This blog post was written in response to Taewan Kim ‘s blog post, titled ” Nike on Les Bleus and L’europe “.
Nike is a global sports giant company, 30% bigger than nearest rivals Adidas. It spent nearly $800 million on ‘nontraditional’ advertising in 2010, according to Advertising Age estimates. The brand has overhauled its $100 million-plus campaigns around major events like the World Cup and Olympics. The spend on TV and print id down by 40%, however, the total marketing budget was $2.4 billion last year. The company has decided to target teens who spend 20% more on shoes than their adult counterparts. After a decade of growth, its sales have reached $21 billion, making it the world’s largest sports company.
Nike’s 4Ps are the following:
Product
Nike offers top-selling products in a wide range of shoe, apparel and equipments. The company started selling sports apparel, athletic bags and accessory items in 1979. And it also carries a line of dress and casual footwear and accessories for men, women and children. Other manufacturers can buy small amounts of plastic products, ice skates, skate blades, protective gear, hockey sticks and accessories from Nike Team Sports and Nike IHM, Inc.
Price
Nike’s pricing is designed to compete with other sports retailers. The pricing is based on the basis of premium segment as target customers. Nike’s pricing strategy makes use of vertical integration in pricing wherein they own participants at differing channel levels or take part in more than one channel level operations. This can control costs and influence product pricing.
Place
Nike products are carried by multi-brand stores and the exclusive Nike stores across the globe. Nike sells its product to about 20,000 retail accounts in the U.S. and in almost 200 countries around the world. In the international markets, Nike sells its products through independent distributors, licensees and subsidiaries. Independent distributors need not adapt to local pressures because the 4Ps of marketing are managed by distributors.
Promotion
Nike has a number of famous athletes that serve as brand ambassadors such as the Brazilian Soccer Team (especially Ronaldino, Renaldo, and Roberto Carlos), Lebron James and Kobe Bryant for basketball, Lance Armstrong for cycling, and Tiger Woods for Golf. Nike also sponsors events such as Hoop It Up and The Golden West Invitational. Nike’s brand images, the Nike name and the trademark swoosh, make it one of the most recognizable brands in the world. Nike’s quality products, loyal customer base and its great marketing techniques all contribute to make the shoe empire a huge success.