2.2 Segmentation / target market strategy and justification
There are a wide variety of unique needs that must be segmented so that Nike can satisfy customer needs and achieve great sales opportunities. Most of sports fan differentiate; for example, Nike cannot market extreme sports equipment to the elderly because of the injury risks old people have. As we’ve mentioned before, there are four different types of segmenting strategies that Nike uses (demographic, psychographic, behavioral, and geographical) to target its variety of different types of consumers.
Demographic Segmentation
Demographic segmentation is the most broadly utilized strategy because the characteristics are easily recognized and estimated. Nike uses demographic segmentation based on their gender, age and life-cycle stage. Most importantly to know, Nike targets customers of ages between 15 and 40 putting more weight on teenagers to create a long-term customer relationship. Before the 2014 world cup, Nike made a campaign where young teenagers can get to play football with sponsored professional athletes, inspiring them to become like their idols. Moreover, gender is another critical factor that Nike uses to attract its customers. Regardless of the fact that the majority of Nike’s customers are male, Nike still invested a great deal in females. Nike has established a strategic approach to focus on females by creating a variety of female sport lines. Nike does not segment the market place according to customers’ race, nationality, ethnicity, religion or social class.
Psychographic Segmentation
Additionally, Nike uses psychographic segmentation to target people with different lifestyles, personalities and interests. For this variable to work effectively, Nike aims its focus on people who actually enjoy sports, which is implemented in their regular routines. Nike’s mission statement "bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world." suggests that Nike aims to motivate, inspire and connect all athletes together creating a community and a feeling of belonging to the Nike family. Additionally, Nike runs event such as Nike: Run with Me and social media contests for anyone to join creating a strong customer relationship. Other than the athlete consumers, Nike follows fashion trends and they approach people who follow a fashion lifestyle.
Behavioral Segmentation
With behavioral segmentation, Nike pursues developing a customer loyalty relationship. Nike provides consumers with unique quality and many innovative products to choose from in order for them to purchase the company’s product more often. Customers have the opportunity to share their experiences with friends and family and review Nike’s products online which has a huge effect on the customer’s buying behavior. Nike follows the guidelines “if you have a body you are an athlete.” and “if you are an athlete. Nike’s products make you feel athletic.” This will give the customer a positive attitude toward the products.
Geographical Segmentation
Nike is one of the globe’s most recognizable brands and geographical segmentation strategy allows it to operate efficiently. It segments the market differently based on the region, city and population density. Nike promotes a specific promotional campaign in the United States of America that only work in that particular area because of the difference of culture and tradition that vary compared to other countries and even cities. Sports tend do differ by region; for example, advertisements in Europe are mostly about soccer whereas, in the United States of America they focus on basketball and baseball. According to Nike’s statistics, North America along with Western Europe and China are Nike’s largest market and, in these areas, Nike focuses most of its marketing efforts on these population dense areas with high market value.
Target Market Strategy
Targeting strategy comes right after the segmentation process and it is an important aspect in the marketing strategy, especially when a company is in different businesses (footwear, clothing, sports gear, etc.) like Nike. The company chooses to target the segments that will allow to achieve its goals efficiently. Nike has a large market to serve, making it hard to satisfy all consumer needs and therefore uses differentiated marketing strategy which target more than two segments by developing a marketing mix for each segment. Moreover, Nike provides reachable, innovative and specialized products to target the maximum number of consumers possible. It also has a unique feature for customers to create their own custom-made shoes, which differentiates the brand from other footwear businesses. Nike also uses psychological strategies to target the market, they do so by sponsoring great athletes with many accomplishments, so that the customers think that the company’s products helped the athletes achieve their victories.
2.3 Intended positioning (value proposition) and justification
Nike positions itself to give the world an image of innovation and inspiration attitudes for its brand name. Its value proposition is based on its product superiority and high-quality materials, situated as the most fashionable in the market and are sponsored by pro athletes….