Nike is one of the world’s best athlete wear manufacturing and supplying companies. From the daily workout clothing & shoes to the signature shoes & sportswear, Nike designs everything. Nike has collaborated with various famous sports athletes globally in every sport.
After working from 1964, Nike brand positioning was established for a few years. Nike has invested lots of effort and time in creating this leadership position in the market. Nike has earned all its success significantly because of its secret marketing strategies.
Thus, I have analyzed every step of Nike for a long time. And in this guide, we will reveal all the secret positioning strategies of Nike.
If you also want to know about all these experiences. Take out just 2 minutes of your life and read this guide to grab some life-changing lessons.
What Is Nike Brand Positioning?
The founders of Nike – Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman, were athletes of their times. Thus, they knew the importance of good shoes in an athletic career. They also knew the athletes’ wants, needs, and pain points regarding the shoes. At that time, no excellent athletic shoe brands were on the market.
Both the founders have redesigned the existing market shoes to make them lighter and more durable so they could last longer. The initial market segmentation of Nike was the “runners.” They have to provide them with lightweight, comfortable, and long-lasting shoes. Nike repositioning strategy is the biggest reason for today’s Nike’s success.
Today, Nike collaborates with all the famous athletes worldwide and promotes its shoes in every popular sport.
For example, Nike collaborated with Michael Jordan and then designed and launched the Jordan shoe series. It has become a global success. It has also set up the Nike positioning statement in the basketball market.
Likewise, Nike has partnered with almost every prominent athlete in every game globally. It created the Nike market positioning and brand positioning.
Nike Brand Strategy
Nike was one of the best observers from its very start and brought several timely evolutions. Thus they have set their milestones in the market. Everyone knows that the Nike positioning strategy and
STP analysis of Nike significantly contributes to Nike’s immense success today.
Nike has thoroughly analyzed the life of the people and accordingly designed and evolved its brand strategies. Currently, the Nike brand strategy is subjected to making the people feel the hero of their own story and conquering their inner villain – laziness. They use this strategy in most of their marketing advertisements and campaigns.
Nike has utilized emotional branding and empowered people to gain loyalty and trust.
For example, you would have seen their women empowering campaigns that have inspired many women, and thus it has made crores of business for Nike.
Nike Market Positioning
Market Positioning refers to placing the brand at the top list among its competitors. Nike brand positioning statement clearly defines that Nike has strategically positioned itself in the mind of the sportswear market. Everyone believes that Nike provides innovative and premium products in the athlete wear industry among all the existing brands in the market.
If you carefully look at the swoosh logo of Nike, its “Just Do It” slogan and its all of the empowering advertising campaigns.
You will see that Nike market positioning is established as an ambitious and victorious brand. Nike knows all the athletes’ needs, wants, and pain points. Thus, it connects with them from heart to heart. This brand has created a belief system in the mind of the entire market that they are the best in the world.
Market Segmentation of Nike
Marketing segmentation categorizes a brand’s target market into certain achievable and approachable groups.
Likewise, the market segmentation of Nike has also divided its segments based on the various needs, priorities, demographics, shared interests, and behavioural or psychographic criteria. Nike has divided its geographic, demographic, Psychographic, and behavioural segments.
Geographic Segmentation
Nike has inaugurated its physical stores in various parts of the world. They have introduced the products based on the chronic life cycle of the individual geographic location. Different geographic locations have different crazes. Thus, Nike’s segmentation targeting and positioning differ from country to country.
For example, Nike runs various advertising campaigns in all of the countries globally, but differently in each country. They promote their products through Baseball and Football in the US, Soccer in Europe, Cricket equipment in India, and Rugby in England and Sydney.
Demographic Segmentation
Nike has divided most of the targeted market based on the demographics such as age groups, gender, income, etc. Then, they classified their products into the different age groups of 15-55. They have also classified their products among men, women, and kids. Nike also offers various deals and discounts to be grabbed by people who can not afford Nike products without a specific discount.
Psychographic Segmentation
In the Psychographic segmentation, Nike analyzes the target market’s needs, wants, and interests. Here, Nike creates the products for a specific set of audience. Who are more interested in creative and variety of products.
Behavioural Segmentation
In the Behavioral segment, Nike reads the behaviour and preferences of each customer. It helps provide them with comfortable, long-lasting, and lightweight sportswear. You would have seen Nike launching different series for a specific audience. Here, Nike sells the feeling of athletes if they wear their products. Nike also encourages customers to share their experiences with friends and family. Thus, it gives birth to “word of mouth.”
STP Analysis of Nike
STP analysis of Nike and its implementation is the only reason for its immense success of Nike. In this section, we will discuss the STP (Segmentation – Targeting – Positioning) of Nike:
Segmentation
Market segmentation means categorizing the mass target market into sub-groups of similar characteristics to make it more approachable and achievable. Segmentation helps understand the customers more detailedly and attain a competitive edge in serving the needs and wants of the customers.
Nike has divided its market segments into four types – Geographic, Demographic, Psychographic, and Behavioral. We have discussed this section previously in this article.
Targeting
Once the segmentation is done, the brand starts creating the Targeting strategy. Here, Nike divides their team or groups into creating different future business strategies for different sub-segments. These marketing teams or groups through various essential decisions such as:
- Criteria to evaluate the target market
- In which market should we enter
- Most valuable market segments
Before deciding or finalizing any potential market segment – Nike continually analyzes the size and growth of the segment, its structural attractiveness of the segment, and the resources & objectives of the company. It always helps Nike to opt for the right target market. Thus, they also work hard the same way in strategizing marketing tactics.
Positioning
Positioning is the last and core step in creating professional marketing plans. It also helps in setting up smart objectives. In the follow-up, marketers design a marketing program that resonates with specific audiences. Therefore, it brings sales and conversions, which helps in setting up the Nike brand positioning.
Final Words
Nike’s brand positioning has taken a lot of its strategies and time to reach this stage of success. We hope you like the article and find many life-learning marketing strategies you can apply to your brand.