Promotion Strategy
Nike uses diverse promotional strategies to increase the company’s market presence. The promotional strategies it uses have remained the same. However, the company has taken advantage of the emerging vibrant technology. The strategies employed by the company focuses on expansion and profit generation (Hill & Jones, 2010). The company continues to employ person-marketing strategy. This incorporates engaging the best athletes, sportsmen, national country sports teams, and country specific sports clubs on the global scale (Bouchet, Hillairet & Bodet, 2013). This approach has proved effective in promoting their products. The company enlists the services of popular personalities such as LeBron James to endorse its products and position them on the global map (Hill & Jones, 2010).
The company uses advertising as a crucial promotional strategy. Advertising remains the most important component of product marketing that continues to help the company expand rapidly. The company uses the strategy to capture the beliefs and principles of the athletics wears. It also captures the attention of clients in the global market (Hill & Jones, 2010). This strategy promotes the profit margins received by the company. It has also expanded its market share through advertising. The advertising strategies focuses on showing the public how the high and passionate performance results from technologically created athletic shoes (Hill & Jones, 2010).
Nike has promoted Buzz marketing as a promotional strategy of its athletic shoes. The strategy focuses on encouraging consumers to engage their colleagues in discussions regarding athletic shoes, which stand out (Hill & Jones, 2010). Consumers can also discuss specific qualities and aspects of running shoes, which captivate them and intensify their emotional contagion. This strategy also focuses on the identification of clients’ needs, engage research and development team to create innovative running shoes, target the most appropriate group with a suitable message (Hill & Jones, 2010).
Evidently, Nike has applied Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) to convince clients that it has superior products. The company used its competitive edge created by the new line of athletic shoes to attract additional clients. The application of mass communication to reach a broader audience remains a crucial strategy for Nike (Yeshin, 2012). The company has also ensured that its workers in the retail shops have superior personal communication skills. The company’s “Inside. Nike. Com” blog site remains popular with clients. They use it to provide feedback on their experience with the company products (Yeshin, 2012). It has also undertaken advertising and the commercials of its running shoes using famous athletes.
It is recommendable for Nike to continue promoting its athletics shoes through advertising and using famous athletes. Furthermore, the company should roll out a robust technology based communication in order to target the large number of people around the globe who use the Internet (Ferrell & Hartline, 2011). Nike carefully selects its promotional strategies to fit within the broader company marketing approaches. This has ensured that all its strategies play a critical role in promoting the market expansion and revenue base. Therefore, all the strategies remain important. It is notable that these strategies have been at the core of Nike’s performance. The use of technology in promoting IMC should integrate the existing strategies.
Distribution Strategy
Nike has maintained an efficient production system over decades. The company’s research and development team take minimal time to generate new shoe designs. The company generates products at a rate that fully meet clients’ demands (Ferrell & Hartline, 2011). Furthermore, it has adopted oversees production as well as sourcing to enhance effectiveness and product availability in the market. The company has a distribution strategy that enables it escalate its production, shipping, and logistics (Ferrell & Hartline, 2011). Nike has adopted outsourcing as a strategy to distribute its products to the market. The strategy to outsource distribution services through retailers has proved effective. This has enabled the company to ensure the presence of its products in all global markets.
The company has chosen its distribution channels to ensure product availability. Furthermore, the distribution channels have promoted the maintenance of its image and principles. The company uses retailers to escalate distribution and sales (Leeman, 2010). Oversees manufacturers have also developed effective business-to-business relationship with retailers thus facilitating the presence of Nike products. Evidently, the company has increased the application of technology in distribution activities.
The company uses computer-aided design to minimize the time spent on logistics and distribution (Leeman, 2010). The electronic data interchange has also improved the distribution and feedback mechanisms between the company and the retailers. The technological application simplifies the inventory systems and ease scheduling of logistics activities including transportation and shipping. Furthermore, the technology can improve marketing channels within the process by informing retailers of available products that are ready for delivery to the market (Bouchet, Hillairet & Bodet, 2013).
This paper recommends that Nike should digitize the entire distribution activities. This can enable proper co-ordination of distribution channels. Furthermore, the approach would enable cycle management for effective distribution activities (Leeman, 2010). It is notable that the application of technology in managing distribution channels presents more benefits than other strategies.
References
Bouchet, P., Hillairet, D., & Bodet, G. (2013). Sport Brands. New York, NY: Routledge.
Ferrell, O. C., & Hartline, M. D. (2011). Marketing strategy. Australia: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Hill, C. W. L., & Jones, G. R. (2010). Strategic management theory: An integrated approach. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
Leeman, J. (2010). Supply Chain Management: Fast, flexible supply chains in manufacturing and retailing. Düsseldorf: Institute for Business Process Management.
Yeshin, T. (2012). Integrated Marketing Communications. New York, NY: Routledge.