Nike Marketing Strategy

Nike, Inc. 1999 Annual Report

Top Management - Strength

Co-founder, Philip H. Knight, has been with Nike since its inception. As a result, he has much knowledge and experience about the company and the industries in which it competes. Knight's strategic planning managerial style serves as a strength in that his actions are planned and calculated, allowing for both risky and conservative decisions based on careful thought and analysis. His participative decision-making style can also be viewed as a strength such that Knight is willing to listen to others to generate ideas. He does not limit the company's options to one-sided ideas and decisions.

Environmental Analysis

Internal – Strength

Nike's management analyzes its internal environment and makes decisions based on that analysis. Because of Nike's marketing research, the company has decided to revamp its apparel division to be more fashion savvy. As a result of product and pricing research, Nike has decided to continue to focus on the high end market while increasing its market share in the middle and low price ranges in an attempt to broaden Nike's product spectrum.

External - Weakness

Nike's failure to foresee problems in relation to labor and factory conditions at production locations has resulted in bad publicity and declining sales as society and consumers call for more "socially responsible" companies.

Strategy Formulation

Mission - Weakness

Nike's Corporate Mission Statement:

"To be the world's leading sports and fitness company."

Nike's mission statement resembles a vision statement and is therefore a weakness. While the mission does broadly identify the business we are in, namely the sports and fitness industry, it is not specific as to what products and services we provide. The mission statement also omits any mention of distribution channels and customers. It does, however, portray management's beliefs and values of our desire to be number one and maintain the leading position in the sports and fitness shoe and apparel industry.

Corporate Objectives – Weakness

Nike has no published corporate objectives in relation to the overall company. This lack of corporate objectives represents a weakness. Stakeholders should be well aware and informed of a company's corporate objectives to better understand the nature of the company and its direction.

Nike has established corporate objectives in relation to our perceived corporate responsibility. Our objective is to "lead in corporate citizenship through programs that reflect caring for the world family of Nike, our teammates, our consumers, and those who provide services to Nike." This corporate objective represents a weakness as it does not meet the two requirements of being measurable and having a time frame in which to complete or accomplish said objective. Nike's objective is immeasurable and broad lacking any time specifications for implementation of programs to meet this objective.

Grand Strategies - Strength

For our grand strategy, Nike utilizes innovation to produce top quality athletic footwear and apparel. As a result of devoting vast resources to the research and development of its products, Nike has captured the largest market share in the athletic footwear and apparel industry and continues to be the leader of quality products.

Competitive Strategies - Strength

The competitive strategy that Nike introduced at the end of the 1990's concentrates on honing the focus of our marketing strategies and product offerings through product differentiation. We realize that the team-mentality that captured the spirit of athletics in the late 1980's and early 1990's has been replaced by a sense of individualism. Younger consumers