New Products

One of Nike's new products currently in development is the Personal Sports Audio (PSA) Play 120. The MP3 is at an all time high in sales and Nike saw this as a golden opportunity for a new product. The device was designed to be compatibale, portable, and convenient to its users. Nike teamed up with the digital audio industry leader: S3 to assure that these qualities will be implemented. The product consists of three parts: the headphones, the portable player, and a remote to control the player. The portable player is designed to be attached to the arm so it will not interfere while the user is exersising. The remote is a hand held device that allows you to change the music or sports channel without ever having to touch the portable device itself. Because there are so many MP3 players already in the market, Nike designed the PSA Play 120 in order to fit the unique needs of an athlete, and not just the average consumer.

Product development

Developing new products is vital in any goods oriented company. No matter how successful a product may be, it is inevitable that the product's life cycle will reach an end at some point. Therefore, the pressure is on the company to create new products that will appeal to their target markets. Nike has adapted to the new digital world and has "Essentially, Nike has stuck a wire in sports," said Clare Hamill, Vice President of Nike Equipment. Nike's plan is to release five new tech-savvy products by the Holiday season.

Personal Selling

Personal Selling is direct communication between a sales representative and one or more prospective buyers. Personal selling is considered to be more efficient than other forms of promotion because the sales people target qualified prospects which cuts down on wasted time with unlikely buyers. Nike has found it effective to send sales representatives to retail stores in order to prompt the employees on what they are really selling. Consumers are turned off when employees aren't knowledgeable about their products or services.

Sales Promotion

Sales Promotion is one of the four components in the Promotional Mix. The other three components are advertising, personal selling, and public relations. The Sales Promotion aspect gives the consumers a incentive to purchase a good or service immediately. Some sales promotions include coupons and rebates, premiums, loyalty marketing programs, contests and sweepstakes, sampling, P-O-P, and the Internet. Nike has incorporated a variety of these techniques to give their consumers that much more of a reason to buy their products. One of Nike's more recent sales promotion was the AF1 playoffs. The purpose was to promote their new NikeID website which allows you to customize your Nike products. The contest was set up so that anyone could enter by just visiting the NikeID website and creating a shoe design. The top five shoe designs, voted by the contestants themselves, will receive an exclusive pair of Nike Air Force 1's that aren't sold to the public.

Public Relations

Public Relations main purpose in most company's is to gain public understanding an acceptance. A large of part of public relations is publicity; the effort to capture media attention. What could offer more of an opportunity to increase global awareness than the Olympics. Nike sponsored the U.S. basketball team in the 08' Olympics and in return, the players used Nike shoes and the Nike logo on their jerseys. This was a very effective public relations program for a number of reasons. First, the Olympics is the most watched event in the world. Therefore, Nike was able to advertise their brand to the entire world just by having the participants use their products. Second, people generally react more to action than words. Nike could have made 1000 commericals during the Olympics but how do the potential customers know the product really performs the way Nike says it does. By sponsoring the U.S. basketball team, (who practically breezed through to the gold medal besides the final game) it gave the perception to the audience that Nike products really do perform and even the best of the best at their sport used Nike to succeed.

Advertisement

The purpose of this advertisement was to emphasize the "Just Do It" mentality of Nike. The words say "You either can today, or you didn't". The ad implies that if you want to go do something, then just do it. be active. don't sit around and think about the outcomes or the reasons why you shouldn't go. If you want to do something then dont let anything hold you back. Grab your Nike gear and Just Do It!

Best Buy Prices

During my process of pruchasing a t.v. at Best Buy, I noticed a few different pricing strategies. At first we began out search looking for a smaller t.v. for the time being. We realized that there were no sales on the t.v.s that we were searching for. The t.vs "on sale" were the higher position brand t.v.s. Even though the t.v. was still more than what we planned on spending, the sale gave the consumer (which was me in this situation) a perception of a deal or bargain. We decided to buy a Sony which was $200 more than what we expected to spend. The combination of the sale on the t.v. and the difference in position between Sony and Dynex were the deciding factors that altered our purchase decision.

Pricing Concepts

Price is that which is given up in an exchange to acquire a good or service. Consumers are generally interested in obtaining "reasonable price," which really means perceived reasonable value at the time of the transaction. Nike's prices are based on the idea that consumers will perceive a product with a high price as a predictor of good quality. Position also plays a role for Nike's pricing. Nike has spent a lot of money to promote their brand as the top of their market. Because the Nike swoosh has become such a prestigous logo, consumers are willing to pay the extra money for just that.

Best Buy Encounter

The only problem with roommates moving out is the stuff they bring with them. This weekend I found myself in need of a television after my roommate unfortunately brought his 42" Sony flat screen along with him to his new apartment. Best Buy was the most conveniently located store which was the main reason we decided to shop there. We waited in the t.v. area for approximately 5 minutes until we found an employee to help us. Once we described what t.v. we were looking for, she escorted us to the proper section and then informed us of the current t.v.s on sale, but only mentioned t.v.s larger than what we planned on buying (trading up). After we had decided which t.v. we wanted to purchase, she attempted the suggestion selling technique; asking if we wanted the HDMI cables or a surround sound system. Although I had no intention of buying the surround sound system, I figured I could pretend to be interested so that I would have more material for my blog post. I noticed that she brought us to the most expensive surround sound system priced at 2000$! Considering the t.v. we decided to buy was around 500$, it seemed a little ridiculous to lead us to a music system worth four times the price of the actual t.v.

Retailing

Retailing are all the activities directly related to the sale of goods and services to the ultimate consumer. Nike is almost entirely a retail company with the exception of selling plastic products to other manufacturers. Their products are sold in a variety of retailing operations such as non-store retailing, specialty stores, discount stores, and department stores. Nike sells its products to an estimated 20,000 retail accounts in the United States and in almost 200 countries around the world.