Product-Nike

The Marketing Mix-Product

This post will relate to the product of the marketing mix and how Nike utilise their product.

The product within the marketing mix is an item that is built or produced to satisfy the needs of a certain group of people. It can be intangible or tangible and be in the form of good or services (District, 2014).

The right type of product must be produced to meet demand of the market. Therefore, during the product development phase, the marketer must do an extensive research on the life cycle of the product they are producing (Tellis, 2006).

Nike-Product

Nike offers an extensive range of sports products including shoes, apparel, equipment and accessories with many being top selling product categories.

Product Mix

The complete range of products present within a company is known as the product mix (Bhasin, 2016).

Nike provides an extensive product mix.

Shoes: Running, basketball, training, tennis, lifestyle, football, walking, basketball and sandals (See image below).

Clothing: T-Shirts, shorts, hoodies, socks, sweatshirts, yoga wear, track pants and joggers.

Equipment: Sunglasses, golf gear, bags, basketball, football, watches, sport monitoring items and sport audio equipment (LLC, 2016).

Product Development

Developing and delivering the right products or services at the right cost with strong marketing support will ensure your competitive. To stay competitive, you will need to keep your offer fresh-that means keeping up with trends in the market, emerging technology and refinements to existing products (The Marketing Mix, 2012).

From their first waffle bottomed running shoe in 1964 to their new self-lacing trainers  Nike provides athletes with some of the most innovative sportswear.

The short video below introduces Nikes latest product the self-lacing trainers.

McAllister (2014) explain that Nike CEO Mark Parker clearly understands his role in innovation. Beginning in 2012 Nike went beyond the swoosh and shoes and successfully launched an innovative electronic device, the fuel band that measures movements.

Nike Fuelband

Nike have also completely reinvented their shoes manufacturing process. Instead of designing a new shoe, they designed a new way of thinking about the manufacturing of athletic shoes. The outcome proved successful with the producing of the ‘Flyknit Racer’ a shoe that ‘is more environmentally friendly and could reduce long term production costs’.

Nike Flyknit Racer Trainer

Product Life Cycle

The product life cycle is the four main stages through which products move: introduction, growth, maturity and decline (Lorette, 2016). Below is the product life cycle for Nike shoes.

-Introduction

When new Nike shoes are being released, there is a lot of television advertisements, posters, billboards and more. They build up awareness to create a desire and demand for the shoes that is at the highest just as the shoes are being released.

-Growth

At this stage sales start to increase as the market has accepted the product. As more and more customers buy this product, the price increases. However, the customers are still willing to pay the price because of the brand they are getting.

-Maturity

In the maturity stage sales reach their peak. The shoes then begin to stay on shelves or in stock for long periods of time as the demand is not as high as it was when they were first introduced.

-Decline

As the shoes remain on the shelves they become ‘old news’ because new shoes are now being released, removing all the hype from this shoe and placing it on the newest shoe that is being released. At this stage the shoe has reached its capacity.

Branding

One of the most important decisions a company can make is branding their product (Fisher, 2014).

Brand Logo

Nike has worldwide recognition for its famous swoosh logo and trademark of ‘just do it’ as seen in the images below.

Brand Recognition

Nike is recognised as one of the most valuable brands in the world. Nike are a global brand this was created by appealing to the runners and athletes who make up their core market along with being one of the earliest companies to outsource most of its manufacturing to Asia (Kasi, 2011).

I feel that Nike is a great manufacturer and provides excellent products. They apply all the correct processes for the product in the marketing mix. From their basic shoes, clothing and equipment to their latest innovations of fuel bands and self lacing shoes they know how to keep up with the market and latest trends by producing the right products.