“DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIES BY NIKE”

A Project Submitted to University of Mumbai for partial completion of the

degree of

Bachelors of Management Studies

Under the Faculty of Commerce

By

KANCHAN YUVRAJ SASANE

Under the Guidance of

PROF. RAHUL KUSHWAHA

Bhavan’s College, JP Rd, Old D N Nagar, Munshi

Nagar, Andheri West, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400058

January 2022

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 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that has worked and

duly completed his Project work for the degree of Bachelor of Management
Studies under the Faculty of Commerce in the subject of

Marketing and his project is entitled, “Digital marketing strategies by Nike”

under my supervision.

I further certify that the entire work has been done by my learner under my
guidance and that no part of it has been submitted previously for any Degree Or
Diploma of any University.

It is his own work and facts reported by her personal findings and investigations.

Prof Rahul kushwaha

Signature

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Date of submission: -

Declaration by learner

I, the undersigned Mister KANCHAN YUVRAJ SASANE hereby declare that

the work embodied in this project work titled “DIGITAL MARKETING
STRATEGIES OF NIKE” forms my own contribution to the research work
carried out under the guidance of Professor RAHUL KUSHWAHA is a result of
my own research work and has not been previously submitted to any other
University for any other Degree/Diploma to this or any other University.

Wherever reference has been made to previous works of others, it has been
clearly indicated as such and included in the bibliography.

I, here by further declare that all information of this document has been obtained
and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct.

Kanchan Yuvraj sasane

Name and signature of the learner

Certified by
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Name and signature of the Guiding Teacher

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

To list who all have helped me is difficult because they are so numerous and the depth is so
enormous.

I would like to acknowledge the following as being idealistic channels and fresh dimensions
in the completion of this project.

I take this opportunity to thank the UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI for giving me chance to
do this project.

I would like to thank my Principal, Dr Zarine Bhathena for providing the necessary
facilities required for completion of this project.

I take this opportunity to thank our Coordinator Dr Sandhya Nabar, for her moral support
and guidance.

I would also like to express my sincere gratitude towards my Project Guide Prof Rahul
kushwaha whose guidance and care made the project successful.

I would like to thank my college library, for having provided various reference books and
magazines related to my project.

Lastly, I would like to thank each and every person who directly or indirectly helped me in
the completion of the project especially my Parents and Peers who supported me
throughout my project.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The present work is an effort to throw some light on digital marketing strategy of
Nike at "Nike industries limited" The work would not have been possible to
come to present shape without the able guidance, supervision and help to me by
number of people.

With deep sense of gratitude, I acknowledge the encouragement and guidance

received by my organisational guide and other staff members.

I convey my heartful affection to all those people who helped and supported me
during the course, for completion of my project report.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMERY

This digital marketing strategy has been written keeping in mind the operation of
Nike inc. The global shoe giant. it aims first, at analysing the sport shoe industry.
And finding a place for it in Nike.

It then sets out to describe the target audience for the product range it then sets
out to describe the target audience the product range to finally suggest a host of
digital marketing strategies and activities that will help Nike to achieve its target
of becoming the no. 1 sports brand in world.

The plan begins with the big overview of the product category being mainly dealt
with premium quality sports shoes. It also dwells briefly on the history of the
company and its current position and activities.

INDEX

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CH NO CHAPTER PAGE NO

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1 INTRODUCTION
Goal and significance

Digital marketing

Types of digital marketing strategy

Nike

History of Nike

Recent developments

Integrated marketing commutations

Customization on web

Segmentation

Branding

Targeting

Branding

Advertising

Nike Background and Position

Nike’s plan to sucess

Nike digital marketing strategies

Popular brands

Risk and concern

4ps of Nike

SWOT analysis

Case studies

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2 Objective of the studies
Scope of studies

3 Literature review

4 Research methodology
Research objective

Main objective

Collection of data

Methods Collection of data

Questionnaire

Sample size design

Statistical tools & techniques

5 Limitation of study

6 Analysis and interpretation of data

7 Conclusion
Future plans of Nike

8 Suggestion and recommendations

9 Bibliography

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INTRODUCTION

Goals and Significance

This report aims to describe the essence of digital marketing in the 21st century, using the example of Nike.
This company is an author of several successful marketing campaigns during the last years, and its new
attempt to strengthen its position in the UK market deserves attention. “Nothing Beats a Londoner” is not an
ordinary campaign with a properly developed digital strategy. It is a story of a Londoner that includes a
variety of aspects of the British style of life. This short film represents how impressive and diverse a human
life can be in case it is united but never limited to sport. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the
peculiarities of digital marketing through the prism of “Nothing Beats a Londoner”. Market segmentation
theory will be applied to explain the decisions made by Nike to develop a new, strong strategy and open a
new perspective of digital marketing.

Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is the use of the Internet, mobile devices, social media, search engines, and other channels
to reach consumers. Some marketing experts consider digital marketing to be an entirely new endeavour that
requires a new way of approaching customers and new ways of understanding how customers behave
compared to traditional marketing.

Digital marketing has been defined as one of the best achievements in the world of business during the last
several decades. Regular and unlimited access to digital media and technology enhances the use of online
services and the development of effective marketing campaigns. As soon as technological advances were
recognized, a new era of digital marketing was born, creating additional opportunities and evolutionary
advertising methods. Many companies demonstrate different approaches to marketing services or products
and managing people. Some examples were successful, several projects needed elaboration, and certain
ideas were failed because of a poor examination, evaluation of the cultural background, or the lack of
attention to detail. The creation of a digital marketing strategy is not an easy task, and organizations must do
serious work to succeed in business. Nike takes one of the leading positions in this type of marketing, and its
practices are analysed around the globe.

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Types Of Digital marketing strategies

Internet expansion is a critical element in modern marketing activities that influences the way of how
information is represented to customers and delivered by organizations. The creation of a website is one of
the most frequently applied marketing efforts because this tool can be created by the company’s (either small
or large) interests and possibilities. Compared to traditional marketing where no interaction with the
audience occurs, social media marketing allows customers to communicate with each other and sharing their
opinions .

Kotane, Znotina, and Hushko (2019) say that about 23% of small, 35% medium and 65% large organizations
share social media profiles and links on their official websites. Nike is a large enterprise, and its history and
international marketing relationships remain impressive today. Its digital marketing strategy includes social
media and focuses on generating content where its brand is mentioned, and testimonials are developed.
There is always a good opportunity for Nike to develop campaigns on Twitter or via email. Any decision is
now effective and beneficial for the company.

Website Marketing

A website is the centrepiece of all digital marketing activities. Alone, it is a very powerful channel, but it’s
also the medium needed to execute a variety of online marketing campaigns. A website should represent a
brand, product, and service in a clear and memorable way. It should be fast, mobile-friendly, and easy to use.
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Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

PPC advertising enables marketers to reach Internet users on a number of digital platforms through paid ads.
Marketers can set up PPC campaigns on Google, Bing, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, or Meta (formerly
Facebook) and show their ads to people searching for terms related to the products or services. PPC
campaigns can segment users based on their demographic characteristics (such as by age or gender), or even
target their particular interests or location. The most popular PPC platforms are Google Ads and Meta Ads.

Content Marketing

The goal of content marketing is to reach potential customers through the use of content. Content is usually
published on a website and then promoted through social media, email marketing, SEO, or even PPC
campaigns. The tools of content marketing include blogs, eBooks, online courses, infographics, podcasts,
and webinars.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is still one of the most effective digital marketing channels. Many people confuse email
marketing with spam email messages, but that’s not what email marketing is all about. Email marketing is
the medium to get in touch with your potential customers or the people interested in your brand. Many
digital marketers use all other digital marketing channels to add leads to their email lists and then, through
email marketing, they create customer acquisition funnels to turn those leads into customers.

Social Media Marketing

The primary goal of a social media marketing campaign is brand awareness and establishing social trust. As
you go deeper into social media marketing, you can use it to get leads or even as a direct sales channel.

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Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the oldest forms of marketing, and the Internet has brought new life to this old
standby. With affiliate marketing, influencers promote other people’s products and get a commission every
time a sale is made or a lead is introduced. Many well-known companies like Amazon have affiliate
programs that pay out millions of dollars per month to websites that sell their products.

Video Marketing

YouTube has become the second most popular search engine and a lot of users are turning to YouTube
before they make a buying decision, to learn something, read a review, or just to relax. There are several
video marketing platforms, including Facebook Videos, Instagram, or even TikTok to use to run a video
marketing campaign. Companies find the most success with video by integrating it with SEO, content
marketing, and broader social media marketing campaigns.

SMS Messaging

Companies and non-profit organizations also use SMS or text messages to send information about their latest
promotions or giving opportunities to willing customers. Political candidates running for office also use
SMS message campaigns to spread positive information about their own platforms. As technology has
advanced, many text-to-give campaigns also allow customers to directly pay or give via a simple text
message.

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Nike

Nike, Inc. (commonly known as Nike) is an American multinational corporation that is engaged in the
design, development, manufacturing, and worldwide marketing and sales of footwear, apparel, equipment,
accessories, and services. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, in the Portland
metropolitan area. It is the world's largest supplier of athletic shoes and apparel and a major manufacturer of
sports equipment, with revenue in excess of US$37.4 billion in its fiscal year 2020 (ending May 31, 2020).
As of 2020, it employed 76,700 people worldwide. In 2020 the brand alone was valued in excess of $32
billion, making it the most valuable brand among sports businesses. Previously, in 2017, the Nike brand was
valued at $29.6 billion. Nike ranked 89th in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States
corporations by total revenue.

History of Nike

Nike, originally known as Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS), was founded by University of Oregon track athlete
Phil Knight and his coach, Bill Bowerman, on January 25, 1964. The company initially operated in Eugene,
Oregon as a distributor for Japanese shoe maker Onitsuka Tiger, making most sales at track meets out of
Knight's automobile.

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According to Otis Davis, a University of Oregon student-athlete coached by Bowerman and Olympic gold
medallist at the 1960 Summer Olympics, his coach made the first pair of Nike shoes for him, contradicting a
claim that they were made for Phil Knight. According to Davis, "I told Tom Brokaw that I was the first. I
don't care what all the billionaires say. Bill Bowerman made the first pair of shoes for me. People don't
believe me. In fact, I didn't like the way they felt on my feet. There was no support and they were too tight.
But I saw Bowerman made them from the waffle iron, and they were mine".

In its first year in business, BRS sold 1,300 pairs of Japanese running shoes grossing $8,000. By 1965, sales
had reached $20,000. In 1966, BRS opened its first retail store at 3107 Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica,
California. In 1967, due to increasing sales, BRS expanded retail and distribution operations on the East
Coast, in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

By 1971, the relationship between BRS and Onitsuka Tiger came to an end. BRS prepared to launch its own
line of footwear, which was rebranded as Nike, and would bear the Swoosh newly designed by Carolyn
Davidson. The Swoosh was first used by Nike on June 18, 1971, and was registered with the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office on January 22, 1974.

In 1976, the company hired John Brown and Partners, based in Seattle, as its first advertising agency. The
following year, the agency created the first "brand ad" for Nike, called "There is no finish line", in which no
Nike product was shown. By 1980, Nike had attained a 50% market share in the U.S. athletic shoe market,
and the company went public in December of that year.

Wieden + Kennedy, Nike's primary ad agency, has worked with Nike to create many print and television
advertisements, and Wieden + Kennedy remains Nike's primary ad agency. It was agency co-founder Dan
Wieden who coined the now-famous slogan "Just Do It" for a 1988 Nike ad campaign, which was chosen by
Advertising Age as one of the top five ad slogans of the 20th century and enshrined in the Smithsonian
Institution. Walt Stack was featured in Nike's first "Just Do It" advertisement, which debuted on July 1,
1988. Wieden credits the inspiration for the slogan to "Let's do it", the last words spoken by Gary Gilmore
before he was executed.

Throughout the 1980s, Nike expanded its product line to encompass many sports and regions throughout the
world. In 1990, Nike moved into its eight-building World Headquarters campus in Beaverton, Oregon. The
first Nike retail store, dubbed Niketown, opened in downtown Portland in November of that year.

Phil Knight announced in mid-2015 that he would step down as chairman of Nike in 2016. He officially
stepped down from all duties with the company on June 30, 2016.

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In a company public announcement on March 15, 2018, Nike CEO Mark Parker said Trevor Edwards, a top
Nike executive who was seen as a potential successor to the chief executive, was relinquishing his position
as Nike's brand president and would retire in August.

In October 2019, John Donahoe was announced as the next CEO, and succeeded Parker on January 13,
2020. In November 2019, the company stopped selling directly through Amazon, focusing more on direct
relationships with customers.

On June 24, 2021, during an earnings call with investors, CEO John Donahoe stated that "Nike is a brand
that is of China and for China", in response to a question about competing against Chinese brands.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Nike India has said that it’s Faridabad and Mokamehghat units are being taken over by Fashion Shoe Private
Ltd and BDCL Enterprises Pt. Ltd, respectively. The company is also enabling the buyback provision in its
articles of association to enable buy back of shares. The assets and liabilities of both the units will be
transferred to these companies and shares will be offered in the agreed ratio to the existing shareholders of
Nike India Ltd on a record date, which will be fixed by the Calcutta High Court. While retail sales have
increased both in value and volume, wholesale sales have declined due to restriction of supplies as a means
to recover customers outstanding. General recession and sluggish market conditions in the industry also have
had a direct impact on lower sales and profitability. Resistance of consumers to price rises in popular volume

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products as well as discounts to clear slow-moving stocks and underutilization of production capacity
adversely affected the operational results.
The lockout declared at the Penya factory on October 1, 2007 due to serious industrial relation problems and
non-compliance with the tripartite settlement has been withdrawn. The footwear manufactured in this
factory, which was shifted to the company's other factories and associated manufacturers, will now be
gradually produced within the factory. The commencement of production from this factory will help in re-
cooping the minimal loss being suffered by the company from this lockout.
In Simonson’s words, “The benefits and costs of fitting individual customer preference are more complex
and less deterministic than has been assumed.” That’s because “customer preferences are often ill-defined
and susceptible to various influences, and in many cases, customers have poor insight into their
preferences.” In one of his recent papers, Simonson tackles the issue of one-to-one marketing and mass
customization. Supporters of these marketing approaches have suggested that learning what customers want
and giving them exactly what they want will create customer loyalty and an insurmountable barrier to
competition.
But Simonson has this to say: “The fact that consumer preferences are often fuzzy, unstable, and
manipulatable is unlikely to change. So, the effectiveness of methods to give customers exactly what they
(say they) want has been grossly exaggerated.” His take on the long-held assumption that individual
marketing will supplant targeted marketing is “not so fast.” In studies, he has learned that “even when
customers have well-defined preferences and receive offers that fit those preferences, it is far from certain
that the response to such offers will consistently be more favourable than those directed at larger market
segments.”

PUNCHLINE Nike

"Just do it". The punch line communicates that using Nike can improve your performance by enhancing the
self-confidence. This punch line has helped Nike to carry the USP along with it, so those consumers are able
to differentiate it from the same need fulfilling products. It is the voice of the brand, which primarily gives
out the minimum momentum, thrust or impetus to push the brand in the mind of the customer. Hence, this
punch line is considered as the “5th ‘P’ of the Marketing mix of Nike”.

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INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION

Nike’s ability to coordinate integrated marketing communication that really connects with customers is
outstanding. For example, the “Swoosh” is so familiar that the name no longer needs to appear along with it.
The company Web site is updated constantly, announcing new products and offering more sales
opportunities for the company. With features such as three-dimensional product views, a gift/product finder,
Nike customization tools and the Nike Tech Lab, Nike is utilizing its Internet channel to the fullest. Nike
strategically coordinates its television and print ads, sponsorship, Web site, an 800 number, billboards, and
other media to form an effective mix of communications. The athletes who deliver its message are a major
factor. A number of famous athletes who promotes Nike are basketball players Michael Jordan & Nolan
Ryan, tennis players John McEnroe and Andre Agassi., football’s Deion Sanders, track stars Carl Lewis and
Alberto Salazar, and basketball players Charle Barkley and Scottie Pippen. The young Tiger Woods has a
$100 million contract with Nike. The charisma, talent, expertise, and personality of such athletes deliver
Nike’s message. According to its Web site. Nike exits to be the best sports and Fitness Company in the
world. We are here to inspire and motivate the athlete in all of us and advocate the love of sports. We live in
the heart of sports and the athletes who play them. And Nike is expanding its total market with integrated
marketing communication. It is founder of P.L.A.Y. (Participate in the Lives of America’s Youth), a
multimillion-dollar program to promote healthy, active lifestyle among young people. There is also
Niketown stores feature basketball courts where customers can try out shoes, multiscreen televisions to
display Nike promotions, and appeal autographed by Nike athletes. With the growing popularity of the
WNBA, women’s soccer, and such prominent female Olympians as Marion Jones. The interest in women’s
sports and fitness is at an all-time high. Nike has already seen the positive impact of this women’s movement
through such successful initiatives as “shop-in-shop” concepts in women’s sections of U.S. department
stores, women’s retails in Japan and women’s focused Web site sales in Hong Kong”. When the Nike was
launched 28 years ago, a mere one in 30 school aged girls were involved in sports. Today that number has
jumped to one in five and Nike is at the forefront in sponsorship and involvement in supporting women in
sports.

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CUSTOMIZATION ON WEB

Nike's site offers us an interesting idea when it comes to designing an online identity make the site visitor the
hero. Don't just shower them with unearned praise, challenge them to learn, provide them with the tools and
information to decide and act for themselves. This can be as simple as adding some customizable elements
or more challenging such as letting them reedit a famous commercial. Allow users to reveal what's important
to them and why. The act of opening a dialogue is sometimes reward enough. Nike takes our ideas of beauty,
grace, speed and tells them back to us in their own way. But if Nike were to simply plaster these symbols on
a web page, they would remain merely abstractions and pretty boring. Nike's real design skill is making
these ideas represent some greater concept, which is powered by the emotional and intellectual stock we're
willing to bring to it. How do they do that? By using design, symbolism and coherence to stir up the most
seductive idea to date- that there's a hero within you.

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SEGMENTATION

Nike has segmented its market on the basis of the following variables:

• Demographics
Age: - Youth 18-34 Older
Gender: - Male Female

• Psychographics: lifestyle Athletic Outdoor Nike has designed and marketed athletic shoes for each
different sport, often further segmenting with specialized models within each sport (e.g., "Air Jordan"
basketball shoes, and additional basketball models called "Force," represented by Charles Barkley and David
Robinson, and "Flight," represented by Scottie Pippin).

TARGETING

Initially, Nike focused more on the male consumer and was dedicated to serious athletes. But, with the
growing popularity of female sports apparel and equipment segment, it has widen its target market. It has
moved into new sports areas away from the running heritage. As a result of which, its target audience has
shifted from more masculine towards female and even third agers.

BRANDING

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Symbol as a brand: The most important aspect of a brand's name and symbol is that it silently speaks
everything about the company or product. Nike is the best example of how a symbol is best utilized and
exploited and its strong association with the products. Nike is symbolized by a tick mark or something which
is always right. The business card of a Nike employee has a tick on it instead of the company name and still
people make out the company where the person is employed just by looking at the tick.

Brand Extension: Nike has turned sneakers into something more – athletic tools. Over time, many
consumers have developed a mindset about the difference between Nike sneakers and any other brand of
sneakers. Now, many years later, Nike is exploring line extensions into other types of clothing and footwear
to bolster its brand against changing demographics and lifestyles.

Brand Narration: Nike do not yell at the consumer to buy, buy, and buy. They instead engage them in a
narrative that makes the consumer want to buy because they identify with narrative components. Nike’s
brand narrative prescribes the consumer to get out and exercise, “Just Do it”. Buying Nike product is almost
an afterthought.

Advertising

In 1982, Nike aired its first three national television ads, created by newly formed ad agency
Wieden+Kennedy (W+K), during the broadcast of the New York Marathon. The Cannes Advertising
Festival has named Nike its Advertiser of the Year in 1994 and 2003, making it the first company to receive
that honour twice. Nike also has earned the Emmy Award for best commercial twice since the award was
first created in the 1990s. The first was for "The Morning After," a satirical look at what a runner might face
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on the morning of January 1, 2000 if every dire prediction about the Y2K problem came to fruition. The
second was for a 2002 spot called "Move," which featured a series of famous and everyday athletes in a
variety of athletic pursuits.

Nike Background and Position

Nike, Inc., formerly (1964–78) Blue Ribbon Sports, American sportswear company headquartered

in Beaverton, Oregon. It was founded in 1964 as Blue-Ribbon Sports by Bill Bowerman, a track-and-field
coach at the University of Oregon, and his former student Phil Knight. They opened their first retail outlet in
1966 and launched the Nike brand shoe in 1972. The company was renamed Nike, Inc., in 1978 and went
public two years later. By the early 21st century, Nike had retail outlets and distributors in more than 170
countries, and its logo a curved check mark called the “swoosh”—was recognized throughout the world.
Every company has its unique history, stages of development, and management strategies that are based on
its mission, vision, and goals. Being founded in the middle of the 20th century, Nike remains a well-known
international corporation in developing and manufacturing sports footwear, apparel, accessories, and
equipment with the most captivating campaigns. Regarding an increased number of international customers,
Nike has to make additional changes and improvements in different spheres.

For example, some stores should be re-designed, re-structured, or even closed because of the decline in
brick-and-mortar retail, poor performance, or the necessity to evaluate new client- and employee-related
costs. Recent revenues for the brand were increased by 10% ($9.7 billion), and selling and administrative
expenses were increased by 9% ($3.4 billion). Despite the existing challenges, this company continues to
inspire people and motivate them to take the best from this life. The success of Nike is predetermined by
well-established goals and slogans for potential and regular customers. Today, its mission is to drive society
to do everything possible and expand human potential. Nike’s vision is unique because it helps to bring
innovation to every athlete, and, not to promote inequalities in people, the company defines every person,
who has a body, an athlete. This year’s revenues (about $39 billion) serve as the best evidence for a properly
chosen direction (compared to $36 billion in 2018 and $34 billion in 2017). As the result of the work of an
ordinary athlete and his coach (Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman, the founders), Nike takes the leading
positions in the sports business, digital marketing, and the manufacturing industry.

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Nike’s Plan to Success

Nowadays, many companies have become competitors in their intention to develop interesting and
remarkable marketing strategies. Nike supports its super-brand by the correct choice of its target market,
sponsors, and investments. Its marketing strategies are based on properly implemented theories and
background knowledge. For example, market segmentation theory helps to identify common characteristics
of customers either at home or abroad and create a plan to attract new buyers through mass advertisement.
Current technological advances contribute to gathering personal information and identify the most
interesting, customized services and products.

The chosen theory is based on the differences between long-term and short-term interest rates and proves
that there is no connection between these ideas because the demand of customers and investors is rarely the
same. According to the latest financial reports, Nike’s interest rate during the last 12 months is about 2.6%,
which proves the success of its operations with investors and customers. Digital marketing strategies play a
serious role in the achievement of these results, and “Nothing Beats a Londoner” is an appropriate example.
There are many reasons for Nike to pay attention to digital marketing as one of the methods to manage the
relationships between a company and a client. Despite the type of strategy, it is normal for Nike to expect the
establishment of visibility, the creation of relevant insights for employees, and the management of goals.
According to Knight, Nike is not only a brand but a family for people who share similar values.
Therefore, a marketing plan should be based on thoughtful marketing mixes, pricing and penetration
strategies, and segmentation. “Nothing Beats a Londoner” is a result of the serious and effective work of the
team of managers, analytics, designers, and managers. In 2017, Nike introduced its noteworthy “Breaking2”
campaign to demonstrate its care for people and recognition of their problems, feelings, and future goals. In
2018, “Nothing Beats a Londoner” was introduced and proved the possibility to tell a story of the whole
nation in about three minutes. Not much academic literature about this campaign can be found at the
moment. Some authors admit that Nike always introduces interesting advertisement steps in its aim to attract
customers’ attention. “Nothing Beats a Londoner” meets a majority of standards of digital marketing
strategies. For example, the recognition of five forms of segmentation (geography, demographics, behaviour,
benefit, and psychographic factors) allows avoiding clichés in marketing and focusing on particular people at
a particular place.

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In “Nothing Beats a Londoner”, no one can find the expected Big Ben or famous stadiums. Local streets,
routine restaurants and shops, and unremarkable basketball courts should be recognized. Nikes targets real
people with their real problems, which strengthens the idea of the chosen strategy and underlines the desire
of the company to support people, not their abilities. At the same time, Nike can invite several celebrities to
be influencers for ordinary people and mix them up to prove that Nike’s users are from different social
classes. The audience does not recognize people but enjoys a process.

Nike Digital Marketing Strategies

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Nike has a Facebook page which has more than 15 million likes, thus, the company focuses on the Facebook
and YouTube marketing or social marketing, so that there could be effective communication with customers.
Nike has 8 million views in every first week of launch thus; a company is managing product effectively
(Berger, 2011).

Digital Marketing Objectives and Strategies

The goals of Nike marketing plans are the focus on the social as well as the digital strategy so that the
customers could be engaged. Nike is managing online sales from the company and social media websites. In
this way; the employees of the company are managing to allow mass customization so that there could be
remarkable and shareable growth.

Goals of the marketing plan

Nike is focused on the consumer because it is consumer-product company and has the marketing goals to
motivate the customers for the sports and fitness activities. The company changing design trends and focus
on the goals of extensive marketing for the effectiveness.

Corporate or organizational strategic business unit

The strategic business unit of Nike is influencing sports and fitness preferences. Through the analysis of the
company’s current market share, it could be analysed that company has effective situation in the market and
have competitive advantages.

Action plan

For the action plan, it is suggested to the company in the digital age that company need to focus on the
combination of technological innovations through the efficient social media engagement and new

25
technologies. It is also recommended to Nike customer services needs to be revised so that there could be the
analysis of suppliers and retailers.

Thus, there is the need to digitally survey audience or need to examine market insights so that company
could create online communities and there could be Nike fans through the digital best practices. It is also
recommended to Nike that company needs to keep its price and quality same so that customer feels satisfied
with the brand.

Control, feedback, and financial analysis

Nike is focused on the effective strategic planning as earning good profit in the market, the company is
focused on effective and efficient leadership, management so that there could be the advancement in the
innovation and change. Nike has the environment that is supportive and innovative because financial
analysis states that company has efficient marketing strategies.

Performance measurement

Considering the financial analysis of the Nike, it could be noticed that in the year 2017 the operating income
of the company was US$4.95 billion and the net income of the company was US$4.24 billion
(Morningstar.com, 2018).

GROWTH DRIVERS

The Company has a very comprehensive distribution network which comprises its own and franchise stores.
It has 1500 showrooms, 25 wholesale depots and 8 distribution centres.

POPULAR BRANDS

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Nike owns brands like Hush Puppies, Signor, Marie Claire Power, Sandak, Hawaii, Naughty boy and
Ambassador. It also distributes other brands such as Nike and Lotto. Focus on middle-class and upper-class
Nike will continue to focus on middle- and upper-class customers. It is introducing ‘budget stores’ which
will help customers to identify with the brand. It is also increasing focus on rural thrust for volume growth in
the low-priced footwear segment.

RISK AND CONCERN

Lifting of quantitative restriction on import of footwear will lead to the market being flooded by imports.
Labor issues have always bothered BIL and this resulted in disruption of manufacturing activities on
numerous occasions. Competition is hotting up in the domestic market due to popular brands such as
Gaitonde, Red Tape, Lotus Bawa and Tata’s. These brands are gaining market share especially in the
premium segment and in this segment BIL has no significant presence. Latest Results Sales for Q3 FY2000
increased by 5.5% yoy to Rs1.7bn. profits dropped by 90% yoy to Rs3.8 Mn due to lower operating margins
and higher depreciation and interest. Depreciation increased by 6.3% yoy to Rs 37 Mn while interest cost
increased by 9.3% yoy to Rs 23.4 Mn. Operating margins dropped by 3.3% due to increase in input cost. The
Penya plant has not commenced operations despite lifting up of the lock out since July 3, 2007.

27
4 P’S IN NIKE’S MARKETING MIX

PRODUCT:

NIKE’s athletic footwear products are designed primarily for specific athletic use, although a large
percentage of the products are worn for casual or leisure purposes. They place considerable emphasis on
high quality construction and innovative design for men, women and children. Running, basketball,
children’s, cross training and women’s shoes are currently our top-selling product categories and expect
them to continue to lead in product sales in the near future. However, they also market shoes designed for
outdoor activities, tennis, golf, soccer, baseball, football, bicycling, volleyball, wrestling, cheerleading,
aquatic activities, hiking, and other athletic and recreational uses. They sell active sports apparel covering
most of the above categories, athletically inspired lifestyle apparel, as well as athletic bags and accessory
items. NIKE apparel and accessories are designed to complement their athletic footwear products, feature
the same trademarks and are sold through the same marketing and distribution channels. They often market
footwear, apparel and accessories in “collections” of similar design or for specific purposes. They also
market apparel with licensed college and professional team and league logos. They sell a line of performance
equipment under the NIKE brand name, including sport balls, timepieces, eyewear, skates, bats, gloves, and
other equipment designed for sports activities. They also have agreements for licensees to produce and sell
28
NIKE brand swimwear, cycling apparel, maternity exercise wear, children’s clothing, school supplies,
timepieces, and electronic media devices. They also sell small amounts of various plastic products to other
manufacturers through our wholly-owned subsidiary, NIKE IHM, Inc. and plastic injected and metal
products to other manufacturers through our wholly-owned subsidiary.

PRICE

Nike aims at giving high value, fairly priced products to its customers. Its price range vary for different
categories of products and also vary in different countries

PLACE

Nike sell their products primarily through a combination of retail accounts, independent distributors,
licensees and subsidiaries in about 200 countries. For e.g. In United States, it operates NIKETOWN shoe
and sportswear stores, and NIKE Women shops In Europe, the distribution channel is centralized. European
Distribution Center (EDC) receives Nike products from all over the world & serves retail store across
Europe in India, the distribution network of Nike India currently boasts of eight distributors, 25 exclusive
Nike outlets, 15 multi-brand outlets and 20 speciality doors across major cities. However, the exclusive
distribution and retailing channel for the brand in India is Sierra Group

PROMOTION

The company has used both sports marketing and advertising to promote and build the brand.

29
SWOT ANALYSIS OF NIKE

Strengths:

● Brand name recognition, because Nike has been around so long, the brand is recognized and respected
both internationally and domestically.

● Brand loyalty, Nike has consistently produced quality products that appeal to its consumers both
internationally and domestically.

● Nike carries a wide arrangement of products with a large number of options for personal preference. ●
Nike is constantly trying to increase their international presence.

● Low Manufacturing cost

● Nike has an on-line store where custom shoes may be purchased

30
● In such a competitive environment Nike step it up by investing a large portion of their income into R&D,
with the formation of the Nike Sport Research Laboratory in 1980, and the introduction of the Advance
Product Engineering department; Nike is making sure that they stay in control of their market share. These
two departments ensure that Nike has new shoe styles and are constantly developing new products.

● Nike is the world’s no. 1 shoemaker. It designs and sells shoes for a variety of sports including baseball,
golf, cheerleading, volleyball, tennis and football.

● Nike uses a “Make to Stock” customer order which provides a fast service to customers from available
stock.

● Nike operates Nike Town shoe and sportswear stores, Nike factory outlets and Nike Women shops. Nike
sells its products throughout US and in more than 180 countries.

● Nike is strong at research and development, as is evidenced by its evolving and innovative product range.
They then manufacture wherever they can produce high quality product at the lowest possible price.

● Nike is a global brand. It is the number one sports brand in the World. Its famous ‘Swoosh’ is instantly
recognizable, and Phil Knight (Founder and CEO) even has it tattooed on his ankle.

Weaknesses:

● It is a global brand and no.1 shoe maker.

● Nike has the joint venture with Apple’s iPod in continued innovation.

● It has strong distribution channels.

● It has strong position over its minimal long-term debt.

● Has innovative shoe design which enable consumer to design their own shoe online.

● It has diversified products worldwide.

31
● Has strong marketing campaigns and endorses different products.

● Have different segments as baseball, golf and footwear etc.

● Its sales highly depend on the footwear segment.

● It has violations in history and they provide minimal wage rate to its Workers.

● Has poor conditions in work places, it is having bad reputation.

● Has higher price compared to its competitors as Adidas.

● Contract manufacturing of shoes to low-wage factories makes Nike susceptible to laws, and economic
problems abroad.

Opportunities:

● Product Diversification, with new technology and increased earnings they should be able to invest even
more into R & D.

● Increase their global presence by expanding their services to countries such as, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, India,
Mexico, and South Africa in an attempt to serve those with the largest populations.

● The key is more advertising, encourage young people to purchase Nike’s even if they are not sport’
players.

● Increase marketing to the female consumer.

● Increase manufacturing of products that the new generation is interested, specifically boots and sandals

32
Threats:

● Increase competition both domestically and internationally.

● Change in the young consumer preferences to sandals and boots.

● High inflation and unemployment in Asia and Pacific Rim, Latin America, and Russia may cause a decline
in shoe sales.

● The fluctuation of foreign currency and interest rate may pose a threat to earnings.

● Import and export regulations.

33
Case studies

The Problem

As one of the biggest sports brands in the world, Nike was not struggling for exposure or attention.
However, the brand was noticing that its traditional, big-budget advertising strategy was seeing fewer returns
over time. The biggest market for Nike products consists of young people between the ages of 15 and 25,
who spend 20% more with Nike than any other group. But these Generation Y customers weren’t paying
attention to big, top-down media, and were looking for a brand that offered constant change and innovation,
not just the same old thing over and over. Nike realised that it needed a new approach to reach this digital
audience.

The Solution

Understanding that marketing in the digital age is a conversation, not a monologue, Nike dropped its
spending on TV and print advertising by 40% between 2010 and 2012 – but increased its overall marketing
budget to $2.4 billion in 2012.

Nike chose to use a combination of technological innovations, data analytics and social media engagement
to reach this new, digitally savvy audience. Engineers and scientists associated with prestigious
organisations such as MIT and Apple were hired to build exciting new technologies and examine market
insights.

One of their biggest accomplishments was the creation of Nike+ in 2010 – a device that lets users track their
exercise regimens, upload these to the web, monitor their progress, and share their achievements socially.
The product range grew to include the Nike FuelBand. This new community created incredible volumes of
data, which Nike used to track behaviours, create online communities and spaces for Nike fans, and build
meaningful relationships between the brand and its customers.

34
Nike moved its social media marketing team in-house so that it had a closer connection to this data and the
conversations being generated by its fans.

Nike also embraced a range of other digital best practices:

 A strong focus on storytelling: Nike advertising shifted from delivering one core ‘big message’
about its products to talking about inspiration, aspirations and overcoming odds. For example, Nike’s
‘I Would Run to You’ ad (essentially a funny short film) shows the story of a long-distance couple
reconnecting by running across the country to see each other.

 Being an authentic brand: The storytelling approach creates authenticity and a sense of community.
Nike also strives to understand and engage with the subcultures of each sport, talking to them in the
vernacular they are familiar with.

 Understanding and communicating with customers on their terms: When Nike created its big-
budget ‘Write the Future’ ad for the 2012 World Cup, featuring soccer superstars Wayne Rooney and
Cristiano Ronaldo, it flighted the ad on Facebook and YouTube rather than on TV. Having seeded to
a community and primed it with teasers, the ad received 8 million views in the first week and went
viral.

 Being remarkable and shareable: Nike put up a 30-storey digital billboard in Johannesburg, South
Africa that was populated with constantly-updating user tweets, creating a buzz around the campaign.

 Allowing mass customisation: The Nike iD online store lets fans create their own custom shoe
designs and have them shipped. The concept earned Nike over $100 million in its first year

The results

35
Nike’s new approach – harnessing data for user insight and creating a diverse, social and engaged digital
strategy – has had excellent results.

Nike reaches over 200 million fans every day in an interactive dialogue, rather than having to rely on big
sponsored events such as the Super Bowl or World Cup to reach this number. The massive volumes of freely
shared user data produce meaningful brand insights, lead to product innovations, and allow the brand to get
closer to consumers. In addition to this:

 Nike share prices rose by 120% between 2010 and 2012 – an important consideration, since every
business aims to make money, after all.

 Nike+ experienced a 55% growth in membership in 2012, 7 million users have signed up for the
service, and the majority of these connect with the brand several times each week to upload and
review their exercise data.

 The main Nike Facebook page has over 15 million likes, the Nike Football page has 19.4 million
likes, and the Nike Basketball page has over 5 million – posts typically see a high level of interaction
and discussion.

 Similarly, on Twitter, the brand is also engaging millions of fans – 1.7 million on the core Nike
account, 1.2 million on the brand’s US-based Nike.com store account, and 1.4 million on the Nike
Football account.

36
The challenge

Nike wanted to create a marketing campaign that adds value and advertises the brand, based on a number of
key trends currently driving audience behaviours and one which includes creative self-promotion that
Twitter and Instagram encourage.

The solution

Nike is one of the biggest brands on Instagram with over 10 million followers.
The reason for Nike’s popularity on the image sharing site is down to the fact that Nike has an in depth
understanding of how the platform works. Nike’s Instagram images are beautifully shot images of people
using their products.
The Nike Instagram account is a great example of marketing to where your audience looks.
ike capitalised on their Instagram following turning followers into customers with their Nike #PHOTOiD
campaign.
In 2013 Nike launched a microsite that let customers customise their trainers using their Instagram images.
Once an Instagram image has been selected Nike creates a colour scheme for the trainers that match the
colours in the image.
Once customised, the shoe design can be shared on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr and
Google+, and most importantly customers can then simply click through to Nike’s mobile store to buy their
new personalised trainers.

37
The results

• 100,000 shoes created in the first week

• 600 shoes created per hour at peak
• 8% clicked through to buy shoes on Nike ID
• Zero media spend
Nike ID’s online community is estimated to be 15 million strong with revenue of the fiscal year 2013
exceeding $100 million.

Literature Review
38
I've referred to various literature available on internet and have used extensively data available on internet
such as Google and Wikipedia

The Essence of Digital Marketing

 To introduce an in-depth analysis of a company’s digital marketing strategy, several clarifications

must be given. According to Todor, marketing is a process that includes all activities to place a
“product or services in the hand of potential customers”. Companies need to develop trustful and
good relationships with their clients and to predict what they could want today and tomorrow. Such
concepts as brand awareness and customer retention determine the success of marketing and the
effective choice between digital and traditional marketing strategies. Traditional marketing was
frequently used in different epochs when people were not able to give clear definitions to this
process. Technical progress has opened a new door to communication between organizations and
clients. Today, this process is called digital marketing and includes a type of marketing “to promote
products or services and to reach consumers using digital channels”. One of the common mistakes
made by analytics is the belief that digital marketing includes Internet-related resources only. These
strategies may be spread via mobile phones, radio, and TV.

 Stegemann and Sutton-Brady (2012, p.3) analysed that online marketing issues digital advertising,
campaigning, public relations that have a sophisticated psychological impression in the minds of the
customers. Various organizational authorities find it fruitful to take hold of online activities related to
marketing to reach maximum number of potential customers. People nowadays extensively use social
media, email and they come across a number of websites every day for their personal purpose.
Online marketing is strategized to be focused on various websites, social networking sites, emails
where people can get close to the informational demonstrations issued by various companies and
organizations (Tankosi, A. and Traevin, A, 2011, p.150). They can get access to their desired
material anytime they wish. In order to execute sales promotion and expect customer attraction, the
companies need to arrange attractive prizes and convenient discounts. The organizations plan sales
promotion in the objective of expanding the product and service acquaintance to the customers. E-
Commerce has facilitated the business contexts to make faster and hassle-free transactions. The
organizations implemented the idea of EBusiness, ecommerce, internet marketing that can benefit the
overall business. Numerous factors are there why the activities related to web have been accelerated
and the overall interest and awareness amongst the customers have risen.
39
 The organizations here afford to personally communicate and persuade the potential buyers to
purchase their products. Once the business authorities have constant contact with the potential
customers, they can easily persuade them to choose product from their productions and services. It
has become easy for the advertisers to reach out to the maximum number of customers from various
regions to let them know the detailed information regarding any brand or company. Online marketing
has the first and foremost aspect of issuing advertisements of various products and services. The
customers need to get thorough information regarding products of their choice.

 Whether advertising or promotion helps or damages a brand, has still not been researched (Mela,
Gupta & Lehman, 1997) In the long run advertisement help brands by making consumer less price
sensitive and loyal towards the brand. For the add to be seen it must grab the attention of its target
audience. ‘Ad's originality’ as defined from Pietes, Warlop and Wedel, (2002) were easier for
customer to remember than ordinary ads by increasing attention to it. This thus increased attention to
the brand being advertised. Liking towards the brand itself can influence liking for the brand
(Hawkins, Best and Coney, 1992). However according to study by Bichal, Stephens and Curlo
(1992) whether customers hate or like an ad does not obviously lead to brand acceptance or rejection.
So even though the consumers may like the add they see, it does not necessarily mean they will go
out and buy the brand advertised (see appendix).

 Advertisers must remember that advertising messages are portrayed differently between different
genders (Maldonando, Tansuhaj and Muehling, 2003; Hogg and Garrow,2003; Putrevu, 2001) Hogg
and Garrow (2003) found that women paid more attention to the details of the character of an ad, like
celebrities, when asked to analyze advertising messages. Advertisement can change consumer’s
perception of a product in terms of attributes content and proportion and also influence consumer’s
taste for attributes (Gwin & Gwin, 2003).

 Stanford GSB marketing professor Itamar Simonson and Ran Kivetz, an assistant professor at
Columbia University, asked a group of 195 Columbia students to do; eat a lot of sushi. Participants
were offered a "frequent diner" program that would reward them for their patronage at various
university dining locations and given a card that would track their purchases. They were randomly
assigned to one of two groups those in the "low" requirement group were told they would have to
40
 purchase 12 sandwiches to get two free movie tickets, whereas those in the "high" requirement group
were told they would have to purchase 12 sandwiches and 12 orders of sushi to get two free movie
tickets. So, the second group had to do much more to receive the same reward. Kivetz and Simonson
also asked participants how much they liked sushi relative to the typical student. The result? Students
who liked sushi were much more likely to join the "frequent diner" program that required them to
purchase both 12 sandwiches and 12 orders of sushi. "It shows a common mistake that consumers
make & if they see an offer that seems to fit them better than other consumers, for example, a
program that requires sushi-lovers to eat sushi that fit completely colours their assessment of how
attractive the offer is," Simonson says. As a result, by creating what appears like personal fit,
marketers can attract consumers to frequency programs and many other promotional offers? Kivetz
and Simonson replicated these findings regarding influences on participation in frequency, or loyalty,
programs in studies with travellers interviewed at domestic airports. The sushi study is among a
number of studies Simonson has been conducting since the late 1980s about how consumers make
choices. Much of his work debunks the accepted theory that giving consumers what they want and
making a profit are the most basic principles of marketing.

 In another recent paper, Simonson tackles the issue of one-to-one marketing and mass customization.
Supporters of these marketing approaches have suggested that learning what customers want and
giving them exactly what they want will create customer loyalty and an insurmountable barrier to
competition. In an example taken to the extreme in the 2007 movie Minority Report, Tom Cruise's
character Anderson runs through a shopping mall past talking billboards that recognize him by name
and urge him to buy products he has expressed interest in such as jeans and Ray-Bans; the ultimate in
personalized advertising. But Simonson has this to say: "The fact that consumer preferences are often
fuzzy, unstable, and manipulatable is unlikely to change. So, the effectiveness of methods to give
customers exactly what they (say they) want has been grossly exaggerated." His take on the long-
held assumption that individual marketing will supplant targeted marketing is "not so fast." That's
because consumers are very difficult to figure out, science fiction and technology notwithstanding.
"Furthermore, even when customers have well-defined preferences and receive offers that fit those
preferences, it is far from certain that the response to such offers will consistently be more favourable
than those directed at larger market segments." It's all psychology. Consumers with well-defined
preferences may be sceptical that a marketer could match expectations. Those who don't know what
they want may not ever see the fit with what the seller wants them to buy. So, individualized offers
depend on customers' preferences; how the offer was extended & and on trust. "Effective individual
marketing requires not only an understanding of individual preferences and matching offers to those

41
 preferences, but also a thorough familiarity with the various factors that impact customers'
responses," he writes.

 This is a tall order, one that some companies have been able to fill at least to some extent. For
example, Amazon keeps track of customers’ purchases and suggests other books they might like.
Dell builds computers from mass-made parts to customers' specifications. But Simonson argues some
companies can take the concept too far, like the Custom Foot chain of shoe stores that took detailed
measurements and specifications from each customer to design one-of-a-kind shoes. Simonson
argues that Custom Foot didn't take into account that some customers were put off by the
individualized attention and felt obligated to buy the shoes because the store went to so much trouble.
They often didn't come back. Indeed, an Internet search produces no Website.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

 To understand the core of digital marketing

 To study and understand the behaviours of Nike consumers

 To study the tastes, preferences and buying behaviour of consumers in case of footwear of Nike.
42
  To recommend strategies to Nike to increase sales.

 To study the nature of customer satisfaction efforts implemented by NIKE for its customers.

 To meet the demand and requirements of the consumers.

 To apply continuous marketing strategy to broaden its product range.

Main objective:

To study the digital marketing strategies, adapt by Nike and their advertisements on normal consumers.

Scope of the study:

The project report begins with a brief overview of the Nike and its digital marketing strategies including its
product being dealt with, namely premium quality shoes, sports shoes and its marketing and digital

43
marketing strategies around it. It also dwells briefly on the history of the company and its current position
and activities. The project moves on to the crux of the matter – the digital marketing plan to be followed by
Nike in India. Firstly, the objectives behind this plan and the core strategy are stated.
After stating the objectives and reasoning behind them, the actual marketing programs are described in
details. This includes aspects such as pricing, advertising, promotion, sales, channels, and the company
website. Suggestions are made on each and every one of these aspects; improvements and innovations are
recommended. The project report then goes on to the customer analysis section.
The customer base is identified and various segments are pointed out. Various criteria and factors have been
taken into consideration while segmenting the market. We have also tried to ascertain why customers buy
these products, how they choose, and what factors matter most when making their decisions. The last few
pages of this marketing research project deal with the various ways in which the recommendations, once
implemented, can be monitored and controlled.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Nike has been very successful in its Digital marketing strategies such as advertisements and marketing
campaigns on various social media platforms. The most important factor is that consumers are aware of the
product and the company has created positive impact in the minds of the consumers.

44
Consumers are willing to purchase the product without any hesitation even through the company has wide
range of products in premium price. That indicates that company has set its standards high above the rest of
the competitors
The type of research that is used various ways of promoting its product that is used in this study is
descriptive. A couple of questions that were framed are structured to investigate the advertisements and
digital marketing strategies of Nike.

The company has used various ways of promotion of its products. We’ve divided our questions on the basis
of social media platforms and consumers behaviour changes on the advertisements.

In my research I've used various kinds of methods to collect related Nike's digital marketing strategies
effects on regular consumers primary or secondary data

Research will comprise defining and redefining problems, collecting, organizing and evaluating data;
making deductions and reaching conclusions and at last carefully testing the conclusions to determine
whether they fit the formulating. In short, the search for Knowledge through Objective and Systematic
method of finding solutions to a problem is Research.

 Study is depended on the primary and secondary data

 The period of study is only limited to the research period 2019-2021

 I have collected secondary data from various sources at given bellow:

1. Journals and newspapers
2. Google forms impressions
3. Internet
4. Self-observation

SAMPLE SIZE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUES: The number of items selected from the universe to
represent the universe is called size of the sample. It is not feasible to cover all the customers of NIKE. So,

45
for the purpose of this study, a total of 30 respondents will be approached. The sampling technique used for
the study will be convenience sampling.

DATA COLLECTION: For the study, both primary and secondary data will be collected. For primary data,
a questionnaire can be developed and administered to the respondents who are the customers of NIKE in
Mumbai by the way of interview method. For secondary data, existing literature in form of magazines,
papers, company literature, book, web sources will be consulted. Question relating to customer behaviour
towards Nike products and its digital marketing strategies can also be included.

QUESTIONNAIRE: For conducting the primary customer satisfaction survey for NIKE Digital Marketing
strategies, a structured questionnaire with multiple choices related to overall satisfaction level of customers,
their grievances related to products offered by NIKE, etc. will be asked. The questionnaire will be
administered using interview technique.

QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN FORMULATION: Under this method, list of questions pertaining to the
survey will be prepared consumers of shoes. Questionnaire will have structured type questions as well as
unstructured type questions. Structured objective type questions will be prepared for the respondents with
fixed response categories. Some of the questions will be of multiple-choice type. The questions will have
more than one alternative.

RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS: Selected instrument for Data Collection for Online survey is Questionnaire.

STEPS FOLLOWED IN COMPLETING THE STUDY: Internet sites containing information on Nike
products & Digital marketing will be browsed. Sample survey will be conducted. Data will be thoroughly
checked for error.

DATA PROCESSING METHODOLOGY: Once the primary data will be collected, they will be edited –
inspected, corrected and modified. Tabulation – bring similar data together and totalling them in meaningful
categories. Questionnaires will be edited. The responses will be thoroughly checked in home for incorrect,
inconsequential or contradictions categories will be developed only often the replies has been reviewed the
collected data will be placed into an order. Percentages of respondents answered similarly will be calculated
and placed in a table. Then it will be interpreted. This will involve drawing conclusion from the gathered
data. Interpretation changes the new information emerging from the analysis into information that is
pertinent or relevant to the study. Research comprises defining and redefining problems, suggested solutions;

46
collecting, organizing and evaluating data; making deductions and reaching conclusions; and at last,
carefully testing the conclusions. In short, the search for Knowledge through Objective and Systematic
method of finding solutions to a problem is Research.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES:

 To understand the core of digital marketing

 To study and understand the behaviours of Nike consumers

 To study the tastes, preferences and buying behaviour of consumers in case of footwear of Nike.

 To recommend strategies to Nike to increase sales.

 To study the nature of customer satisfaction efforts implemented by NIKE for its customers.

 To meet the demand and requirements of the consumers.

 To apply continuous marketing strategy to broaden its product range.

Main objective:

To study the digital marketing strategies, adapt by Nike and their advertisements on normal consumers.

Methods Collection of data:

Descriptive research:

47
Descriptive research includes Surveys and fact-finding enquiries of different kinds. The main characteristic
of this method is that the researcher has no control over the variables; he can only report what has happened
or what is happening.

Data Source:
There are two types of data. Source of primary data for the present study is collected through questionnaire
and answered by consumers of Nike shoes. The secondary data is collected from journals, books and through
Internet search.

Primary data:
The primary data used in the study is with the help of detailed questionnaire
Questionnaire were given to the various people covering all social media platforms and digital marketing
platforms and its effects on consumers buying behaviour

Secondary Data:
We have also taken the help and collected data from secondary sources like magazines, internet etc.
Used obtain information about Nike its history current issues and position whatever required.
Compilation of information was done through continuously referring to the above-mentioned secondary
sources. Internet has provided access to wide amount of knowledge base, which added to the content of this
project substantially.

Research Instrument:
Selected instrument for Data Collection for Survey is Questionnaire.

Questionnaire Design Formulation:

Under this method, list of questions pertaining to the survey are prepared for marketing staff of consumers
of Nike shoes. Questionnaire has structured type questions as well as unstructured type questions. Structured
objective type questions are prepared for the respondents with fixed response categories. Some of the
questions are of multiple-choice type. The questions have more than one alternative.

QUESTIONNAIRE

48
QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN FORMULATION: Under this method, list of questions pertaining to the
survey are prepared for marketing staff of consumers of Nike Digital marketing strategies.

Questionnaire has structured type questions as well as unstructured type questions. Structured objective type
questions are prepared for the respondents with fixed response categories. Some of the questions are of
multiple-choice type. The questions have more than one alternative.

Questionnaire: - A questionnaire consists of a set of questions presented to respondent for their answers. It
can be Closed Ended or Open Ended

Open Ended: - Allows respondents to answer in their own words & are difficult to Interpret and Tabulate.

Close Ended: - Pre-specify all the possible answers & are easy to Interpret and Tabulate

TYPES OF QUESTION INCLUDED:

DICHOTOMOUS QUESTIONS:
Which has only two answers “Yes” or “No”?

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS:

Where respondent is offered more than two choices.

IMPORTANCES SCALE:
A scale that rates the importance of some attribute.

RATING SCALE A scale that rates some attribute from “highly satisfied” to “highly unsatisfied “and “very
inefficient” to “very efficient”

Cross-sectional design

49
There are two types of Cross-sectional design.

● Single cross-sectional design: In this, only one sample of respondents and their information is utilized and
that is used only once in a study.

● Multiple cross-sectional designs: In this, information is captured with the help of two or more samples of
respondents. Each sample’s information is used only for once. Though information is collected at different
times from different samples of the study. You can analyse the cross-sectional design in a negative and
positive way. Thus, following are their merits and demerits

Advantages of cross-sectional design:

● Cross-sectional method is user friendly, easy to understand and simple to use.

● Minimum resources are required to work out on this study
● This design is the best design in determining prevalence system (prevalence system involves the number
of cases or occurrences that exist at a specific period of time in a defined population)

Disadvantages of cross-sectional design

● This study is unable to find out the cause-and-effect relationship among various factors.
● This study does not provide clear set of explanations for their findings. You can understand this research
method with the help of following example:
A study between height and age of people which shows negative relationship. It gives following conclusive
answers:
● Young people are comparatively taller.
● As people become old, they lose their height

Tall people have more risk to their life in comparison to short people. This example shows that cross-
sectional study does not give a full explanation of the case. This method is unable to support their findings as
well.

SAMPLE DESIGN

50
THE BASIS OF SAMPLING: -

Consumers of Nike products are chosen randomly, so that unbiased, representative sample may be obtained.
The process of selecting samples from the population is referred to as sampling design. There are two types
of sampling designs probability sampling design and non-probability sampling design. Probability sampling
designs are used in conclusive research whereas non-probability sampling designs are appropriate for
exploratory research.

Process of Sampling Design:

Before you study the process of sampling design you must be aware of the stages of the sampling.

There are basically two stages of sampling:

● Single-stage sampling:

In this sampling, targeted population elements are collected into a sampling frame. To select a sample of
element, one of the techniques is used among various techniques. These techniques are random sampling,
stratified sampling and systematic sampling.

● Multi-stage sampling:

Here sampling is done sequentially like country level is taken as first stage; census track level comes at
second stage; block level at third stage; household level at fourth stage and within household level at final
stage. In multi stage sampling, hierarchical structure of the population is taken into consideration.

● Define the targeted population:

Population is defined as
(i) elements,
(ii) sampling units,
(iii) extent and
(iv) time Example: If a company wants to monitor the sales of its recently launched product, the population
will be:

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(i) Element – company’s products and digital marketing
(ii) Sampling unit – retail outlet, supermarket, e-commerce

● Identify the frame of sampling: Sampling frame could be yellow pages, telephone directory, various
colonies in a municipal area list mentioning the details of all colonies. Example: If you want to know about a
car owner in Jaipur city, then the transport office (RTO) can provide the name, address and type of vehicle
possessed.

● Specify sampling unit and techniques: It is defined as the element about which information is required
and then selecting probability or non-probability methods. Example: retailers in a locality, husband or wife
or children in a family.

● Determine the sample size: This means deciding how many elements of the target population are to be
chosen. The sample size depends on the type of the study. The sample size is small in exploratory study and
this is large in size in descriptive study.

● Select the sample and execute the process: This is the final step in the sampling process.

Example: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

● In the first stage, a sample of Countries is selected. These are called Primary Sampling Units (PSU).
● In the second stage, these units are divided into Segments.
● In the first stage, a sample of Countries is selected. These are called Primary Sampling Units (PSU).
● In the second stage, these units are divided into Segments.

DATA PROCESSING METHODOLOGY

(i) Once the primary data have been collected, they are
edited – inspected, corrected and modified.

52
(ii) Tabulation – bring similar data together and totalling them in meaningful categories. Questionnaires are
edited both in the field and later in home. Field editing took place just often the interview. Generally editing
is required for open type of questions. Brief notes or symbols are frequently used during the interview to
initially record the interviewer’s response since it was not desirable to interrupt the flow with lengthy note
taking. Then immediately after the interview, brief notes are respondent. The responses are thoroughly
checked in home for incorrect, inconsequential or contradictions categories are developed only often the
replies has been reviewed. This review provided a feel for the pattern of answers and thus determine what
categories best represent the answers.

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SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE

1. Have you ever purchased Nike products?

● Yes
● No

2. Rate your experience Nike products?

● Rating 1-5 from loved it to hate it

3. how often you see Nike products ads?

● Rating 1-5 from mostly to rarely

4. Mostly where you see Nike ads?

● Television
● Newspaper
● Billboards
● social media

5. Have you seen your favourite celebrities advertising for Nike?

● Yes
● No

6. How often you see them Advertising for Nike?

● Rating 1-5 from mostly to Rarely

7. Where is a best place to reach you with Nike advertisement?

● Television
● Newspaper
● Magazine
● Internet

8. How often do you buy Nike products?

● Daily
● Weekly

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 ● Monthly
● Yearly

9. Do you feel mostly sportsmen and athletes advertise for Nike?

● Rating 1-5 from mostly to Rarely

10. Rate Nike advertisement quality?

● Rating 1-5 from loved it to hate it

11. Does Nike advertisements have huge impact on your buying behaviour
● from strongly agree to strongly disagree

12. What emotions you feel while watching Nike advertisements? *

 Motivation
 Sad
 Happy
 Excited

13. Do you feel Nike puts lots of efforts on their social media marketing?
● from strongly agree to strongly disagree

14. which thing affects the most on your buying behaviour of Nike products? *

 Social media advertisements

 Video ads
 Influencers
 Reference from friends
 Other

15. when someone say nike which product comes into your mind? *

 Shoes
 Joggers
 T-shirt
 Others

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STATISTICAL TOOLS & TECHNIQUES

It is noted that Nike owns 48% of the athletic footwear market in the United States. Specifically for the
basketball footwear, Nike has 96% of the share. See below for a chart of Nike having 96%. In 2016, Nike's
sales revenue was 32.46 billion. Below is a chart that shows Nike's revenue worldwide from 2005 to 2016 in
USD.

Further Nike Statistics related to market leadership:

● Nike sales revenue in 1996 was $6.4 billion USD and has grown to $32.46 billion USD as of 2016
● Nike has 31% of the global athletic footwear market
● There are 700 Nike stores globally
● There are 45 countries that have a Nike office

Limitations of the study:

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Sample size was limited to 30 respondents only

Due to limitation of time only few people were selected for the study. So, the sample of consumer was not
enough to generalize finding of the study.

There can be many interpretations & explanations to the data collected. This is empirical study and the
research provides the explanation as understood by the researcher only.

The source of data for the study was primary data with the help of self-administered questionnaire. Hence,
the chance of biased response cannot be eliminated through all necessary steps were taken to avoid the same.

The data taken from the secondary source like internet, newspaper, books may lack some proper
explanation or may be not properly interpreted.

The responses of customers are presented in a way convenient to the researcher and can be interpreted in
different ways.

Study is mix of primary and secondary data

ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION OF DATA

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AGE

Fig 1.1

In the above chart (fig 1.1) we can clearly see that the most of the participants in my research are in the age
group of 19 to 24 which indicates that this group has more interest in Nike products and they definitely
spend more time on social media therefore, in my research mostly young group of people has participated

GENDER
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 Fig 1.2

In the above fig (fig 1.2) you can clearly see that in my research there is comparatively more male
participants than female participants i.e., 60%. Therefore, in my research there will be dominance of male
population because the Nike has more male consumers compared to female population.

Have you ever purchased Nike products?

59
 fig 1.3

Based on above figure (fig 1.3) we can conclude that most of the respondents which is 90% of the total
respondents has once in their lifetime bought Nike products.
It is also seen that the popularity of the brand in India mainly in young generation. Regardless the high price
of the brand product we can still see most of people buying it. It can also be seen that the 60% of the
respondents were males.
Youth buys it because the design, style and most importantly name of the brand. Nike adds that sporty
texture to the overall personality of the consumer and gives that luxurious representation.

Rate your experience of NIKE products?

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Fig 1.4

In the above fig (1.4) we can interpret that most of respondents (i.e., 40%) had very good experience of Nike
products
While we can also see that some respondents do not share the same experience of Nike products but if we
take the average on the scale of 1-5 (from loved it to hated it) we can conclude that respondents had good or
satisfactory experience of Nike products.
That is because Nike always put lots of efforts to provide the best quality products to the consumers.
They never failed to deliver the style and comfort which they promise.

How often you see Nike advertisements?

61
 Fig 1.5

In the above fig (1.5) we can conclude that most of participants (36.7%) has neutral experience about how
often you see Nike advertisements.
Thats because Nike rarely advertise on T.V and even the influencers they use to promote products are mostly
from sports background so the people who follow athletes have comparatively more chances to see Nike
products than people who don't.
Also, Nike has their targeted audience and big brand doesn't need much of the advertisements.

Mostly where you get to see Nike advertisements?

62
 Fig 1.6

As we can see in above figure (fig 1.6) we can conclude that majority of the participants (i.e., 73.3%) has
watched more Nike advertisements on social media followed by billboards (13.3%) and television (13.3%)
Because Nike uses influencer marketing a lot.
Nike also uses lot of billboards to advertise their products.
And Nike also invested quite amount in television ads.
But comparatively they spend more on social media campaigns.

Have you seen your favourite celebrities advertising for Nike?

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 Fig 1.7

We can conclude from the above figure (1.7) that Nike has been using celebrities (athletes and sportsman) to
influence on their customers as most of our participants (73.3%) responded yes as they have witnessed their
favourite celebrities advertising for Nike.
Celebrities specifically athletes have huge influence on sport lover and sport fans and Nike use that trait for
their own benefit and market their products and created that sporty image of them.

How often you see them Advertising for Nike?

64
Fig 1.8

Nike has always been making contracts with athletes and sportsman that's why lots of celebs promote Nike
products frequently and we can clearly see that in above figure (fig 1.8) that most of participants has been
seeing their favourite celebs doing advertisements for Nike.
Some participants also stated that they rarely see celebs advertising for Nike that's because Nike target
celebs related to sports.

Do you feel mostly sportsmen and athletes advertise for Nike?

65
 Fig 1.9

We can conclude from the above figure (fig. 1.9) that Nike does actually target sportsmen or athletes to
advertise for them that's why most of participants strongly agree with this.
Nike also releases limited products based on trending or successful athlete designs products like that and
they sign huge deal out of that.
(e.g., Jordans)

Rate Nike advertisement quality?

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 Fig 1.10

From above figure (fig 1.10) we can conclude that Nike make one of the most fascinating, interesting,
creative and motivational ads.
In my research most of the participants loved the advertisements of Nike
Nike has always been creative with their ads and digital marketing.

Does nike advertisements have huge impact on your buying behavior

67
 Fig 1.11

As we Nike puts lots of efforts in making of their ads and works on digital marketing
We can clearly see the result on above figure (1.11) most of the participants have witnessed impact of Nike
advertisements on their buying behaviour.
Nike mostly advertise for their limited-edition products related to athletes which attracts mass audience to
buy from Nike

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Do you feel Nike advertisements manipulate customers emotions?

Fig 1.12

As we Nike puts lots of efforts in making of their ads and works on digital marketing which plays highly in
changing customers emotions (motivation and happiness)
We can clearly see the result on above figure (1.12) most of the participants have witnessed impact of Nike
advertisements on their buying behaviour.
Nike mostly advertise for their limited-edition products related to athletes which attracts mass audience to
buy from Nike

What emotions you feel while watching Nike advertisements?

69
 Fig 1.13

As we Nike puts lots of efforts in making of their ads and works on digital marketing which plays highly in
changing customers emotions
In above figure (1.13) we can clearly conclude how Nike ads emotionally works on customers.
In my research most of participants felt motivation (43.3%) followed by happiness and excitement (26.7%)
Nike has been using this advertisement tactics to attract more and more customers.

which thing affects the most on your buying behaviour of Nike products?
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 Fig 1.14

As we can clearly see on the above figure (fig 1.14) that what digital marketing platform Nike actually
works more on.
As in my research most of participants experienced those social media advertisements affects more on their
buying behaviour (33.3%).
Followed by reference from friends (23.3%) which actually happens a lot in young peer groups where they
get fascinated by each other's Nike products and buys the same.

when someone say Nike which product comes into your mind?

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Fig 1.15

From the above figure (1.15) we can clearly state and conclude that most people know Nike for their
fascinating shoes
In my research all of participants (100%) knows Nike only for their shoes and does not know that Nike also
sells various kinds of products other than shoes
Thats because Nike mostly advertise about their shoes and rarely people know that Nike sells something else
too.

Conclusion

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The development of digital marketing strategies is one of the priorities set by modern organizations. The
essence of this activity is to study the customer, understand his or her demands and expectations, choose the
best resources, create a product, and introduce an interesting marketing story. The decision of an individual
to buy a product or use a service depends on how well a company succeeds in marketing.

During the last several decades, Nike has created several interesting ads and shared its vision and missions
through the prism of digital technologies. The analysis of content marketing, social media marketing, and
influencer marketing strategies proves that Nike’s “Nothing Beats a Londoner” is not only a beautiful picture
with people and actions on it, but a story of a city or even a nation, with its interests, abilities, and beliefs.

Nike is a well-known, successful company worldwide. Nike maintains a positive, corporate culture within an
innovative and profitable company. Nike is more profitable than its competition and dominates the global
athletics and footwear market. Furthermore, Nike has more followers on its social media than all of its
competition and is able to target specific audiences through multiple pages, such as Nike football or Nike
Women. Social media plays a key role in Nike’s marketing strategy and is a key reason for its strong brand
name. Lastly, Nike’s corporate social responsibility is extensive and highly transparent. Nike goes to great
lengths for its corporate social responsibility by increasing sustainable practices and additionally spreading
innovation and physical activity. Nike’s marketing strategy is to continuously improve its products and
services. It does this through measures of product movements, assessments of their competitor’s products
and innovation. They have achieved competitive edge through the employment of sound marketing
techniques in the four aspects hence their performance. Their success continues to grow and they now hold
33% of the market in the sports shoe section which is the highest and coming in a close second is adidas with
22% of the market. Their aim is to dominate 50% in the next ten years

73
Nike future plan

Nike on Thursday hit several big numbers across multiple parts of the business: North American revenue
grew over 140% and had its first $5 billion quarter; the Jordan brand hit close to $5 billion for the year on
the back of 31% growth; the women's business grew 22% over the year; and Nike has now amassed over 300
million members.

The way forward is much the same as it's always been of late: Relying on digital as the "leading channel for
growth," growing DTC, and focusing on growth opportunities for the women's business, apparel, the Jordan
brand and international.

"Our goal isn't merely to take market share. Our goal is also to grow the entire market," CEO John Donahoe
said on the call.

That includes through the retailer's recent campaign encouraging customers to try out new sports, which
Nike targeted specifically at the emerging Gen Z demographic through channels like TikTok and Snapchat.
Donahoe also stressed that its first shoe with Zion Williamson, the Zion 1, is the first "Gen Z signature
shoe."

Nike is doubling down on its DTC and digital-led strategy, citing

Nike Direct growth of 120% in Q4, alongside Nike Digital growth of 50%. Digital has more than doubled
over the past two years and now sits at over $9 billion, according to Donahoe.

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"The brand's increasing focus on direct-to-consumer (DTC) has proved fruitful, as FY NIKE Direct sales
increased by 32.2% to make up 38.7% of total NIKE brand revenue," Emily Salter, senior retail analyst at
Global Data, wrote in an emailed client note. "This strategy is highly beneficial as it gives NIKE a greater
ability to build its relationship with consumers and shape its brand image."

Increased membership and member demand is helping drive that growth. The company's SNKRS app grew
by more than 90% in demand and nearly 80% in monthly active users in the quarter, and the retailer is
continuing to make a bid for more members through its Nike Live stores, which feature an app-driven in-
store experience.

The concept is also helping the retailer pursue its other growth areas, with Nike Live stores drawing in
nearly 50% women's sales — 15 points higher than other stores, according to Friend. More Nike Live stores
is only one investment in the women's business, with the investment of "far more resources" to come,
Donahoe said. The Jordan women's business also nearly tripled in Q4.

Of course, the flip side of Nike's direct-to-consumer strategy is its move out of wholesale, which will
continue. The company expects wholesale revenue to be flat year over year. Far from being over, Credit
Suisse's Michael Binetti sees the culling of brand partners accelerating.

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SUGGESTION AND RECOMMENDATION

SUGGESTION

Nike has huge reach on all the digital marketing platforms and they're one of best enterprise which uses
fascinating digital marketing strategies.
If they market their other sporty brands just like their shoes there’s whole new market for them to capture.
Influencers marketing which Nike uses they should target more sports.

Department stores are the prime sales and marketing channel for leather consumer goods. In addition, store
decorations and product displays should be designed to create a strong first impression. Seasonal promotion
campaigns, like special discounts and advertisements, could be employed.
New lines of collections should be introduced for festivals. In addition to promotional activities in shopping
malls and department stores, discounts and TV commercials are considered effective channels for
promotion.
It is advisable to pay attention to the affordability of customers in different cities, while setting price points
for different product categories. Meanwhile, leather shoes offer better growth potential. Popular materials
used for leather consumer goods include bovine skin, goat/kid/lamb/sheep skin and crocodile skin.
Regarding colours, black is by far most sought-after with dark brown in second place.
Due to their growing spending power, the rising middle class should be the target of Hong Kong's sellers of
leather consumer goods.
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Hong Kong companies should put more emphasis on products for business use. In addition, it is useful to
introduce appropriate designs that cater for the tastes of the middles class.

RECOMMENDATIONS

To explore the mainland market, Hong Kong companies should position themselves in areas in which they
are strong. From the viewpoint of mainland consumers,
Hong Kong's leather consumer goods are considered competitive in the high-end and mid-range. Mainland
consumers are brand conscious, and it is vital to promote own brands which have clear image. This survey
also shows that Hong Kong products are preferred for their design/style and quality. Bearing these in mind,
Hong Kong companies should never compromise on quality, and they should allocate more resources to
product design, selection of material and craftsmanship. To conclude,
it can be said that through the global sports retail industry has reached its maturity, but the Indian sports
retail industry is still at its infancy. But with the huge potentiality existing in the Indian market, it is expected
to grow in leaps and bounds in the future.
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⮚ The prices of the shoes must be reduced to increase sales.

⮚ should increase more digital marketing strategies.

⮚ The stores must be decorated properly.

⮚ Seasonal promotion campaigns, like special discounts & advertisements (magazines, internet, etc.), could
be employed.

⮚ Product displays should be designed to create a strong first impression.

⮚ More number of outlets should be opened to reach to all types of customers in all the regions.

⮚ More variants should be introduced in the accessories section

⮚ should target more middle-class audience from their digital marketing

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