Marketing Midterm

HEY HEY HEY Y'ALL! 
Your main man, Scott Amador Figueroa, got a 92 on his Marketing Midterm!
I just took what Nike taught me... and I... 

 Thanks for the Support Guys and I promise to keep the A's Coming!

Ch. 17 - Advertising and Public Relations

My Favorite All Time Basketball Player advertised with NIKE.



Advertising helps marketers increase or maintain brand awareness and market share. Big name brands use advertising now-a-days to keep their market share and to maintain their popularity. Nike definitely qualifies as a big name brand who, in the past, has been known to be a "free spending" company when it comes to advertising. Recently, however, they announced that they will cut their advertising budget "heavily" according to Ben Klayman from Reuters.com. Nevertheless, Nike spends so much on this aspect of marketing that people have no worry that Nike will remain at top of the market share in America. In 2009 they had used a advertising budget that was 4 times greater than number two in the competitive market, Adidas.


These cuts of advertising will benefit Nike very nicely because of a new target they plan on to pursue. Online advertising costs way less and you are guaranteed more people will see it. Nike will soon be all over the web and they will save SOOOOO much money.


Besides regular modes of advertising, Nike truly believes in sponsorship to get the big name brand publicity around the world. They sponsor athletes from around the world in every major sport. Basketball, Football, Soccer, Baseball, Cricket, Hockey, Track and Field, Golf, Polo, Swimming, the list goes on and on. Last year, they used about 260 Million dollars on sponsorships! I believe this is why Nike is the best in their market.


They even stick by athletes who are in controversies, including these two world known men.



Lebron was criticized heavily for leaving his hometown Cavaliers and this is his response to the world



You know what happened to Tiger, but Nike used this as an opportunity to help their superstar withstand the negative community.

Ch. 15 - Retailing

Retailing in the United States is a very important part of the economy. In fact, according to the MKTG 3 textbook, "retailers ring up over $4 trillion in sales annually, about 40 percent of the gross domestic product." That tells me that that the each marketer of the respective company has a huge responsibility to do whatever it takes to get us to buy, buy, and buy some more.


This evening I visited one of my favorite stores, Niketown, located at 57th and 5th avenue. I was pleasantly surprised that they allowed me to take photos, probably because tourists are a big part of their target market.  Retailing depends wholly on the customer and if the retailer comes to know the customer, then it is likely that the company will thrive! As I entered Nike, I was looking to find the retailing mix, which is "a combination of the six P's (product, place, promotion, price, presentation, and personnel) to sell goods to the ultimate consumer.


First of all, the PLACE is fabulous because.... come on! 5th AVENUE! That is a perfect location to experience growth and profitability. This is where a majority of tourists come to shop and where people with moderate to high incomes come to spend their money. It's busy all the time and there's 5 floors of product. ENOUGH SAID!

Secondly, PROMOTION at this store is always phenomenal, because of their intriguing ads which induces consumers to the world renowned company of Nike. A very interesting promotional strategy that is used at this place is their Runner's Club. They have three meetings a week and large groups of people get together and run! There are professional coaches there to instruct the group on where to go, how to stretch, and any advice if needed. You can leave your bag at the store carefree because someone is in charge of watching over it. After the run, they set up post-run snacks like bagels or drinks like Gatorade or Jamba Juice. Occasionally, the store allows runners to try out new products to see what they think of them. One important thing about this club...it's FREE!If you look up this Nike on Yelp.com (click here ) people are raving about how great this service is and have given it 4.5 stars!!!


For the PRODUCT and PRICE, people that come here usually know what to expect from Nike. Nike is the leader of sporting goods and at this Nike they have the whole collection of concentrations. They have soccer, football, basketball, tennis, running, golf, hockey, baseball, casual. This is the mecca of Nike's. Customers know and are willing to pay the extra money to get Nike quality. Although it may seem expensive to me, I understand why and I am not complaining when I spend 100 dollars for running shoes. I know they will last and I will be happy with my purchase.

The PRESENTATION is very Nike, for lack of better words. When you walk in you experience the wow factor and you literately smell "Nike." My first time at this store, I loved that there was 5 floors of organized merchandise. They had a lot of variety and colors. You are bound to find something you liked. Each floor is categorized between men and women and by sport. It was very easy to go directly up to your desired department. There was a lot of lighting, highlighting their special merchandise for example, the Jordan label for basketball. Leave it to Nike to Just do It, and have a wonderful environment.


Nike's PERSONNEL are very relaxed and outgoing. At first glance they appear to be knowledgeable about sports and they even seem like athletes themselves. They go along with the "Nike" theme nicely. When I came in the past to buy some running shoes, they were very cordial and let me know what I should look for in a pair of running shoes. I appreciated their help and how quick they got my size for the shoes. 

The rest of the photos of my NIKETOWN trip will be posted on the blog! 

Ch. 6 - Consumer Decision Making

To understand consumer behavior we first must know what it means. According to the MKTG3 text, consumer behavior describes how consumers make purchase decisions and how they use and dispose of the purchased goods or services. The consumers are the people that make your business profitable and thus knowing how to appeal to your certain target market is crucial.

Generally, there are three broad consumer buying decisions categories. They include routine response behavior, limited decision making, and extensive decision making. Nike, as a company, falls into the routine response behavior because of its popularity and satisfaction worldwide. Consumers tend to not put forth much time or involvement in order to buy Nike products. They know what they are buying(the best sports products in the world) from past experiences and low risk (socially, financially, and psychologically).

Nike Football biggest rival: Under Armour

Nike Football consumers, however, fall into the limited decision making category. Although, Nike is preferred by most football athletes, there is serious competition with Under Armour. So consumers take some more time researching the different products and take cost into more consideration.




There are also other factors that influence consumer buying decisions: cultural, social, individual, and psychological.

• Cultural factors are the biggest influence in decision making. Nike understands that culture is dynamic because of it global popularity. They understand culture divides into many subcultures and social classes therefore strategizing how to target each respective group. The downside with Nike is that are a lot of people that culturally find Nike socially irresponsible for its manufacturing process internationally, thus having consumers buy from other competitors. 
• Socially, Nike does well because of its popularity in the world and how it is viewed as fashionable and cool, so people love wearing Nike proudly. Here is the link for Nike's direct fashion for NYC 
• NIKE NYC FASHION

men advertising



women advertising

• Individually, males and females, of all ages, accept what Nike has to offer because its vast array of products for all. Nowadays, people tend to view Nike as sporty and active which is a lifestyle most people around the world strive for. To become healthy and slim.

• Psychologically, Nike is regarded as the best sportswear company in the world, thus having consumers stimuli activated to engage buying Nike product. Consumers perception recognizes that Nike is an acceptable brand to purchase. Most Nike consumers have selective retention because of their constant Nike purchases while knowing that the product was made unethically in other countries. Consumers usually do not CARE!

Ch. 5 - Developing a Global Vision

Global Business has been steadily increasing over the years. In fact over the past two decades, world trade has climbed from $200 Billion a year to over 7 Trillion. This is all because  of changing political structures allowing businesses to have less legal restrictions and that leads to more global trading. Examples would be the North America Free Trade Agreement and the European Union.

Nike is very into its global marketing and selling globally. Internationally, you can find the swoosh symbol anywhere. This is because of their incredible job marketing to different people and environments. A lot of people tend to do a joint venture with Nike because of how recognizable the brand. So that cuts out all of the hard work for Nike because they generally don't have to alter the product or the promotion for the global marketplace. They mainly receive most of their global sales from their futbol (soccer) department because of the popularity of the sport. They sponsor almost every impact player of every country to draw the nations interest in their product. Nike's sales of soccer is current about 1 billion a year, 25 percent of the market. Now that is getting the job done!