Julie Wilderman
BUS330: Principles of Marketing
Professor David Kalicharan
August 08, 2011
Market Analysis of Nike One important issue marketers need to realize is that it is essential to have a heavy commitment and solid customer focus and to attempt to satisfy customer wants and needs. (Kotler & Armstrong, 2012) Companies need to be able to gauge their threats and opportunities to fully understand the different roles in the marketing environment. Environmental forces, such as demographic, economic, technological, etc, can play a huge role in the marketing environment. Nike has been analyzed to give an example of the importance of understanding its marketing environment. Nike has been in business since 1972 and has become one of the leaders in sports apparel that covers all ranges of uses and applications. The company was founded by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight in 1964 and was first called Blue Ribbon Sports. The logo for Nike became the deciding factor in the renaming of the company. Bowerman and Knight were looking for a logo that would define their company and the “Swoosh” was designed by Carolyn Davidson, a Portland State University student in 1971. Nike was introduced to the public the following year under its new name, “NIKE.” With its successful business growth, many competitors appeared; however they did not yet threaten the market and the position of Nike.
The business has been sharply growing since the first shoes were launched and sales have been increasing from $2,000 million to $16,000 million between 1990 and 2007. Despite competition, Nike experiences an average growth of about 5% each year. The greatest and the most successful marketing strategy of Nike was that sponsored by Michael Jordon in 1984. Afterwards Nike signed top athletes like Roger Federer, Michael Schumacher, and Tiger Woods to encourage fans of each athlete to consider Nike products. Using celebrities can be a gamble as they might