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Nike Inc Strategic Marketing Portfolio

Research · October 2021

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.17278.51528

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Table of Contents
Week 1 .............................................................................................................................. 4
What website category does Nike.com belong to? ..................................................................... 4
Marketing mix: 4P’s & 4C’s ......................................................................................................... 4
4P’s ............................................................................................................................................................... 4
4C’s ............................................................................................................................................................... 5
Business Model Canvas .............................................................................................................. 6
Marketing strategy ..................................................................................................................... 8
SWOT Analysis .............................................................................................................................................. 9
Strategies to make use of opportunities through the Strengths .................................................................. 9
Strategies to make use of opportunities to minimize Weaknesses ............................................................. 9
Strategies to prevent Threats through the Strengths ................................................................................ 10
Strategies to minimize the potential dangers lying in sectors where Weaknesses meet Threats ............. 10
Week 2 ............................................................................................................................ 11
Competitor comparison ............................................................................................................ 11
Nike.com vs Adidas.com............................................................................................................................. 11
Customer journey map ............................................................................................................. 14
Opportunity of improvement ..................................................................................................................... 14
Article summaries .................................................................................................................... 15
The Role of Culture in Global Digital Marketing Strategy........................................................................... 15
The Impact of Social Media Marketing Trends on Digital Marketing ......................................................... 17

Week 3 ............................................................................................................................ 18
Customer Based Brand Equity Model........................................................................................ 18
Social Media Brand Management ............................................................................................. 19
Range:......................................................................................................................................................... 19
Conversations: ............................................................................................................................................ 19
Reputation:................................................................................................................................................. 19
Influence:.................................................................................................................................................... 19
Digital Marketing Communication Channels ............................................................................. 20
Owned ........................................................................................................................................................ 20
Earned ........................................................................................................................................................ 20
Week 4 ............................................................................................................................ 21
Article summaries .................................................................................................................... 21
The B2B digital inflection point: How sales have changed during COVID-19 ............................................. 21
Cross-border e-commerce as a foreign market entry mode among SMEs: the relationship between export
capabilities and performance ..................................................................................................................... 22
Target segment ........................................................................................................................ 23
How to encourage this segment?............................................................................................................... 23
Website analysis....................................................................................................................... 24
Different elements ..................................................................................................................................... 24
Improvement measures ............................................................................................................................. 24
Sales advice ................................................................................................................................................ 25

Week 5 ............................................................................................................................ 26
SUPR-Q website assessment ..................................................................................................... 26

2
 Hasan & Abuelrub VS. Sauro ..................................................................................................... 27
Requirements for website usability 11.3 ................................................................................... 27
Web content and web text 11.4................................................................................................ 28
SEO assessment ........................................................................................................................ 29
Moz.com assessment results ..................................................................................................................... 29
Week 6 ............................................................................................................................ 30
Article summaries .................................................................................................................... 30
Article 1: ..................................................................................................................................................... 30
5 Key Legal Issues When Running a Digital Marketing Business ................................................................ 30
Article 2: ..................................................................................................................................................... 32
Legal aspects of online marketing .............................................................................................................. 32
ABC-model analysis .................................................................................................................. 33
Reference list................................................................................................................... 34
Appendix ......................................................................................................................... 35

3
Week 1

What website category does Nike.com belong to?

Nike belongs to the category of e-commerce websites as it sells products online.

Marketing mix: 4P’s & 4C’s

4P’s
Product
- Shoes
- Apparel
- Accessories
In essence, Nike is built upon the production of their shoes. Nowadays, they offer a wide
variety of shoes dedicated to several different sports and lifestyle. In addition, they offer
apparel for different sports as well as lifestyle. Next to that, they offer accessories and
equipment suited for lifestyle and sports. With their wide variety of products, they address to
the needs of its different target markets and segments.

Place
- Retail stores
- Nike online store
- Niketown retail outlets
Most sales are made in retail stores both physically and digital. Some big retailers which sell
Nike’s products are JD Sports, footlocker but also Walmart. According to D. Green (2017) Nike
previously decided to limit the number of selected retailers from 30,000 retailers to 40 in
order to control how it sells its products. Concerning digital sales, in 2017 Nike expected to
grow their e-commerce revenue to 30% of their total revenue by the end of 2022. As a result
of the global pandemic, Nike achieved this goal 3 years early as their online sales increased
by 83% in 2020 which made their e-commerce sales cover 30% of their total revenue
according to P. Wahba (2020).

Promotion
- Advertising
- Personal selling
- Direct marketing
- Sales promotions
- Public relations
Next to general advertising efforts, Nike relies on collaborations with high profile celebrities
like athletes or artists. These collaborations are usually associated with the release of highly
limited sneakers. A well-known example of this is the 'Jordan 1' which is firstly introduced in
collaboration with Michael Jordan on April 1st, 1985, according to nicekicks.com. Personal
selling relates to the physical sales team in Nike’s flagship stores. L. Gregory (2018) tells us
that ‘direct marketing refers to direct contact with organizations for the purpose of promoting
products to the members of such organizations.’ Sales promotions are efforts of price
reduction in order to attract more customers and a broader audience. Public relations refer
to Nike financially supporting other organizations which could be defined as sponsoring.

4
Examples of these are soccer kits they create and design together with globally known soccer
clubs.

Price
- Value-based pricing strategy
- Premium pricing strategy
Value-based pricing strategy in this context is defined as Nike considering their consumers’
perception about the value of its product and subsequently determine the maximum prices
consumers can afford. The premium pricing strategy, however, refers to high prices based on
higher quality and value in combination with premium branding. This strategy is strongly
correlated with their efforts of releasing products in collaboration with high profile celebrities
like mentioned before.

4C’s
Customer solution

Athletic activity Casual wear

End Goal Maximum utility Self-esteem

Needs Outdoor activity Comfort

durable Daily use
Values Performance style

Source: https://en.ppt-online.org/49699

Communication
Nike uses emotional marketing instead of actual product marketing. Most of their visual
advertisements does not include a focus on their products, they focus their communication
style on the consumer and try to connect with them on an emotional level by being inclusive.

Convenience
According to nike.com, Nike offers standard delivery (2-4 working days) and next day delivery
for an extra charge of 10$. Nike offers a free app which is accessible on both android and
apple devices. Their customer service is reachable on working days from 09:00-18:00 and
their chat is reachable till 21:00.

Cost to consumer
Delivery costs are $5 for guests and free for members and orders above $99. In addition, for
maintaining your sneakers or apparel in great condition, specific care instructions are
provided, and certain care products could be recommended.

5
Business Model Canvas

Key propositions
Nike aims to deliver quality of material and technology in a fashionable manner towards their
consumers. This value proposition exists of four segments:
1. Accessibility
2. Customization
3. Innovation
4. Brand status
Concerning accessibility, digital marketing plays a big role as Nike should reach their
customers in a sufficient way for them to conveniently access their website. In addition, brand
status is related to digital marketing as this allows Nike to be visible on several social media
platforms in collaboration with high profile individuals such as artists and athletes.

Customer segments
The customer segment of Nike consists of the worldwide mass market: any person who wants
to wear sports gear, apparel, footwear, or equipment Nike aims to target. In addition, (pro)
athletes are important customers as they are in the market for higher end specialized sports
equipment. Next to sportswear, Nike aims to target individuals who are attracted to
streetwear fashion.
Digital marketing plays a significant role in targeting the right customers with relevant
products. This is a result of customer data retrieved using cookie embeddings and analyzing
consumer behavior across other websites or social media.

Customer relationships
Nike offers a wide range of different applications for their customers to use such as the SNKRS
app which allows users to purchase limited sneakers releases. In addition, the regular NIKE
app and the NIKE running app allows Nike Inc to interact with their customers.

The customer relationships of Nike are currently built upon digital marketing as their
applications could be considered a digital marketing effort.

Channels
- Physical stores
- E-commerce
- Social media
- Sponsored events
- Athlete sponsorships
- Nike+ Program (membership)

Digital marketing obviously plays a big role in their e-commerce channel, social media,
sponsored events but also physical stores because their visibility online allows users to find
their physical stores.

6
Key partners
According to D. Pereira, there are approximately 145 footwear factories and over 400 apparel
factories are manufacturing Nike’s products. Therefore, these manufacturers are important
partners for Nike as it relies on these factories.

Nike partners up with several universities from the USA, EU, and Asia for scientific research
purposes. According to nike.com (2014) Harvard and Stanford are two of these universities,
they recently examined Nike's approach to sustainable innovation. Therefore, part of their
R&D department is considered 'outsourced'.

Nike's collaborations with several big artists or other populair brands play a big role in their
marketing strategy. These collaborations are usually associated with the release of highly
limited sneakers. A well known example of this is the 'Jordan 1' which is firstly introduced in
collaboration with Michael Jordan on April 1st 1985. (According to nicekicks.com)

Digital marketing plays a big role in the context of Nike’s collaboration with several big artists
or other popular brands as they aim to gather digital attention and visibility.

Key activities
- Designing and developing products
- R&D concerning materials, technology, and trends/behavior
- Marketing, sales, and advertising
Digital marketing obviously plays a big role in marketing, sales, and advertising.

Key resources
- Distribution centers in Memphis and California, 5 in total.
- HR: Nike Explore Tea Sports Research Lab, with more than 40 researchers that work
on innovations.
- Intellectual property: third-largest design patent portfolio in the US.

Cost structure
- Marketing
- Inventory & warehousing
- Administrative Costs
- R&D

Revenue streams
- Apparel sales (including footwear)
- Equipment sales
- Accessories sales
Digital marketing has started to play an even bigger role within their sales as the global
pandemic restricted customers to visit physical stores.

7
Marketing strategy

Mission and vision: ‘Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world (if you have
a body, you are an athlete)’

In addition to their established mission and vision statement, Nike has developed 29 industry
leading targets for 2025 according to FY20 NIKE, Inc. Impact Report (2020). These targets are
divided into three subcategories: People, Community, and Planet. The People section covers
targets like:
- Improved diverse representation and hiring
- Equal and competitive pay & benefits for employees
- Health & safety efforts such as improved workspaces
- Inclusive culture & engagement concerning focus on improving access for all athletes
- Education & professional development
- Business diversity & inclusion concerning suppliers
- Foundational expectations in terms of labour, health, safety, and environmental
standards.
Community:
- Active kids
- Inclusive communities which concern supporting organizations in regards of racial
inequality
- Employee engagement
- Community investment
Planet:
- Carbon, reduction of greenhouse gasses
- Waste reduction in manufacturing. Refurbished/recycled/donated products
- Water usage reduction
- Chemistry alternatives which are cleaner

8
SWOT Analysis
In order to understand the strategy of Nike, I analysed the following SWOT analysis sourced
from: https://bstrategyhub.com/swot-analysis-of-nike-nike-swot-analysis/.

Strategies to make use of opportunities through the Strengths

Strong brand awareness should contribute to penetrating the emerging markets as
well as their huge customer base. Think of emerging markets such as India, China, and Brazil.
Their drive to aim for sustainability in combination with their in-house professionals
will help to create innovative products like wearable technology which is an aspect of the
fashion industry yet to be explored.
Their strong brand awareness and huge customer base in combination with their
superior marketing capabilities enable them to cut ties with big retailers in order to improve
product positioning and greater customer experience.
With its superior marketing capabilities Nike can exploit their recent acquisition of a
predictive analytics platform called ‘Celect’ which will contribute expanding their e-
commerce sales.

Strategies to make use of opportunities to minimize Weaknesses

Nike’s efficient integration allows them to either acquire a few manufacturers or build
some of its own, with help of the latter, Nike will be able to minimize poor labour conditions.
Emerging markets such as India, China, and Brazil are gradually flourishing which
allows Nike to expand their customer base to these countries which could result in a lesser
dependency on the US market.
As Nike is cutting ties with big retailers and accelerating their consumer-direct
strategy, they could limit retailers having a stronger hold as Nike will have more control over
their product positioning.

9
Strategies to prevent Threats through the Strengths
The increased competitive pressure within the athletic industry due to emerging
brands are obviously a vital threat. However, Nike’s in-house professionals allow innovative
new designs and in combination with their iconic relationships and superior marketing
capabilities, this threat could be prevented.
The opportunity of exploiting emerging markets such as India and Brazil will allow Nike
to prevent trade tensions to influence a drastically significant part of their success.

Strategies to minimize the potential dangers lying in sectors where Weaknesses meet Threats
As mentioned above, Nike should minimize their dependency on the US market
considering the threat of trade tensions between US and China. This could be done by
exploiting emerging markets such as India and Brazil and therefore expanding their customer
base.

10
Week 2

Competitor comparison
Nike.com vs Adidas.com

Visit
In order to gain online sales, the first important target for online marketeers is to ensure
people to visit their e-commerce website/application. During this stage, brand awareness,
brand image, and discoverability are the success factors. As an experiment based on the
customer journey map, I searched for ‘running shoes’ in google chrome as this is not my
primary web browser and therefore is not influenced by cookies etc. The goal of this
experiment is to find out whether nike.com or adidas.com shows up first and assess their
discoverability based on this. Nike located itself at the second search result with help of SEA.
In contrast, adidas is located on the third search page. Therefore, in the context of
discoverability, nike.com scores significantly higher compared to adidas.com.

11
Captivating
During this stage, it is important that visitors are engaged -> interested -> motivated. This
objective is reached by success factors such as:
- Available information
- Product offer
- Easy to navigate/use (UX)
- Feeling of security
- Enjoyment of experience
These success factors are usually measured by analysing how much time a visitor spends on
the sales channel and how many and which pages they visit. Another important metric here
is the bounce ratio which measures the percentage of visitors who leave the website after
visiting only one page. Based on www.similarweb.com, nike.com has 130.65M total visits over
the past 6 months with an average visit duration of 3 minutes and 45 seconds resulting in an
average of 4.78 pages per visit. In addition, their Bounce rate is 44.12%. In contrast, adidas
managed to attract 28.78M visitors in the past 6 months spending an average of 3:26 minutes
while visiting 4.55 pages. The bounce rate of adidas.com is 50.90%. From these numbers, we
can conclude that nike.com performs better in captivating their visitors.

Deciding
After captivating a visitor, the next step is to ensure visitors to compare, evaluate and buy
products. Core success factors are:
- Adequate product information
- Variety of products
- Advice
- Product reviews
- Clear prices
Some important tools at this stage are the search and advice module and the catalogue, the
list of available products and the associated information. At this point, we do not have the
required data in order to provide a detailed analysis of both websites. However, we can
assume that both nike.com and adidas.com have a sufficient understanding of this stage as
they are both highly established companies.

Ordering
For the visitor, important factors during this stage are:
- Order convenience
- Pricing
- Trust in provider
- Responsiveness
As we do not have access to the number of sales by nike.com and adidas.com, we are not able
to draw a conclusion for their scores on this stage. However, we can compare their e-
commerce revenue. According to www.statista.com, nike.com achieved an e-commerce
revenue of $6,135,000 in 2020. In contrast, adidas.com obtained an e-commerce turnover of
$1,006,000 in 2020. Considering the above, nike.com scores better in total digital revenue.

12
Paying
In order to realise the order, the payment process should be completed. Core succes factors
are:
- Ease of payment
- Trust

A metric for this stage could be the number and the value of transactions. However, as we do
not have access to number of sales for both websites, we will not be able to measure both
their performance on this metric. Nevertheless, we can compare the payment options for
both competitors. Nike.com offers various payment options such as:
- Visa, Mastercard, AX, Discover
- Apple Pay
- PayPal
- Klarna
- Nike and Converse Gift Cards
- Product Vouchers
In contrast, adidas.com offer the following payment options:
- Visa, Mastercard, AX, Discover
- Credit cards issues by banks located in specific countries
- Apple Pay
- PayPal
- Affirm
- Klarna
- Afterpay
- Adidas gift card

Binding
After completing the order, it is of importance to bind the consumer to the organisation which
will contribute to repeat purchases. Core success factors are:
- Experience concerning the purchased product
- Quality perception of online sales
- Feeling a bond with the brand
Order handling and customer service are important processes at this stage. In addition,
customer relationship management is an important process in order to develop a relationship
with the customer. Lastly, quality of delivery is of high importance as well.

13
Customer journey map

This customer journey map is based on a first-time customer.

Opportunity of improvement
Within the first stage of the customer journey, it would be desirable if the customer
immediately considers Nike as their best option. Subsequently, the customer would base their
specific needs around the product offer from Nike.

14
Article summaries
The Role of Culture in Global Digital Marketing Strategy
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/role-culture-global-digital-marketing-strategy-florian-
auckenthaler/
A consequence of globalization and digitalization often overseen is the fact that the smallest
details like colors can send the wrong message to different cultures. In order to understand
different cultures and act accordingly, it is crucial to understand the following models and
theories.

The Hofstede Model

This model consists of 5 dimensions which measure a countries’ score on a scale from 0 to 10:
Power Distance (PDI), Individualism (IDV), Masculinity (MAS), Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI),
Long-Term Orientations (LTO). In total, Hofstede studied 74 countries and scores are
drastically different. For example, Malaysia and Slovakia scored 100 on the PDI dimension
while in contrast Denmark scored 18.

The Global Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness method (GLOBE)

In contrast to the Hofstede model, the GLOBE method measures on a scale of 1-7 and is much
more recent and expands on the conventional Hofstede cultural dimensions: Uncertainty
avoidance, Power Distance, Institutional Collectivism, In-Group Collectivism, Gender
Egalitarianism, Assertiveness, Future orientation, Performance orientation, Humane
Orientation.

Greenfield theory
Greenfield’s theory is focussed on social change while it considers the cultural pathways to
development. Greenfield argues that communities ultimately pursue on of the following
ideas: 1) Individualism and Independence or 2) Group Membership and interdependence.
This provides a much more simplistic view of culture compared to previously discussed
models.

Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner

In 1997, management consultants Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner
developed a qualitative model that suggested societies are comprised of Seven Dimensions
of Culture. These seven dimensions are 1) Universalism versus Particularism, 2) Individualism
versus Communitarianism, 3) Neutral versus Emotional, 4) Specific versus Diffuse, 5)
Achievement versus Ascription, 6) Sequential versus Synchronous toward time, and 7)
Internal Direction versus Outer Direction.

Schwartz Cultural Model

Israeli sociologist Shalom Schwartz developed a similar model by asking people around the
world what values are most important to them. He gave them options between seven values:
Harmony, Embeddedness, Hierarchy, Mastery, Affective Autonomy, Intellectual Autonomy,
and Egalitarianism.

15
Richard Lewis Model
Richard Lewis formed a much simpler model than the previously mentioned researchers. He
divided the world's cultures into three succinct groups: The Linear-active group, the Reactive
group, and the Multi-actives groups.

Applying the methods to digital marketing

After comprehension of the above-mentioned methods, it is of importance that In order to
sufficiently adapt these methods towards a digital marketing strategy, one must consider to
following key tips:
1. Formality and Directness, before you write your key messaging or web content, make
sure you understand what style of communication works best for your intended
audience.
2. Color and Aesthetics, take the time to research how your brand presentation might
be interpreted in other cultures.
3. Enthusiasm, make sure to match your enthusiasm to the culture you are speaking to.
4. Relationship Building, if you are selling to individuals or hoping to gain partners in
other cultures, it is essential that you have the right social etiquette.

16
The Impact of Social Media Marketing Trends on Digital Marketing
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/impact-social-media-marketing-trends-digital-
marketing
The growth of social media marketing platforms has become a major part of building social
signals that are very important in any SEO digital marketing campaign. Perhaps you are
unaware that the emergence of different social media channels offer internet marketers like
you a wider marketing opportunities in building brand visibility over the web. How your
website rank on the search engine can make a big impact regarding your customer and lead
acquisition and conversion rate for your site.

Investing in social media marketing - A need than a want

Online marketers now view the value of social media marketing for their business on a
different perspective. There is a significant explosion in the number of consumers who are
using socials as a means of finding products and services that they need.
- Business retailers experience about 133% increase in revenues after marketing their
business in the mobile market that promotes social media marketing value for their
business.
- Social networking is used by about 76% of businesses in order to achieve their
marketing objectives.
- 40% of online shoppers from the US use the Smartphone for in-store shopping.
- About 71% of the consumers respond according to the feedback and recommendation
of social users regarding a particular brand.
- Consumer reviews are regarded by shoppers as trustworthy than the marketing
promotion coming directly from the brand site.
- The majority of successful brands have a social media page in order to widen their
marketing coverage of making their brand more accessible among the social media
users.

Growing social signals

The more people in the social media community share, like, recommend and talk about your
business the more the search engine finds your website relevant thereby increasing the
chance of your web pages to acquire a higher position to the search engine results page.

Promote company branding and awareness

Social media users can always recommend to their social media circles significant quality
about your brand.

Word of mouth advertising is powerful

Word of mouth advertising tends to have a higher trust rating from the consumers than the
product descriptions that your company promotes from your site. Whenever your web page
gains more likes and shares from the social media community, the wider your audience reach
and influence becomes to your target customers.

17
Week 3

Customer Based Brand Equity Model

The consumer-based brand equity model can also be viewed in the appendix.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AhTlEU3iCxMQYBMGKNS5sKCueXZBanlt/view?usp=sharin
g

18
Social Media Brand Management
For Nike to reach new customers using social media, I formulated a recommendation based
on the four different reasons to utilize social media.

Range: According to B. Dean (2021), there are currently 4.48 billion people who use social
media globally. This means a mass market for Nike to reach, and this could be done through
advertising, creating a strong digital brand, and conversating directly with their customers.
Reaching customers through advertising could be done in three different ways:
- Organic reach: Reaching as much unique individuals as possible within your target
audience. This could be done by publishing content which appeals to your target
audience. E.g., informative content, entertaining content, personalized content, etc.
A target analysis should be conducted before deciding a content strategy.
- Paid reach: Paid reach is achieved by publishing an advertising campaign. Within the
business tools of social media today, businesses can create a highly specific target
audience for which they will publish the advertisement.
- Viral reach: Viral reach is often achieved through publishing a highly entertaining or
shocking video/photo.

Conversations: An active web care department is very important when it comes to

conversations on social media. Nike should participate in both positive and negative
conversations in order to build a relationship with their customers. In The Netherlands,
Bol.com is known for its funny and witty comments towards customers and these
conversations help the customer in a sense but also contributes to the overall reach of the
brand on social media.

Reputation: It is important to keep track on what is discussed about your brand/products. The
negative experience of individual in regards of your product could immensely impact your
brand reputation.

Influence: With many people on social media nowadays, brands could also outsource their
reach efforts as influencers are able to reach and convince their target audience relatively
easier due to the established ‘personal’ connection with their followers. As with paid
advertisement, a target analysis should be conducted before contracting the right influencer.

19
Digital Marketing Communication Channels

Owned
social media:
- Nike instagram
- Nike twitter
- Nike facebook
- Nike LinkedIn
- Nike Pinterest
Others:
- Email

Earned
- SEO: As mentioned in the competitor comparison, we can see that Nike has a strong
SEO.
- ‘hype’ around NIKE sneaker releases which lead to customers posting pictures of their
recently purchased sneakers. In addition, leading up to popular releases, third party
channels publish articles/videos in relation to the sneaker releases.
- Celebrity endorsers

20
Week 4
Article summaries

The B2B digital inflection point: How sales have changed during COVID-19
Due to the global pandemic, changes in customer behaviour are an acceleration of initial
digital trends from before the pandemic. Future B2B sales are expected to operate
fundamentally different compared to pre-COVID.

Three emergent themes have resulted from a survey between B2B businesses across 11
countries in seven sectors and across 14 categories of spend:

- Spend. Some companies are decreasing spend while other are increasing or
maintaining.
- Digital. Traditional sales interactions are becoming less important compared to digital
efforts.
- Remote. More than half of the survey participants believe that the remote model
which moved sales with 90% towards video conference/web sales is more effective or
at least equal to pre-COVID.

In essence, B2B sellers should act according to the following four main action points:
1. Shift face-to-face sellers to digital channels. Utilize the online channels to support
your sales and service. Convert chatbots into live chats with reps, train them to run
client gatherings by means of videoconferencing and make a "unit" of advanced
specialists to assist merchants with utilizing new devices and manage client inquiries.

2. Prioritize your pipeline and provide information to reps. Mine new internet based
leads, zeroing in on clients who express a need and would almost certainly invite
outreach. Host devoted time allotments and client relationship management (CRM)
meetings for reps to circle back to those leads. Square off an ideal opportunity for reps
to associate with clients. Customize digital advertising messages mindfully and with
the client completely at heart. Pull in senior chiefs to help exceptional
recommendations or record surveys to help reps and console clients.

3. Enhance customer intimacy across traditional and digital channels. Host multi-client
virtual item demos with phone follow-up from reps. Hold virtual meetings or sharing
sessions with selected clients, and email customized content that mirrors your clients'
necessities and current reality.

4. Use any free tech and marketing capacity to fix self-service pain points. For
organizations with the capacity to divert assets, we suggest making no-second
thoughts moves that will help clients: redesign online data to make searching more
efficient; fundamentally decrease the data clients need to give prior to getting
information; make digital journals more important with "who I am" and "why I'm
here" steering; and wipe out pointless strides in click-to-request or snap to-demand
for quicker assistance.

21
Cross-border e-commerce as a foreign market entry mode among SMEs: the relationship
between export capabilities and performance
introduction
Although cross-border e-commerce has become increasingly popular among small and
medium- sized enterprises as a foreign market entry mode, research on the determinants of
its success is scarce. Drawing on the resource-based view, this study aims to examine the
relationship between a firm’s information technology, international marketing and export
operations capabilities and its cross-border e-commerce strategic and financial performance.

results
The findings support the hypotheses related to the positive effect of IT capabilities on cross-
border e-commerce strategic performance and financial performance. In contrast, the
hypotheses related to the positive effects of international marketing capabilities and export
operations capabilities on cross-border e-commerce were not supported. Contrary to the
expectations, the analysis revealed a significantly negative effect of export operations
capabilities on cross-border e-commerce financial performance.

Managerial implications
The findings of this research offer several practical insights to exporting SMEs. First, to
successfully adopt cross-border e-commerce, SMEs need to develop IT capabilities.
Moreover, because a firm’s IT capabilities are not related to its previous experience with
foreign markets, firms need to specifically invest in IT. At the same time, firms should avoid
the so-called “virtuality trap” (Sinkovics et al., 2013) – in other words, relying too much on
external e-commerce channels may prevent SMEs from learning about foreign markets.
Digital international market entry strategies do not allow interpersonal interactions, which is
a significant drawback (Watson et al., 2018). Moreover, even if international marketing
capabilities are not related to e-commerce performance, firms are likely to use foreign market
knowledge previously acquired through offline channels (e.g. through direct interactions with
distributors and importers). Therefore, while cross-border e-commerce may accelerate
overall export performance, export managers are urged to approach it strategically and with
a clear medium-term view to develop the required capabilities. This suggestion specifically
applies to the many SMEs that, driven by the COVID-19 crisis, are embracing the opportunities
offered by cross-border e-commerce without the needed planning. While such a reactive
approach may result in a rapid increase in foreign sales, a proactive strategy is needed to
experience sustainable growth in the international market. A proactive strategy also
encompasses clear decisions about the relationships between cross- border e-commerce and
other offline entry modes to prevent conflicts between channels (particularly distributors and
importers). Deciding whether to use a third-party cross-border e-commerce platform and
selecting the most suitable one will also affect sales, prices and margins and customer
perceptions about the brand. Moreover, communications must be designed in such a way
that they are noticed by customers in the cross-border e-commerce environment, where the
number of competitors is growing rapidly. The volume of work and capabilities required to
strategically manage cross-border e-commerce may motivate firms to hire or collaborate with
specialists (e.g. temporary export managers or digital export managers). Trade promotions
organizations can also support SMEs in their cross-border e-commerce efforts, such as by
establishing specific agreements with cross-border e-commerce platforms and designing
training services.

22
Target segment
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338370597_SEGMENTATION_TARGETING_AND_
POSITIONING_STRATEGY_OF_NIKE_BUYING_DECISION_ANALYSIS/link/5e0f4aae299bf10bc3
8e01a2/download

Demographic
Age: 11-45 (especially teens in order to build long-term loyal consumers)
Gender: Nike invests’ heavily into targeting females (45%). However, their male audience is
still bigger (55%).
Ethnic background: Nike does not segment based on ethnic background.
Life cycle: Nike does not segment based on life cycle

How to encourage this segment?

In order to effectively approach this customer segment, the AIDA model is frequently used:
- Keywords (Attention)
- Advertisements (Interest)
- Landing pages (Desire)
- Call to action/CTA (Action)

Keywords are defined by relevant words in regards of a particular product/service. For

example, Nike would use specific keywords for female customers in the market for running
shoes. These keywords could be broad as ‘running shoes’ or could be related to the topic such
as ‘running apps’, ‘nearby marathons’, etc. Nike should include relevant keywords on their
web pages as this will result in a higher organic search result. In addition, Nike could pay
search engines for displaying their advertisements when a specific keyword or phrase is
searched.

Advertisements: While creating textual advertisements for search engines, it is important to

consider the following factors:
- Number of words
- Which sites the add is shown
- Position
- Costs per click
- Available budget
- Call to action
Search engines limit the character amount shown on search results. Titles are generally
limited to 25 characters which requires creativity and efficiency when coming up with a title.
Nike should consider their reach across different countries as this affects how their add is
perceived. Search engines allow to select browser language settings. In addition, AdWords
offers the option of presenting adds in a particular region within a country. This could be
beneficial when targeting large countries like the US or China. Some keywords are considered
‘highly commercial’ which means there is a lot of competition around this keyword. This
results in a higher price per click but also a higher click through rate.

Landing pages: when creating an advertisement, it is important to consider the

product/service you are selling through this add. Subsequently the right landing page of this
add should be selected as the Home Page is not where a customer expects to land after

23
clicking on an add for a specific shoe. A landing page in the case of Nike should either include
the entire catalogue of women’s running shoes or a specific running shoe if this is what is
searched for. Within this page, the customer should be enticed further towards the purchase,
therefore it should include several calls to action and preferably the desired product. In
addition, it could be beneficial to track the customers behaviour across the landing page as
this could contribute to comprehending the lead’s interests and desires which would result in
optimizing the PPC campaign.

Website analysis

Different elements
- Ecommerce website software: According to Dasha M. (2019) Nike uses Magento as
their e-commerce software. This software is a product from Adobe and offers services
like: Customer support, Payments & Security, Marketing, Accounting & Finance,
Shipping & Fulfilment, and Site optimization.
- Homepage: Nike’s homepage consists of a few prominent banners referring to specific
campaigns. In addition, some products are shown in-between horizontally with the
option to scroll further. The navigation bar is positioned horizontally on the top of the
page.
- Catalogue management: The catalogue model is constructed from six main topics:
New Releases, Men, Women, Kids, Customize, Sale. These topics are then subdivided
between different brands from Nike and different kinds of apparel/shoes.
- Search module: Nike’s website offers a search function in addition to the possibility
to filter the catalogues
- Product page: The product pages from Nike allow users to filter based on several
elements. In addition, customers can sort the products based on a certain criterion
such as price low -> high. In addition to product pictures in the catalogue, Nike places
offers in-between.
- Shopping basket: In the shopping bag, it shows when the product(s) are expected to
be delivered or if you prefer to pick it up in store and find a specific store.
Subsequently, it allows to quick check out with PayPal or regular checkout.
- Cross- and up-sell: Nike offers cheaper products when visiting the basket page on the
bottom of the page.
- Payment module: Nike offers several payment methods suitable for where the
customer is located.
- Creating an account and buying without an account: Nike offers the opportunity to
login when checking out or to checkout as a guest.
- Programs for resellers. Nike offers an affiliate program with max 11% commission.

Improvement measures
In regards of most elements of nike.com I do not see any room for improvement at this point.
However, the affiliate program is not easily accessible. Therefore, I would recommend
creating a bit more visibility/accessibility for this page.

24
Sales advice
Nike offers a size chart in order to find the right size. However, this is not very extensive as it
does not mention if the shoes fit big or small.
In addition, Nike offers styling tips inspired by Instagram users wearing the product(s).
There is an extensive description of certain products added to the product page.

25
Week 5
SUPR-Q website assessment
Nike.com
Category Question Score
Usability Q1: The website is easy to use 5
Q2: It is easy to navigate within the 5
website
Trust & Credibility Q3: The information on the website is 5
credible
Q4: The information on the website is 5
trustworthy
Appearance Q5: I find the website to be attractive 5
Q6: The website has a clean and simple 3
presentation
Loyalty Q7: I will likely return to the website in 5
the future
Q8: How likely are you to recommend 8
the website to a friend or
colleague?

Raw SUPR-Q Score Formula = Q1 + Q2 + Q3 + Q4 + Q5 + Q6 + Q7 + (1/2*Q8) / 8 =

Raw SUPR-Q Score Nike.com = 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 3 + 5 + (1/2*8) / 8 = 4.6

Adidas.com
Category Question Score
Usability Q1: The website is easy to use 4
Q2: It is easy to navigate within the 5
website
Trust & Credibility Q3: The information on the website is 5
credible
Q4: The information on the website is 5
trustworthy
Appearance Q5: I find the website to be attractive 4
Q6: The website has a clean and simple 3
presentation
Loyalty Q7: I will likely return to the website in 4
the future
Q8: How likely are you to recommend 7
the website to a friend or
colleague?

Raw SUPR-Q Score Adidas.com = 4 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 4 + (1/2*7) / 8 = 4.2

26
Hasan & Abuelrub VS. Sauro

The website quality framework proposed by Hasan and Abuelrub is based on 4 key dimensions
which consist of several indicators for each dimension. These indicators enable an extensive
assessment for every dimension.

The indicators are based upon knowledge and experience from disparate sources, a range of
reference disciplines and empirical practices. Compared to the SUPR-Q questionnaire
proposed by Sauro, this framework encourages a more in-depth analysis of each dimension
due to the variety of research-based indicators. However, the SUPR-Q questionnaire offers a
short, low-effort way to begin tracking design metrics within your organization.

In order for both organizations to develop a better understanding of the behavior of visitors
on their website, I would recommend assessing their website based on the framework
proposed by Hasan and Abuelrub as this allows for an extensive review of the dimensions
which comprise to a successful website.

Requirements for website usability 11.3

User friendly layout
- Hierarchical layout
- Bread crumb navigation
- Navigation buttons located at the top
- Company logo on top left, including link to homepage
- Underline or color clickable text
- Call to action or other buttons located on the right
- Responding to the expectations of the visitor
Key components
- Sufficient hyperlinks
- Search box
- Reviews and feedback
- Video
Display on tablet or smartphone
- Responsive design
- Adaptive design
User research
- Specialist research agencies can help comprehending the behavior of visitors on your
website by conducting tests.

27
In terms of user-friendly layout, nike.com complies to all requirements except for the bread
crumb navigation. Nevertheless, it is still easy to navigate in between different pages.

Concerning the key components, nike.com offers sufficient hyperlinks, a user-friendly search
box, reviews for every product, and a video on their homepage. A possible improvement here
could be product videos which emphasize the fit of the products.

For tablets, nike.com have created a responsive design which responses to the size of the
screen. For smartphones, the layout of the website is also responsive.

To conclude, nike.com complies to almost every requirement and is indeed a very user-
friendly website.

Web content and web text 11.4

Requirements for good web content
- Content styles
Informative, motivational, sales oriented, service oriented
- From inside out to outside in
Base your information on what the customer wants to see.
- Customizing web text
- Arguments
Include arguments that encourage the visitors to exhibit the desired behavior.
- Confrontation text and reading text
Locate your confrontation texts and reading texts strategically
Writing web text
- Make text collapsible
- Write in short sentences
- Ensure an optimal layout of the web text
Optimizing web text
- Get rid of anything that is not an answer to questions that your readers may ask
- Add enumerations
- Use slick, modern language
- Limit the use of passive voice verbs and auxiliary verbs for expressing the tense
- Avoid weak words and expressions
- Add strong words
- Use the imperative tense
- For every piece of text, don’t forget to factor in mobile users
- Ensure a good final editing

Nike.com content styles are motivational and sales oriented, they offer a wide variety of
attractive content on their home page. Arguments which encourage visitors to exhibit certain
behaviour are for example promotional banners. The reading texts are mainly located at the
product page if the visitor is interested in more information regarding the product.

28
Text within product pages is collapsible which enables users to view the more extensive
product information if they like. Texts are written in short sentences. The layout of the text is
visually attractive and does not stand in the way of the essence of the page. In the case of
nike.com, text is mostly a detail and not the essence of a page.

SEO assessment
The screaming frog tool analysed 500 URL’s which it encountered while crawling the nike.com
website. 3 of these URL’s were internally blocked due to a 404 error or no index found. In
terms of security, 16 pages were missing a content-security-policy header. In addition, 1 of
the pages contained a bad content type. In terms of page titles, there were 3 titles missing,
16 duplicates, and 218 titles consist of less than 30 characters. Looking at the results of the
meta descriptions, we can see 9 missing descriptions, and 55 duplicates. 34 meta descriptions
consist of more than 155 characters and 134 consist of less than 70 characters. There are 76
meta keywords missing and 21 duplicates.

A full database containing the internal and external assessment can be found via the following
links:

External:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1R1q2nAvbFxHbXSDeYbdaU0xi1xRt0aAM/edit?us
p=sharing&ouid=113379507499616369390&rtpof=true&sd=true
Internal:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JGUISSALfkPQyGweV9UBFTaPYSDoA1GV/edit?us
p=sharing&ouid=113379507499616369390&rtpof=true&sd=true

Moz.com assessment results

29
Week 6
Article summaries

Article 1:
5 Key Legal Issues When Running a Digital Marketing Business
1. Privacy Law Obligations
Just like your clients, your marketing business will have its own privacy law obligations to
consider. If you collect personal information on your clients’ behalf, you will need to establish
a privacy policy which explains:
• what information you are collecting; and
• the purposes of collection.

2. Terms and Conditions

Your marketing business needs a clear set of terms and conditions for the services you
provide. If you sell your marketing services to clients online, you will need a click wrap
agreement agreement setting out key details.
A click wrap agreement is simply a virtual prompt that allows website visitors to accept your
terms and conditions digitally.
Your terms and conditions should cover:
• the scope of the work you are providing, including marketing strategies, goals and
plans;
• deliverables and timelines;
• payment schedules and fees;
• restraint of trade with other parties;
• confidentiality of information shared;
• dispute resolution processes; and
• limitations to your legal responsibility.

3. Consumer Law and Marketing

When promoting your clients’ products and services, make sure that your advertisements
will not mislead consumers. Misleading and false advertising can include representations of
the:
• nature;
• price;
• quality;
• quantity; or
• suitability of the good or service.

4. Intellectual Property
If you use other content creators’ intellectual property (IP) (such as their music, art or
photographs) to assist in your advertising, ensure that you have the appropriate permissions
or licences to use them.

5. Competition Regulations
A competition run to advertise a company’s products or services is known as a trade
promotion. If you run trade promotions for your clients, you may require a permit, depending

30
on the states or territories in which you run the competition. This will depend on whether the
trade promotion is a game of skill or game of chance, where it is being run and the total prize
pool. You will also need to establish trade promotion terms and conditions, which set out:
• who the promoter is (whether it is you or your client);
• who can enter the competition and whether there are any age or location restrictions;
• the timeframe for the competition;
• requirements for entry;
• details about the prize; and
• how you will notify the winner.

Key Takeaways
Your digital marketing business needs to consider many legal issues. In particular, you should
ensure that:
• your privacy practices are up to date;
• your contracts protect you from liability;
• you comply with consumer law requirements;
• you do not infringe upon others’ IP; and
• you have the permits required to conduct your business.

31
Article 2:
Legal aspects of online marketing

Data protection
You are legally obliged to protect customer or potential customer information in accordance
with the Data Protection Act. The main principles of the act with regards to this type of data
are to:
• only collect data for a specific purpose
• keep any data secure
• ensure that data is relevant and up to date
• only keep it for as long as necessary
• allow customers to view it if requested
• not transfer it out of the EEA without adequate protection
If your organisation processes any personal information, you are required to register with the
Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Opting in and out

You have certain online marketing obligations under the Privacy and Electronic
Communications Regulations. One of the most important rules you need to stick to is
providing a clear opt out method for any recipients of an email marketing campaign.
Additionally, unless the contact details of the recipients were obtained in the course of
business, you need to first obtain their consent by getting them to opt in to receive these
types of emails.

Cookies
The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations also govern the use of cookies. These
are essentially files which are stored on a computer when the user visits certain websites.
These cookies can be used for a variety of marketing purposes, such as posting specific adverts
in their browser (e.g. Google Chrome) based on their internet activity. Some cookies are
“essential” to the operation of an e-commerce website, such as where they are required for
the purchase process to work properly. These essential cookies don’t require consent.
However, non-essential cookies, such as those which are used for advertising purposes
require the consent of a user in order to be deployed. In practice, this generally takes the
form of a banner or notification which is visible when a user first visits a website, asking them
to opt-in. Fines of up to £500,000 can be levied by the Information Commissioner’s Office
(ICO) for failure to comply with the laws on cookies.

Terms and Conditions

Even if you’re not selling any goods or services on your website, any products which you’re
advertising should be correctly described and there needs to be a breakdown of any costs.
It’s an implied term of any contract that goods match the description so make sure you get
this right.

32
ABC-model analysis
Conversion past month 1.5% -> 2%
18-24 – 4%
25-34 – 2%
35-44 – 1%
45-54 – 1%

segmenting
In order to come up with a meaningful result derived from the ABC-model analysis, it is
important to distinguish the different important customer segments.
- Prospects versus customers
- Desktop versus mobile visitors
- One-time buyers versus loyal customers
- Browsing versus focused visitors
- Visitors from a comparison site versus from a newsletter
- Visitors coming in via different landing pages
- Segmentation based on geography, day of the week, time of day and the like
- Origin; channel: direct traffic, referred traffic, other.

Conversion in relation to behaviour

In order to understand why customers converted, it is important identify the difference in
behaviour on the website compared to non-conversions. Do customers look at more,
different, or less pages and what are the top 10 pages of those who convert? Have they visited
before? These questions allow for optimizing the website in order to shift the ‘success factors’
towards the non-converted visitors.

Conversion in relation to acquisition

During this stage, it is important to understand where the converted visitors come from. If
they are derived through a Google AdWords campaign, what phrases are keywords did they
use? Or, did they visit the website directly or through social media advertisements? It is
important to analyse this data for every customer as this allows Nike to identify which channel
has the highest ROI. In addition, it enables Nike to analyse the effectiveness of the details
from a specific advertisement campaign.

33
Reference list
Sinkovics, N., Sinkovics, R.R. and Jean, R.J.B. (2013), “The internet as an alternative path to
internationalization?”, International Marketing Review, Vol. 30 No. 2, pp. 130-155.

Watson, G.F., IV, Weaven, S., Perkins, H., Sardana, D. and Palmatier, R.W. (2018),
“International market entry strategies: relational, digital, and hybrid approaches”, Journal of
International Marketing, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 30-60.

Dasha M. Mar 18, 2019 “Top 10 World’s Famous Brands Using Magento”
https://belvg.com/blog/top-10-worlds-famous-brands-using-magento.html

B. Dean, Sep. 01, 2021 “Social Network Usage & Growth Statistics: How Many People Use
Social Media in 2021?” https://backlinko.com/social-media-users

J. Bowden, March 17, 2014. “The Impact of Social Media Marketing Trends on Digital
Marketing” https://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/impact-social-media-marketing-
trends-digital-marketing

F. Auckenthaler, February 13, 2019. “The Role of Culture in Global Digital Marketing
Strategy” https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/role-culture-global-digital-marketing-strategy-
florian-auckenthaler/

https://www.similarweb.com/website/nike.com/#overview

David Green (2017) https://www.businessinsider.nl/nike-says-it-will-favor-about-40-

retailers-2017-10?international=true&r=US

Phil Wahba (2020) https://fortune.com/2020/09/23/nike-q1-ecommerce-results-covid-19/

https://www.nicekicks.com/air-jordans/air-jordan-1/

L. Gregory (2018) http://panmore.com/nike-inc-marketing-mix-4ps-product-place-

promotion-price-analysis

D. Pereira (Jan 14, 2021) https://businessmodelanalyst.com/nike-business-model/

Nike.com (2014) https://news.nike.com/news/stanford-and-harvard-examine-nike-inc-s-

approach-to-sustainable-innovation

FY20 NIKE, Inc. Impact Report (2020) https://purpose-cms-

preprod01.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-
content/uploads/2021/04/26225042/Purpose_2025_Targets_NIKE_Inc.pdf

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 Appendix

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