Nike is a multinational company from the United States of America who has global market coverage for manufacturing and designing the athletic sportswear apparel & footwear equipment. Nike is one of the most successful global brands till now and they are competing with other top brands such as Adidas & Puma. In order to reach its global target markets and to promote its business & products, Nike develops and maintains its promotional strategies. With the help of combining all the promotional strategies, Nike effectively promotes its brand and attaches to potential customers.
Promotional Strategy of Nike
Nike’s promotional strategies helped the company to become a giant company in the world. Those strategies are explained below.
Social Media
Nike uses the social media platform effectively to get in touch with its millions of users and to attract new target markets around the world. This company has become one of the most followed brands in social media channels by balancing between its ads and lifestyle. Moreover, this company diversified its online presence by creating different profiles on different social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Nike has brought huge attention to the new markets with the help of running different campaigns through social media.
Advertisement
Nike’s one of the strongest strategies is to advertise its products for promoting branding to potential customers. Nike has made many world-class ads which created lots of attention around the globe. Nike follows different strategies to advertise its products such as endorsing megastars & celebrities and partnering with giant companies to increase the markets. Nike endorsed the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Maria Sharapova, and Roger Federer in a TV commercial to advertise Nike Free, called Power to your feet. Moreover, Nike engaged Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi in another television ad where they were playing tennis in the streets of Manhattan. Also, Nike persuaded a lot of followers by involving Michael Jordan to create Air Jordan in 1984, who has been the most successful celebrity endorsement for this company. In addition, Nike partnered with Apple, Inc. which has increased brand awareness & international expansion for both parties.
Public Relations
Nike uses public relations as a strategy to promote its branding and reach out to its potential customers. The company’s management is keen to maintain a good relationship with the customers and as well as with the market. This company shows a friendly and approachable attitude towards the customers and does not want to break the relationship with them. Nike has categorized the public relations section to its dedicated customer service channel. Nike prioritizes the customers’ demands and according to their demands, it categorizes the information on the website. The website has been made lively & colorful with featuring important press releases, news, and product information. As a way of improving relations with the public, Nike implemented different philanthropic strategies and successfully organized social campaigns.
Sponsorship
With the help of sponsoring various sports events and top athletes, Nike has increased its publicity around the globe. Nike sponsored huge sporting events to communicate with its target customers directly. It sponsored all team’s jersey of NFL, several football clubs in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America. It also sponsored different national football teams around the world. To promote its brand in the West Africa region, Nike sponsored Didier Drogba of Ivory Coast who is one of the most celebrated African footballers. This company planned this promotional strategy to increase the market share in this region.
Direct Marketing
Direct marketing strategy helps Nike to expand its promotion to target markets. The company uses its new products to attract more customers and to make a bigger impact on the market than its competitors. This company increases loyalty with potential customers through direct marketing policy which will improve customer exposure towards Nike. It also planned to send direct mails to the customers to make them informed with different promotions and advertisements for its new product release, special sales, and corporate social responsibility. Moreover, the company uses salespersons to approach and promote its products to different sports organizations & individuals in colleges and universities.
Personal Selling
Nike’s customer experience has enhanced with the help of executing the personal selling strategy. Personalized services played an important role to help the customer find the desired Nike products. The company posted trained store personnel in the stores to provide quality service to the customers and to create better customer relations. The store personnel are well skilled to influence the consumers to buy Nike’s products. Personal selling strategy expedites the purchasing process and, in this way, it will contribute to the company’s financial benefits.
Related: Advertisement Strategy of Coca Cola
Reference(s)
- http://panmore.com/nike-marketing-communications-mix
- https://prezi.com/p/alcyxozw_ezh/nikes-promotion-mix/
- https://www.daytranslations.com/blog/nike-expands-globally/
- https://ivypanda.com/essays/nike-inc/
- https://blog.unmetric.com/nike-social-media
- https://www.afrbiz.com.au/case-studies/nike-developing-nike-free.html?print=1&tmpl=component
- https://revive.digital/blog/nike-the-global-brands-journey/
Sadnan is one of the top contributors of The Strategy Watch, he has been actively contributing since 2017 as a Content Analyst; He has finished his graduation from North South University with a dual major in Accounting & Finance. As a contributor, he has written for different topics including Leadership Styles and Qualities, Finance, and Economics. He also has a strong interest in SWOT & PESTLE Analysis and Marketing Strategy.