Nike Case Study

Table of contents

Table of contents 1

1. Introduction 2

2. History 2

2.1. A little about the SWOOSH 6

3. Nike, the community and the workers 7

4. The marketing strategy of Nike 9

5. Accounts analysis 11

6. SWOT analysis 13

6.1. Conclusions on the SWOT analysis 15

7. Estimation 16

8. Conclusion 17

9. Notes 17

10. Bibliography 17

The end 17

1. Introduction

In this assignment are going to work with Nike and describe the history of the firm. To begin our analysis we will analyse whether the company is earning its money in respect to good working ethics. Furthermore we will analyse the company's financial situation and also what the ideas, behind its marketing strategy, and how it accomplishes to integrate them in their marketing. Then, trough a SWOT-Analysis, we will find the strength and weaknesses, which the company currently is meeting.

2. History

In this first part of our assignment, we would like to set out the history of Nike. A story, that is totally unreal and tells us how businesses have to be run. This is the story of Nike.

(http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Loge/5141/history.html) In 1957 two special people met at the University of Oregon in Eugene, America's running citadel. (http://www.nike.com/nikebiz/nikebiz.jhtml)One of them was Bill Bowerman, a coach at the University of Oregon. He built a fantastic track and field program at his beloved university, and taught his athletes to seek the competitive advantage everywhere - in their bodies, their passion and their gear. The other person was Phil Knight, who was a University of Oregon accounting student and a middle-distance runner under the above-mentioned Bowerman. Their relationship was only the beginning of a remarkable career together. (http://xroads.virginia.edu/ЁCLASS/am483_97/project/hincker/nikhist.html) Wise men may say that the company emanated from two sources: Bowerman's quest for lighter, durable racing shoes for his athletes, and Knight's search for a way to make a living without having to give up his desire for athletics.

A couple of years later Knight was studying at Stanford, trying to get his MBA. During his time at Stanford, Knight took a class with Frank Shallenberger. Knight got an assignment, in which he should invent a small business, including a marketing plan. Synthesising his former coach's attention to quality shoes and the burgeoning opinion that low cost/high quality products could be produced in Japan and shipped to America for distribution, Knight found his market niche. Shallenberger told Knight that it was an interesting idea, but it would not bring hive any business jackpot. But in 1963, on a trip to Japan, Knight forgot about Shallenberger's statement and entered into an agreement with a Japanese running shoe manufacturer named Tiger. Knight was not representing any company, so moments after he was asked who he represented Blue Ribbon Sports was born. It should become a success.

The following year Knight and Bowerman joined forces in the new enterprise. They both contributed around $500 to the partnership. Knight had got a job in an accounting firm, while he used his spare time to distribute shoes from his family's basement and at local and regional track meets. Bowerman designed many of the shoes. This year Blue Ribbon Sports sold 1.300 pairs of Tiger shoes, amounting to $8.000 in revenues. In 1965 the number was increased to $20.000, which lead to the hiring of the enterprise's first full-time employee, Jeff Johnson. Johnson, one of Knight's former rivals on the track, had experience from a job, where he used to sell Adidas football shoes.

We will now take a little jump in time to land in the year of 1971. The company had grown so the number of employees had increased and the revenues the same.

This year was the beginning of something new. With help from a Japanese trading company called Nissho Iwai, Blue Ribbon Sports could now manufacture its own shoe line. Furthermore the Swoosh Design trademark was created. Above-mentioned Johnson got the credit of the company's new brand name, Nike - the name of the winged goddess of victory according to Greek mythology. The next year Bowerman created a stunning product. This product should, though it was quite simple, give Nike great success. Bowerman had created the so-called Waffle out-sole by pouring some rubber into a kitchen waffle iron. But this year was not only remembered as the Waffle-year, because 1972 was also the year where the company got its first foreign market - Canada. Later on the company decided to expand its operations to include countries such as Australia and Taiwan.

During the `70s the company's revenues continues to increase as well as the knowledge to the company. Big sports-stars such as Jimmy Connors and Steve Prefontaine, who became a very important person to the company, because of his mentality, were helping bringing the Swoosh forward. Nike also had the mania to spot some young talents in sports so their knowledge was secured for years to come. Even though the bright future was dimmed by Steve Prefontaine's death in 1975. Three years after this tragically episode, the company officially changed its corporate name from Blue Ribbon Sports to Nike, Inc. 1978 was also the year where the company opened a second American manufacturing plant in the state of Maine. This was necessarily as sports-stars such as Henry Rono, four world track records, and John McEnroe, the tennis darling, made great results wearing products made by Nike.

The `80s can be described as the decade of advertising. Nike did much to influence the potential customers of their products. It must be mentioned that it probably was a necessity due to the many new models of shoe. Besides this fact it was also the decade where the company increased its foreign market. By the end of 1981 Nikes foreign market reached into more than 40 countries. We have made a section in our assignment about the advertising of Nike, so it is not much we will tell you about the `80s, but we can surely tell you something else. We have just heard that Nike had a great assortment, in fact they had more than 200 different models