Ch. 10 - Product Concepts

Nike Inc. has been apart of the athletic apparel market ever since its inception as Nike Inc. on May 30th, 1971, and has always been known for innovating and making better a product that already exists. Bill Bowerman the co-founder of Nike started his run of product concepts back when he would pull apart the then modern running shoes of his day and try and see how he could make them lighter while at the same time not losing the durability and flexibility that a running shoe has to offer the athlete. Bowerman was always striving to make the current running shoe better in his day, and had that attitude to make better and innovate an existing product throughout his company. Innovation is a very important factor, probably the most important when it comes to Nike's product concept approach. Personalized collections lie in that field of their concepts as well, having athletes from various sports custom design products for Nike to sell to consumers.

Kobe Bryant Nike Ad

 Nike through its sale of sneakers is probably the biggest of products for them, as they draw the most attention and bring in the most revenue for the company. Nike preaching innovation is well applied as Nike is able to instill and put forth the best and latest fashionable, technological and design trends and patterns and directions that are "in" in today's world and today's consumer base. One thing Nike does well is having a series of numerous top athletes being represented by them, and having them design apparel and especially sneakers for them to sell. The Nike basketball shoes sold by them that are designed by and represent stars such as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Kevin Durant sell especially well. They have their super star athletes sit down with a designer and they then go ahead and design the sneaker and select the color ways and everything from the laces to the sole of the sneaker and put it out for the consumer. The fact that Nike has these athletes design these sneakers personally not only makes the sneaker more appealing to consumers, but gives it more reason to be purchased. 


Concept of A shoe

The designs of these players are very unique as most of their designs have a story or a meaning behind them as well as a direction for the consumers, which most other athletes from other companies do not have or really apply. The personal ties and stories and the personalization done by them is huge for Nike's product concepts. Kevin Durant especially always has a personal tie and a back story and a direction for the consumer's feeling to why and how he designed a certain sneaker and gave it certain colors and features, and offers his personal story to it. As all these factors play in, Nike's shoes I would consider to be a shopping product, as consumers are constantly looking up info on them and are willing to spend more on them, as these products are more expensive than others and are not found in all stores or are hard to find or only have limited availability. Nike is always updating and modifying and improving their products on a regular basis, and releasing new sneakers as often as possible. For example, every winter Nike will release a newly designed line of sneakers for the winter season, and does the same for the summer season as well. They are constantly making new and improved designs available for a consumer. As well as the actual design of the shoe Nike keeps intact the idea of using environmentally safe and beneficiary materials when making sneakers, as most of the materials they use in the designing are from recycled sneakers.   

Ch. 17 - Personal Selling and Sales Management

Nike is an internationally known company that focuses on relationship selling. They work hard on developing their long term relationships with individual consumers. Through their innovative products and technology they’ve been able to instill that relationship into one’s daily life. Whether that be through the Nike running app, the Nike Fuel Band, or the apparel made by Nike. Nike has done a very good job keeping their customers satisfied and coming back for more. If it’s not the name that customers are coming for then it’s the quality. Nike has many competitors in the sportswear industry so too keep its customers satisfied they listen to what the community has to say. They do a phenomenal job of following the five service quality dimensions which entails of reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles. IN terms of reliability their products are effective and often supersede expectations. Nike also values their customer service. I recently ordered a pair of sneakers from Nike.com and they didn’t suit my liking. So I called Nike’s customer service and not only were they able direct with different ways to return the product, I was also given $10 off my next purchase as an incentive. With all of this the Nike team either develops new ways of helping the customer with what they want as well as develop new product to better fit what the majority is demanding. 

Through Personal Selling, Nike is able to go the less expensive route (in comparison to advertisement) and the more direct and convincing route when dealing with customers and trying to sell their brand products to consumers. Nike generally makes most of its money from selling its products to many retailers to go and sell in their stores, such as Foot Locker, Modells, Champs, Finish Line and other large athletic sneaker and apparel stores. Besides the in person, in store impact, the websites of Nike and their retailers offer a very well presented and put together place for the consumer to research and look at what they may want to purchase before actually entering a store in person and being taught about the product. This is very important in today's world since most people go online and shop around and look at different retailers and websites for information on a specific product rather than go to numerous stores in person to conduct research. Online options offer these customers more of a variety and size of stock to look at and consider purchasing. Nike's brand and its "Swoosh" logo is the way how personal sales emphasize to the customer of Nike products. Nike does this through its own website as mentioned above, but most importantly through its employees in their stores and the other employees at various retailers of theirs. Whether in the Nike store or in Nike retailers, these employees are always available and are always able to offer the best and quickest information of a product.