DIGITAL MARKETING.Business & Marketing Research Paper (Research Paper Sample)

Digital Marketing/ Nike Kids Plus

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Company Background/Marketing Audit
Nike has been the world’s leading manufacturer, marketer, and merchant of the sporty footwear, clothing, and accouterments. In the contemporary competitive environment, Nike has successfully differentiated itself from other participants, and it has become an international leader in athletic footwear through its marketing strategies. The company’s dynamic innovations and marketing strategies have seen it sell huge numbers of highly innovative products to an extent it has become a transcendent super brand.
The value proposition of Nike Inc. is based on brand, customization, innovation, and accessibility. As such, Nike's value offering is based on customer experience rather than sales penetration. Nike Inc. has engaged internet platforms to market its products and has made sure that the customers can easily get their customized products by providing an application that helps the customers to make choices available in the market for their footwear. According to Ramaswamy (2008), Nike created a value proposition through the customer's experiences by ensuring that there is constant interaction between the company and its clientele. Accessibility in Nike's value proposition is created by providing consumers with a myriad of product offerings so that customers can make choices (Cleverism.com, 2019). In terms of innovation, the company creates value offerings by designing cutting-edge products that are enhanced by unending research carried out by the company. In terms of customization, Nike allows customers to, at times, to personalize products to their taste so that they get value for their monetary resources. A strong brand has been created by the company as it is one of the fewest companies selling sporting gear to top athletes such as Tiger Woods and Cristiano Ronaldo (Cleverism.com, 2019). This allows the company to position itself as a strong brand in the athletic gear production. By liaising with notable athletes in the sport’s industry, the company can position its brand in the market.
Nike operates in a rather competitive market that includes other premium brands such as Puma and Adidas. The competitors have engaged Nike in a rivalry that soles dwell on enhancing market penetration as well as increasing the shareholding of the existing market. According to Rowland (2017), the strong competition and competitive rivalry in Nike's industry are necessitated by high aggressiveness and low market growth rate. The reduced growth rate of the market is a result of how the firms in the industry have saturated and penetrated the market. Therefore, the companies have to compete for the shrunk market thereby creating strong competition for Nike. Resultantly, Nike needs to be more aggressive so that it can counter the effects of this external factor when trying to penetrate the market with a new product. Moreover, the company needs an aggressive product and market development that will allow it to create a competitive edge over its rivals. According to Rowland (2017), the probable invasion of the market by new entrants is relatively weak and it is not possible that a new firm will possibly enter the industry in the near soon. The threat of the new footwear manufacturers in the industry is driven by the increased production costs and expensive brand development. The high economies of scale that Nike proposes also ensure that there is a possibility of waving off the introduction of new footwear manufacturers. New entrants may also not disrupt the industry considering that the cost of doing business in this sector is extremely high.
Nike has established its brand in the sporting and apparel industry by continued investment in its marketing activities. Specifically, the company has achieved its brand selling and marketing penetration through intense spending on marketing processes. In fact, according to Keller (n.d.), Nike has been spending approximately $3 billion every year or advertising its products. As early as its establishment, the company has continually increased its monetary allocation to advertising and marketing purposes. The company has utilized various marketing and digital strategies to ensure that their products penetrated the market.
One of the marketing strategies that the company has utilized is linking with renowned brand ambassadors in the sports world. Nike has been very strategic in providing sporting gear and apparel to famous sportspersons such as LeBron James and Cristiano Ronaldo considering that they have heavy followership. By clothing such individuals, Nike is highly likely to publicize its products to a great number of people who actually could be potential customers. Nike’s marketing strategies include; segmentation, positioning, and targeting. By psychographic segmentation, the company has been able to ensure that its target customers get attractive offerings that will allow them to remain loyal according to Bhasin (2018). In this case, the different market segments are identified and their potential capped so that the company can monitor the market growth to create tailored products that match the customer requirements and expectations. The company uses the targeting strategy so that it can identify the markets in which the supplies and product development should be enhanced. According to Bhasin (2018), the company has positioned itself as a renowned brand offering products of differentiated pricing but with guaranteed quality. This ensures that consumers can visualize the company's products every time they are willing to purchase sporting gear and apparel. The company has adopted a competitive pricing model that allows connecting with customers and their expectations.