles of marketing. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Chaffey, D., Ellis-Chadwick, F., Isaac F., Volle, P., and Mercanti-Guérin, A. (2014). Marketing digital. Montreu: Pearson.

Christensen, T., Cottrell, D., and Budd, C. (2016). Advanced financial accounting, 1st ed., New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

Chung, H. (2011). Marketing Control and Marketing Standardisation Strategies: An Integrated Typology. SSRN Electronic Journal, 11 (3), pp. 121-126.

Denny, R. (2013). Selling to win. 1st ed. London: Kogan Page.

Elliott, B. and Elliott, J. (2008). Financial accounting and reporting. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall.

Francois, J., and Wooton, I. (2010). Market Structure and Market Access. World Economy, 33(7), pp. 873-893.

Gutek, A., and Welsh, M. (2014). The brave new service strategy. New York: AMACOM.

Haas, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management (CRM). CON, 14(3), pp. 189-190.

Hsu, W., Huang, Y., and Lai, G. (2014). Corporate Governance and Cash Holdings: Evidence From the U.S. Property-Liability Insurance Industry. Journal of Risk and Insurance, 82(3), pp.715-748.

Jobber, D. and Lancaster, G. (2015). Selling and sales management. Harlow, England: Pearson.

Kim, C., and Mauborgne, R. (2009). Blue Ocean Strategy. Leadership Excellence, 40(2), 56-66

Knight, B., and Mcgee, J. (2015). Market Structure: The Analysis of Markets and Competition. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, 1-2. doi:10.1002/9781118785317.weom120079

Kumari, I. (2012). A Study on The Basics of Investment – “With Special Reference to Investment Risks and Investment Alternatives. Global Journal For Research Analysis, 3(4), pp.1-2.

Lyons, R. (2001). Capital Market Integration. Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, 11(3-4), pp.241-244.

Makhija, A. and Hirschey, M. (2009). Corporate governance. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

McDonald, M. and Dunbar, I. (2013). Market segmentation (1st ed.). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.

Paley, Norton. (2015). The manager's guide to competitive marketing strategies. London: Thorogood.

Porter, M. (2015). The five competitive forces that shape Strategy. Havard Business Review, 33(4).

Reddy, D. (2012). Analysis of Financial Performance Using Market Value Added Approach. Paripex - Indian Journal Of Research, 3(1), pp.141-146.

Richter, T. (2002). Marketing mix standardisation in international marketing (1st ed.). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

Singleton-Green, B. (2016). Commentary: Financial Reporting and Financial Stability: Causes and Effects. Australian Accounting Review, 22(1), pp.15-17.

Solomon, M. (2017). Marketing (1st ed.). [Place of publication not identified]: Pearson.

Thompson, A. (2015). Under the Armour strategy in 2014: Potent enough to win market share from Nike and Addidas?. Journal Of Business, 33(4), pp.50-67.

























Part 2

Introduction

This section covers posts on the communication campaign of the Nike Company which entails a visual illustration of the marketing technique embraced by the organization and a rational to support the poster.



Figure 1. Visual illustration. Source. Nike Women.

Task 2

Having a great product is not enough as it takes creativity and smartness to get out information about the item and inspire brand loyalty. In order to accomplish this, it is vital to use the promotional mix which aims at generating brand awareness and acceptance. One of the elements of the promotional mix is advertisement which refers to paying for presentation and promotion of a product to viewers (Nour and Almahirah 2014, p. 56). Another element of the promotional mix is personal selling which involves using an oral presentation to persuade customers. Sales promotions deal with the usage of media and non-media communication to increase consumer demand (Nour and Almahirah 2014, p. 56). The last element of the promotional mix is publicity which is information about the firm transmitted by the third party.

The target audience for this marketing campaign are women especially those who have been wanting to start a sporting activity but have always wanted to start sporting activities but have never taken the first step. The response targeted from the campaign is increased registrations in Nike’s Free Training Program for women in London.

The communication channels that will be used in this campaign are television, billboards, and online posters. The target group spend most of their free time watching TV and on social media sites hence the need to use these channels. Putting the advert on billboards will aim to remind the women about the program while they are out for shopping or having a good time with their friends. The key communication message is, “Free! Free! There has never been a better time for our mothers, Sisters, and Daughters to become fit through our Nike Free Women's Training Program.” This message informs the customers that the training program will improve their entire sporting experience whichever their favorite activity is.

This campaign is based on AIDA marketing model. Through repetitive advertisement on the TV, the advertisement will capture the target audience’s attention (Rawal 2013, p. 45). To guarantee this, the advert will be run at around 9.00 PM when most women have finished kitchen chores and are catching up with their favorite show. The TV advertisements coupled with online marketing and billboards will generate interest among the target market, and this will motivate them to conduct more research on the issue. The campaign will also show women undergoing the training sessions at Nike’s Training Centre, and this will spark the desire in all those women who have procrastinated on joining a training program. The advert will end with a strong call to action and inform the target market that registration is online (Rawal 2013, p. 45). Since registration is online, feedback will be generated through Google Analytics to determine how many people have responded to the call to action.

Conclusion

The marketing idea above is an ingenious one, and if being well implemented, it will increase the Nikes Brand Visibility in our target market segment. It is designed to connect emotionally with all the women out there who have always wanted to enlist in a training program.



















References

Nike Women (2017). Nike Free TR7 AMP. Available from: https://store.nike.com/us/en_us/pd/free-tr7-amp-womens-training-shoe/pid-11586172/pgid-12162192 [Accessed 3 Aug 2017].

Nike Women (2017). Nike Power Legend. Available from: https://store.nike.com/us/en_us/pd/power-legend-womens-28-training-tights/pid-11204480/pgid-11806863 [Accessed 3 Aug 2017].

Nike Women (2017). Apple Watch Nike+. [online] Available at: https://store.nike.com/us/en_us/pd/apple-watch-42mm-running-watch/pid-11612682/pgid-1165375 [Accessed 3 Aug 2017].

Nike Women (2017). Nike Hydration Easy Grip. [online] Available at: https://store.nike.com/us/en_us/pd/t1-flow-water-bottle-16oz/pid-11612171/pgid-12180532?ref=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.google.com%252F [Accessed 3 Aug 2017].

Nour, M. I., & Almahirah, M. S. (2014). The Impact of Promotional Mix Elements on Consumers Purchasing Decisions. International Business and Management, 8(2), 143-151.

Rawal, P. (2013). AIDA Marketing Communication Model: Stimulating a purchase decision in the minds of the consumers through a linear progression of steps. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research in Social & Management Sciences, 1(1), 37-44.



Appendix

Figure 1. Visual illustration. Source. Nike Women.



Available at: https://store.nike.com/us/en_us/pd/free-tr7-amp-womens-training-shoe/pid-11586172/pgid-12162192

https://store.nike.com/us/en_us/pd/power-legend-womens-28-training-tights/pid-11204480/pgid-11806863

https://store.nike.com/us/en_us/pd/apple-watch-42mm-running-watch/pid-11612682/pgid-1165375

https://store.nike.com/us/en_us/pd/t1-flow-water-bottle-16oz/pid-11612171/pgid-12180532?ref=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.google.com%252F