Introduction
For a number of years, Nike Company has been the global frontrunner of athletic shoe sales. Nike Inc. keeps on delivering strong growth. Innovation is the company’s growth engine as it continues fueling their success as well as challenging them. The company’s investors, consumers, and athletes expect innovation. In essence, innovation facilitates new heights in the company’s performance and raises the bar for their industry. The company center sustainable innovation on their biggest areas of risk and opportunity. Nike Inc. is among the best examples of persistent innovation.
They have strived to be competitive through incremental and radical innovation. Nike’s marketing and innovation processes offer a glimpse of their best practices of value co-creation with their clients (Ramaswamy 9). In each sustainability challenge, the company sees a new business opportunity. For instance, Nike has developed superior materials like water-based adhesives by green chemistry that similarly delivers safety and health benefits to the employees. In addition, the company develops and utilizes more sustainable and recycled materials as well as leaner manufacturing processes. Moreover, Nike Company introduced their initial product made by the use of innovative Flyknit technology as well as manufacturing process in 2012. In fact, in 2013, Nike Inc. launched their Flyknit Lunar 1+ running shoe that decreases footwear waste significantly. It is worth noting that the company’s capability to use disruptive technologies such as Flyknit at scale increases their sustainability benefits.
The athletic footwear and apparel industry is highly competitive within the United States and the entire world. Nike Inc. competes globally with numerous competitors such as the sports equipments companies and athletic and leisure apparel companies. The company’s competitors include companies such as Coach, Inc., Puma, Addidas, PVH Corp., Jones Apparel Group Inc., Ross Stores, Inc., among others. The benefit or value that Nike offers to their consumers and their inability to be easily replicated are the two key attributes of their competency (Deng 203). The customers have for a long period associated the image of the company with high-quality products as a result of Nike associating motivational slogans and star athletes with marketing campaigns, which stress sportsmanship, competition, and fitness.
The rapid changes in consumer preferences and technology constitute considerable risk factors in the operations of Nike Inc. To help market their products, Nike Inc. contract with influential and prominent coaches, athletes, sports leagues, colleges, and teams to endorse their brands as well as use their products. What’s more, the company sponsors clinics and events as a strategy of marketing their products.
Works Cited
Deng, Tianbai. "“Just Done It”---Nike’s New Advertising Plan Facing Global Economic Crisis." International Journal of Business and Management 4.3 (2009): P102.
Ramaswamy, V. Co-creating value through customers' experiences: the Nike case. Strategy & Leadership, (2008). 36(5), 9-14.
