Nike's Female Market Strategy: A Case Study Analysis
This case study analysis examines Nike's efforts to expand its brand into the women's athletic apparel and footwear market. Beginning with internal resistance rooted in fear of alienating male consumers, the paper traces the cultural, financial, and organizational conditions that made change necessary. It analyzes key failures — most notably the 1987 "stop eating like a pig" commercial — alongside successful campaigns such as the 1990s "Empathy" series and the 2012 Title IX anniversary ad. The paper concludes by proposing a change management model built on consumer feedback, female-led creative teams, and advertising strategies that speak to all women who exercise, not only elite athletes.
- The Scenario That Sparked Change: Nike's male-focus and reluctance to pursue women consumers
- Business Case for Entering the Female Market: Risks, costs, and profit potential of targeting women
- Cultural and Financial Conditions for Change: Title IX, workforce trends, and lost ground to Reebok
- Organizational and Operational Shifts: How Nike restructured products and messaging for women
- Stakeholders and the Change Model: Change team structure, ad strategy, and consumer feedback loop
- Conclusion: Past female-market victories as blueprint for future growth
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What makes this paper effective
- Grounds the argument in specific, dated examples — including the failed 1987 commercial and the successful 1990s "Empathy" campaign — giving the analysis concrete evidence rather than vague claims.
- Balances internal organizational factors (executive resistance, budget allocation) with external cultural factors (Title IX, women entering the workforce) to build a multidimensional picture of why change was needed.
- Connects historical lessons to forward-looking recommendations, showing how past success can serve as a blueprint for future strategy.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates applied case study analysis by systematically working through distinct lenses — business case, cultural conditions, financial conditions, organizational operations, and stakeholder engagement — before synthesizing them into a change management proposal. This structured decomposition mirrors standard business school case analysis frameworks and shows how to move from diagnosis to prescription.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens by identifying the problem (Nike's male-centric identity and reluctance to pursue women consumers), then builds justification for change across cultural, financial, and operational dimensions. The middle sections address who is affected and what model should guide the transition. The conclusion returns to the central thesis — that Nike's own past successes with women provide the most reliable roadmap for future growth — giving the paper a clear circular argument structure.
The Scenario That Sparked Change
The scenario that sparked the need for change was the sheer success of Nike as a brand for athletic apparel, shoes, and equipment — but a success the company had achieved almost exclusively with men. According to Mindy Grossman, the company's former vice president of global apparel, "some of the issues in the past was that there was a faction in the company that felt if we were successful in the women's business, it would erode our men's business and we would lose some of our testosterone" (Nike case study). There was an overwhelming feeling that, while Nike was an accepted, trusted, and popular brand, it was successful with only one half of the population — and there was a reluctance to even try to win over female consumers, for fear of losing the male base that had made the company famous.
Grossman offers another telling example: although Nike's ad campaigns aimed at women were extremely well-received — such as the celebrated "If You Let Me Play" campaign — these efforts still did not translate into purchases by women. The core challenge, then, was finding an effective means of marketing, image-building, and action that would convert female audiences into actual customers, while not alienating the male consumers who had built the brand.
References
Business, S.G. (2007). Nike's Global Women Fitness Business. Stanford.
Goldman, R., & Papson, S. (1998). Nike Culture: The Sign of the Swoosh. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Pearson. (2010). About Nike Case 7.1: Fashioning the Female-Friendly Message. Retrieved from Pearsoncustom.com: http://wps.pearsoncustom.com/pcp_collins_explorebus_1/68/17646/4517463.cw/content/index.html
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