rewriting work

2018

Marketing Communication and Brand Strategy

Nike must establish marketing communications options and branding strategies for its sportswear apparel global marketing plan. Nike ties together its branding process through media methods to its target audience throughout its product life cycles. Nike also measures its loyal customers and retention through the use of metrics.

Situational Analysis

Strengths and Weaknesses

Situational analysis is a vital part of Nike’s marketing and is a historical evaluation of its behavior. Completing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis, identifies Nike’s strengths and weaknesses. SWOT is part of environmental scanning, and the strengths and weaknesses are internal analysis elements. Strengths of Nike is that when anyone mentions sportswear, Nike is immediately recognized as the industry leader domestic and foreign alike, they are considered as luxury sportswear, and desired by most. Weaknesses are that products are pricey, quality is costly, and outsourced manufacturing.

Competitor's Strengths and Weaknesses

Nike competitor’s such as Reebok and Under Armor have strengths and weaknesses. Reebok’s main strengths are that they are a name brand, have significantly lower prices, and are a global company. Under Armor’s strengths include luxury items offered, quality is a near match, and brand is growing worldwide. Reeboks weaknesses are that they cannot compare to Nike’s superiority and are not highly demanded by consumers. Under Armor’s weaknesses include their products are expensive, and they are not branded globally such as Nike.

Market Segments

Nike has many market segments not just demographically and psycho-graphically but also geographically. Nike is a global company that has markets established within the Americas, Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. North America and Europe have a broadened market for sportswear apparel; whereas, South America, Asia, and Africa are focused on soccer sportswear. The Middle East is the latest market emergent and is in its early growth stage. Europe has become Nike’s predominant growing global market.

Branding Strategy

Maintaining Brand Image

Nike without a doubt has the stoutest brand image within the sportswear industry. Whenever anyone sees the Nike’s Swoosh logo, without question, they know it is Nike. Nike maintains brand image by passion, knowledge, and innovation of sportswear apparel and the industry market. “Brand building is necessary to sustain the healthy margins that allow a business to keep fulfilling its brand promise in the long run” (Robert, 2015, p. 80). Nike must continue to provide consumers with high-quality sportswear to maintain its brand image. When consumers purchase sportswear, they evaluate style, quality, price, and value. Customer loyalty relates to how buyers perceive the brand and Nike will retain its loyalists by exceeding their demands.

Branding Concerns

Nike faces judgments and competitions are stiff and must continue to overcome obstacles and stay ahead of the opposition. Nike will lead the way in innovation and trends to efficiently stay one step ahead of competitor brands and consumer demands. Nike will also use metrics to measure customer loyalty and retention. “Despite clear delineations between attitudes and purchase behaviors, theories of customer loyalty suggest both are integral” (Watson, Beck, Henderson & Palmatier, 2015, p. 792). The data used will be buyers’ behavior, demographic, psychographic, and geographic profiles for both domestic and foreign markets. Loyal customer retention base will also use information such as styles purchased, amounts spent, purchase frequency, purchase location, etc.

Push and Pull Strategies

Nike will use push and pull marketing communications to attain the broadest dissemination for awareness of its sportswear apparel. The push strategy will be a stronger communication within domestic economy and the pull strategy stronger within international economies. Pushing consumers to look at sportswear in store by putting products on display and making displays eye-catching will push customers toward purchasing products. Pulling consumers in the store to purchase products will be accomplished by using advertisement, social media, emails, promotions, sales, buy one get one (BOGO), etc. These strategies will also increase customer loyalty and retention.

Media Strategy

Nike’s media strategy consists of both traditional conventional and new digital media options. Traditional media consists of television and radio which is electronic, and print such as newspapers and magazines. Digital media encompasses internet websites and social media including email, text, voice-mail, etc. “The greatest opportunity identified in using social media is that business operations can be handled more effectively as communication with customers becomes faster and more easily tracked” (Karjaluoto, Mustonen & Ulkuniemi, 2015, p. 706). Loyalist, especially domestic will remain informed of existing, and newly released sportswear and foreign markets will aid in the global market penetration from digital media. “We are just beginning to understand the value of digital innovation to our organizations, brands, and services” (Edmiston, 2015, p. 281). Integrated market communications allow Nike supporters and new followers reached worldwide.

Conclusion

The Nike mission statement is, “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world” (Nike.com, 2017). Nike has created the marketing communication and branding strategy as part of its sportswear marketing plan. Nike is well on the glide path to global sportswear marketing dominance.

References

Edmiston, D. (2015). Strategic digital marketing. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 24(1), 90-91. doi:10.1108/JPBM-06-2014-0625. Retrieved from The University of Phoenix MKT571 website.

Karjaluoto, H., Mustonen, N., & Ulkuniemi, P. (2015). The role of digital channels in industrial marketing communications. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 30(6), 703-710. doi:10.1108/JBIM-04-2013-0092. Retrieved from The University of Phoenix MKT571 website.

Kotler, P. & Keller, K. L. (2016). Marketing Management (15th ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.

Nike.com. (2017). Nike’s mission. Retrieved from https://about.nike.com/pages/people

Robert, P. H. (2015). Don't let big data bury your brand. Harvard Business Review, 93(11), 78-85. Retrieved from The University of Phoenix MKT571 website.

Watson, G., Beck, J., Henderson, C., & Palmatier, R. (2015). Building, measuring, and profiting from customer loyalty. Journal Of The Academy Of Marketing Science, 43(6), 790-825. doi:10.1007/s11747-015-0439-4. Retrieved from The University of Phoenix MKT571 website.