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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This marketing strategic plan has been written keeping in mind the Indian operations of Nike Inc. – the global sports shoe giant. It aims first, at analyzing the sports shoe industry India and finding a place in it for Nike. It then sets out to describe the target audience for the product range and finally suggests a host of marketing strategies and activities that will help Nike to achieve its target of becoming the #1 sports shoe brand in India.
The plan begins with a brief overview of the product category being dealt with, namely premium quality sports shoes. It also dwells briefly on the history of the company and its current position and activities.
The project moves on to the crux of the matter – the marketing plan to be followed by Nike in India. Firstly, the objectives behind this plan and the core strategy are stated. Customers to be eventually targeted are described and compared with competitors’ customer targets. After starting the objectives and reasoning behind them, the actual marketing programs are described in detail. This includes aspects such as pricing, advertising, promotion, sales, channels, and the company website. Suggestions are made on each and every one of these aspects; improvements and innovations are recommended.
The plan then goes on to the customer analysis section. The customer base is identified and various segments are pointed out. Various criteria and factors have been taken into consideration while segmenting the market. We have also tried to ascertain why customers buy these products, how they choose, and what factors matter most when making their decisions.
The last few pages of this marketing plan deal with the various ways in which the plan, once implemented, can be monitored and controlled
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE PROBLEM
Since the late 1980s, Business School marketing professor Itamar Simonson has looked for ways to understand how consumers make choices. Much of his work debunks the accepted theory that giving consumers what they want and making a profit are the most basic principles of marketing. Customers may not know what they want, and second-guessing them can be expensive, says the professor who teaches MBA and PhD marketing and consumer decision-making courses. In Simonson’s words, “The benefits and costs of fitting individual customer preference are more complex and less deterministic than has been assumed.” That’s because “customer preferences are often ill-defined and susceptible to various influences, and in many cases, customers have poor insight into their preferences.” In one of his recent papers, Simonson tackles the issue of one-to-one marketing and mass customization. Supporters of these marketing approaches have suggested that learning what customers want and giving them exactly what they want will create customer loyalty and an insurmountable barrier to competition.
In an example taken to the extreme in the 2002 movie Minority Report, Tom Cruise’s character runs through a shopping mall past talking billboards that recognize him by name and urge him to buy products he had earlier expressed an interest in such as jeans and Ray-Bans, the ultimate in personalized advertising. But Simonson has this to say: “The fact that consumer preferences are often fuzzy, unstable, and manipulatable is unlikely to change. So, the effectiveness of methods to give customers exactly what they (say they) want has been grossly exaggerated.” His take on the long-held assumption that individual marketing will supplant targeted marketing is “not so fast.” In studies, he has learned that “even when customers have well-defined preferences and receive offers that fit those preferences, it is far from certain that the response to such offers will consistently be more favorable than those directed at larger market segments.”
It’s all psychology. Consumers with well-defined preferences may be skeptical that a marketer could match expectations. Those who don’t know what they want may not ever see the fit with what the seller wants them to buy. So, individualized offers depend on customers’ preferences &; how the offer was extended &; and on trust. “Effective individual marketing requires not only an understanding of individual preferences and matching offers to those preferences, but also a thorough familiarity with the various factors that impact customers’ responses,” Simonson writes. This is a tall order, one that some companies have been able to fill, at least to some extent. For example, Amazon keeps track of customers’ purchases and suggests other books they might like. Dell builds computers from mass-made parts to customers’ specifications. But Simonson argues some companies can take the concept too far, like the Custom Foot chain of shoe stores that took detailed measurements and specifications from each customer to design one-of-a-kind shoes. Custom Foot didn’t take into account that some customers were put off by the individualized attention, Simonson says, and felt obligated to buy the shoes because the store went to so much trouble. They often didn’t come back. So knowing only the customer preferences is not enough. It is required to understand other aspects of customer behavior. Kipping this in mind, present study will find out and analyze consumer behavior of Nike shoes with reference to ladies segment.
ABOUT THE NIKE INDUSTRY
In sport, visual acuity and protection can mean the difference between winning and losing. Light conditions have a dramatic effect on how the human eye perceives and, subsequently how the body reacts and performs -- in the sun glinting over the upper deck, shallow contrast on a putting green, or quickly adjusting from shadows to light on a tennis court or mountain bike single track.
Nike knows that in athletic competition, even small advantages are critical to performance. Nike has spent the last eight years exploring the human eye to understand the science of vision in the development of the new Nike MaxSight Sport-Tint Contact Lens, available August 2005.
WHAT IT IS
Nike MaxSight, developed in partnership with Bausch & Lomb, is a tinted soft contact lens that behaves like sunglasses, reducing glare and filtering out 95% of UVA and UVB and more than 90% of blue light. But because the lens rests directly on the eye, there’s virtually no distortion as with standard sunglasses. Athletes get the same clear view at all angles.
Plus, Nike MaxSight eliminates the environmental effects that plague sunglasses like fogging, scratching, additional weight, or nosepieces and frames to obstruct vision. There’s no obstruction from the edge of the lens, the frame or the nosepiece, because they don’t exist. And there are no pressure points and no slippage. Max Sight also eliminates light leakage, reducing the need to squint, allowing the eye to relax and perform more naturally.
Nike MaxSight is, in effect, one giant visual sweet spot.
Nike Maxsight
HOW THEY WORK
Nike’s patented Nike MaxSight Light Architecture™ selectively alters specific wavelengths of light within the visual spectrum to enhance key elements in sport. The athlete gets crisp, clear vision without anything getting in their way. By removing most of the blue light, contrast and clarity are enhanced — a decided advantage for any competitor. For sports not conducive to eyewear, such as golf, tennis and soccer, athletes will see marked improvement, even on days where the sun’s not at its brightest.
Nike MaxSight provides through-and-through tinting (unlike cosmetically tinted lenses), so there’s no bending or scattering of light. Plus there’s limited incidental light or peripheral flickering creeping around the sides, as with sunglasses. Athletes tested in Nike MaxSight lenses found they squinted less, were able to relax more, and had exceptional views of contours and movement.
Marco Materazzi of Italy’s Inter Milan football club and Baltimore Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts are among the pro athletes wearing Nike MaxSight. “It has been a lot of fun to start the season this hot,” said Roberts early in the MLB season. In fact, he became one of the first true fans of Nike MaxSight after impressive initial results. During a spring daytime game, Roberts said, “I wore the lenses and went 2 for 4. They are so awesome.”
With Nike MaxSight, there’s minimal squinting in bright light, and quicker visual definition when going from bright light to shadows.
Wearers will also discover a game-day benefit – the look. “It makes the eye look distinct, the large-pupil effect,” says Alan Reichow, Nike Vision Consultant. “It looks competitive.”
ROLL OVER PHOTOS FOR A MAXSIGHT LENSE SIMULATION
THE WEAR
Nike MaxSight is a 30-day lens, though most athletes will wear them selectively and for short durations. Lenses come in six-pack packaging. Nike MaxSight is available with or without a correction, thereby making it accessible to athletes whether they wear contacts or not.
THE HISTORY
Nike began exploring the Nike Max Sight technology in 1997, conducting an initial clinical project, then subsequent research projects using collegiate athletes. Oregon’s Pacific University baseball players were the first athletes to undergo testing. Coach Greg Bradley requested that he be allowed to try them before his players. “He’d never worn contacts,” says Dr. Reichow. “He took two pitches and turned around and said, ‘I’ve never seen a ball that distinct and clear. Put them on anybody who wants them.’
INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
Bill Bowerman said this couple of decades ago. The guy was right. It defines how he viewed the world, and it defines how Nike pursues its destiny. Ours is a language of sports, a universally understood lexicon of passion and competition. A lot has happened at Nike in the 30 years since we entered the industry, most of it good, some of it downright embarrassing. But through it all, we remain totally focused on creating performance opportunities for everyone who would benefit, and offering empowering messages for everyone who would listen.
We feel lucky to have a genuine, altruistic reason to be: the service of human potential. That's the great benefit of sports, and we're glad to be in the middle of it.
What started with a handshake between two running geeks in sleepy Eugene, Oregon, are now the world's most competitive sports and Fitness Company. The World Headquarters is in Beaverton, Oregon. The Pacific Northwest is Nike's hometown, but like so many ambitious souls, we have expanded our horizons to every corner of the world. Nike employs around 23,000 people, and every one of them is significant to our mission of bringing inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.
Along the way Nike joined up with some great partner companies that help extend our reach within and beyond sports.
Cole Haan offers casual luxury footwear and accessories out of New York City and Yarmouth, Maine.
Bauer Nike Hockey, based in Montreal, Quebec, is the world's leading manufacturer of hockey equipment and a wholly owned subsidiary of Nike, Inc.
Nike partnered with Hurley International, a premium teen lifestyle brand founded by 20-year industry veteran Bob Hurley based in Costa Mesa, California.
In 2003, Nike completed the acquisition of Converse, the globally recognized footwear brand with nearly a century of sports heritage, and home of the perennially popular Chuck Taylor All-Star and Jack Purcell footwear.
Exeter Brands Group: In August 2004, Nike created the Exeter Brands Group, a wholly owned subsidiary, dedicated to building athletic footwear and apparel brands for the value retail channel. This portfolio of brands includes the Official Starter Properties LLC and Official Starter LLC which are the sole owners and licensors of the Starter, Team Starter and Asphalt brand names as well as master licensee of the Shaq and Dunkman brands, a line of athletic apparel, footwear and accessory products for the value retail channel.
Separate business units within the Nike brand include The Jordan/Jumpman 23 brand and Nike Golf.
As small as we feel, the Nike family is a fairly vast enterprise. We operate on six continents. Our suppliers, shippers, retailers and service providers employ close to 1 million people. The diversity inherent in such size is helping Nike evolve its role as a global company. We see a bigger picture today than when we started, one that includes building sustainable business with sound labor practices. We retain the zeal of youth yet act on our responsibilities as a global corporate citizen.
If you have a body, you are an athlete. And as long as there are athletes, there will be Nike.