ositioning itself effectively with young consumers, who have purposely avoided overtly commercial brands. These consumers, particularly extreme and alternative sports enthusiasts, have instead pledged their allegiance to newer, younger brands companies like Adidas who have staged recent comebacks.
Nike's Target Market: Nike shoes target market is the athlete of any age and any gender. Decades ago, Nike shoes were targeted to athletes. Nike shoes are now for athletes and for people who want to look like athletes. Jeff Jensen (1996) explains in Advertising Age that Nike realized that it needed to create specialized footwear in order to maintain their market share. Even large companies who have embraced niche marketing must continue to refine and target their product offerings to different buyer groups. As an example, Nike restaged a multi-billion dollar company that had plateaued by pursuing a segmentation strategy. Nike 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). These specialized shoes were hugely popular. Nike reached peak sales around 1996 with several different specialized lines coming out that year (Jensen, 1996, 2).
B. Psychographics: Changes in the social and economic structure of the country are blurring class lines and that increasing saturation of product categories is leading to fewer physical differences between brands. Therefore, Nike needs to redouble its effort to tap into the emotional elements of decision-making. Thus, the art and science of segmentation based on attitudes, needs, self-image and lifestyle began to take root. Lane Randall (1996) explains in Forbes that Nike executives have made several key steps to ensure their success. They rea...