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It opened its first retail store in Santa Monica, California in 1966. It formally became Nike, Inc. on 30th May 1973 and in December 1980 the company went public, with its first listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). (Hatfield, 2003). The world headquarters are located in Beaverton, Oregon and the EMU (Europe, Middle East and Africa) headquarters is based in Hilversum, The Netherlands. Today Nike is sold in roughly 18,000 retail outlets in the United States alone and in over 140 countries worldwide (Nike, Inc. , 2015). The name Nike (pronounced ni-key) is derived from the Mythological Ancient Greek
Goddess of victory also of the same name; she symbolised victorious encounters, and is believed to have overseen many of histories earliest battles. In 1971 Phil Knight asked Advertising student Caroline Davidson to design a logo, which could go on the side of a shoe. She was paid $35 for her creation of the SWOOSH logo. It is said to represent the wing of the goddess, and personifies her spirt, which “inspired the most courageous warriors at the dawn of civilisation”. (Hincker, 1997). The ubiquitous ‘swoosh’ logo and “Just do it” slogan are both registered with the U. S Patent and Trademark Office.
Nike is predominantly involved in the design, development and worldwide marketing of footwear, apparel, equipment and accessory products. (Olsen, 2011). It is said to be one of the world’s foremost provider of athletic shoes and apparel, (Sage, 2008). As well as a principal manufacturer of sporting equipment. As of 2012, Nike had more than 44,000 employees, not including service providers, retailers, shippers and manufacturers. It is reported that by the end of its 2012 fiscal year Nike has amassed profits of over $24. 1 billion, and in 2014 Nike was valued at $19billion making it the most valuable sports business brand (Ozanian, 2014).
As examined by Herzog, 2003 Nike has approximately 40% control, in the athletic shoe industry, which is one of the major markets in the U. S today. This is almost double its two closest rivals share put together, Reebok at 12% and Adidas at 10%. Nike is the world’s principal shoe company; this is because it’s the world’s most popular brand (McCarthy, 2003). Mission and Vision The mission and principles of Nike, Inc. operations and retail stores is completely focused on the athletes it serves and the inspiration and innovation Nike products provide to them.
This is clearly evident in their mission statement: ” To bring nspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. ” *If you have a body, you Target Group The Nike customer has an average age of 25; most likely they either already have an active lifestyle or wish to embark upon one. Nike shoes are predominantly aimed at 15-35 year old males and females, most particularly the fashionable 18-24 year olds with loads of disposable cash. (Markiewicz, 2002). More recently Nike has focused marketing its products towards the wealthy teenage demographic.
Nike understands that potential for growth with this market is vast, 12-24 year old young adults are the astest growing market segment since the baby boom of post World War II (Fusient Media, 2001). As of 2011, there were 56million 10-24 year olds, this number growing exponentially, and 19. 5% faster than the overall population of the U. S, with approximately $250billion disposable income annually (Silverstar Holdings, 2001). Nike recognizes the opportunities to be gain from this valuable market group, and with more than 6million teenagers engaged in various sports across the U.
S the intent on utilizing this fact. Although the market for this demographic is unpredictable and confusing, it is shown that teenagers have money; whether its heir own or their parents, and they are more than prepared to spend it. Nike devotes around 1/10th (approximately $1 billion) of its annual profits on marketing to generating demand for its products (Herzog, 2003). Nike tries to encourage customers into purchasing their products using product oriented advertising campaigns created by their many Advertising Agencies most notably Wieden+Kennedy.
Throughout the years, traditional promotional tools such as television and magazines/newspapers, have served Nike well but unlike many other companies Nike was slow to fully embrace the e-commerce market and online romotion techniques. When Nike ultimately realized the great potential of the Internet, as it’s a tool which when used effectively can influence and improve the other advertising vehicles for example media advertising, promotions, publicity and sponsorships (Narisetti, 1998).
Nike has never invested much in search engines and banner adverts, except for websites of online shopping malls, for example 24HourMall. com. This as everybody knows that Nike have a website, furthermore nearly all their television adverts have their websites on it. Back in 2000 when Nike wanted to create traffic towards it ebsite they created a combination of an engaging e-commerce-enabled site and a television cliffhanger Oackson, 2001). The first part of the advert was a regular television commercial, but for you to see the finale of the cliffhanger, one would need to log onto the Nike website.
A classic example of Nike’s innovation as this was the first time something like this had ever happened whereby conventional advertising was used to direct viewers to the Internet. Not only did this raise Nike’s previously astronomical brand awareness, it also increased sales and traffic to their website. As discussed by Carton, 2003 the future of online advertising is predominantly about applications rather than adverts. This is due in part to the fact that applications experiences. Over the years Nike has used various sporting celebrities to promote its products, and build on the globalization of the sports culture.
Back in 2012 Nike launched the “My Time Is NOW’ campaign, which had nearly 2million views online and more recently the 2014 the Nike football: “Winner Stays” which to date has received over 100million views on YouTube, with 543thousand likes and 15thousand dislikes. Not to say that Nike campaigns containing non-celebrities are not successful. For instance, the “l Would Run To You” and “Find Your Greatness” campaigns of 2012 have had 2. 6million and 5. 3million views online respectively, which is no small accomplishment (Narayanan et al. , 2013).