NIKE, INC. Introduction This rese

At the beginning of 1992, Nike was the world leader in the athletic shoe market in terms of overall market share. Nike was not the market share leader in each global regional market, nor was Nike the market share leader in each segment of the athletic shoe market. Nike's primary objective, however, was to become the global market share leaderoverall, in each region, and in each segment.

At the beginning of 1992, Nike was organized as a marketing and research and development company that depended on independent contracting firms to produce the goods developed and marketed by Nike. It is this organizational focus that is at the heart of both Nike's strength and the company's vulnerability. The major problems and issues confronting Nike at the beginning of 1992 were as follows:

1. Marketing and research and development:

a. Distribution. A key Nike objective is the development of control of the distribution of the company's products on a global basis. While the company has made significant gains in this area, problems remain.

b. Product/target market relationship. Nike defines its athletic shoes as performance products, and identifies the target market for these products as persons pursuing fitness regimes. There are indications that Nike may be misreading the

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common stock (Rindos, 1992a, p. 1661). Reebok International went from absolutely nowhere in 1979 to the dominant firm in the athletic shoe market by 1985 (Sedgwick, 1989, pp. 3031). The company achieved this success through the application of three of the procedures employed by Japanese firms in the development of market dominance. These procedures are (1) the creation of opportunity, (2) adapting to latent consumer preferences, and (3) marketing creativity. As stated above, the original Reebok shoe did not sell well in the United States. In 1982, however, Reebok discovered that women were asking shoe retailers for something called an aerobics shoe. Reebok set out to develop such a shoe; thus, adapting its strategy to consumer preferences. Initially, the shoe did not sell much better than had the original Reebok athletic shoe. Reebok then, however, employed marketing creativity; the company placed its new shoe on the feet of the "slim and sexy" instructors of aerobics classes (Sedgwick, 1989, p. 31). Reebok, significantly, did not attempt to place its shoes on television aerobics instructors, but, rather, on those instructors who were in front of actual aerobics classes around the country. Sales zoomed in the lasthalf
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Approximate Word count = 2570
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)