Nike’s International Strategy

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.