History of the company
Nike is the market leader in the sports and athletic shoes market segment. Named after Nike, the Greek Goddess for victory, the company was formed in 1964 by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight. It began manufacturing and selling athletic shoes in 1970. The company sells it shoes through franchise shops, retailers and partnership programs. It uses the slogan ‘Just Do It’ and the ‘whoosh’ logo to market its products. The company went public in 1972. For the year ending 2006, the turnover was 15 billion USD and it has about 26700 employees. It has contracted manufacturing activities in Asia, South America and other places and there are about 650,000 people who are indirectly employed by Nike (About Nike, 2007).
Product description
Nike has a wide range of products that are categorised as general use and Sports. General use items are available for Women, Men, Kids and Sports and include products under categories such as Footwear, Apparel, Equipment and Accessories. Kids wear include items for girls and boys. Sports products are the main products that Nike is famous for and it makes products for specific sports such as football, action sports, baseball, basketball, cycling, running and many more. Products for each sport includes items such as shoes, shorts, cycling tights, gloves, basketball and many more. Shoes and other apparel are available in all possible sizes. The product portfolio is designed to cover all aspects of different sports. The company has many well-known and patented brands such as Air Jordan, Nike Air and holds the patent for the concept of the air shoes (Nike Store, 2007).
Competitors
Nike has a number of competitors for different products it makes. Some of them are Addidas, Reebok and a few other leading brands. The company currently has a leadership position and has 32% of the market share (Koch Christopher, 2004). The company has faced increasing pressure from counterfeit products that are made to resemble its leading products. These spurious products are either available as cheap versions of the product and are clearly seen as counterfeits and also as expensive counterfeits that are sold to genuine customers by large retailers also. This illegal trade has caused tremendous loss to Nike and other companies (Cagey, 2006).
Pricing Strategies
The company has placed its products in the premium category and the products are priced higher than its competitors. It uses extreme and fast paced advertisements and promotions to boost the sale of its products. It has no factories but gets the products manufactured at very competitive prices from developing countries where labour is cheap. This provides it with a healthy margin that is partly used in advertising campaigns (SWOT Nike, 2007).
Marketing campaigns
Nike has used many leading sports persons to endorse different products and run marketing campaigns with them. TV, Print and Online media has been used in the campaigns (Nike TV Commercials, 2007). These people have lent the products a lot of credibility (Kleinman Katie, 2007). Some of the people are Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, Michael Schumacher, Paul Rodriguez Jr, Michael Jordan and many others (John, 2007).
References
About Nike, 2007, Nike Company Overview.
Cagey, U.S. police bust counterfeit Nike shoe smugglers. Web.
John, 2007, Classic Nike Advertisements. Web.
Koch Christopher, 2004, How and why Nike Recovered from its supply chain Disaster. Web.
Kleinman Katie, 2007, Actual Nike Advertisements.
Nike Store, 2007, Shop Online.
Nike TV Commercials, 2007, VIDEO: The Best Of The Swoosh – Nike’s 20 Greatest Commercials. Web.
SWOT Nike, 2007, SWOT Analysis of Nike. Web.