Marketing Example

Marketing

Introduction:

Marketing is a social process needed in order to discern or evaluate consumer wants. It involves focusing on a product or service on those consumer wants and then finding ways to mould consumers to these goods or services. This may be done through the form of advertising or branding.

Thus, the role of marketing is of fundamental importance to any firm, organization or industry. Thus, people charged with the task of marketing have to create or initiate public awareness concerning the good or service being marketed.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Nike Corporation is the worlds leading supplier and or manufacturer of sports equipments, athletic shoes and apparels. It was formed in 1964, and by 1980, it already had more than 50% market share in the United States. The name Nike is derived from the Greek word of the same name meaning the Greek goddess of victory.

Currently Nike has over five hundred factory or office locations around the globe, the majority of these are in Asia.

DEFINE THE BUSINESS AREA:

Marketing

Nike specialize its operations in the sneaker industry. This is one of the most competitive industries. Unfortunately, for Nike it produces a multitude of sporting gear. As a result, the company faces stiff competition from almost all industry players. Among the companies, key competitors include; new balance, Adidas, Reebok, and converse. The sneaker industry is more labor intensive as compared to other industries. As a result, the players in the industry have adopted high degrees of outsourcing in trying to increase their profit margins within a backdrop of intensifying competition.

ANALYSIS:

The footwear industry usually has two basic manufacturing options. The first option is one where the company manufactures and sells its products independently. The other option involves the company outsourcing part of its workload. In the case of Nike, it has opted for the second option. This option is valid especially given the nature of the industry where the nature of hyper-competition is forcing firms to adopt the cheapest mode of production in order to stay afloat.

Because of this Nike Corporation has chosen to relocate some of its factories to less expensive economies around the globe, as well as outsourcing part of its workload to secondary manufacturers.

In terms of market share and target markets, Nike Corporation has the largest market share with around 42% of the global market share. Nikes market reach ids global in scale. With different factories across the globe, the firm has been able to have an almost perfect market penetration.

Marketing

To improve on market share every company uses its own strategy. However, in any industry there are four core elements of marketing strategy. These four elements are strategies that involve the product, pricing, promotion, and distribution. All firms within the industry seem to employ a different mix of the four elements in order to achieve its growth or industry projections.

In terms of the companies pricing strategy, the firm is faced by many problems. Given that, the responsiveness of consumers to a price change is measured by a product’s price elasticity of demand. Some products are highly responsive to price changes while others are not. In some commodities Modest price changes cause very large changes in the quantity purchased, Economists say that the demand for such products if relatively elastic or simply elastic. For other products Substantial price changes because only small changes in the amount purchased, the demand for such products is relatively inelastic or simply inelastic.

Within the footwear industry, Nike is faced by a very elastic demand. Because the industry produces almost identical or substitute products, then product improvement is what determines whether the firm can sell its products at a relatively higher price.

NIKES SWOT ANALYSIS:

Strengths.

Nike has successfully sponsored top athletes, in comparison to its main rivals who sponsor mainly sporting events. As a result, Nike saves on its budgets.

Nike is very strong at research and development; this has ensured that the company stays ahead of its competitors.

Marketing

Weaknesses.

The company produces various sports goods thus it is highly dependent on its market share. If this is affected then the company could suffer great losses.

Due to price sensitivity of the retail sector, Nike does not benefit maximally from the sector.

Opportunities.

Nike is a fashion brand, thus it is not only sport men and women who buy the company products but a wide range of normal consumers.

The development of high-end luxury products like sunglasses and jewelry add up to the company’s profits.

Threats.

Due to the international nature of trade, especially the fluctuating currencies, then the company’s revenue and profits are never stable over long periods.

The company does not enjoy any special competitive advantage since production formulas are almost identical across the board.

Marketing

DRAWBACKS: EXTERNALITIES

An externality is a cost or benefit borne out of an economic transaction to parties not directly involved in the transaction. In the footwear industry, some of the positive externalities include an increase in technological advancement not only in the industry but also in other industries. Through increased inventions, the technology has become readily available and this has resulted in cheaper products. On the other side, industrial pollution has meant that consumers of the company products suffer indirectly.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

In order to promote the industry many governments have adopted different monetary and fiscal

policies. There is no single policy that has been adopted across the industry. Generally, for the development of this sector there is need to have an expansionary monetary policy regime that should be compounded by a contractionary fiscal policy regardless of the geographical location of the specific firm.

Conclusion:

The evolution of the industry over the last century has been remarkable. As a result of increasing globalization the industry operations has improved and or enhanced the growth of developing countries especially those that have benefited from foreign direct investments from the firms within the sector.

Marketing

REFERENCE:

Mankiw, N. G. (2004), Principles of economics (3rd Ed.), Chicago, ILLIOIS: Thomson South-Western

Philip Hardwick (1982), an Introduction to Modern Economics, Longman, U.K

Rashi Glazer, Marketing in an Information-Intensive Environment: Strategic Implications of Knowledge as an Asset, The Journal of Marketing, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Oct 1991), pp. 1-19.

Richard L. Sandhusen (2000), Marketing, Barron’s Educational, U K.

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