Benefits and Shortcomings of Nike’s Marketing Strategies

¶ … Nike's marketing strategies in the United States and globally. The paper argues that Nike is able to boost its global revenue despite some shortcomings in its marketing strategies.

Pros, Cons, and Risks of Nike's core Marketing Strategy

Nike started its operation in 1962 with a commitment to design an innovative product that would command high demand among the U.S. consumers. Nike uses different strategies to achieve its marketing objective by using influential sportsmen in the U.S. to build its marketing campaign. For example, Nike used well-known sportsmen such as Runner Steve Prefontaine, and Michael Jordan to promote its brand across the United States. In 1985, the company was able to increase its annual revenue to over $100 million when it signed a marketing agreement with Mike Jordan. By using the personality of sportsmen, Nike has been able to record superior performances in annual revenue. Moreover, the "Just Do It" Nike's ad campaign also increased the company self-empowerment in sports.

Despite Nike's marketing campaign success in the United States, Nike U.S. marketing technique was too aggressive and did not work in Europe. Thus, Nike had to redesign its marketing technique to fit its brand in Europe. Thus, the company actively sponsored football sports, local clubs, youth leagues and the national team. Typically, Nike recorded a superior foreign revenue when the Brazilian team, which Nike sponsored, won the world cup in 1994 making its oversea revenue surpass the U.S. revenue for the first time. Moreover, Asia has also been able to increase its sales by 15% totaling $3.3 billion, which makes the company international revenue grow by 53%. Nike marketing tactic in China also boosts the company revenue by sponsoring 2008 Summer Beijing Olympics. Moreover, Nike is able to increase its revenue in the oversea market because the company takes the advantages of Chinese population to boost its sales.

Moreover, Nike expands its sales overseas using the personality of Tiger Woods to influence the way professional golfers dress. The company marketing campaign also made Nike grow its market shares by 60% when it entered an exclusive partnership with Apple. In the contemporary business environment, integration of innovation in a marketing strategy is an effective tool that organizations can employ to achieve competitive advantages. Nike uses the Michael Porter (1990) theory of innovation to enhance competitive advantages. Typically, Nike partnered with Apple to develop the Nike+ technology to sell its product globally especially among sports runners. Essentially, Apple is one of the biggest electronic companies in the world, thus, Nike takes the advantages of superior brand of Apple to sell its products globally. The Nike success is that the company has been able to keep its brand modern within a competitive market environment. Nike's innovative marketing strategy has also assisted the company to differentiate its products from competitors. For example, Nike hi-tech brand has improved the sporting performances of athletes. Porter (1985) argues that innovation is very vital for business and become a strategy that assists a company to survive. Thus, the innovative marketing strategy that Nike has employed makes the company grow its revenue from 2005 to 2015 as being revealed in Fig 1.