Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon |
Nike is the world’s leading athletic textile company and its
international strategies are a big reason why.
For the most part, Nike’s product offerings are the same around the globe
in what they are, their price and quality, and in reputation within their
markets. Even the primary Nike marketing
slogan “Just Do It” and the logo “Swoosh” are synonymous and ingrained into the
public’s collective mindset with everything Nike produces worldwide. Essentially the end-product in America is the
same in India, China, Brazil, wherever Nike are sold.
Where Nike exploits their real international economies of
scope is in gaining access to low-cost factors of production and in gaining
access to new customers for their existing products. Utilizing a centralized hub approach where
almost all pertinent strategic decisions are made at the world headquarters in
Beaverton, Oregon and only a select few manufacturing/operational decisions are made
locally is how Nike pursues these efforts internationally.
As noted previously, Nike does not make a single shoe
itself, but rather outsources all of these processes around the globe
implementing a strategy of cost reduction due to the lowest possible costs in
the creation of its products. Once made
in these strategically placed international partner firms, the company then
ships out the product to the closest market that Nike resides, hence
implementing an international integration of this economy of scale and an even greater reduction along the value chain.
Also Nike employs thorough market analysis of emerging areas
for its products as well. Researching
the world over has allowed Nike’s global sales to outpace its domestic levels
every year since 2003, largely in part to its accessing the emerging markets of
China, Russia, and Turkey. Since its
product line is virtually unchanged, Nike only rarely exploits internationalization within product life cycles. However it can
keep this potential competitive advantage in its back pocket to manage uncertain
times or market reactions.