Introduction
In context of fierce competition in front of even the well-known and developed enterprises need to fulfill rather complicated task of maintaining their positions and efficiency on the market. Typically, branding is considered to be effective management technique. Despite the fact it has been already implemented within the Nike Company, the management system faces new challenges of business environment. Therefore this technique should be implemented in new more efficient form in order to meet the demand of customers. This research aims to resolve the problem of brand management implementation on the basis of new principles of development and sustainable growth.
Brand-management as an effective management technique
Many experts are more inclined to the conclusion that the main prerequisite of success for most businesses is the loyalty of consumers, in other words their loyalty. This concept is widely used in the NIKE Company. The highest degree of loyalty consumers leads to almost fanatical devotion to the brand. Any product on the market generates about itself some impression that may be positive or negative. These associations, perceptions of consumers are called brand awareness. Brand is a kind of impression about the product in the minds of consumers. Branding is a highly effective conquest and retention signal for customers. Branding is the activity necessary for creating long-term preference to the goods, based on resemblance of particular trademark.
Branding is commonly used in the industrialized countries. At the same time it is rarely used in domestic advertising practices. Brand management is based on marketing research and means the creative collaboration between advertiser, implementing organizations and advertising agencies for the creation and large-scale presentation to customers of the personalized brand image and particular trademark of a product or family of products.
The creators of the brand image take into account the physical properties of the product and personal feelings. Branding is aimed at appealing not only to consciousness but to emotions, acting on the subconscious. Therefore, branding is a continually growing activity that purports to shut off competitors.
The prerequisites of implementation new system of brand management
The brand Nike is well-known all over the world. The management of brand image has been already implemented within the Nike Company. At the same time new business environment created new challenges to deal with. So the implementation of the new managerial technique is necessary in order to remain competitive. Nike is well-known brand all over the world. But nowadays the brand recognition is not enough for overtaking other companies such as Reebok, Adidas etc. It is important to think over the management practices applied for promotion of Nike in order to ensure that benefits are higher than the expenses needed for the strategy implementation. Moreover perfect brand management involves not only promotional aspects but the system of staff involvement. Furthermore particular attention should be paid to the positioning of new goods. The line presented by Michael Jordan used to be great success, but it ceased to be very popular. Customers searches for new benefits provided by the brand management system.
It is important for Nike Company to focus on particular aspect of brand management such as HR branding. HR-branding is the creation of a favorable image of the employer. In modern context it is the employers fighting for better, professional employees, this area of personnel management is gaining more and more importance. According to mentioned above facts the Nike Company is really good at branding of the products. Nevertheless some scandals associated with the mistreatment of the employees at some manufacturing facilities located in China leaded to the necessity of implementation such management system that will ensure new brand image.
For this end it is important to rebuild the existing system of management within Nike Company. The aspects of new management aspects are leadership style, social initiatives and working environment. It is important to study these aspects independently in order to develop strategy of HR implementation within the Nike Company.
New style of leadership within the corporate environment
The main functions of the advanced HR leader within Nike Company should be based on following principles.
Employee lifecycle management is an important part of forming positive brand image for the employees. It means the determination of living style of the employees and developing specific strategies, systems and practices reflecting the changing needs of employees throughout the period of their work in the company. For example, when people get older and more experienced, key employees may need more flexible working schedule so they would be able to take care of their elderly parents. Lifestyle management for the employer is relatively new concept, giving a great opportunity for HR professionals to learn from marketers and vice versa. Such system of management has been successfully implemented by Victorias Secret making not only key models but the whole staff be involved to the healthy lifestyle. It is quite strange, but despite the products and overall business strategy aimed at promotion of sport and healthy values, there is no significant opportunities to be involved to this lifestyle the employees working in offices and the key managers.
Solution 1: Implementation the sport zones at the offices providing employees with necessary equipment in order to do the workouts for relaxation during the working day. Moreover employees of all levels will test the equipment and be sure that the company that they work for manufactures the best sport goods.
The effect of the sport zones will certainly increase the working productivity and result in occurrence of new ideas and initiatives. Moreover the created sport environment will lead to the less level of staff flow and ensure devoted way of working by employees. If a person is involved to the process of manufacturing of goods for sport, he should also be healthy and sportive in order to create the best products for other customers.
Brand Portfolio Management Promotion strategies for corporate and consumer sectors are typically developed separately. Traditionally, the marketing department oversees the development of corporate and consumer brand portfolio, and the HR department is responsible for the employer brand. It is important to understand that each company has only one brand which has many subspecies. The division of brand in the corporate, consumer and HR brand just helps to verify the presence of targeted strategies each of these segments, as well as to monitor the effectiveness of interventions in each direction. The Nike Company has not implemented this system that imposes specific threats to the further development of the Company.
Solution2. It is important to establish specific department within the company that may control the functions of HR and marketing department taking into account the process of creation single brand portfolio that may be rather universal method of presuming the perfect brand management system on different levels. The key specialists should be involved to the working process of the department and be responsible for the overall accountability.
Community Management The development of modern technology has led to the rapid development of social media and applying them for communication with the outside world. The technology of today has the opportunity to create truly global society, with the free circulation of goods, services and knowledge. The task of community management is to provide communication between the employees and the finite consumer, by creating two-way feedback, which would benefit both the company and buyers. Companies such as Procter & Gamble and Dell Corporation have managed to combine the accumulated experience in this area and directed it to the development of products and services whose quality is higher than competitors, and the cost is significantly lower. The communication strategy of Nike is well-established. Nevertheless the existing system does not ensure the long lasted success in context of new challenges presented by the competitive environment. The sponsorship of the sport events by Nike is an example of target communication with customers. At the same time more innovative solutions should be taken.
Solution 3. Establishing the meetings involving the employees and customers that will contribute to understanding of new tendencies within the market important to answer the demand and be flexible enough to deal with new challenges.
Change Management must provide support for the development of the employer brand in accordance with the practices and principles adopted in the organization. The lack of clear understanding of what is meant by the development of HR-brand transforms this problem in another project that is undertaken only "for show" and presents no real value to the business. This component of HR management has been successfully implemented by Nike, so there is no need as for now to implemented new strategy.
The main levers of advanced HR branding implementation at Nike
Leadership and conflict settlement A strong and positive leader, supervising the work of managers and the implementation of the tasks, plays a key role in successful strategy development of the employers brand. All companies with a strong HR-brand, such as Google, EMC, Starbucks, Chevron, etc., successful leaders can always be found among the top management. In Nike Company manager also resolves any conflict in the organization and seeks to resolve it by all available means. In NIKE usually are used the following strategies of conflict management:
- Containment or mitigation. The conflict is resolved quickly by establishing consensus on the validity of both points of view
- Resolution of the conflict. This is a long-term strategy focused on finding a resolution to conflict and creating conditions whereby it becomes less likely the occurrence of destructive conflict.
The business practices of other companies point out that it is important to establish new system of dealing with corporate conflicts by involvement of competent psychologists to the dispute settlement process. According to Bill Kinsman, the manager of Nike, who held his post for five years, the main qualities important for management of such a big company are personal confidence and ability to motivate people.
Communication Relevant, compelling and timely communication, unfortunately, can rarely be found in organizations where employees are constantly working in conditions of rapid, intense rhythm. Some companies, such as HP and IBM, have built their own social network, so as to provide constant communication between its employees. Thereby creating an environment where information circulates openly and freely, and unimpeded exchange of useful information is gradually transformed into a knowledge base, which is able to provide competitive advantages for the company. It is important to develop effective trade union system for Nike in order to ensure the stability of communication chains and enhance the system of establishing well-organized working community.
Training The main gap of the policy of the company throughout the development of HR-brand management is the inability to rate as crucial the role of the development of the employer brand to increase the profits of the company. To eliminate this gap it is necessary to make employees responsible for the development of HR-brand, began to develop and implement training programs for technology development of the employer brand at all levels of the Nike Company.
Execution The strategy for the development of HR-brand should be efficient and based on practice. The senior management should be engaged into providing continuous investments. Work to implement the goals and objectives should be an ongoing process throughout the development and implementation of the chosen branding strategy.
It should be noted that Nike is Multinational Corporation that will require the combination of the key elements of HR branding such as leadership, training, communication and performance. Also Nike Company has contributed to the HR brand of other company. This fact increases the corporate power of Nike to be implemented in other organizations. On August 2006 World Class and Nike announced the signing of a cooperation agreement, which is intended to combine their experience in the field of sports to promote healthy lifestyle and physical culture among the population and promote both companies in the market. Partnership of World Class and Nike includes complete equipment of World Class staff with the products of Nike, carrying out of joint marketing researches and activities to promote fitness in the network of clubs.
The main goals of corporative management of Nike
It is important to define the corporate mission of Nike that presents motivation not only for customers but for employees. All the conditions for healthy lifestyle should be provided for the employees. One of the main objectives of Nike is to establish the image of corporate social responsibility in order to ensure that clients and employees are involved to the great community of well-trained and motivated people.
The Nike Company publishes the report on social corporate responsibility aimed at comparing the corporate performance of different years. This report is available for the public. Therefore it creates the framework for cooperation with other companies. The report also reflects the success of Nike in the realization of the objectives of corporate responsibility in five years and provides a complete overview of the company's activities in this area in the last three years.
"Sustainability is a key factor for growth and innovation of Nike," said Mark Parker, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nike. Improving the sustainability of our business to fulfill the interests of customers, who expect us to release products with low environmental impact, contract workers, which will benefit sustainable production, and our employees and shareholders who will be rewarded by the company future-ready". The following strategies of the corporate responsibility should be implemented and proposed to be published in the report of the next year.
The increased emphasize on the sustainable growth and realization of socially-oriented business initiatives are the key components of the proposed strategy. The focus on innovation will be seamlessly integrated into all business strategies of Nike that will provide more balanced approach, based on impact on business, community, workers, consumers and the planet.
As the result of the current research new business strategy was created. The model of zero losses will decrease the costs of production and therefore lead to the increase of wages for employees. Moreover the model will minimize the risks associated with the quantity of recourses and vulnerability of the business environment.
The following initiatives will be implemented along with the model such as considered design, green system, lean and human resource management, sport as prerequisite of the social changes, energy and climate strategy.
The initiative "intelligent design" takes the principles of sustainable development into innovative high-quality products for athletes by reducing or eliminating toxic substances and waste with the aim of increasing the use of materials, preferable from the point of view of ecology.
Nike should create a kind of Internet marketplace dedicated to the exchange of the intellectual property, which could lead to the creation of new models of sustainable business and innovation. It should be a system for searching and presentation of patents and the sale of patent licenses. Such licenses, when used by someone else, could lead to unlimited innovation in process of overcoming barriers addressing the challenges of sustainable development. Providing opportunities for applying the private intellectual property aimed at accelerating the development of "green" technologies.
Nike also teaches the contracted enterprises to implement special principles of lean production and personnel management. The principles of rational production approach presents the decision-making process to the employee by the formation of practical skills through team work and development of the understanding that quality is more important than quantity. Personnel management ensures the formation of administrative potential of the factory and is useful in the process of evaluation. It is an important part of the Nike strategy aimed at building more rational, green, empowered and equitable supply chain.
Nike should continue to implement strategy of using sport as the basic power that can bring about social change. Now the power of sport to create a network of social entrepreneurs and social innovators, as well as its ability to cause positive social, economic and cultural change is rather underestimated. A striking example of initiatives involving Nike is Grassroots Soccer ("Football for all") in Africa. This public program directly addresses serious social problems by raising awareness and education about HIV/AIDS and provides opportunities for young people to make informed decisions, using sport as a catalyst to increase interest and build rapport with young people. The employees should be involved to new strategies.
In 2009, Nike initiated the formation of new coalition of companies in the segment of consumer goods under the name of "Business for innovative climate and energy policy" (BICEP). This coalition advocates for effective climate and energy legislation in the United States and for the creation of equal conditions on the basis of the price on carbon emissions and the release of innovative potential, which is important for technological and infrastructure solutions. Nike wants to stay ahead of the changes in regulations, increasing the fluctuation in energy prices and pressure from consumers.
In addition, in 2013, Nike launched a program of energy efficiency in the process of shoes manufacturing. This project implemented by Nike gave excellent and quick results: the absolute volume of CO2 emissions at the enterprises-contractors decreased by 6% while production growth by 9%. Such initiative has also contributed to the increased support of the manufacturing security for the employees. Therefore they are ensured in sustainability and trust the company they work in.
It is also advisable to conduct thorough research aimed at identification of the current level of efficiency of the company taking into account the subjective and objective attitudes articulated by employees. The research will show what particular changes should be implemented in order to maximize the efficiency of the enhanced HR branding management.
Conclusions
The HR branding is an effective management technique aimed at establishing in the minds of workers array of positive images associated with the corporate and overall business environment. Nike has successfully established the overall branding system. At the same time as for now in context of previous corporate scandals it is necessary to implement the HR branding management within the organization. The corporate responsibility, social initiatives and training programs are defined to be the key components of the HR branding in Nike. Moreover in process of analyzing the report on the corporate responsibility the basic shortcomings were defined with innovative projects proposed. The current system of HR branding of Nike is considered to be developed only partially. It means that in order to remain competitive Nike Company should implement the proposed initiatives. It should also be noted that the data basis for making conclusions is reliable enough to be applied in the practical implementation of the results of this research.
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.
Bringston, D. (2016). Effective branding management for corporations. London: LNP.
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
Penny, B. (2013). Brand as the key success component. New York: Public Press.
