A Complete Marketing Plan of Nike Shoes

A Complete Marketing Plan of Nike Shoes

Every business, whether small or big, must have a business plan in order to be able to achieve the goals that it was established to meet. The plan acts as a guide on the progress of the business in all major aspects of the business. The plan also gives an overview of the business strengths and weaknesses, as well as identifies some of the major competitors and the threats they pose to the business.

In the year 1962, two-business men came together to form a firm that would import Japanese shoes. The founder of the firm Bill Bower and Phil Knight at the time labeled it Blue Ribbon Sports. The firm later changed its name to Nike the name, which is famous all around the world. The firm has since then grown to become the number one producers of sports shoes and other sports products (Nike Inc, 2013).

Currently, Nike is one of the leading brand names not just in shoes but other sports equipment. The firm products are divided into four categories, equipment, footwear, and apparels. Some of the sports equipment that is produced by Nike includes Nike Golf, Nike+, Nike skating boarding, and Nike Pro. Nike products are sold all over the world, thus giving it an edge against its competitors in the business. The firm currently has its products being sold in more than 160 countries worldwide. In the United States of America alone, the firm has over 22,000 retail outlets. According to a fiscal report in the year 2008, all the products sold by Nike came to about $18.6 billion. Footwear products accounted for 52%, equipment 6%, apparel 28%, and others 14%. The firm also sponsors some of the world best and renowned athletes (Micheletti, 2004).

Situation

The firm is currently the number one supplier of sports equipment, shoes, and sports apparel; it currently controls about 47% of the athletic shoes market. The firm sells its products to over 100 countries in the word and its major target markets include Europe, the Americas, United States of America, and Asia Pacific. The firm has so far been able to secure their position in the major target areas through keen marketing strategies, and production of quality products (Blackwell, 2008).

The firm currently has about 800,000 who make its products in the 700 factories based in about 52 countries. The factories are based in China, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. About 80 % of all the workers in the factories are women who are aged averagely 18-24 years. Labor rights have been a major concern in the firm for some time, but some reforms are being implemented, for example, no employee under 18 is allowed to work in any of the factories. The issue of employing persons less than 18 years has been given the highest priority after it emerged that some of the factories had employed children thus flouting the labor laws (Blackwell, 2008).

Nike has also allowed the labor authorities in countries where their factories are based to conduct regular inspection, to look at the working conditions, and any other labor laws that have been flouted. The labor authorities have also been given the permission to verify the ages of the employees by looking at their documents (Nike Inc, 2013).

In the past, workers who complained about the poor working conditions were fired. Those who were found to have spoken to journalists about the poor working conditions, mistreatment, or any other violation of their rights was victimized. However, the situation has since changed and the workers are at liberty to express their views on anything that they might think is not fair to them (Parkinson, 2006).

Customer

Nike has customers all over the world who cherish its products; however, there are some notable major customers. Nike’s biggest clientele cherish sports products and they are drawn from basketball, aerobic, tennis, and jogging. All the major clients buy products in all the four categories of products produced by Nike. Some of the other major customers are .............