MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS MIX ADIDAS VS NIKE

Marketing Communications strategies and mix for athletic shoe brands in the UK: Adidas Vs Nike

Table of contents

INTRODUCTION3

MARKET AND LITERATURE3

RESEARCH METHODS10

Research Design10

Literature Search11

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION11

CONCLUSION14

REFERENCES18

Marketing Communications strategies and mix for athletic shoe brands in the UK: Adidas Vs Nike

Introduction

A company's marketing communications mix consists of its advertising, sales promotions, personal selling, public relations, and direct marketing. This can and should be different for different companies and should be something that distinctly identifies one company from another. With all these aspects coming together, the goal is to communicate customer value and build customer relationships to strengthen the company (Armstrong and Kotler).

Market and literature

Nike as a whole, does a great job at advertising in my opinion. The swoosh symbol is found on everyone of their products and is recognized worldwide, especially their running shoes. Every Nike running shoe has the swoosh sign front and center and there is usually no questioning of whether it is a Nike shoe or not. And of course, who does not recognize the famous saying, "Just do it." Not only does Nike do a great job with advertising with just its logo and simple saying, they also utilize famous athletes to wear and use their products. Advertising can be broad and general at times, but if Nike sponsors an athlete in a particular sport, people watching that sport will see the products the athlete is displaying. This can allow Nike to advertise some of their products that are more geared to a certain sport to the consumers that are particularly interested in that sport (http://www.nike.com/nikeos/p/nike/en_US/). I am aware that Nike is not the only brand that utilizes this form of advertising, but they have certainly mastered it with athletes such as golf star, Tiger Woods.

Personal selling:

Nike utilizes a personal selling method in every one of their retail stores. The sales associates in these stores have direct contact and interaction with the buyers of Nike products. Because they are the individuals that directly communicate with the consumers who are interested in Nike products, they must be able to aid in the process of a successful sale. They are knowledgable of the brand and should be trained in asking customers the 'right' questions in order to figure out what they are looking for. To ensure optimal performance from the sales teams, Nike will often send Nike representatives to retail stores that sell their sneakers to give little presentations to keep the sales associates up-to-date on the products and the technology behind them. I know this from a first hand experience because of my job at a sneaker retail store. We recently had a Nike representative give us a mini training session on the Nike running shoes and then we discussed what the customers in our store looked for most of the time and then gave feedback on the Nike running shoes as well as some competitor brands.

Personal selling allows sales associates to create a relationship with the customer, though it may ...