Marketing Mix of Nike (Extended 7Ps)
Nike (NASDAQ: NKE) is a famous global brand of sports shoes and gear. Known for its athletic and stylish products, the brand has acquired international fame as a leading sports shoes brand and a marketer. The company also sells its products through online stores in several countries.
The most critical factors driving Nike sales are product design and quality. While its products are designed for athletic use mainly, they are equally good for fashion. Not just sporty, its shoes and apparel are trendy and fashionable too. Founded in 1964, the brand was renamed Nike in 1973. The ‘Just Do it’ slogan and ‘Swoosh’ logo of Nike are known all over the world and differentiate it from the other sports shoes brands.
Nike offers a broad product range. Its brand image and popularity have grown stronger with time. Its main competitors are Adidas, Reebok, Under Armour, FILA, Skechers, New Balance, and Puma. The company targets young customers mainly. Nike customers are primarily in the 15-45 age group. Its target market also includes female customers as well as teenagers. However, to grow its appeal among younger customers, the company has introduced an excellent range of products for kids. You will see young celebs and athletes in Nike ads as well as teenagers.
Here is its marketing mix that analyses the seven P’s – Product, Price, Place, Promotions, People, Processes, and Physical evidence.
Product:
Nike offers a vast range of products, including sports shoes, apparel, gear, and accessories. It makes and sells products for men, women, boys, and girls. It also offers a broad range of shoes of varieties and styles suited for use in various sports. For example, there are sports shoes for basketball, football, running, gym, and even lifestyle shoes available from Nike. It also offers sportswear like tech fleece and Windrunner for athletes, shorts, t-shirts, and pants.
Some of the main categories of products for men by Nike are as follows:
- Shoes
- Compression and Nike Pro
- Tops and Tshirts
- Hoodies and Pullovers
- Jackets and vests
- Pants and tights
- Shorts
- Surf and swimwear
- Socks
- Accessories and equipment
Place:
Nike sells its products to customers globally through both online and offline channels. These products are available at the brand’s retail outlets and its distribution centers operating globally. It sells its products to wholesalers both in the US and international markets. Its direct to customer channels include both inline and factory retail outlets as well as online sales through its website. Nike’s global distribution system is also divided into global brand divisions.
The company has its headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon, United States. However, the company has extended its business network globally and sells to customers in nearly all regions of the globe through physical and online channels including e-commerce websites such as Amazon. The company also has a large and strong supplier network. It has outsourced nearly all its production to external suppliers. As of 2021, Nike operated a total of 1,048 stores throughout the world. 325 of these stores were located in the US alone.
Price:
One of the critical differentiators for Nike is its ability to charge higher prices than its competitors. However, this ability is based on the premium quality of its products. Its products are good looking, elegantly crafted, suited for sports use, and durable. The premium quality of its products enables it to charge premium prices for them. However, its popularity and brand image plus the customer loyalty it enjoys are also important factors that support its premium pricing.
Nike does not set prices according to the market condition or the costs of manufacturing. Instead, it sets prices according to the estimated value of a product. Some more shoe brands and the leading competitors of Nike have also introduced an excellent range of shoes in the premium price segment.
While there is price competition in the industry and prices matter for a large part of middle-class customers, Nike’s pricing strategy has never impeded growth, and it continues to rule as the largest shoe brand. Its marketing strategy is one of the key factors that the company continues to find growth despite the premium prices. It enjoys a large and loyal customer base as well as the strongest position in the shoe industry. Marketing continues to drive the demand for Nike products.
Promotion:
Nike’s logo and slogan differentiate it from others and give the brand a distinct identity in the crowd of the brands. It provides the brand with a uniqueness. Apart from that, the brand utilizes a mix of other strategies for the promotion of its products and brand. Nike is a well-known company, and it gains a lot of publicity from the news resources. The brand promotes itself through a mix of traditional and modern promotional strategies. It advertises its products through online and offline channels. Apart from that, Nike uses sponsorships of sports events and sports personalities for the promotion of its products.
Nike has grown its use of digital marketing channels for the promotion of its products. The company uses digital video marketing in plenty to promote Nike products. It frequently posts videos to YouTube, including educational and promotional videos. The promotional videos of Nike mostly include athletes and sports personalities.
However, many of these are motivational videos that are targeted at the sports community mainly. Its marketing strategy and methods have been appreciated widely for their effectiveness. Nike has also maintained a strong brand image. Apart from marketing and product quality, its investment in CSR has also helped it strengthen its social image. These things are absolutely critical for large businesses because of the public’s concern for the social image of the businesses they are buying from.
People:
Human resource management has emerged as a critical area in the 21st century. Companies need to focus on managing their human capital strategically to maintain their competitive advantage. It is because their people are their primary source of competitive advantage on which a firm’s other critical competitive advantages are based. The growth of a company depends on the skills and knowledge of its people as well as their performance.
As of 2020, the company employed 75,400 people. Nike invests in its people to help them find faster career growth and development. Apart from offering them training and better career management tools, Nike also involves them in its CSR programs. The company has formed human resource policies that maximize job satisfaction for the employees. Apart from competitive salaries and benefits packages, it also uses modern training tools and techniques to offer its employees opportunities for improving their performance.
Processes:
Nike has outsourced nearly all of its production to external suppliers. It leaves the company free to focus on all the other essential business processes. The faster growth and business expansion of the company is because of its focus on marketing, product design and innovation. The company is primarily involved in marketing, distribution, and store operations. Nike has optimized its value chain for maximizing output and faster growth. It invests a significant sum each year in marketing as well as research and development to achieve more growth. The company’s focus on higher efficiency of business processes has also helped it maintain its growth momentum.
Physical Evidence:
Nike is a global business that sells its products in nearly all corners of the globe. Apart from its products and the physical infrastructure of the organization, the company’s packaging is also the physical evidence of its business operations. Nike is a physical business, and therefore, you will come across a lot of physical evidence when navigating its business system.