Nike is a large - scale company which is famous all over the world. In 2015, the company raised approximately $ 30 billion, and every year this sum grows. The Nike factories are located 55 countries, employs more than 30 thousand people. It is an American brand that produces sport products, clothes and shoes well-known all over the world. The company is named after the Greek goddess of victory Nike. It produces products of such brands as Nike, Air Jordan, Nike Golf, Total 90, Team Starter, and others. The founders of the company are two students of the University of Oregon. One of which is athlete-runner Phil Knight, the second is his sport coach Bill Bowerman. The story of Nike is inextricably linked with the names of its creators. The level of the corporate culture of this company is really high. It established different social programs aimed at achievement of the sustainable development all over the world.
SWOT-analysis
Strengths The Company "Nike" is one of the leaders in the production of sports products. Due to the fact that it is already at the stage of its inception and it ability to remain competitive for more than 40 years it only confirms that her art competition. Moreover the high quality of manufactured products increases the loyalty of the customers.
Weaknesses These products are not always available for a weak distribution system in the particular region.
Opportunities The emergence of new production technologies reduces the cost and time of their production. The demand for the product is really high not only due to the loyalty of the professional athletes but of the ordinary people. That is why there is an opportunity to increase volume of production within five years.
Threats The increasing number of competitors in the market may deprive the company of consumers. The growth of requirements stated by government agencies (increase of quotas on imports and tighter control over business activities, for example, an increase in income taxes) is also rather dangerous factor. Moreover, the company can incur large losses because of the huge number of fakes, which a lot of consumers buy because of the lower prices at the expense of quality.
CSF of Nike (Source – interviews)
Also there are some the CSFs usually associated with the market segment of sport goods. They are as following
the size of the market; the growth rate of the market; potential gross income; intensively competition; the possibility of non-price competition.
At the same time for the purposes of this research it would be better to focus on the specific CSFs presented in the balanced shit.
The mentioned CSFs were chosen according to the results gained throughout questioning of the employees involved in different spheres of the Nike activities. At the same time the level of importance of other factors such as corporate and social responsibility was also very high. Nevertheless the influence of the four analyzed and previously mentioned factors was higher. Relative market share is an important indicator presenting the competitive position of the company. It points out the level ability to compete and maintain the market leader. With the increase of the market share, the level of revenue is also growing.
Another factor that was chosen is the cost of the goods. Every company tries to achieve reduction of the cost of production as it may lead to increase of staff payment and overall revenue growth. According to Bill Kelly, the director of Nike retailing chain in Idaho, the cost of the production for the company still to be very high due to the fact of usage of the expensive new technologies throughout the manufacturing process and despite the economy of scale. The cost of manufacturing dramatically influences the retailing price. It should be reduced in order to keep the competitive advantage of Nike.
Nike positioning is based on the highly developed technologies. The innovation is the key factor of success on the market of sport goods. The interview with the manufacturing employee has shown that the production of the sport goods today requires the most advanced technologies. The first model with built-in Nike air cushion appeared in stores in 1979 and was called the Nike Tailwind. A key component of the technology for the production of pillows was polyurethane, inflated with gas and sealed in such a way that regardless of the strength of the jump, it didn't lose its qualities.
In addition to innovative technologies are Nike Air, this period in the company were the first industrial designers to work on the appearance of the Shoe. Nike became a joint stock company and produced the initial issue of shares. That is why such tendency should be followed. Moreover the design of the product is the key factor of acquiring new customers. The ability of the company to follow standards was rated really high by employees. They view the standards to be basis of the ability to compete by the company.
The estimation was achieved as the result of interviewing and in general these figures represent the current situation within the market. NIKE faces severe competition from Adidas. Reebok is a little behind in its competitive position from NIKE. The main factor of competition in the market of sports shoes is price and design. According to both criteria, NIKE running shoes outperform their closest competitors. Thus, the position of the NIKE in the sport shoe market of some regions envisages the following steps:
First of all, it should invest more money in innovation for the maximum possible growth (investing in opening of new sports complexes, increase the concentration of forces to consolidate their positions (loyalty program and discounts, sporting events), conduct further research and development and expansion of the customer feedback to better understand their needs. Nike was one of the first to work on the Internet by developing numerous pages to your tournaments or to specific types of sports. To attract attention to their brand, Nike uses a newfangled trend called handmade. The idea is that the consumer creates their own model of sneakers on one of the sites of the company.
It should be noted that the company always try to increase its market presence by the way of implementation of the new strategies within different areas. Also the company does not just implement restrictions but formulate the particular one in order to presume the highest quality of manufacturing. The assessment presented in the balanced scorecard also shows the basic indicators of the growth.
Conclusions
As the result of the current research it is evident that the critical factors of success are relative market share; the cost of the goods; the level of technology; design of the product; price competitiveness. The weights of these factors within the overall factors were estimated on the basis of the interviewing of the employees.
References
(18, May 2016). Retrieved from Nike versus Adidas Case Study and Competitive Analysis: http://www.echeat.com/essay.php?t=27606" http://www.echeat.com/essay.php?t=27606 [Accessed February 2011
Bowie, M. (2012). Top five sport companies. New Mexico: Public Press.
Lussier, R. N. (1999). Applied Sport Management Skills. Human Kinetics.
Lynch, D. (2014). The story of great success. Nike. London: Business Literature.
Mahdi, H. A. (n.d.). A Comparative Analysis of Strategies and Business of Nike and Adidas. Retrieved from http://www.ijbmer.com/docs/volumes/vol6issue3/ijbmer2015060302.pdf
