Chapter 4: The Marketing Environment

Nike got started in 1964 selling low-priced high-quality shoes that were made by a Japanese company. Its strategy of sourcing shoes from low-wage countries in Asia had been one of the fundamentals of the company’s strategy.As economic conditions changed and wages increased in the countries from which Nike originally bought shoes, the company shifted its sources of supply. Nike shoes were coming from China, Vietnam, and Indonesia. As the company’s visibility increased, so did the scrutiny of its practices.



Nike's management analyzes its internal environment by making decisions based on that analysis, seeing what customers would want in their products also called their target market, and how the external environment shapes and remolds that. But every company has a weaknesses, Nike's weakness is to foresee problems in relation to labor and factory conditions at production locations has resulted in bad publicity and declining sales as society and consumers call for more "socially responsible" companies. Because of that Nike's marketing research, the company has decided to revamp its apparel division to be more fashion savvy, and there shoes to be more innovating. Nike creates designs for men, women, and children, running, basketball, and cross-training is some of its top selling product categories.