Nike, founded in 1962, evolved from Blue Ribbon Sports to a leading global brand through innovative marketing strategies like the 'Just Do It' campaign and celebrity endorsements from athletes like Michael Jordan and Lance Armstrong. Its approach includes geographic segmentation, diverse product categories, and events like marathons, contributing to its significant revenue of $30 million. However, Nike faces risks from intense competition and changing consumer preferences, prompting competitors like Adidas to consider strategies targeting Nike's weaknesses.

1. NIKE
Inspiration and Innovation for
every athlete in the world.
- Mrudula Kavuri,
IIT Madras

6. Nike was originally known as
Blue Ribbon Sports
It was founded by Philip Knight
aimed at providing high quality
shoes designed for athletes by
athletes.

7. BRAND HISTORY OF NIKE
• Founded in 1962.
• Started manufacturing shoes
for runners at competitive
prices.
• 1985: Nike signed up
basketball player, Michael
Jordan as its spokesperson.

8. • Air Jordan line of basketall
shoes were released
• 1988 : Nike aired the first
ads in its $20 million “Just
Do It” campaign.
• Used geographic
segmentation as the key
marketing strategy to
promote its brand overseas
in Europe.

9. Digital marketing media used in “Just Do It” campaign
by Nike.

10. • 1994: Nike sponsored
Brazilian team won the World
Cup.
Major breakthrough for the brand
when Brazilian team won.
• 2007: Nike acquired Umbro,
British maker of soccer related
footwear, apparel and
equipment.
• 2008: In summer Olympics,
It sponsored several teams and
athletes and got permission to
run Nike ads during the games.

11. Nike sponosring Neymar, Brazilian Football player

12. • Started to diversify the
companies and entered new
product categories like
footwear, apparel, and
equipment.
• 2009: Launched Tiger Web
Talkback session at
nikegolf.com when Tiger
Woods endorsed the Nike
Golf brand.

13. The Nike Golf brand, a collection of apparel, equipment and
shoes started by Nike and endorsed by Tiger Woods

14. • Nike aligned with Tennis
players Maria Sharapova,
Roger Federer, and Rafael
Nadal to push its Tennis
clothing and sports gear.
• Also aligned with Lance
Armstrong, which also helped
in Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG
campaign.

15. Digital communications mix used in Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG
campaign by Nike

16. Nike aligned with Lance
Armstrong which helped him
his LIVESTRONG campaign.
The following is a video of
the same.

18. • Introduced foot Locker, a
new chain stores which
offers basketball products by
Nike brands such as
Converse and Jordan which
featured basketball
superstars like Kobe Bryant
and LeBron James.
Recently launched Nike+(Plus)
technology.

19. Basketball shoes in LeBron James collection released by Nike.

20. MARKETING
STRATEGIES
1. Differentiated
offering

21. 2.Using a variety of
marketing
communications mix

22. 3. Brand positioning,
segmentation and
targeting

23. 4. Innovative
technology
(Shoes+Technology)

24. 5. Celebrity
marketing: Pyramid
of influence

25. 6. Conducting and
organising events
like Marathons as a
part of IMCs’
Nike+ hosted the Human Race 10K
event, designed to celebrate running,
drew more than 780,000
participants.

26. Now, Nike’s revenue
is a whopping $30
million!!!

27. CONCLUSION
With Nike’s impeccable
marketing strategies, it has
gained a lot of publicity and
now is at the top of the
footwear, apparel and
equipment industry in the
world.

28. Q&A
Q1. What are the pros, cons and risks associated with
Nike’s core marketing strategy?
Ans.
Nike believes in “pyramid of influence”, and it strategically
positions itself and uses celebrity marketing as its core marketing
strategy to create its brand image
• Pros – A repeatable model allows managers to refine skills and
systematize processes. Their clearly defined audience target –
athletes, sports enthusiasts, well off and brand conscious
customers – makes it easy for them to make target-centric ad
campaigns. It represents emotions and promotes its brand as a
brand of allegiance and loyalty. It uses geographic segmentation
to promote its products and brand.
• However Nike has, always, only been about 1 thing; it only
delivers a specific kind of product.
• Cons – It mainly focuses on producing high-products with cutting
edge technology and sells them at competitve prices. It does not
communicate to the middle class and lower class society.
• Risks – Intense competition and the influence of spokespersons
poses a risk to their strategies. Also ever changing demands and
choices of the consumers along with the international expansion
poses a risk to their strategies.

29. Q2. If you were Adidas, how would you compete with
Nike?
Ans. The strategy for Adidas is to compete with Nike
should be to target the areas of their weakness.
Adidas should look to better diversify their marketing
strategy. Also Adidas should aim to bring around the
diversified products in market which would further
popularise among consumers directly through its
goods. Investing the increments in the profits to get
some innovative and popular advertisements would
be the stupendous ground breaking product to get
leverage in competing with Nike. Adidas should focus
on creating new products coming up with new
strategies to promote its brand. IT should bring a new
ground breaking product into market to trump Nike
lead in the market. Adidas can also look further to
expand its reach to other sports where Nike has not
set its foot and look for attractive associations such
as those of Nike with the Apple to bring out Nike+.