NIKE: RUNNING OVER THE COMPETITION

Nobody takes the admonition “Just do it” more seriously than Nike, the company for whom the
slogan was written. Whether it's entering a new sport, moving into a new geographic market, or
developing a new product, Nike approaches its mission with the dedication and single-mindedness of an
athlete training for competition. And whatever the task, the goal is always the same: To turn in a peak
performance, one that leaves no doubt as to who the best is. That's because at Nike, winning isn't merely
a corporate philosophy—it's the company's business.
“This brand is all about building products for athletes, high-performance products, very authentic
products, innovative products, bringing new technology to athletes so they can perform better—at a
higher level in their sport,” says Bill Zeitz, global director of advertising development at Nike.
Liz Dolan, the company's marketing director, puts it in even more basic terms. “We have a really
incredibly simple mission, which is, ‘serve the athlete.’ If you're in product development that means you
have to make sure that the products really work, that they're really great for whatever sport you are
assigned to. If you're in the communications area, it means that you have to communicate with an
authenticity about the sports experience, what athletes know to be true of what it feels like to win a
basketball game, or run a marathon, or whatever.” .
This near-obsession with authentic athletic performance comes naturally to the Beaverton,
Oregon, company started in the 1960s by Phil Knight, a sports enthusiast and runner who believed the
needs of serious athletes were being neglected by Adidas and Puma, the German companies that
dominated the athletic shoe industry. With the help of Bill Bowerman, his former track coach at the
University of Oregon, Knight set out to develop a shoe that would make a difference in a runner's
performance.
The rest, as they say, is history. Nike has become a dominant player in sports apparel. With
track, basketball, tennis, and other traditional sports in the “win” column, Nike recently has turned its
attention to building its franchise in soccer, cricket, rugby, hockey, and in-line skating, among others.
After all, Dolan explains, being a global sports brand requires an intensely local focus.
Being a global brand is extremely important to Nike because its home market, the United States,
is nearing saturation. According to John Horan of the newsletter Sporting Goods Intelligence, sporting-
goods chains have overexpanded and profit margins are threatened. When Nike announced that its
second quarter earnings in 1997 would not live up to Wall Street's expectations, its stock dropped 13
percent. With these spurs at home, Nike has to look overseas there it has only 27 percent of sales
compared to 43 percent in the U.S. to generate additional revenues.
But going overseas is not a sure win for Nike. “Understanding what sports the people in [a]
country play, and then being great at those sports... that's always the challenge. In the U.K., for instance,
we are a really good basketball brand, but they don't play that there. And we are a really good tennis
brand, but they kept telling us. ‘Other than the two weeks during Wimbledon, nobody in the U.K. really
cares about tennis.’ So in the U.K. soccer is what they play. Rugby is what they play. So we had to really
concentrate on being great at two sports that were not really something that came from our American
tradition at all. That took years of product development and talking to consumers about, ‘What does this
sport really mean to you when you play it, and what does it really mean to you when you watch it?’ The
brand attributes for Nike in the U.K. are the same—we really want to be the authentic sports brand—but
the sports that are the building blocks for that are very different in the U.K. than they would be in the
United States or than they would be in Japan.”
Outside the United States soccer is the main sport, and Nike has pursued the soccer player and
fan with a vengeance. In the United States, Nike has signed a multiyear contract with major league
soccer that calls for it to spend $3.75 million a year to sponsor 5 of the league's 10 teams. In addition, the
contract contains a clause that allows Nike to retain sponsorship of half of the League's teams as it
expands. Overseas, Nike spent $20 million in a sealed bid process to sponsor the Italian national team.
During last year's European championships, it bought up all the billboards around stadiums where
matches were held, effectively undermining the event's official sponsor, Umbro. In the spring of 1997, it
sponsored a worldwide soccer tour that featured top teams. It has also spent millions on global
advertising campaigns and signed leading national soccer stars such as Eric Cantona (captain of the
national champion Manchester United soccer team in the U.K.) to highly lucrative contracts.
 But nothing matches Nike’s sponsorship agreement with the Confederacao Brasil de Futebol,
Brazil's soccer federation, which cost the company a breath-taking $200 million. Why Brazil? It won the
1994 World Cup soccer match. The contract is a 10-year deal that includes appearances in Nike-
produced exhibition matches and community events. Nike will supply Brazil's national teams with sports
kits. In return, the teams will participate in five annual friendly soccer games that Nike is arranging, and to
which Nike retains the television rights. Nike will also have access to training clinics in Brazil and to the
infrastructure of the game.
Nike has applied the same technical skill and drive to soccer shoes that it applied to the
basketball shoes. For example, when Nike couldn't find equipment for testing the best stud configurations
and traction in cleated soccer shoes, it decided to build its own. The goal is to create the world's best
soccer shoe, but that won't be easy. First, the competition isn't yet ready to roll over and play dead.
Adidas retains sponsorship of many top teams and players, including the national teams of Germany,
Spain, and France. It also sponsors World Cup 1998, with the rights to sell official soccer balls and sports
apparel. Further, Adidas has invaded Nike's home turf, sponsoring three U.S. teams and featuring
players from those teams in its U.S. advertising. “We don't think that anybody can get near to us on the
product side,” says Peter Csandai, an Adidas spokesman. Reebok, Nike's main competitor in the U.S.,
has also signed contracts with at least 30 professional soccer clubs throughout the globe.
And there's competition at home from firms such as Vans, a small California company that aims
directly at the teenage market by targeting the California adolescent—an Internet-surfing latchkey kid. As
the number of teenagers in the United States grows from 25 million in 1997 to over 31 million in 2010,
this move could prove shrewd. These kids are not into team sports; instead they are attracted by
individual sports such as skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, and mountain biking. Within two years of
entering the market for snowboard boots in 1995, for example, Vans has become the third largest
company in the business. So, it’s in a position to make a move on Nike.
Competition is not Nike's only problem; some of its actions haven't left fans cheering either.
Signing bad boy Eric Cantona generated a lot of criticism and infuriated the soccer establishment in the
U.K. In 1996, Nike flew eight of soccer's hottest players to Tunisia to film an advertisement in which the
athletes competed against the devil. Not surprisingly, this ad drew angry letters from many offended fans.
Even the Brazil deal has been heavily criticized. As part of that deal, Nike had to pay Umbro an
undisclosed amount to cover the remaining two years of its contract with the Brazilian federation. “Nike is
going in and almost encouraging teams to break contracts,” says James R. Gorman, president of Puma
North America. Finally, not all soccer athletes are convinced Nike is better. Many pro players continue to
get their equipment from companies such as Umbro, Puma, and especially Adidas, which has been part
of the sport for decades, not just the last few years like Nike.
Still, with over $8 billion in sales in 1997, Nike remains the biggest player in the game. Adidas is
a distant second with $3 billion. With its free spending, Nike appears to have changed the economics of
the game. Nike intends to be the number one supplier of soccer gear by World Cup 2002, but so far its
efforts have produced only $200 million in annual sales. It has a long way to go before it scores a match-
winning goal in the global soccer market.

Question for Discussion

1. What is Nike’s proposed positioning in the global soccer market? Describe the company’s global
soccer marketing strategy.

Sources: Linda Himelstein, “The Swoosh Heard ’Round the World,” Business Week, May 12, 1997, p.
76-80; “In the Vanguard: Trainers, Sneakers, and Shoes”, The Economist, June 7, 1997, p. 62; Geoff
Dyer,“Nike Puts Its Hands on Ultimate Trophy”, The Financial Times, December 14, 1996, p. 9; and
Patrick Harverson, “Putting Their Shirts on Soccer Deals”, The Financial Times, November 1, 1997, p. 15.