Nike Company Marketing Strategy and the Differences Between Different Culture

1. Introduction

It has been acknowledged, business environment has became more complex. As a result, an increasing number of companies or organisations have paid more attention on their business strategies, of which marketing strategy could be one of the most vital tactics. In addition, if companies or organisations want to get high performance in this complex environment, an excellent marketing strategy could help them to occupy a big marketing share. Furthermore, the marketing strategy also should be adopted according to various customer needs (Malhota, et al, 2010).

According to Fornell and Wernerfelt (1987: 337), ‘firms improve sales and market shares in a variety of ways’. They also claim that ‘Successful marketing strategy basically depends on the firm’s ability to identify and influence the flows of customers into and out of its franchise and into and out of the market.’

Firstly, most successful companies have their brand influence and their value. From its advertisement people always can see ‘just do it’, which has attracted the attention of people. Meanwhile, this sentence also has aroused the courage of people, when they face difficulties and challenges. Thus how Nike Company has used their marketing strategy to expand the influence of brand and increase its value in the world is an interesting topic to analyse.

Secondly, different countries may have dissimilar culture. Moreover, because customer behaviour might be affected by culture, a successful company should have different marketing strategy to face the local markets (mooij, 2004). The cultural differences may influence consumer’s behaviours, and how Nike has used its local marketing strategy to face this is another interesting gambit.

First, a literature will provide a brief background to Nike which will be followed by different types of marketing. Finally, tow methods will be chose to analysis general marketing strategy of Nike and the different customer’s behaviour in China and the UK.

2. Literature review

Nike, Inc was created by Philip Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman, who worked in University of Oregon of USA in January 1964.At the beginning, Nike was well-known as “Blue Ribbon Sports”(Nike, 2011). After this, in 1971 Carolyn Davidson helped this company to design a logo, which was “Swoosh” (The Independent, 2008). Until recent years, this logo not only has become a symbol of Nike, it also has illustrated an aim of forward motion to other sports producers.

2.1 National marketing

Obviously, Nike could be one of the most famous brands around the world. Meanwhile, in the global market, Nike always focuses on its brand image and brand value. Randall (2000) claimed that, the brand could be a company’s soul, therefore, without brand image and brand value the company will