Product Strategy-Key Successful Factors

Product Strategy-Key Successful Factors

     Nike has always remained on the preference list of athletes and athletic footwear was indeed the first category of products launched by the company more than 30 years ago. Today, you can see the craze for its products, not only among athletes, but also among golfers and other sportspeople. Apart from that, Nike shoes and other accessories have also become the favorite fashion products for teenagers. Thus, fashion, elegance and achievements are some of the associated attributes of Nike products.

Early Days of Nike

Phil Knight, the starter of Nike revolution, began merchandising his athletic shoes designs, stores in a trunk inside a car. It is difficult to digest the fact that what is considered as an iconic brand today, witnessed a poor beginning like this. However, it was the hard work of Knight and needless to say, his efforts have paid him a lot.

Story Behind Swoosh Symbol

The present day picture of Nike products is incomplete without the mention of Swoosh symbol. This symbol has been adopted from Greek Goddess, Nike and hence, the name. The Swoosh is believed to be the wing of this Goddess and it was chosen by Caroline Davidson. Caroline was an advertising student in the same University, where Knight was an accounts teacher. The symbol was incorporated on Nike shoes in 1972 and it is a part of the life of sports persons and fashion conscious generation.

Nike - The Ship Floating Ahead

Nike has existed for more than 35 years and is still willing to travel a long distance of popularity. With its products like baseball cleats, sports apparels, sports bags and other finest quality products are being accepted in all parts of the world. Its evolution as a golf manufacturer is phenomenal and it has succeeded in offering Nike golf drivers, shoes, bags and other related stuff.

Nike is the perfect example of a business, which has traveled a long way to become a successful brand. You can invest your trust and money in the manufacturer products to earn comfort and great quality, along with style and desirable returns on money.

Product Strategy--Positioning/Unique selling point

Product Strategy--Positioning/Unique selling point

Product Positioning Strategies

As you know that positioning of Nike is considered for a chance to access or stand in the market of the world or business first class in the present day. Especially,  still applies its unique selling point of the product that it differs from other competitors such as Puma, Adidas, and etc. Other competitors are direct competitors in Thailand market for shoes and leader for technologies, Nike sets its positioning as a high-class brand with rather high price, high quality, new innovation and modern design. However, all positioning or unique selling points are considered better choice strategies for market competition.

Nike was conscious that Nike Free needed to be positioned as an additional training shoe in your kit bag, not necessarily as a replacement to your traditional running shoes. Unlike typical athletic shoes, Nike Free shoes allows the foot to move, flex and grip just as it would if running barefoot. The advertising and marketing campaigns were carefully crafted to ensure that consumers recognised Nike Free as a training shoe which could help build additional strength and therefore the ability to train longer - not as a replacement to its other sports shoes. This product positioning was a balancing act, requiring careful communication and application.

Part of the strategy was to take this 'barefoot' shoe directly to runners. To do this, Nike used the tried and true, labour intensive method of driving mobile vans to areas in the USA, Europe, as well as Australia, which attracted large amounts of runners. (In the early days of the company, co-founder Phil Knight sold shoes from a van parked at a local athletics track.) Staffed by running and footwear experts, offering gait analyses and the chance to test Nike Free, the mobile vans took the 'barefoot' shoe straight to consumers. This basic tactic engaged consumers on their terms and in their own territory, letting the Nike Free story be told on an individual basis.

I Believe that Nike's brand is the leader of shoes in the world.

Product Strategy--Target Groups

Product Strategy--Target Groups

“Just Do It” 

       Nike has many target consumer markets but even their individual products can have various target markets as well. The Nike is probably one of the most recognizable sneakers that Nike currently manufactures, especially in their athletic footwear collection. With that in mind, Nike has several different target consumer markets. The entire Nike brand is recognized worldwide and they certainly target markets across the globe.

1.Mid-teens to mid-thirties

The Nike  is definitely directed to a particular age group or range of ages. The most targeted age group seems to be mid-teens to mid-thirties. The individuals in this age group tend to be more in tune and up-to-date with the fashion styles available and are more willing to spend the money on these current fashion trends. The shoe are definitely eye-catching sneakers whether it is because of the shoe design itself, or the bright and vibrant color schemes used. Whatever the case may be, the bold and innovative designs of this sneaker attracts the fashion-forward consumer who is in the market for a high-end athletic sneaker.

2.Who enjoy physical activity

Another target market for the Nike  would be consumers living an active lifestyle. The individuals in this market segment are ones who enjoy physical activity, whether it be a specific sport, running, or just exercising in general. Nike is known for making products for athletes and the Nike  is now a distinct style of running sneakers that they offer. Although it comes down to personal preference on whether someone likes a Nike  or not, Nike does a great job at keeping up with the style and technology physically active consumers are looking for in an athletic sneaker.

These are a few of the major target markets that Nike focuses on and they are always looking for new ways to improve their products to meet their consumers' demands and needs for an athletic sneaker. 

Product Strategy--Branding

Product Strategy--Branding

I think that the Nike brand has become so strong as to place it in the rarified air of recession-proof consumer branded giants. Brand management is one of Nike’s many strengths. Consumers are willing to pay more for brands that they judge to be superior in quality, style and reliability. A strong brand allows its owner to expand market share, command higher prices and generate more revenue than its competitors. With its “Just Do It” campaign and strong product, Nike was able to increase its share of the domestic sport-shoe business from 18 percent to 43 percent  in the ten years between 1988 and 1998. Nike spent $300 million on overseas advertising alone; most of it centered around the “Just Do It” campaign. The success of the campaign is that much more remarkable when one considers that an estimated 80 percent of the sneakers sold in the U.S. are never used for the activities for which they have been designed.

The “Just Do It” campaign seemed to capture the corporate philosophy of grit, determination and passion, but also infused it with something hitherto unknown in Nike ads—humor. Nike had always been known for its “detached, determined unsentimental” attitude. “In a word, [Nike is] cool.”

The “Just Do It” campaign received mixed ratings, ranging from “an instant classic” to “sociopathic.” One critic went so far as to say the ads were “an impatientbordering- on-contemptuous exhortation to the masses. Cool is one thing.

Poverty of warmth is another.” Eventually the campaign was credited with embracing not just resolve and purpose, but also the “beauty, drama and moral uplift of sport—even, every now and then, fun

Besides, Nike's  shows so fun and exciting advertisements that it can attract consumers very well.

Nowadays, Nike's has a new innovational production for serving the demand of every consuer.

Product Strategy - Product lines & Logo

Product Strategy - Product lines & Logo

Nike's is showed its brand name under a hallmark that consists of white, black color. White colors represent elegant and stylish.

 and black color represents high quality and valuable thing ,seductive mystery. Moreover, the Nike’s logo looks so clear, polite, simple and professional; it makes most consumers to see the real products.

Nike's logo it looks similar to the wings on the feet of the god Hermes and a wing of the goddess Nike. The swoosh also resembles a check mark which, in American culture, has become representative of success and a job well-done.. Nike prides itself in creating state of the art athletic equipment from running shoes to soccer balls and using a logo that rhetorically represents success and visually ties into the ancient gods of sport explains its success as a successful, simple and recognizable trademark. This clear logo is a perfect example of mixing rhetorical semiotics (recognizable links to wings of gods and the check of a job well-done) and simplicity (the logo is one swift brush stroke) to create a rhetorically strong brand basis. ". For Nike, referring to the wings of Hermes and Nike as well as referring to the cultural symbol of a check communicate their visual argument successfully.

PRODUCT LINES…

Since its creation, Nike has proven itself as a popular brand and it has created niches by selling products such as footwear, apparels and various types of sport equipment. Nike currently focuses on soccer , basketball , running , athletics , combat sport , baseball and eyewear. Company also sells of outdoor activities such as tennis, golf , skateboarding , cycling , volleyball , wrestling , aquatic activities and other athletic and recreational uses.

Foodwear

Nike 6.0 (Air Max , Poggio , etc)

Air Zoom Yorker (Cricket Shoes) designed to be 30% lighter than their competitors.

Air Jordan XX3 , a high performance basketball shoes designed with the environment in mind.

Apparel

In the apparel of Nike all cloth product and accessories are considered shirt eyewear , bags ,  capes and shorts.

Equipment

In the equipment line of Nike all kind of sport balls and other sport equipments like gold stick is included.

Nike +ipod Sport Kit

Is a device which measures and records the distance and pace of a walk or run . The Nike +ipod consist of a small accelerometer attached to or embedded in a shoe. Which communicates with a receiver plugged into an iPod nano , iTunes soft wear can be used to view the walk or run history.