MANAGING PRODUCTS & BRANDS INTG1 COURSE PROJECT You will work on a product development plan for a major CPG (e.g. Unilever, Kraft, PepsiCo) or Consumer Electronics company (e.g. Sony, Lenovo, Samsung) that will require your team to write up an analysis, conclusions and specific recommendations. The project also includes an accompanying presentation that will be presented in class. Details  Team: Pre-selected  Subject: Create a product development plan and brand strategy for a major CPG or consumer electronics company; options below: o A net new product brand for the chosen company o A brand extension of an existing brand (incl.: endorsed brand, sub-brand) o An improvement of an existing brand o A re-positioning of an existing product brand (incl.: reviving a tired brand)  Deliverable: Written report (6-12 pages)  Presentation: All members must present Outline 1. The Company – a. Brief company background b. Situation Analysis c. Rationale for choosing company 2. The Opportunity – a. SWOT Analysis b. Opportunity ID c. Conception Generation (consider a couple different options d. Product Concept Statement 3. The New Product – a. New product type (existing or new) b. Market Opportunity (quantified) c. Competitor Analysis d. Perceptual Map e. Target Audience 4. The Brand – a. Description of the brad identity b. Value proposition recommendation c. The brand essence/tagline d. Strategic imperatives e. Develop a brand architecture 5. The GTM Strategy – a. Product Considerations/Plan b. Pricing Considerations/Plan c. Distribution Considerations/Plan d. Promotion Considerations/Plan Timeline October 11th– A note outlining: 1. The company selected November 15th – A brief memo outlining: 1. The new product concept Dec 6th – Projects Due: 1. Group Presentations 2. Submit written report Nike “Brand Strategy” Brand Description Nike engages in the design, development, marketing and sale of athletic footwear, apparel, accessories, equipment and services. It operates through the following segments: North America Europe, Middle East and Africa, China, Asia Pacific and Latin America. Nike has more than 73,100 employees and in the brand ś name they are committed to create a better, more sustainable future for their people, planet and communities through the power of sport. Brand History Blue Ribbon Sports was founded in 1964 They opened their first retail outlet in 1966 and launched the Nike brand shoe in 1972. The company was renamed Nike, Inc. in 1978 and went public two years later. By 1980 they were buying a lot of different shoe companies, like Cole Haan in 1988 (later sold in 2012), Converse in 2003, Canstar Sports in 1994 (later sold in 2008), Umbro in 2008 (later sold in 2012) They are famous for their great partnership throughout the years with athletes such as Michael Jordan, Mia Hamm, Roger Federer and Tiger Woods. Founder/Key Management Team Nike was founded by Bill Bowerman, a track-and-field coach at the University of Oregon (died in 1999), and his former student Phil Knight. Phil Knight was a certified public accountant and director of Nike 4 years after the company was founded, except for the period from June 1983 to September 1984, until 2004 when he became chairman Emeritus for Nike. Mark Parker joined Nike in 1979 broughting innovative concepts and engineering expertise into all of his roles in the Nike company such as Vice president of consumer product marketing, vice president of global footwear and co president of the Nike brand, now a days is the president and CEO of the company. Andy Campion joined Nike in 2007, since 2010 he is Chief Financial Officer, responsible for leading all aspects of financial management for the company. Elliot Hill, President of consumer and marketplace, he is responsible for Nike ́s 4 geographic operating regions and he is also in charge of the Sales, Marketing and direct organization teams in Nike. There are more people in the management team such as Hilary Krane (EVP, Chief Administrative Officer And General Counsel), Monique Matherson (EVP, Global Human Resources), John Slusher (EVP, Global Sports Marketing), Michael Spillane (President of Categories and Product), and Eric Spunk (Chief Operating Officer) Heritage of the Brand When Nike was founded, it ́s founders just wanted to create a footwear to improve athlete performance with an innovative product. More than 50 years later, Nike is well known for getting their customer to challenge themselves, create achievement and their maximum performance. As Michael Spillane, Nike president of products and categories, once said: “We’re the largest footwear brand at $21 billion. We’re the largest athletic apparel brand at $9.6 billion. And in footwear, we hold the #1 market share in all markets and all major categories. It means we can amplify our brand message into a global conversation.” Target Consumer Audience(s) The company focuses on athletes, and by athletes it is not just people that enjoy doing exercise but the people that enjoy watching it, talk about it or do it but in small quantities. Nike is for 15-40 year old, but they are focusing on the young adult to create long term awareness and loyalty, also they are focusing on men and women equally even though women sales are only 20% of the total sales but they are trying to expand this number. And finally even though they say they don't have an income focus, based on their prices they are focusing on medium to high household income Distribution Nike’s largest markets are North America followed by Western Europe and China. In these geographies Nike’s marketing efforts are largely focused on urban areas with high market densities. Direct Channel Nike is focusing right now on their direct retail platform, both online and offline, which has been growing double digit in 2018 Nike Customer Experience (NCX) platform has grown 100% in 2018 and the NikePlus App has more than 100 million customers and they are planning one triple that number in 2023 Nike has 7,000 branded stores operating right now, offering superior customer experience, quality service and powerful storytelling Indirect channel Like the rest of the brands, Nike is looking to emphasize on the direct to consumer channel but their indirect channels, such as wholesale distribution still accounts for 70% of the total sales in 2018 (this number has decreased since 2017 were the share was 82%), Nike has a massive number of distribution partners, 30,000 retailers, but one of their new strategies is to only have 40 retail partners, that will give the customer the best experience possible. Some of these 40 retailers are Foot Locker, Nordstrom, Dick´s Sporting goods, and on the digital part Amazon, Asos, Jet.com etc. Pricing Nike has such a great positioning that they were able to have a Value Pricing strategy, in which their prices uncover the right blend of design and value that satisfy their clients and at the same time they could charge higher prices for their products. In the future they are planning on continuing with this price hiking strategy, because the footwear industry prices are increasing on an average of 5% worldwide, so Nike and the rest of the industry are taking advantage of this trend and increasing their prices with products with more technology, innovation and most importantly “special editions” Positioning within the company portfolio Nike positioning statement is “For serious athletes, Nike gives confidence that provides the perfect shoe for every sport”. Nike is one of the brands nowadays that can truly follow the Customer Based Brand Equity Model. Salience, Nike is a Global leader in the sports industry, they have endorsed positioning with their real athletes premium brand, selling well-designed and high value products. Performance: Nike has a great reputation for giving the best quality and innovation on their products Imagery: Nike gives the perfect example of status, community and self confidence by giving the sense of the ability to do anything Judgement: Nike has the perfect combination between credibility and quality on their products by always giving innovation and technology. Feelings: Nike has built on their customers a feel of excitement, security, social approval, and special self achievement with their famous tagline “Just do it” Resonance: Throughout the years they have been able to create a very strong bond between Nike and their customers, making true loyal customers to the brand. Detailed Analysis of Product Category The new brand will be categorized under the training clothing, a sport-inspired lifestyle clothing. This category designs products specifically for sport or athletic activities such as cardio exercises, yoga exercises, walking, running, wrestling. Besides, this category is known to produce workout clothing for both men and women. Analyze the Key Competitive Players Among the key competitive players anticipated upon launch of the new include; Puma, Adidas, Reebok and Under Armour. These companies have similar sportswear category in their product selection. Competitive Landscape: Brands/Pricing/Benefits In fact, almost all the sportswear price ranges of sports brands/competitive sports brands are almost the same, but Nike brand value is higher. People are more willing to believe that Nike provides good quality products, more popular. This is how Nike’s new products compete and capture the market. Brand Positioning within the competitive arena and product category The current positioning statement of Nike is “For serious athletes, Nike gives confidence that provides the perfect shoe for every sport”. The company working on the basis of throw-back for this new brand. Working with Body Wear, the new brand positions itself with a promise of a silky soft luxurious fabric wear, that is suitable for all weather athletic activities. One of the key strengths of this new brand is the little fabric wastage. The garments will be knitted in tubes hence minimizing the possibility of massive fabric wastage. Besides, this brand strives to ensure environmental conservation. In addition, the pricing of the new brand will be set on the basis of affordability hence allowing it to compete it in the market. The consumers’ intention to buy sports wear is on the rise. For example, the Chinese market has proven to be gaining interest in sportswear (Xiaojin, 2018). Women are breaking the culture and are proving to be more interested in sports apparels. SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats The key weakness of this brand is the possible high costs that will be incurred during the creation of the garment. For the positive note, the brand is more likely to succeed due to the growing demand sport wears across the globe. Besides, the online platform with retailers such as Amazon would offer an opportunity of reaching the international consumer base. The brand is, however, likely to face competition from other established sportswear companies such as Puma, Adidas, Reebok and Under Armour. Consumer Trends: What is the consumer mindset On the one hand, consumers who choose Nike brand trust in Nike brand. As we mentioned before, the brand value of Nike is very high globally. On the other hand, the launch of such a new product for Nike will lead a new trend of sports wear, and the selection of Nike's new products may be standing at the front of the sports fashion trend. Key competitive new products and new product opportunities Companies often treat the introduction of a new product as a truth-seeking early stage, elimination of bad debts and success seeking. The primary aim of launching a new product in an organization is not only to increase profits but also enhance consumer satisfaction. While launching a new product is exciting, this approach is a huge risk especially when operating in a competitive environment. As such, an organization is required to consider a myriad of factors that can ensure that the new product is successful. This paper will discuss the positioning of a new brand and product strategy in Nike. Company Objectives Nike company objectives aim at maintaining the brand position in the market by introducing products that meet customers’ satisfaction. The company aims at producing a unique product using its innovation and environmentally friendly materials. New Product Objectives and Strategies The primary aim of the new product is to attract more customers in the market, in this case, the new product goal is to compete efficiently and meet the consumers’ needs. In addition, the product strategies are set to help Nike maintain its competitive position and also contribute to the growth of its revenue (Leinwand & Mainardi, 2016). Detailed description of the product The new product line incorporates trainers and gym clothes for women. The clothes are made from soft feathery material extracted from the non-toxic bamboo plant. the t-shirts consist of Nike brand label on the chest and come in different colors this is white, black, dark grey and grey. The t-shirts are made of high-quality fabric material which prevents them from easy tear when worn during the rigorous exercise. The material used is first of its kind as it is made of organic materials from bamboo tree unlike the cotton made t-shirts produced by other brands. This makes the t-shirts to be unique and upholds the company’s initiative towards environmental conservation. The new product positions itself by promising silk and comfortable training and gym wear for both men and women. Each piece of the training and gym wear will be priced at $65, an affordable price for sportswear. The new product will target the period of mass consumption by consumers, particularly during festive sessions. Nike will capitalize on Christmas heavy spending by consumers to produce its gym clothes in the market. Time Frame for Launch We plan to launch this new product during the holiday month, Christmas is the best time for Nike to launch new products. We will give a notice in September to let customers know that we will launch such products and send out some advertisements. We hope customers can keep their attention on the new products. Then it will be on sale in December. Product Name It is named Green Gym. Because it is friendly to the environment and it is sports wear. Positioning Nike has maintained a large customer base in the U.S and other parts of the world. The company leverages on its high number of customers for marketing and increasing its revenue. By using famous athletes and celebrities in its marketing strategies, Nike will achieve success in the sales of new t-shirts and gym training clothes. Besides, the company will make use of social media online platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter to gain access to the large customer base through advertisement ads and personal selling through celebrities; Serena Williams and Kevin Durant. Key points of differentiation The main difference is that this is a new product made of new materials. No other sports brand has been launched yet. Pricing The price range is $45-100$, depends on what kind of product is. New technology/white space opportunity For the technology part, we’ve talked about how new products are made before, this is not a new technology, there are already companies making thermal underwear by using bamboo fiber, which is very popular in Asia and popular with customers, especially women. Big brands like Nike uses such new materials to make sportswear, which is not available before. New materials combine technology with sports, which will be very cool. Target Audience The brand targets both athletes and individuals between the ages of 15 and 40. However, this new brand will target at women more, because we hope to attract more female customers. After all, Nike already has many male customers. Timing for Launch We think that the best time to launch a product line is during Christmas because of the high sales this holiday has, so we would start in September announcing the launch of a new brand, we will not give too much information or even show the product, we will just tell our customers to stay tuned for a new Nike's product line that will help our environment and at the same time will help them have a better training performance. By October we will start our ads campaign, online, TV and billboards, and finally have our official online launch, so that in November we can start selling the product line on all the Nike stores. By December we will have all our ads airing and our products on all of the Nike Stores. Key Product Attributes The product itself needs to show all of Nike ́s attributes like innovation, technology and quality but at the same time show our own attributes like sustainable, organic, toxic free, eco friendly and it's great for your performance when doing any type of sport. Consumer Research to support launch plans As we already know being eco friendly is becoming a very attractive business strategy, not just because it reduces your company's carbon footprint, but also because it helps you lower costs, support by the government, and obviously increasing profits. The Fashion (including sportswear) industry is the second most polluting industry in the world, and consumers know this, so companies in this sector need to start doing something about it if they want to continue in the market. Consumers are caring more about the environment than ever before, A recent survey found that 88% of Americans believe taking care of the earth is very important, 55% of consumers across 60 countries are willing to pay higher prices for goods from environmentally conscious companies and 71% of Americans prefer to buy clothing from retailers that are trying to reduce their impact on the environment rather than those that are not. Building Brand awareness with consumer In order to have brand awareness we need recognition and recall, so in order to have both of them first we need repeated exposure, we are planning on having TV ads, Digital campaign and billboards so that our consumers can see us, hear us and think about us. All of our advertisement will have the Nike logo as well of the famous tagline “Just do it”, and most importantly we will have a famous sport celebrity just as all of the Nike ́s ads, that way consumers will rapidly link us with Nike and now that this product line has the “Nike guarantee” Distribution/Channel Strategy Our channel distribution on the short term will only be by direct channel, website and Nike ́s stores, the reason for this is to make this product line a very exclusive brand, this has worked a lot for Nike in the last year, for example the DYCKMan Street SNKRS are only available on the Nike SNKRS app. We are planning on expanding this line into the indirect channel like department store, on the long run. Pricing Our prices will follow with Nike pricing strategy, Value pricing strategy, so the prices will go between $45 and $100 US dollars. These prices are also align to other product lines that Nike has already launches like their Yoga line, Nikelab Line, and Fangear line. Promotional Plan: Internet Strategy, Social Media Strategy, Web Strategy, Store For our promotional plan we are planning on having TV ads, billboards, digital ads and social media promotion. The key for Nike ́s campaigns is creating meaningful and inspirational stories and then translate it into a product, for example its latest promotional campaign “Dream Crazy” featuring Colin Kaepernick and Serena Williams, this video was so well created that Nike did not had to talk about their products, they just showed motivational celebrities using Nike ́s products and created an excellent story, this video now a days has more than 30 millions views since launched in september 2018. So that is what we plan to do, create a meaningful and inspirational video, featuring our product, and also featuring 2 celebrities that are popular right now and are relevant to our customer, Serena Williams and Kevin Durant, and most importantly showing how these new product line will not only help you but at the same time it helps the environment. This video will be aired on TV and on the internet via Youtube. The reason we decided to first launch on the Nike stores is because for our In Store strategy, we want to have a perfectly qualified sales personnel, that will know the product, its advantages, attributes and benefits, so that our customers can find the right product for them and have an excellent customer experience to build a further and loyal relationship. For our Social media strategy, besides having the video campaign we will also like to create a big buzz by having our customers take action, we will have campaign of asking our customers to upload their photo demonstrating how they help the environment while doing their favorite sport skill, all of this using our new product line that way we can show them that our product line also does both things, helps you with your athletic performance while helping the environment. The winner will get the chance to go to one of Serena William ́s matches or see Kevin Duran play with his team the Golden State Warriors. Promotion and Events We decided to have a series of events called “Rooftop Workout”, how it works is, we will send invitations across Nike ś web page to subscribe to the different workouts that we will have in a rooftop of US main cities like Los Anageles, New York, Miami, etc. People will be able to subscribe, go to a workout in a rooftop and before starting the workout they will receive a package of our brand new product line so that they can do the workout in our product and realize by themselves the quality, technology and comfort of our line, and after the class they will be able to buy any product from this product line. PR Strategy, Advertising Our PR strategy will be focused on our 2 celebrities, Serena Williams and Kevin Durant, our main activities besides the video will be meeting our winners for the social media competition, they will also talk about the new product line on interviews and use our line on their different matches so that they can show our customers that they are not just ambassadors but that they actually approve the product line and use it. 3 Year Long Term vision for the brand As we mentioned before our product line will first start focusing on selling online and on Nike stores, so our 3 Year Long Term vision is to open our distribution to indirect channels like Department stores, Amazon and Footlocker that way our product started at something very exclusive but now it can be available for everyone so that the brand can stay on the market for as long as possible, making it the most profitable brand in the Nike company, because if its sales and costs. But most importantly it will stay as the only brand in the Nike company that does not affect affect the environment but tries to improve it. Conclusion Nike is among the biggest brands that have successfully established new products in the market and attracted a large customer base. The company marketing strategies help it to align its positioning, target audience, pricing and timing the product launch. The new gym wears clothes will capture the large market, given the large market audience and strong company brand. Following the launch of this new brand, the company can expect an increase in the number of customers and market performance. References: https://boodywear.com/pages/bamboo-process https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nike-Inc https://about.nike.com/pages/executives https://mymission.lamission.edu/userdata/schonfd/docs/Assignments/Nike%20Segment ation%20and%20Targeting.pdf https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamdanziger/2018/12/01/nikes-new-consumerexperience-distribution-strategy-hits-the-ground-running/#419a506cf1d0 https://marketrealist.com/2014/12/understanding-nikes-pricing-power-and-premiumproducts-tilt/ https://www.franchisehelp.com/industry-reports/green-industry-analysis-2018-costtrends/ http://academic.mintel.com.proxy.library.nyu.edu/trends/#/observation/938892 https://www.surveymonkey.com/curiosity/more-consumers-are-opening-their-wallets-foreco-friendly-products/ https://money.cnn.com/quote/profile/profile.html?symb=NKE https://purpose.nike.com/ Leinwand, P., & Mainardi, C. (2016). Your Whole Company Needs to Be Distinctive, Not Just Your Product. Harvard Business Review . Xiaojin, R. (2018). Nike targets increasingly active women's sports clothing market. China Daily 
Purchase answer to see full attachment