Nike, the famous footwear, accessories and clothing brand, is a multinational corporation based in America. Nike, with its famous ‘Swoosh’ logo and the ‘just do it’ slogan, has become a very successful brand over time. The company was founded in 1964 as ‘Blue ribbon sports’ by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight. The value of Nike in 2017 was around $29 Billion. They have surely come a long way from being just a distributor of another shoe company (Onitsuka Tiger) to becoming sponsors of many famous athletes and teams around the world. Nike’s marketing strategy is to be appreciated why they ‘just did it’. Nike’s marketing strategy has been helping them become leaders of the market and become the most valuable sports business brand in 2014. They are also the owners of around 48% of America’s athletic footwear market.
Nike’s marketing strategy
The marketing strategy of a company refers to its plan of getting new customers by reaching out to them and impressing them with its products or services. The marketing strategy can be crucial in determining a company’s sales, and firms spend huge amounts of money on getting appropriate marketing strategies. The determination of the marketing strategy is an irksome job, because it involves tons and tons of research.
Talking about Nike marketing strategy, there are several things that the company has in unique, and which helps it gain such high revenues. We will be discussing a few of those unique things about Nike’s marketing strategy here. Let’s ‘just do it!’
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The advertisements
Advertisements are a great way of reaching out to your target audience affectively, and Nike seems to use it with quite intelligence. Every now & then, there is a new advertisement by Nike which targets its target audience in quite creative way. Their best adverts include top athletes from around the world and those athletes show off their skills in those videos. Their top performing athlete is the Portugal star and former Real Madrid attacker, Cristiano Ronaldo. The advertisements show how you can perform better with the Nike shoes, just like the stars that are featured in those advertisements. Moreover, Nike uses ‘emotional advertisement’ to appeal to its customers. Nike’s adverts tell us to ‘just do it!’ instead of thinking that you cannot, or you are not capable to do so.
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Social responsibility
Nike has been criticized on allegations of using child labor in Asian countries. However, despite those allegations, the company has managed to come out swinging with an effective part of Nike’s marketing strategy: the social responsibility. Activities based on socially responsible works do not only cover things you have done wrong (if any), it also provides your firm a better image in the entire market. The reason being that the company seems to be interested in the society too instead of just the profits.
Nike’s transparency
The customers these days want to buy products from those companies that spend the money earned on good causes too, instead of just filling their own pockets. The company provides good pay and working conditions to its employees. It has been providing complete transparency by showing a list of its factories under contract, the salaries of people working in those factories and their working conditions. Nike is also recently working towards water conservation taking into consideration the water shortage around the world.
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Do not sell the product; sell the benefits
Nike is experienced and genius enough to demonstrate the benefits of its product to its potential customers. This is one of the efficient characteristics of Nike’s marketing strategy. The benefits advertised should be easily perceptible in order to use them effectively for marketing. One of the benefits of Nike’s shoes is that they are light weight. The light weight feature allows athletes to run faster than if the shoes are heavy. Another advantage is that the shoes are designed in way that they are easy to wear, easy to tie and comfortable in running and jogging. Moreover, the shoes are extremely well styled too.
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Interaction with customers
Customer interaction, before sales service and after sales service are other very efficient characteristics of Nike’s marketing strategy. Nike’s interaction with its customers is phenomenal. The company arranges events and gatherings on public places for general public which are mostly free. The events also include top athletes who perform in front of the audience and advertise Nike’s products. Another achievement for Nike with regard to customer interaction is its applications.
Nike’s applications
Nike has two applications: Nike+ run club and Nike+ training club. Nike+ run club helps its users to track their run with the run time, speed, calories burned, track used, music playing options, camera and electronic voice to notify speed, time and so on. On the other hand, the Nike+ training club helps its users in daily workouts and challenges, making them fit. Both these applications are free, have leaderboards and can be connected to fitness bands and other applications. Nike also has a fitness band and a ‘Nike+ iPod’ program. Adding to this, Nike has been interacting with people on social media too by posting things and especially, by replying to common people’s tweets and comments related to fitness and running.
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Margot vs Lily: A Nike original series
Another masterclass of Nike’s marketing strategy was to create a YouTube series named ‘Margot vs Lily’. Margot and lily are two sisters, and the story revolves around them. The series features Nike’s shoes, workout accessories and Nike+ run club & Nike+ training club applications. The series offers a wonderful story which is fun to watch, instead of just a long advertisement of Nike’s products. These series has received more than 80 million views up till now, has boosted the sales of Nike’s products and has increased the downloads of Nike+ training club and Nike+ run club applications.
Nike’s marketing strategy has much to offer and other firms should learn the art of keeping customers happy from Nike. Every time you lay an eye, you get to see something new and innovative from Nike’s side, and that is what sets it apart. JUST DO IT!
