Chapter eleven: Developing and Managing Products

What is a new product?

A new product is a product that is new to the world, the market, the producer, the seller, or some combination of these. New products are important because they replace older versions of products or just because comsumers want to see something new and different to catch their attention. By having new products if they are affective in the market, they can increase revenues, profits and can bring more and more loyal costumers to the company.
Nike has sneakers named after basketball players and each year they upgrade these sneakers and make them feel and look better to attract more consumers. One pair of these sneakers is named after Kevin Durant and they are called "Nike Zoom KD V iD". These are the 5th shoes made after him and with each new pair came a different inspiration. Also them being iD sneakers meaning that you can customize them and make them your own, brings more costumers because they can change the color of the shoe, put their initials in them and change the bottom of it. Here is a look:

 

 

Every year, basketball stars like Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, and the Most famous one of all Michael Jordan get their sneakers changed to look better. Nike chooses to remodel and upgrade these sneakers because of the demand for them. Its basically because of the name behind the products and because of how they look. Nike does a great job of being updated in consumer's lifes and what they like or dislike and create products to go with that. Each product has a life cycle, with a begining and an end, Nike keeps their products living by upgrading and remodeling them to attract customers to them because competitors like Adidas and Under Armour are on the rise.  

 

Nike+ FuelBand:

 

Nike also came out with a product unseen before separating them even more from competitors, here are some looks on this product:

 

 



Chapter Sixteen: Integrated Marketing Communications

 

What is promotion?
Promotion is communication by marketers that informs, persuades, and reminds potential buyers in order to influence an opinion or elicit a response. Promotion has four elements which are advertising, public relations, personal selling, and sales promotion. These elements combined are called the promotional mix. Nike promotes their business through T.V. ads, social media, magazines and with many sponsorships by professional athletes.
By having so many athletes sponsors, Nike became a strong competitor in the sporting goods industry. One of these athletes today is a NFL player by the name Calvin Johnson. Nike had him promote clothing called "Nike Pro Combat Hyperwarm". Here is a video: 

 

 

Nike also had ads in their website promoting this and if you went on their Facebook page, you will see pictures of this product and a link to the nike website.Here is the link: http://www.nike.com/us/en_us/c/training/pro-combat-hyperwarm

Nike also promoted this products in their stores. If you go into Niketown, you would see employees wearing these shirts and pants while talking with customers.

I personally like the way Nike promotes their products because they use different ways of promotions and by having big time athletes in every sport adversing their stylish products have sports fans wanting to buy these products even though they might not even play sports. Nike focuses on what the consumer wants and needs. I recently found out about one of the reasons why Nike is the leading competitor in the sporting goods industry and what makes them different from other competitors. I was looking throught different vidoes on youtube and i came across this video: 

 

Nike is always involved and asks alot of questions to athletes about their products and what they like or dislike about them and Nike then goes back and improves their products before putting them back in the market. They want to make sure that the consumers are satisfied and are continuing to buy more and more. This is when marketing communication comes in. Communication is the process by which meanings are exchanged or shared through a common set of symbols. There are two types of communications: Interpersonal communication which is direct face to face communication between two or more people and there is Mass communication. Nike uses interpersonal communication more with athletes as seen in the video or it can be used when a costumer walks into the store to speak with an employee. Mass communication involves a larger group of people so its more like advertising on their websites or on T.V. or magazines.

 



 

 



 

 

Chapter ten: Product Concept

 

 

What is a product?

 

A product is defined as everything, both favorable and unfavorable, that a person receives in an exchange. Products are classified as two types, either business products or consumer products. Nike falls into the consumer products category with are products bought to satisfy an individual's personal wants.  

 

 

 

 

 

With all products come product items, lines and mixes.A product item is a specific version of a product that can be designated as a distinct offering among an organization's products. Product lines are a group of closely related product items. Product mixes are all products that an organization offers. Nike first started by selling only running shoes back in 1964, from there Nike expanded its product line depth to selling shoes for sports including, soccer, football, basketball, skateboarding, golf, tennis and other sports and also selling boots and everyday sneaker wear with stylish looks. Nike also expanded its product mix width by offering not only shoes but also clothing for men, women and kids and also offering sports gear for almost every type of sport.

Branding

What is a brand?

A brand is a name, term, symbol, design, or combination thereof that identifies a seller's products and differentiates them from competitors' products.

The name "Nike" was taken from the Greek and means "goddess of victory". The Nike "swoosh" trade mark logo was created in 1971 by Carolyn Davidson, a graphic design student from Portland State University. The logo was registered as a trademark in 1995. Nike also has this famous slogan " JUST DO IT", which was first introduced in the late 1980s and became an instant success. 

Nike is  the largest seller of athletic footwear and apparel in the world. Nike sells its products through retailers, its own stores, internet and through a mix of independent distributors in more than 170 countries around the world. Nike has these benefits of being very successful because its a Franchisor. Nike also owns the brands Cole Haan, Converse, Hurley and Umbro.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter eighteen: Sales Promotion and Personal Selling

Sales Promotion- is marketing communication activities, other than advertising, personal selling, and public relations, in which a short-term incentive motivates consumers or members of the distribution channel to purchase a good or service immediately, either by lowering the price or by adding value.

Nike being one of the biggest shoe selling companies help customers and brings in more customers by having  products on sale. Nike has a clearance section in their website for products that been online for a while and want to sell them all, having discounts on many products from all ranges like women's shoes, running shoes, basketball shoes, tennis shoes, soccer cleats, baseball cleats and football cleats. Nike also sells their kids shoes in a cheaper price so this brings parents in to buy shoes for their kids because of the conveniete prices.
Here is the website: http://store.nike.com/us/en_us/?l=shop,clearance&cp=USNS_KW_0611081618
There are also other websites like dealtakers.com that have nike.com coupons codes and promotional codes for athletic shoes and sports apparel. Websites Zappos.com offer free shipping on any nike product.
Here are the links to these two websites:
http://www.dealtaker.com/Nike-coupon-code-a2153-c.html
http://www.zappos.com/nike

Nike also being a franchisor, has their products being sold in stores like Finishline, Footlocker, Hyperactive, JimmyJazz and Dr.jays. Those stores also have their on sales promotions on the nike shoes they sell. Nike also has many sales when holidays are coming up, here is an ad for a old sales promotion:




Personal Selling- is a purchase situation involving a personal, paid-for communication between two people in an attempt to influence eachother.

When selling a product, the seller has to really know what they are talking about in order to persuade a customer to buy their product. I think that nike does a good job in this aspect because when i went into Niketown a couple of weeks back, every floor sold different shoes and sports apperal and in every floor, the employees knew what they were talking and strongly believed in what they said and sold. Anytime i had a question i could've went to any employee and trust in what they told me about the product i asked about.

Chapter seventeen: Advertising and Public Relations

 

 

What is advertising?

Advertising is defined as impersonal, one-way mass communication about a product or organization.

 

Advertising is a big part in marketing for businesses to show their products to the world by having things like commercials on TV and billboards around different cities, which is the traditional way of advertising. Nike's spending on TV and print advertising in the U.S. has dropped by 40% in only 3 years even though the total marketing budget for Nike has hit a record and increased to 2.4 billion last year.

 

So where has all this money gone to?

Well this is an easy question to answer. Nike has moved from TV advertisment and commercials to advertising through social medias like Facebook and Twitter. Nike is going where the customer is and the believe that the digital world allows the brand to interact even more closely with its consumers. Giving Nike the egde in its industry.

Examples of Nike's new advertising campaigns:

 

Nike right now has this 30-story high billboard that posts headlines from Twitter. Here is a video:

Nike also launches commercials and Ads on its Facebook page rather than on television. This brings the commercials straight to the customer when they get on Facebook rather than to wait for the commercials to hit the television. Here is one of those commercials:

 

 

Chapter fifthteen: Retailing 

 



Retailing- All the activities directly related to the sale of goods and services to the ultimate consumer for personal, nonbusiness use.

 

What kind of store is Nike?

 Nike is a franchise, a franchise is a continuing relationship in which a franchiser grants to a franchisee rights to operate or sell a product. Even though Nike has its own stores around the world, they allow other stores like Footlocker and Modells to sell their products.  

They also do electronic retailing(online retailing) which is, a type of shopping available to consumers with personal computers and access to the Internet. Nike many have operations in 160 countries but that doesn't mean that there is an actual Niketown store near you but there are many others stores that sell their products. If that isn't good enough, Nike has their website online which is: http://www.nike.com/us/en_us/.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                       

 

I recently visited the Niketown at 6 East 57th Street, New York, NY. As I walked into the store I saw this (picture to the left). Its football season so Nike is promoting their new NFL jerseys, gloves and cleats as you walk in the store by having them in display. Walking around the store I saw almost every employee wearing these NFL jerseys. This Niketown is 5 floors high and each level sells different products for each sport including basketball, football, soccer, tennis and track. If you go to each floors you would see sneakers for each sport and employing promoting the newest products by wearing them as they talk to costumers. The employees were nice and when I asked questions about certain shoes they knew what they were talking about and made things clear for me. I recommend consumers to visit Niketown and feel the Nike experience.

Chapter six: Consumer Decision Making

Consumer behavior- Describes how consumers make purchase decisions and how they use and dispose of the purchased goods or services.

Giving reasons for consumers to buy your products is key. Adapting to consumer's decision making and knowing what they want or need is important in having a successful company. Consumers generally follow the 5 step consumer decision-making process when buying new or expensive products. The 5 steps are: need recognition, information search, evaluation or alternatives, purchase and postpurchase behavior. Nike helps consumers make their decision making process easier by having ads and commercials explaing their products and making their products stylish to make consumers want the product. The commercials catch the attentions of consumers by being flashy and unique but also, having big name athletes bring more consumers to certain products. Believing that the product will make you play like the athlete makes people want to by the product but in most cases, this is not true. Other consumers by the products for fashion reasons.

Lebron James came out with a new sneaker called the Lebron X. Nike came up with commercials advertising these sneakers and having ads in Nike.com talking about the benefits of the shoe and the style of the shoe. Its all about how the sneaker looks so designers have to do a great job of desiging the sneaker and making it stylish to bring the attention of the consumer.Here is the ad of the Lebron X sneakers in Nike.com:   

http://www.nike.com/us/en_us/c/basketball/lebron-10-plus&cp=USNS_KW_0611081618






Also having commercials showing the product and the athlete behind it brings a lot of attention to it and makes consumers want to look into the product more and later on buy it. Here is a commercial on the Lebron X sneakers: