Marketing assignment

Prepared by

Randa Hesham Aly Khattab

Mohamad Ibrahim Mohamad AboShall
Group (A)

Chapter (1)
Nike case study

1- What are the pros, cons and risks associated with Nike’s core
marketing strategy?
 Pros associated with nike`s core strategy :

1-features and attributes of nike's products are unique and of high quality .

2-Nike dominates the athletic footwear market with a 31 percent market share globally and
a 50 percent market share in the United States.

3- Well established marketing strategy that introduce a market specialization strategy

that covers most of athletic games in different regions with multiple unique sportive
product .

4- controlling the market by strong correlation with highly influencing athletes as

Runner Steve Prefontaine, Maria Sharapova, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nada .

5- standing with its athletes even in their personal life.

6-Nike became active as a sponsor of youth, leagues, local clubs, and national teams .

 Cons associated with nike`s core strategy :

1-Nike delayed to expand overseas out of USA for around 30 years since company
foundation, when it found that its U.S. style ads were seen as too aggressive .

2- Less concerns regarding environmental caring and societal marketing so they may lose
LOAHS segment ( Lifestyle Of Health And Sustainability ) .
3- less specialization as it targeting all the sports market( mass market) that they may lose
some of their businesses to nichers ex: sports tracking tech (catapult)

 Risks associated with nike`s core strategy :

1-Nike is a Cash cow company that require investment in new innovative products to
achieve Star position and more growth .

2- Aggressive competition due to the presence of various brands with products of very high
quality and unique features and attributes as Adidas , Diadora , Activ , puma , Fila , Tommy
Hilfiger .

3- Sportswear market is dynamic that require strong research and development

department to cope with changes in the market .

4- Athletes stars of Nike ads may bring negative impact on Nike brand if they involved in
illegal practice as lance Armsrtong case and Tigerwoods .

2. If you were Adidas, how would you compete with Nike?

1- Adidas can grow by using integrative market growth strategy either :

Backward; through partnership or building private suppliers in targeted regions or

Forward ; through partnership or building private suppliers in targeted areas that facilitate
production in an effective an affordable manner .

2- Adidas can also grow through using diversification growth strategy through involving in
production of sports machines and tools that will add an attractive business outside
athlete’s sportswear market

3- Attracting LOAHS segment by announcing environment friendly campaign for recycled

products ex: Adidas t-shirts that manufactured from recycled plastic and glass in 2010

4- Adidas can compete through more involvement and sponsorship in different events
competitions and unions ex: Adidas is main sponsor for FIFA activities and events including
related unions tools ,balls and referees kits.

5- using Grass root marketing for most of sports academies and youth clubs in different
regions to build brand loyalty
 Chapter (2)

Cisco case study

1. How is building a brand in a business-to-business
context different from doing so in the consumer market?

Building a strong brand of a company is always very important work. There are two basic
ways to build brands as:
1) Business-to-Business (B2B)
2) Business-to-Customer(B2C).
From reading the Cisco case study, it seems that business-to-business marketing consists of
a more direct approach through very specific distribution channels.
Business-to-business success is centered around more personal relationships between the
partner companies. In the Cisco case this was demonstrated by Cisco's business to business
relationships it developed with Matsushita, U.S. West, and Sony (Cisco). In comparison,
consumer marketing is targeted at all the major demographic groups.
In the case of CISCO, individual customers are usually young people who love technology
and creative marketing strategies must be consistent with this object. CISCO has links with
the sporting goods to a targeted audience and has made certain achievements. More
complex in the case of a business customer, E.g the case of B2B, because this time, the client
is a group consisting of: the proposed products and services, the evaluation of products and
services, the decision to purchase products and services. As such, the branding strategy is
the overall strategy, direction to customers that all of their business to know and understand
the product and its brand. In particular, the promotion of this strategy must be concise,
avoid boring because customers do not have much time to watch the trailer length but not
excellent. For B2B branding, customers need time to understand the brand. The customer is
the business, is professional buyers so they understand more about demands and goals of
buying the product, so they will focus on products that will help them achieve efficiency in
business, such as increased revenue, reduced costs ,with excellent service.

Is Cisco’s plan to reach out to consumers a viable one? Why or why

not?

Currently, Cisco is using strategies to approach consumers in an integrated way, E.g, Cisco
bought the small company, operating in areas where Cisco wants to enter, such as Linksys,
to merge into corporate and develop this sector. This strategy has brought the initial success
for the corporate .However, this strategy also has risks such as cultural conflict within the
corporate; the corporate investment spread, lack of depth; the corporate will have to face
strong competition

Conclusion:
 CSCO's revenue growth has slightly outpaced the industry average of 5.5%. Since the
same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 1.3%. This growth in revenue
does not appear to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, displayed by a
decline in earnings per share. The gross profit margin for CISCO SYSTEMS INC is rather
high; currently it is at 65.71%. It has increased from the same quarter the previous year.
Regardless of the strong results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of
14.92% trails the industry average. Despite currently having a low debt-to-equity ratio of
0.37, it is higher than that of the industry average, inferring that management of debt
levels may need to be evaluated further. Even though the debt-to-equity ratio shows
mixed results, the company's quick ratio of 3.03 is very high and demonstrates very
strong liquidity.

Looking at where the stock is today compared to one year ago, we find that it is not only
higher, but it has also clearly outperformed the rise in the S&P 500 over the same
period, despite the company's weak earnings results. Turning our attention to the future
direction of the stock, it goes without saying that even the best stocks can fall in an
overall down market. However, in any other environment, this stock still has good
upside potential despite the fact that it has already risen in the past year. You can view
the full analysis from the report here: CSCO Ratings Report

Recommendation:

"Cisco is in a very strong position Chairman and CEO John Chambers said. "Our vision
and strategy are working and we are executing very well in a tough environment, as
evidenced in our revenue growth, profitability, strong gross margins and cash
generation. Chambers continued, "We have a tremendous opportunity to extend our
lead in the industry, and with Chuck Robbins as the CEO for Cisco's next chapter, we
have exactly the right leader to capture that opportunity." "We rate CISCO SYSTEMS INC
(CSCO) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which
should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate.

Chapter 8
HSBC case study
1.What were the risks and benefits of HSBC’s positioning itself as the
“World’s Local Bank?
The risk of HSBC’s positioning itself as the “World’s Local Bank”

is that the company revised its business strategy that would consolidate the
underperforming markets and investments within their growing market and business.
This would cause a strategic shift in the efforts of branding, which loses the focus on its
message.

The benefits

that HSBC hopes to maintain its growth of communication within local businesses that
will represent continuous growth that aims towards huge international size, as well as,
gain a closer relationship of other countries in which they operate

Does HSBC’s most recent campaign resonate with its target audience? Why or
why not ?

Yes; HSBC campaign resonates with its target audience, because in their different
values campaign , they depict the way different cultures or people interpret the same
object to demonstrate their goal of knowing their customers with local knowledge and
demonstrate that they know that everyone is different . what they learn from one
customer help them serve another one by focusing on individual marketing that
indicates customer preferences. This campaign shows that HSBC recognized that people
with the same demographic group could exhibit different physiological andpersonality
trait and different life styles .