Nike began its empire as a company to distribute Japanese running shoes, Tiger, in the United States under the name Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964. Nike's founders, Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight, had a great coach-student relationship when both were still at the University of Oregon; Bowerman was Knight's coach in search of better running shoes, and Knight loves athletics so much that he couldn't live without it. This relationship led to Blue Ribbon Sports. After the success of the Tiger shoes, Blue Ribbon Sports was renamed Nike in 1971. Nike is actually the name of the winged Greek goddess of victory and the SWOOSH logo represents her wing. Carolyn Davidson, Knight's student at Portland State University, designed and trademarked the logo in 1971. They introduced the "Just Do It" slogan in 1988 and immediately transformed Nike into a powerful sporting goods supplier. Increases market share from 18% to 43% in 1988. The slogan basically informs consumers to push beyond limits and strive to achieve new goals. Nike, Inc. aims to provide value to its shareholders by creating profitable products. They focus on Nike Brand and Jordan Brand which consist of seven main categories: Running, Basketball, Soccer, Men's Training, Women's Training, NIKE Sportswear and Action Sports. Despite the seven main categories, they also produce products for children, sports and recreational uses. Among all these, NIKE Sportswear, Running, Basketball, Football (Soccer) and children's shoes are the best-selling products. Nike wants to target active people of all ages by offering the best quality of products and services. Their strategy is to create deep personal connections between consumers and their brand and to offer consumers compelling… mid-paper… sign-up fees. The idea of this expansion is to improve people's lives through sports and fitness. Furthermore, obesity is not a new word in the United States. This disease is strongly related to bad lifestyle. This opportunity will result in mutual benefits as consumers will be able to have a better life and improve Nike's brand image and profits. Before launching this fitness center, several market research i.e. in-depth interviews and joint analysis should be conducted. Conducting an in-depth interview is a viable way to obtain information since the interviewee will not be ruined if he receives information about the same question from other people. Furthermore, conjoint analysis helps to decide the best marketing matrix that would optimize the gross margin. This combination would be perfect to have adequate information to predict how the business would perform.
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