I am looking for information that would help me write a market anlysis
on Nike.  I am writing this as if I was in competition with nike

Hi Bren,

Thanks for your question about Nike! Unfortunately, it's hard to find
a great deal of market information on any company, even a publicly
traded one, for free online. I'm going to give you what I have been
able to find, and then make some suggestions as to what resources you
may seek out at your local or college library.

I started with Hoovers.com, and searched "NIKE" under company name.
Hoover's offers a "capsule report" at
http://www.hoovers.com/co/capsule/4/0,2163,14254,00.html. It also
offers many reports, including some on market research, for which you
can pay varying amounts.

Fortune magazine has some of its articles online -- I searched there
for "Nike" and got this relevant article:
http://www.fortune.com/indext.jhtml?channel=print_article.jhtml&doc_id=208358
It's about Nike's newfound popularity and fashion. 

At BusinessWeek I found: 
Salomon upgrades Nike to buy
http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/jun2002/pi20020628_5624.htm

Air Jordans land with a Thud
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/may2002/nf2002053_6039.htm
The flagship shoe isn't proving as popular as in the past (note
contrast with earlier Fortune article)

Is Reebok Worth Running With?
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/may2002/nf2002056_7692.htm
Discussing the competitive advantages of Reebok (obviously Nike's
primary competitor.)

As you can imagine, the more specific the information about market
size, etc is, the more useful it is, and therefore, the more its
gatherers want to charge. For this reason, your best bet may be to
visit the business library at your college, or your local public
library, where you can search the full text of many business
publications that aren't available free to the public, and where you
may be able to access databases of market information. Some of the
ones you might look for are:

Investext Plus: This is a database of full text analysts' reports.
They're extremely comprehensive and I'm sure you could find many on
Nike.

Choices 2: This provides recent and very detailed demographic
information about individual products. I don't know if Nike's products
are included or not, but it's definitely worth a shot.

If your library has a subscription to Hoover's, then you won't have to
pay on your own for some of the premium data.

I hope this is helpful. Please let me know if there's anything here
you don't understand.

Thanks
Libronaut

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Request for Answer Clarification by bren-ga on 28 Jun 2002 17:36 PDT

Nike does business with the Republic of China the Republic of China
uses prison labor.  We paid the government of China for the use of
their labor what do you think about this as a competitive edge.

---

Clarification of Answer by libronaut-ga on 29 Jun 2002 09:33 PDT

Hi again Bren,

Please note that I wasn't the commenter below! I can't take credit for
it. However, if you're looking for my opinion, I do have a few things
to add:

Your answer certainly reflects that you're aware of problems with
Nike's labor practices, and that's great. I'm not sure I really
understand about the prison labor distinction you're describing -- if
your fictional company pays a foreign government that uses prison
labor (unpaid), aren't you still profiting from the same system? I'm
not sure that sending money to the Chinese government for their prison
labor constitutes a competitive advantage. How about taking Nike's
reputation for exploiting foreign labor
(http://adbusters.org/spoofads/fashion/nike/ -- this fake Adbusters ad
pretty much says it all) and exploiting that in turn?! Some companies,
like New Balance for example, have made much of their use of American
labor (you can see their online statement about it at
http://www.newbalance.com/aboutus/misc/philosophy.html?bbp.e=s&g11n.enc=ISO-8859-1&bbp.v=topic3&bbp.13.sel=topic3&bbp.i=3k&bbp.s=13
 ... very long, I know!) and have gotten a lot of business from people
who are concerned about equitable labor practices.

As bollochs-ga suggested below, fighting fire with branding (if you
will) might be a good tactic as well. I don't know if the athletic
apparel consumer base is necessarily going to be swayed by accusations
of unfair labor practices anymore. However, developing a distinct
brand using some of Nike's own methods (especially in *combination*
with a redirecting of attention toward Nike's labor practices) might
be extremely helpful.

I hope that clarifies. If not, please ask again.

Libronaut

The Clarification was great thank you

To understand why Nike are successful, you have to appreciate that
they are entirely brand driven. Nike has 2 departments - design, and
marketing. Everything else is outsourced.

Nike were the first sportsware company to appreciate the value of
linking their product/brand to 'stars.' Equally importantly, it was
the type/character of sports stars that they attached themselves to.
They sponsored mavericks, and in doing so turned themselves into the
epitomy of cool.

I believe that it is also true to say, that it was Nike who were first
to appreciate that sport clothes could be fashionable. That gave them
the leading edge in the 80's when sport fashion really came into its
own.

There is also the white homeboy factor to consider- i.e if you get the
black kids to wear the clothes, soon enough middle class white boy
will follow. Some say that is the reason behind Nike sponsoring so
many black sportsmen over the last 10-15 years. I could not possibly
comment.

To combat Nike, you have to combat the brand. Go ask 100 5 years old
kids what the coolest sports gear is. Go ask 100 10 year olds, a 100
15 year olds, a 100 18 year olds. Nike is ingrained in their psychi.
Nike has won the battle for the heart and sole of youth for 3
generations to come.

Take a look a nikefootball.com, that site shows their commitment to
fighting a global campaign. Nike didn't sponsor the world cup, instead
it got together some of the greatest footballs in the world, created a
series of cool ads, and fired them out all through the World Cup. They
did the same 4 years ago, that time they had ads featuring the
Brazilian team. Arguably one of the greatest series of ads ever.

Adidas are playing the game now. They are fighting fire with fire,
sponsoring top sportsmen and putting serious investment in their
brand. Reebok fail to do this and died. In answer to your question,
how to you combat Nike, you somehow have to find a way to be cooler
than the coolest. It is all about branding, and all about which sports
stars you have on your side.