Nike Case Study

Jessica Chung

MKTG 4082W

Nike Case Study

11/02/2010

1. Nike has built a very solid and rich brand equity in the United States. Forty years ago, Nike started building salience right away--the base of its pyramid-- and achieved successful brand recognition by 97% of Americans in the year 2000. Nike is also easily evaluated on performance and judgments since it is a product. There are hundreds of positive blogs and reviews on the products, and with world-class athletes constantly sporting the brand while succeeding in their sports, consumers believe Nike products aid athletic performance (their own and otherwise). In addition, all of Nike’s marketing material focuses on high performance, which paints the brand deliberately as one of athletic success.

Nike has always relied on amazing athletes to champion the brand, and has been highly successful especially with basketball phenom Michael Jordan. With celebrity endorsements, the risk that companies run is tying the reputation of someone else (something uncontrollable, most times) to its products, but it has been a good risk for Nike to take so far.

To keep the consumers excited about the product, Nike also focuses on innovations to aid its bigger goal of high performance. Nike is constantly developing new technology, including Nike ID, dri-fit, Shox, and Air Max. Nike is excellent at communicating what these new technologies are, how to use them, and why they can help consumers be a better athlete, making them successful. This keeps the brand fresh, new, and updated with the trends, which is something Nike has kept in mind ever since its failure to stay fashion forward against Reebok back in 1987.

The slight tarnish to Nike’s record remains its reputation with sweatshops. As great as its market prowess is, consumers are very aware of the existence of Nike sweatshops and have never forgiven the company for exploiting them. Nike was caught, discoveries couldn’t be undiscovered, and it is something Nike has...