Nike incorporation was founded in 1964 by Phil Knight, a medium distance runner and coach known as Bill Bowerman. The company started its operation in the same year after the two visionaries partnered with a Japanese athlete show, Onitsuka manufacturer. The partnership was aimed at generally improving the quality of the footwear for the athletes. The company initially was not named Nike but Blue Ribbon Sports and is now situated in America, although it has retail shops worldwide. When the company started, it was a small corporation, and the partners did a lot in growing the company. Bill, one of the partners, used to test their products with the University of Oregon athletes to determine whether the attires were good enough or required more modifications, whereas Phil used to hawk the shoes with his car. The company has focused on marketing its products to ensure that it attracts more consumers and has a competitive advantage. Thus, one can analyze how Nike Inc. has focused on its marketing and integrated marketing communications.
Integrated Marketing Communications Employed by Nike
Integrated marketing communication can be defined as the process by which companies and organizations impose to accelerate the rate at which they make their returns. They do this by simply taking a customer-centric approach alongside their communication and marketing objectives. By doing this, businesses can reach a big audience, attracting more customers and, therefore, more returns and success. The approach has significantly helped different firms to achieve their long-term goals. In the current century, it can be challenging for any enterprise that wants to thrive without making good use of the technology (Merikanto 44). Technology is helping businesses to grow since it has led to improved production. For instance, some of the integrated marketing communication used in the day-to-day services by organizations include; traditional media, social media, and the internet, which aid in viewing the whole marketing process from the customer’s point of view. An effective integrated marketing communication creates a stronger brand based on a consistent message strategy for projecting the organization’s voice. Today, any company that is determined to achieve great success utilizes technology and particularly integrated marketing communication.
Nike incorporation has not been left behind in maximizing the use of integrated marketing communication. It has widely made good use of the new skills for promoting business. By doing this, Nike is now considered as one of the bestselling companies in sports attire. It has been revolutionizing a lot in the products it has been manufacturing, primarily in athletes’ footwear (Chitty et al. 124). The company’s marketing and promotion started when it hired a third party to promote its products.
Jeff Johnson was the new member who went further into opening the first retail shop and started Nike’s marketing campaign by developing new marketing tactics such as advertisements and brochures. Jeff also renamed the business, and named it Nike and gave it the trademark, making it popular today. “Just Do It” is the company’s slogan, and it has served as the Nike Company’s identity since it is unique and eye-catching. Nike is one of the most innovative companies that have grown to become international firms. The organization promotes and advertises its products and stays connected with its stakeholders, which has led to its competitive advantage. Nike imposes much effort in researching its customers’ needs and demands, which largely contributes to its success.
Nike Inc. has been using integrated marketing communication since its foundation until its recent campaigns. Nike uses almost 2.4 million dollars every year for marketing work and promotional schemes (Key et al. 321). The money is set to fund all the processes involved in need of the company to reach most of its stakeholders and customers (Key et al. 324). It has different set programs of achieving these plans since managers have ensured that resources are utilized, and marketing is exercised effectively. Nike does not get outdated but moves with time by redefining its ways and programs of conducting promotions and advertisement. It has employed a group of professionals in advertising and technology that usually aims at the touch-points that help them and the customers interact with consumers and learn about their needs. Some of these programs and activities adopted by the company include the following;
Social Media Campaigns
The social media platform has provided a massive chance for social networking and channels that enable the company and the other stakeholders, such as customers and suppliers, to interact with ease. Through social media campaigns, Nike can reach out to new customers and engage with existing ones. The company has successfully maintained powerful bonds and an excellent image and brand all over the social media platforms. Some of the social media channels often used by Nike include; YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. An example of a promotion video on a social media platform that went viral featured Ronaldinho and received many views, attracting more consumers to use Nike products.
Mass Media Advertising
Nike is known to work well with the American Advertising Agency. The company has made excellent use of this organization by using it as one of its marketing strategies. These two agencies, Nike and the American Advertising Agency named Kennedy and Weiden, commonly referred to as W&K, have worked together to improve their performance. For several decades, the strong relationship that has been maintained between the corporations have primarily led to their success. W&K worked effortlessly for Nike Company to promote its sales of different products (Kim 1514). The duo managed to develop vital electronic and print media programs that mainly focused on sportswomen and men equally.
The mass-mediated marketing advertising primarily uses the transformational approach to convince clients to do the purchasing. The strategy entails the consumer’s ability to differentiate the products and express the type of enjoyable experiences they had from the company’s goods and services. In this case, the customers have already used the goods, so they got experience with them. Their responses are the ones that the manufacturers use to persuade other potential customers into making their purchases. Generally, Nike’s mass media campaigns emphasize consumers’ different emotions when speaking about their familiarities with the products. In most cases, the experiences include; pride, ambitiousness, feelings of achievement, and actualization.
Celebrity Endorsement and Sponsorships
This marketing strategy involves using celebrity fame to market a company’s services and products since these figures have a vast base audience. Nike discovered this as an area for doing its product promotions, where it has used different stars. The company invests hugely in celebrity endorsements and sponsorship programs, which significantly attracts many consumers. The approach projects the company’s products, increases its popularity, drives awareness, and gains a positive image. In this case, personalities used have to be ambassadors of a positive vibe in society. These endorsements also give an impression to the audience since Nike is associated with these superstars’ success. Nike has different sponsorships entitled to various universities, international sports teams, and institutions that use the Nike logo on their uniforms (Saktiendi and Fauziah 10). Since these sporting clubs have a huge fan base, the logo on the players’ uniforms is used for advertising the products and ensuring that the company’s products attract more customers. Moreover, the approach guarantees that many people familiarize themselves with the company goods.
Integrated Marketing Communication and Brand Strategy
The process of developing and sustaining a product or service identity and integrated equity plays a key role. Kevin Keller is the branding expert for Nike who has developed the brand equity model based on the customers’ orientation. This model suggests that the activities involved in marketing communication significantly contribute to the awareness and links the brand with the buyers’ mind (Orasmäe 56). Since the company cannot avail a bad picture of the product to the clients, branding creates a good image for the company and its products. Developing brand equity will demand only the well-known products by the consumers and are unique, favorable, and strong (Chitty et al. 56). Due to this integrated communication, firms and the stakeholders can communicate efficiently and effectively, especially with their consumers. When engaged with the brand identity strategies, this integrated marketing communication plays a significant role in developing the general trademark. When working together, all these techniques help the firm reach out to a broader market base and engage much with the existing customers.
Nike Inc. is being affected by the global pandemic of coronavirus. This virus has already affected the company’s everyday activities, and it’s going to impact the corporation more until the infection is over. Coronavirus emerged in 2019 and will affect the company’s future significantly. Nike Inc. sales will be reduced drastically since many people sporting activities have been impacted by the pandemic (Liu 5). The company depends not only on the sales through online channels but also on physical stores installed in different places globally. Most of these physical stores will be closed, but this may be determined by the measures taken by the respective countries.
Different states set various rules and measures to curb the spread of this deadly virus. Thus, physical stores will be affected since the movement of people have also been limited. Correspondingly, online sales are predicted to experience a rise since many people will purchase goods over the internet and wait for their shipment to their doorstep. Nike Inc. should interact with the consumers and convince them to buy their products online. Moreover, the company should make the means and process of purchasing products easy and readily accessible for all the potential and the existing customers.
To conclude, the marketing strategies of an organization can impact its growth and development. Many companies have ensured that they design different ways that can attract consumers. For instance, Nike is one of the leading companies in the production of athlete wear. However, the organization faces competition from other corporations. Consequently, Nike has used its marketing approaches to ensure that it retains and attracts more clients and increase its market share. Social media has been of great significance to Nike since it has reached many people and contributed to the company’s growth. Celebrity endorsement and sponsorship has also been exercised to attract more clients. Mass media advertising is another technique used by Nike to increase its sales and competitive advantage. Therefore, integrated marketing communication methods have been employed by Nike to improve its performance and reach its goals.
Works Cited
Chitty, Bill, et al. Integrated Marketing Communications with Online Study Tools 12 Months. Cengage AU, 2017.
Key, Thomas Martin, and Andrew J. Czaplewski. “Upstream Social Marketing Strategy: An Integrated Marketing Communications Approach.” Business Horizons, vol. 60. no.3, 2017. pp. 325-333. Web.
Kim, Minhong. “How Phil Knight Made Nike a Leader in the Sport Industry: Examining the Success Factors.” Sport in Society, vol. 23. no. 9, 2020, pp.1512-1523. Web.
Liu, Xuqing. “NIKE’s General Company Analysis Based on It 2020 Annual Report. 6th International Conference on Financial Innovation and Economic Development (ICFIED 2021).” Atlantis Press, vol 166. no. 1, 2021, pp.1-5. Web.
Merikanto, Saara. Controversial Marketing-A Successful Strategy to Grow a Brand or Risky Approach? Case Study: Nike Inc. 2019. Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. Bachelor Thesis.
Orasmäe, Avery. Integrated Marketing Communication. 2017. Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Bachelor Thesis
Saktiendi, Evan, and Indah Restu Fauziah. “Persepsi Pembentukan Brand Awareness dan Brand Image Melalui Penerapan Integrated Marketing Communication.” Jurnal Ilmiah Komunikasi, vol.12. no.2, 2020. pp. 9-14. Web.