Nike’s Brand Success Factors

Introduction

Nike is a famous world brand company that manufactures sportswear and distributes it all over the world. The name of the company is often associated with the high quality of its products and new models of sportswear that attract numerous customers. The success of the company is predetermined by certain factors that increase Nike’s popularity among people and creates a reputation of a trustworthy manufacturer of sportswear. In order to understand why Nike is so popular today, one needs to analyze the company from various angles, including company’s approaches, advertising campaign, choosing right customers, impacting the social opinion and establishing the headquarters in right locations.

Customer Strategy and Hybrid Approach

Nike has built a powerful brand strategy in order to achieve the loyalty of customers all over the world. The company uses emotional techniques to establish contact with potential customers. The advertisement is a powerful method of influence on customers’ decision. Short advertising videos contain many coded messages that impact the customers’ consciousness. For instance, one of the most typical examples of Nike’s advertising video is a story about a hero. This story tells about a person who faces difficulties and after hard struggle he/she achieves a triumph (“Nike: The future of marketing,” 2012). However, Nike’s marketing strategy does not predetermine the struggle against some evil force like many other companies do to attract the attention of customers.

In fact, Nike uses the struggle that occurs in people’s consciousness every day; it is a struggle against one’s laziness and readiness to move forward. Every morning a person makes a choice between spending 10 minutes more in bed or getting up and the making the morning run. Hence, Nike applies to the social stereotype of a successful and strong individual. Successful people are always fit, they are emotionally strong and they do what is necessary to do, even if they are tired. Such person has a strong will and a desire to change his/her life every day. The Nike’s hero is exactly the same kind of person that the average customer wants to be. Nike uses this symbol and introduces it from the sport wear perspective. In other words, the stereotype of a successful person predetermines the usage of certain equipment; in this case it is sportswear. The short version of Nike’s motto can be introduced as “wear Nike and you will gain what you want” or “Nike will help you to reach success”.

As a result, Nike uses the hybrid approach which consists of a social stereotype of a successful individual, the struggle inside every person and the emotional background, presented by special inspiring atmosphere. These three components create the unique strategy that is used as the main source of influence on the customers’ opinion.

Nike’s Locations

The main Nike’s headquarters are located in Beaverton, Oregon, where the company has been established. Since 1964, the company has extended it influence over other states in America and has soon become one of the most famous manufacturers of sportswear. However, in 1980s the company made the first attempts to extend its influence overseas. In order to achieve this goal, Nike required creating the specific conditions of the location, where the headquarters ought to be placed.

First of all, it is necessary to establish the consumer demand in the potential region. For instance, metropolis is the best place; where one can establish new headquarters. The amount of potential clients is high, comparing with the average town. The location should also contain the certain numbers of fitness clubs and certain rate of people who are fond of sports. In other words, the necessity in Nike’s production will be low because there would not be the right customers. One more thing that is necessary to take into account is a threat of competitors. One should provide the analysis of the required location and identify what competitors have already established their headquarters, how long they work and whether they have succeeded or not.  The observing of these elements will help to choose a correct location for future headquarters.

The Right Customers

Nowadays, the distribution of products is provided in many ways. Modern technologies have much simplified this procedure and the customers received an opportunity to receive the detailed information about the necessary products online. The official websites, smartphone applications and web shops introduce all possible sportswear to the customer. Any product can be found through one of these methods and the customer receives a unique opportunity to study his/her preferred product before he/she makes a purchase.

Social media became a new stage in offering one’s product to the wide audience. For instance, Nike has created a business persona on Twitter; there are about 4 million viewers and 16, 000 twits. A number of Nike’s blogs is unlimited; one can find a great amount of sport-blogs where people are sharing their opinions about the last trends of Nike’s company (Frisch, 2009). Nike has created an official page on Facebook in 2008; since that time the users of this social network have been able to monitor the changes of Nike’s products via Facebook.

According to this fact, the right consumers predetermine the usage of right methods of establishing the contact with them. In other words, the consumers also search for a right company; thus, Nike develops in all directions in order to find the right consumers, who watch TV, have a page on Facebook, make twits or visit sport blogs.

Nike’s Price Point

Nike is a brand company which introduces a great variety of sportswear for its clients. The quality of products and the reputation of a reliable and trustworthy manufacturer created an image of one of the best sportswear suppliers. The price on the company’s sportswear is quite high. First of all, it is connected with the fact that Nike spends a lot of money on promoting its brand as the top of the range. According to this fact, Nike invests millions of dollars into advertising campaigns (Payne, 2008). However, this spending should be compensated; thus, about 30 percent of Nike’s price on its product is the financing of Nike’s advertising campaign.

The customer choice of Nike’s products is predetermined by the symbol of quality and fashion. In fact, people often obey the product, paying more attention to the product’s brand rather than to its design or quality. Nike is not the exclusion; customers who buy the products of Nike, pay first of all for its brand name and then for the product. Despite the fact that one can find another product of the same quality with much lower price, he/she will pay more in order to receive the product of a famous company. Hence, people prefer to pay for the company’s name rather than for its products.

The main Nike’s competitors are such famous brand companies as Puma and Adidas. In fact, the quality and price of the products, introduced by these manufacturers are similar to those of Nike. Nevertheless, there are categories of customers, who prefer buying Nike products, while others pay money for Puma or Adidas sportswear. One can state that the main reason of this preference is the matter of taste and the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. All other reasons why people buy or do not buy Nike products have a secondary meaning such as the product’s design, supporting of the particular sport style or influence of the social environment and preferences.

Strategy to Get People Familiar with Nike’s Brand

Nike uses advertising as the main sources of information about the latest products. As a rule, Nike presents new sportswear, using a well-organized advertising strategy. This strategy includes video presentation of a new product that contains brief introduction and observation. For instance, it is a bright and effective advertising video clip that usually presents a new product in the end of the video. The video starts as a motivating video about sports or people who never back up (Holmes, 2006). They have to cope with numerous difficulties, but in the end they can achieve the targeted goals. In the end of this video, the viewers should understand that success is possible if one uses the right equipment; in this case, it is sportswear. Moreover, numerous billboards, advertising in supermarkets and using company’s logo in the promotion of other goods provide customers with the additional information about Nike.

The effectiveness of these methods is undisputable because Nike is a company with a world name. Moreover, the company spends a lot of money on advertising in order to surround people with Nike’s products. Nike’s sportswear can be found in any corner of any city. Even those people who have never had a chance to buy and test Nike’s clothes or shoes know that these products are of high quality and the price for this quality is justified.

Conclusion

Nike is a company which has invested a big amount of money in its manufacture, advertising and promoting campaigns. The success of Nike’s prospering is connected with the obeying of certain strategies that help to establish the contact with the right customers and offer the products which they need. The usage of various methods of adverting such as video clips, smartphone applications and social media creates an image of a trustworthy company whose quality of products satisfy the demands of the modern customer.