Chapter 1
MARKETING: CREATING CUSTOMER VALUE AND
ENGAGEMENT
MARKETING STARTER: CHAPTER 1
NIKE’s Customer Value-Driven Marketing: Engaging Customers and Building
Brand Community
Synopsis
When you think of sports gear, you think of Nike. The company sells sports apparel and gear for sports from
basketball to baseball to hiking and wall climbing.
From the start, Nike focused on product innovation and aggressive sports marketing. It is the world’s largest sports
apparel company, 44 percent larger than rival Adidas. It reaches an impressive 62 percent of the U.S. sports footwear
market versus number–two Skechers at only 5 percent and Adidas at 4.6 percent. What has made Nike such an
amazing success story? Nike knows that connecting today is a dialogue, according to its CEO. Nike’s chief
marketing officer states: “The engagement levels we have received…drive huge momentum for our brand…the
beginning of how we will connect with and inspire athletes around the world.” To its core, the company is
relentlessly customer driven.
Nike wants to deliver a special experience to every customer. Most regulars feel a surprisingly strong relationship
with the company. Nike’s mission is to “bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.” .
Nike builds customer engagement and relationships. Customers connect with Nike through ads, in-person events, at
Niketown stores, a local Nike running club, a Nike+ app, or one of the company’s many community web and social
media sites. These create opportunities for customers to bond with the Nike brand, through a personal
brand-customer connection. Nike’s digital and social media marketing interacts with customers to build brand
engagement, advocacy, and community.
Indeed, Nike has become the poster child for companies that are obsessively and successfully focused on delivering
customer value.
Discussion Objective
An active 10-minute discussion of the Nike story will help link students to key foundational marketing concepts.
Nike provides an excellent vehicle for introducing the overall marketing framework presented in Chapter 1 and
throughout the text: Good marketing is all about creating value for customers and building strong customer
relationships in order to capture value from customers in return. No company does that better than Nike.
Starting the Discussion
To start the discussion, ask the class, “Does anyone here wear the ‘swoosh?’” It may make more sense to ask
whether there is anyone who does not recognize the “swoosh.” Based on the show of hands, ask for students to share
their experience with the brand. What attracts them to Nike? What is it about the customer experience that is so
enticing?
Next, pull up Nike’s Facebook pages. Working with students, search for a few specific sports pages that interest
them. Click on articles and links to further explore. Together, note the variety of approaches Nike takes and the
focus on customers. Investigate Nike’s other social media feeds, including the company’s Web site, Twitter,
Snapchat, and YouTube. In what ways does Nike’s obsession with customer service show through in every feature
and detail?
You should be familiar with these Web sites in advance so that you can move purposefully to keep the discussion
moving. But let the class discussion interactively guide the sites that you explore, taking you deeper into each page.
Start with the first question below, and then ask other questions as the discussion allows. Throughout the discussion,
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