Final Marketing Plan

2

Marketing Milestone 2 - Nike Company

Varshith Cherukuri

New England College

Professor – Dr. Bari Courts

CRN149 – Marketing Strategies

September 30, 2021.

Nike is the world's largest sportswear producer and distributor. This large American business, headquartered in Beaverton, has seen significant development over the years, and its brand is now regarded as the top brand in sportswear (Madej, 2019). Following the firm's choice to focus on both organizational consumers and the mainstream market, sales in the worldwide market have also been positive. The active engagement of this firm in popular sports such as football has aided in the promotion of its brand. This company has sponsored some of the world's most prestigious football clubs, giving it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to promote itself throughout the globe. Although the company still has a promising future in the industry, several factors might stifle its growth if not addressed properly. As a result, it is critical to design a marketing strategy that will be able to meet the different difficulties that may arise in the firm's operations.

Nike Company target audience

Nike's target market is physically active customers between the ages of 18 and 35. Nike's target market requires long-lasting sneakers that are built with athletes in mind. This group is represented by Nike celebrity sponsorships such as Tiger Woods and LeBron James. Advertising on television is typically seen during professional and collegiate athletic events, prime-time programming, and late-night television. Nike is a prominent marketer and distributor of sports footwear, clothing, and equipment around the globe. With a mission of inspiring and innovating athletes all over the world, Nike makes it clear that their target market is athletically inclined individuals, adding that any human being with a body is an athlete (Teng, 2020). Most of the respondents to our surveys have purchased Nike shoes and have positive feelings about them.

Target audience age demographic

A sociodemographic segmentation process is a tool Nike uses to segment target audience based on family status, generation, occupation, gender, life-cycle stage and age. Even though clothing and sports can become a complex market, most Nike's consumers are in the 15-40 age bracket. Besides catering to men and women athletes equally, the company is focusing on building long-term relationships with tweens and teens. Young adults strive to embody their athletes of choice in Nike marketing campaigns. Nike, for instance, developed a video before the 2014 World Cup using teenagers with high-profile soccer athletes (Madej, 2019).   

Target audience average socioeconomic status

A person's or a family's socioeconomic position refers to where they fall in the social order. According to Arcieri (2020), it is a fairly fluid category since it includes the closely linked but separate characteristics of income level, educational achievement, and occupation. The appeal of Nike's sports shoes, clothes, and equipment is influenced by socioeconomic class. In the United States, the average pay for a Customer Service Representative is $33,648 per year, which is 15% less than the average NIKE salary for this position, which is $39,718 per year (Teng, 2020). Because of the socioeconomic difficulties involved in this case, the company need to invest in new strategies that will capture consumers in the developing markets globally.

Traits and characteristics of your target audience

It is self-evident that the effectiveness with which a firm divides the market determines how successful its targeting niche is. As can be seen, Nike used a variety of characteristics to identify a number of consumer groupings. Every geographic region in which the firm operates is split into age and gender groups. For each demographic group, there are products that target specific segments of customers. Thus, the Americas are divided into parts such as men, women, boys, and girls; moreover, the section males are divided into groups of items (shoes, clothes, shop by sport, and shop by brand), making it easy to choose. In this manner, the firm caters to the demands of customers depending on their demographics, lifestyles, personalities, and physical region (Nguyen, Anderson & Banerjee, 2020). Other identifiable categories of consumers are also targeted by the firm. They offer sections for running, training, and the gym, as well as eyewear, accessories, and other items. Nike Inc. conducts probability surveys since it is a worldwide corporation with a global target audience. Based on demographic factors, Nike prioritizes and targets generally steady segments.

Where my target audience go to get information about products or services

For marketing and awareness, Nike employs a well-balanced combination of online and offline media. Nike also spends heavily on out-of-home advertising and sponsors multiple sports and athletic events, including golf, cycling, basketball, and football. Nike's target demographic visits its digital and online front platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube (Arcieri, 2020). By utilizing these platforms effectively, Nike is able to build brand awareness and promote product developments.

Importance of surveying target audience personal and buying characteristics

Ignoring the fact that "all athletes" is the target market for "Nike." Nike uses market segmentation to identify different market categories more precisely. As a result, Keller & Swaminathan (2020) claim that segmentation enables the firm to obtain more detailed information about its audience, providing insights that they may otherwise overlook if they simply looked at them from a high-level target audience viewpoint. This enables Nike to personalize its approach in order to develop more successful marketing tactics.

Company’s strategy shift in reaching its target audience in light of the pandemic

Nike has been laying and expanding its digital pipe to reach its loyal and potential customers in the current pandemic of Covid-19. It is partnering with local and international companies such as Nordstrom and Foot Locker to create an e-commerce platform to increase sales and profits. Having 50% of Nike's sales come from digital channels is too ambitious and demanding in the midst of the pandemic, but it is still possible, given that it expects digital sales to represent 30% of revenue two years sooner than previously anticipated (Nguyen, Anderson & Banerjee, 2020). With the help of third-party partners such as Nordstrom, Kohl's Corp., Foot Locker, and DICK'S Sporting Goods Inc., Nike uses brick-and-mortar and online channels by seizing opportunities like team up with new digitally savvy retailers in going forward (Standaert, 2021).

References

Arcieri, K. (2020). Nike levels up the digital game in wake of coronavirus hit. From: https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/nike-levels-up-digital-game-in-wake-of-coronavirus-hit-59265634

Madej, A. (2019). The Role of Marketing Communication In Recognition of The Global Brand: A Case Study of Nike (Doctoral dissertation, Empire State College).

Nguyen, C., Anderson, J., & Banerjee, S. (2020). Rethink and retool: marketing mix strategies in response to covid-19. In business forum (Vol. 28, No. 2, p. 30).

Standaert, W. (2021). Product digitalization at Nike: The future is now. Journal of Information Technology Teaching Cases, 2043886920963286.

Teng, J. (2020, December). Analysis of Female Marketing—Taking Nike as an example. In 2020 3rd International Conference on Humanities Education and Social Sciences (ICHESS 2020) (pp. 286-291). Atlantis Press.