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Nike is #91 on the Fortune 500. The world's largest athletic apparel and gear maker's 2015 can best be described in one word: dominant. Fiscal-year sales cl

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Nike's origins as a startup in Beaverton, Oregon can still be found somewhere inside the global athletic apparel behemoth. Since its founding in 1964, the company has built itself into one of the shining examples of global marketing services. Nike's ability to adapt to the times is the reason it remains a global powerhouse when countless apparel companies have fallen by the wayside.

The company's globalweb operationsbring Nike's presence to approximately 190 countries worldwide and has allowed for its substantial growth in India, Brazil and China. In 2012, revenues for the company exceeded $21 billion worldwide, a 16 percent growth from the year previous, according to an article by the Oregonian.

The brand describes its Web strategy as "the world's most distinctive, authentic and connected brand in sports," and Nike's continued growth after almost 50 years is due in large part to its Web presence and willingness to adapt its brand to the times. The company's social media efforts are massively successful worldwide and have been leveraged to personalize the brand on a global scale.

One of Nike's Twitter feeds works as a customer service function and responds to product inquiries directly. Nike's willingness to respond to global consumers through their Twitter strategy "goes a long way to turn customers into brand advocates," reports an Econsultancy article.

Another global marketing solution from the company was that Nike launched a social media campaign during the 2012 Olympics, even though Adidas was the official sponsor of the London games. During that time Nike gained 80,000 more Facebook fans than Adidas.

The potential of Nike's future was recently validated when Citigroup upgraded the company stock status to a buy based mainly on Nike's growth prospects in China, according to an article by Barron's. Going forward, market penetration in China and ecommerce growth look to be two of the biggest contributing factors for Nike, both of which would have seemed insane to the small Oregon store half a century ago.
Taking Your Website International
Nike's international expansion was a success, and companies going global can take lessons from the brand, applying them on a smaller scale. For small to mid-sized companies, one of the challenges of global web operations is that when a company is expanding, creating multiple versions of a site can be difficult.

The localized version of the website will likely be one of the consumer's first interactions with the brand, so it is imperative to make a lasting impression. A minor gaffe in language or formatting is enough to permanently damage a customer's opinion of the brand.

A few best practices to keep in mind for global campaign management of your website are as follows. First, be sure to tailor each site for regional difference including the currency used in the particular area and the product availability by country.

Second, for countries in which multiple languages are spoken, use a subdomain. A subdomain allows for the ability to target different languages within one country, so they prove especially useful in Canada or Switzerland, that have regions speak that different languages.

Aside from the website presentation, there are legal and administrative requirements that are specific to each country. These vary by nation, but what remains the same throughout the world is that failure to comply with these requirements will tarnish a company no matter how well the localized version of their website is.

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Nike's Success With Global Web Operations

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Nike's origins as a startup in Beaverton, Oregon can still be found somewhere inside the global athletic apparel behemoth. Since its founding in 1964, the company has built itself into one of the shining examples of global marketing services.

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Nike Story - Profile, History, Founder, Founded, CEO | Footwear Manufacturing Companies | SuccessStory

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Nike was previously known as Blue Ribbon Sports (RBS) founded in 1964 by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman. Phil Knight was a middle distance runner hailing from Portland who trained under track and field coach Bill Bowerman.

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Executive Summary: Constant innovation has been the byword for Nike's success. This case study analyses the ever-evolving marketing strategies adopted by Nike to become a global brand.

Founded in January 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS) by University of Oregon track athlete Philip Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman, the company was initially a distributor for the Japanese shoemaker Onitsuka Co and their brand Tiger. In 1966, it opened the first BRS retail store in Santa Monica, California.

In those days, Bowerman would often rip apart the Tiger brand shoes to see how he could make them lighter and better. He used to take help from university runners to test his creations and collect their feedback. By 1971, though BRS revenue had touched $1 million, the business relationship with Onitsuka was turning sour. So, they moved on from being distributors of athletic footwear to designers and manufacturers of athletic footwear and took full control over their value chain.

In 1973, they called their brand Nike after the Greek goddess of victory. A design student Carolyn Davidson created the famous 'swoosh' logo for $35. Today, the estimated market value of Nike is about $10.7 billion.

In 1973, BRS signed its first endorsement pact with Ilie Nastase, a professional athlete and ATP tennis star. Endorsements have ever since been an essential part of the marketing growth of Nike.

The company's innovation debut was in 1979 when it introduced air cushioning technology. The shoes featured gas-filled plastic membranes that could be inserted into the sole for comfort during running. Invented in the mid 1970s by a NASA engineer, it kept up the revenue of Nike for long. But in mid 1980s the revenue started dipping mainly because the management did not take note of the aerobics boom. Nike's competitors had by then developed their business in this segment.

In a bid to regain its edge, Nike, in 1987, launched a new product called Air Max. The shoes had two interdependent bags with compressed air inside. This helped in absorbing shocks during running and jumping. The bags can be seen by the athletes (users) through a 'special window' in the heel or toe shoe. Nike also customised the product to suit individual needs by inserting bags of different size depending on the height and pressure exerted by users. This made it easy for a person involved in a particular sport to choose his/her shoes.

The marketing campaign for this product was supported by a memorable TV ad in which the Beatles' Revolution was the soundtrack. It was for the first time that a Beatles song was being used in a TV ad. Riding on the success of this campaign, Nike, a year later, launched an even more empowering series of ads with the tag line "Just do it".

The series had three ads featuring young sportsman Bo Jackson who campaigned on the benefits of a new cross-training pair of Nike shoes. Almost every year after Nike launched its air cushioning technology, it released new versions of Air Max. Currently, Nike has nearly 40 models under this brand name.
Shoes + Technology:
In due course, even the hi-tech Air Max technology was found to be inadequate to entice customers. And it was time for something that would differentiate Nike in the long run. It had to be at once very distant from the core business and also very appealing. The focus was on digital gadgets. It had less to do with shoes and more to do with athletes. Nike's sales philosophy - if you have a body, you are an athlete - had enticed everybody who wanted to think of himself/herself as an athlete or wanted to get more athletic.

Fast forward to May 20, 2006. On this day, Nike introduced its first mass produced gadget, Nike + iPod Sports Kit, in the US market. It was a tool to measure the distance and speed of a run or a walk and was built on a virtually flawless partnership strategy.

Nike was cashing in on the most technologically advanced portable device that could do all the tech work brilliantly. What was it that Nike did for the partnership? It brought the idea and developed it into a business. The company was actually selling just a small electronic chip that had to be inserted in the shoe (preferably a special one, but even a regular shoe would do) and a wireless connection device that had to be plugged to an iPod. All the rest (calculation, storage, integration) was done by the iPod. But it was Nike's product. It paved the way to a truly innovative future of the company.

An upgraded product, Nike + Sportband Kit, was released in April 2008. It no longer needed an iPod and could be connected to the computer directly to download the results. All the next products were an enhancement of this concept. The chip in the shoes was integrated with the iPhone, enhancing the possibility to view, manage and share the tracking results through iTunes.

A Nike + Sportwatch was also introduced in combination with the chip. In September 2010, Nike introduced a running app to be used in the latest iPhones. The app used the phone's accelerometer and so there was no need of a chip in the shoe. Going miles ahead of its competitors with a user community of more than six million people, Nike products were not just dressing up the athletes but also coaching the masses who wanted to be like athletes. Products like Nike + iPod for gym goers and Polar WearLink+ targeted specific needs of users.

The users of Nike+ can not only store and review their results in their computers or devices but also analyse and share them within the community. The whole evolution process has managed to change the concept of what a regular apparel seller is. Through apps, Nike has come closer to its customers and can study them and communicate with them conveniently. In contrast, a regular apparel seller even after spending huge amounts on advertising can only expect to meet a customer in the store when the customer has already made a decision to go and shop there.

Thanks to its technology leap, Nike, it is said, was able to cut down on advertising expenses by 40 per cent without compromising on efficiency and results. The latest Nike products released in end-2012 include Nike + Baseball and Nike + Training Shoes. Yes, it is back to shoes but with lots of electronics, including Nike Chip Skis.

Nike's tech growth was also accompanied by social media initiatives. In 2008, Nike created a Facebook account. Today, each Nike sub-brand has its own Facebook page, which runs product specific promotions and features events in a particular sporting activity. It also provides information on the latest game of endorsed athletes. For example, a Facebook user who wants to know more about the latest basketball shoes or game can turn to Nike Basketball Facebook page.

Nike pairing up with Apple Inc, another company known for its innovative products, was a way to bring into its fold the Facebook fans of the company. This helped the company to increase brand awareness and also reach out to customers who were still in two minds about choosing their brands.

The tie-up with Apple was Nike's realisation that most runners will use iPods or iPhones to listen to music while jogging. So now iPhones and iPods come pre-installed with Nike+ app. With this, iPhone/iPod users can map out their running route and later share it with their Facebook friends.

One of the company's latest products is Nike FuelBand, a wristband that calculates the amount of energy spent during a day. The band tracks the wrist movement, predicts the activity performed and the approximate amount of calories burned.

However, the number of calories spent is not a robust index of energy used because 100 calories burned by a person who weighs 100 kg is not the same as the same amount of energy burned by a person who weighs 50 kg. So, to create a platform where a group of people can compare their energy spent, Nike created a new index called Nike Fuel. This index was actually introduced in the era of Nike+ app but it was not actively promoted until Nike FuelBand was launched.

Compared to other specialised players like Jawbone's UP and Fitbit Flex, FuelBand is rather primitive. But its biggest selling point is the Nike + Fuelband Community on Facebook. The page on Facebook does not say much about the FuelBand. Instead it uses the social media site to motivate its users to get fit.

On this page, every week Nike sets a new challenge for its followers. And it is here that Nike Fuel comes into play. Users can compare the Nike Fuel accumulated and comment on the challenge, motivate each other, share their difficulties and get suggestions on how to improve the general level of fitness.
Conclusion:
Nike has been creative since the start. It has been pushing the technological boundaries of innovation to offer its customers new products and also differentiate itself from its competitors. Somewhere in its evolution, Nike also realised the importance of hi-tech gadgets in day-today lives. So it started to combine new products with hi-tech solutions to give unconventional capabilities to a customer of sportswear.

Nike was also quick to seize the opportunity offered by social media to engage with a wider customer base so much so that it is now able to link its new hi-tech gadgets to social media platforms. The power of such customer contact is phenomenal as it gives greater visibility in a single click, generates interactions among customers and gives the company an opportunity to collect info about customers' choices and preferences. It also gives endless chances for customer segmentation and product differentiation, the pillars of any marketing strategy.

'Nike's Move Towards Social Media May Be Potentially Dangerous'

Nike's success lies in its ability to keep the brand modern and relevant in an ever-changing marketplace. It also remains consistent with its original brand identity. The 'Just Do It' tagline epitomises the lonely, rebel runner who aggressively strives to overcome his/her physical and psychological limits.

The brand identity, therefore, is in sync with the ideas of individualism, aggressiveness, performance and empowerment. This helps Nike differentiate itself from its competitors. While Adidas's identity is built on team activities and community achievement, Reebok focuses on fashion and street credibility. Nike's latest hi-tech innovations such as Nike + FuelBand focuses on individuality as it helps users track and improve their athletic performances. But the move towards social media is potentially dangerous as the idea of sharing information and belonging to a virtual community may be at odds with the individualism and rebelliousness of the Nike brand.

Of course Nike cannot ignore the social media but it needs to embrace it in a way that does not impact its brand positioning. The stress on using social media as a platform in which individual achievements are celebrated seems to be the right way to go. The Nike consumer remains a self-focused warrior but one that is less isolated in his/her struggles thanks to Nike technology. Nike's brand management, therefore, is based on continuous revitalisation through gradual delivery changes in the brand's positioning. This approach is less risky than the intermittent repositioning efforts of other brands (for example Burberry Group).

Continuous revitalisation needs constant investment in consumer research with focus on development of brand image and the extent to which brand perception aligns with brand identity. The USP of Nike is not its ability to effectively innovate but in its understanding of how innovation can be used to reinforce its original associations.

Simona Botti, Associate Professor of Marketing, London Business School

'Building models based on customer experiences '

Innovation is the art of making hard things easy and creating viable business offerings. Innovation has become vital for survival, making it imperative for businesses to rethink strategies, become more nimble and adaptive, not just in product development, but also in building effective business models, processes and customer experiences.

Nike puts innovation at the heart of all its efforts. To run ahead of the competition, Nike took a unique approach for its shoe manufacturing process and occupied the mind space as a maker of athletic shoes. It not only developed new products that created and defined categories but also developed new business models aimed at enhanced performance.

Nike has smoothly overcome local and global challenges varying from sustainable evolution of existing products and markets to create new products, thereby expanding its outreach.

Sunil Chandiramani, Partner & Leader, Advisory Services, EY

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How Nike's marketing strategies helped it become a global brand

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Executive Summary: Constant innovation has been the byword for Nike's success. This case study analyses the ever-evolving marketing strategies adopted by Nike to become a global brand. Founded in January 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS) by University of Oregon track athlete Philip Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman, the company was initially a distributor for the Japanese shoemaker Onitsuka Co and their brand Tiger.

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Skechers just passed Adidas to become the second-most-popular shoe company in America.

But while several brands jockey for second place, Nike continues to dominate.

Between its Nike and Jordan brands, the company controls a shocking 62% of US brand share, more than four times the other brands' combined value.

Skye Gould/Business Insider

Athletic apparel and footwear is set to outperform the industry for the next five years, according to a recent report by Morgan Stanley.

That means that Nike, which leads the industry with $28 billion in annual sales, could see business boom.

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See how Nike dominates the shoe industry in one chart

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Skechers just passed Adidas to become the second-most-popular shoe company in America. But while several brands jockey for second place, Nike continues to dominate. Between its Nike and Jordan brands, the company controls a shocking 62% of US brand share, more than four times the other brands' combined value.

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How The Nike Social Media Campaign Is Killing It

What brands do think of when you think of awesome social media marketing? Many people think of Google, Instagram or Pinterest. Make space on your list for Nike. When it comes to the Nike social media campaign trail they are killing it.

The people who told you " Do It!" are going the extra mile to make sure that you do and they are using social media to make it happen. They want you to find greatness in your individual exercise no matter what it is.

It's important to understand Nike as a brand. They are an athletic apparel company. They make clothing, sports equipment and shoes for people of all sizes and ages to exercise. Their end goal is to make sure you buy their clothes rather than clothes from Under Armour or Adidas.

Nike moved away from traditional advertising and focus on digital marketing. They invested in social media like Twitter and Facebook. Then they created their own social network, . Using these social media channels they introduced services under Nike+. These allow activity tracking all day either generally or with activity specific apps. Their goal here is increasing brand loyalty. Nike realized that the of a Nike product isn't the end of the marketing cycle. It's the beginning. leads to more when they offer a wide variety of products and services tailored to individuals needs

To that end Nike has introduced Nike+. Nike+ is currently in its infancy as a brand and service but has already captured a lot of attention. The central piece to Nike + is something called . Nike Fuel is a fabricated unit of measure that shows people how active they are during the day. Even as of this writing, we can find no corresponding unit of measure. It's Nike's own unit measured so you can compare it with your past activity. You can also compare yourself to other's activity if they are on the Nike+ network. To measure the metric Nike has introduced apps and gadgets to quantify fuel. This data via Facebook and Twitter and recorded on the Nike+ website.

Introduced in early 2012, the will appear at the London Olympics. Like a Livestrong band in size and shape, the band measures activity. The main metric is steps taken. The fuel band syncs with Nike+ via Bluetooth on an iPhone or Android App or USB plug-in. The benefit of using a Fuel Band knowing whether you hit your goal. If you don't hit your goal, nothing happens. If you hit your goal you start earning achievements. These are badges and videos encouraging you to keep going. Every day feels like a video game where you earn a virtual badge for getting a high score. The difference being that you are actually moving your body rather than your thumbs. It gives you feedback on how bad sitting at a desk can be because of the lack of movement. Even going out for a quick walk can help put Fuel in the bank.

Another Nike+ application goes back to the roots of Nike: the running app. We asked our Director of Design, to demo it. Marissa was a Division I track athlete in college. The app shows the total mileage and how you stack up against your other runs. Once synched, you can see a map of your runs, your speed, and runs logged in a specific time frame. There are many touches within the app that tell you Nike listened to feedback from athletes:

A countdown before starting allows runners to get their smart phones secured.

After a run a Nike athlete like Tim Tebow or Raphael Nadal, gives an "atta boy". These are different for finishing a work out or setting a personal best.

Everything syncs to Nike+ on the web. You can track how many miles you've run, your best times and how you are doing against your friends.

Nike plans on introducing personalized training plans to further enhance their services.

The last item in the Nike+ universe is Nike+ Basketball. Nike+ Basketball shows how Nike is tailoring each application for the individual sport. Instead of miles run, you can see stats like quickness and vertical leap. The app uses Nike Fuel, which is the common element across the apps. The shoes have a removable pod that you can sync and recharge the Fuel Band.

Nike is at the cusp of rolling out Nike + products. We expect most Nike brands to be using some kind of fuel gizmo with a tailor made app that measures statistics. A Nike+ golf app may measure swing speed, keep score and measure yardage while you play. A device in the glove is a good prediction. Nike + Football could measure hits via a helmet or shoulder pad sensor. This doesn't provide "trash talk data" but also tell a doctor how bad the hit was. A Nike + soccer app could measure quickness and the force of a kick. Nike + cycling could measure miles and revolutions. The possibilities are pretty much endless. The brilliance of all the apps is Nike provides the service for free and only advertises Nike products . Some equipment may cost extra at first. As technology keep getting cheaper, it will most likely be part of every shoe Nike sells.

What Nike is doing is the way brands will have to market themselves to consumers in the 21st century. They are creating not only products but services to keep people engaged. They use social media to raise awareness, answer questions, share videos, and allow sharing of results . They keep those results under lock and key in the Nike + website. The results allow Nike to offer the consumer more gear tailored to that user. It's brilliant and it's one of the best uses of social media we have seen to connect a brand to a consumer.

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How The Nike Social Media Campaign Is Killing It | Digital Firefly Marketing

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What brands do think of when you think of awesome social media marketing? Many people think of Google, Instagram or Pinterest. Make space on your list for Nike. When it comes to the Nike social media campaign trail they are killing it. The people who told you " Do It!"