Nike's strategic recommendations for research, product reliability, and factory management

Sports Management

Recommendations For Nike

In as study, recommendations may be positioned in two categories, according to David S. Walonick, Ph.D. (2005) in the journal publication, "Elements of a research proposal and report." This section of the study relates the first type recommendations to basically relate actions the researcher asserts need to be take, based upon the data he study notes. The second type recommendations address other researchers and typically present ways a study may be refined or improved. These also point out changes the researcher would make if conducting the study over again. From the data in this study, the researcher asserts that NIKE could benefit from addressing the following four issues:

Increase in Research and Development (R&D) budget

Enhanced attention to reliability of NIKE products

Implementation of joint venture with factories in China; closely monitoring status of factory employees

Development of a Differentiation System

Increase in R&D Budget

The researcher's first recommendation asserts that NIKE needs to consider increasing its R&D budget. As noted earlier in this study, technological changes in today's global world with innovative technologies continually bombarding the scene, mandates that constant changes be implemented. For NIKE to continue to expand its audience, it must provide its consumers with increasingly better performing products and services. As increasingly relevant results evolve from NIKE investing more funds into R&D, NIKE's profits, as well as their customer base, wil likely continue to grow.

Enhanced Attention to Reliability

The researcher's second recommendation purports that NIKE needs enhance the attention attributed to the reliability of their products. Although celebrity sponsorship cultivates customers, product reliability, the researcher contends, outranks celebrity endorsements. The way to do this, the researcher contends, would be to follow the message promoted by NIKE's distinctive logo and the advertisement slogan: "Just do it." The researcher contends that NIKE also needs to sign contracts with other celebrities from different fields. In other words, they need to sign contracts with prominent golf players, such as Tiger Woods and tennis stars like Rafael Nadal; not only basketball players like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James. Creating ways to expand their dominance through just being there; reflected on various players' t-shirts from a variety of sports would stimulate interest for NIKE in areas other than basketball.

Development of a Differentiation System

For the fourth and final recommendation, the researcher contends that NIKE needs to develop a differentiation system to decrease Knockoffs. This system would include branding each NIKE product with a serial number. Consequently, when a customer purchases a NIKE product, the buyer could log-on NIKE's Web site and type in the serial number to ensure the product he/she purchased constitutes an original NIKE's product.