How Nike Benefits from Using Social Media to Promote Its Brand - Capstone Project Example

How Nike Benefits From Using Social Media to Promote its Brand

Introduction

Advances in technology have provided numerous opportunities for businesses to improve their scope of operations. Over the years, technology has become a mandatory requirement for leading brands as it allows for the implementation of more effective operational strategies. For businesses, the exceptional growth of social media is the most important technology advancement in regards to marketing and brand education. Fill, Hughes and De Francesco (2013) are of the assumption that the rise of consumer preference on social media has directly instigated the realization by companies on the importance of the aspect. The authors further support this argument by citing that leading brands in the United States across different industries have at least one social media platform (Fill, Hughes and De Francesco, 2013).

For Nike, social media technology has played a major role in increasing the relevance of the brand across the globe. However, the success of Nike on social media can only be attributed by the exceptional strategies the company has implemented in maximizing on this opportunity. The results have been significant as the company has the largest consumer following compare to other market leaders in the sport apparel industry. Cashman (2013) points out that Nike has also surpassed Google or Instagram as the leading company in social media marketing. How has Nike been able to maximize on the social media trend in regard to promotion of the brand?

Report Topic, Aims and Objectives

The research operates under the topic ‘How Nike Benefits from Using Social Media to promote its Brand’. Under the question, the research answers the question on how Nike has been able to succeed by using social media for its brand promotion.

The main aim of the research is to identify the opportunities social media provides to companies in regards to brand promotion. To address this aim, the research seeks to analyze how Nike has benefited from social media it its brand promotion. Also, the research also aims to understand how well Nike has been able to achieve ultimate brand promotion on social media.

The objective of the research is to identify social media as an exceptional tool for brand promotion. The objective will be addressed using Nike as a case study on the strategies implemented and the results attained from the company’s use of social media for brand promotion.

Literature Review

The use of social media has become an important marketing concept in the modern corporate world. In the works by Sumangla (2015), the author argues that the consumption size of social media attracts the presence of companies. For instance, with over 1 billion users, Facebook provides a huge pool to identify target markets. Nike realized this opportunity and opened its Facebook page in 2008. Already being a popular brand, the platform has been mainly used for consumer education on products, and exercise tips (Sumangla, 2015). This has widened the view of the market on the Nike brand.

Different brands of social media are available attracting different types of consumers. To interact with all the consumers, Nike has ventured into all major social media platforms. These are Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram. In addition, the company launched Nike+ for a more centered target market interaction. Kapoor, Pride and Hughes (2016) argue that this strategy has widened the reach of the Nike brand in regards to how many consumers may directly interact with the company for queries, help or product information.

For Nike, social media also presents an opportunity to promote its different products and target markets on one platform. On Facebook, for example, Nike has pages on snowboarding, gold, American football, football, and a main page for the company. This allows the company to offer more to the market thus denoting its brand as diverse. Chadwick, Chanavat and Desbordes (2014) assert that considering that the price of using these platforms is free or less in instances of page marketing, Nike has been able to minimize its marketing costs and increase its market reach.

Cashman (2013) identifies Nike as one of the biggest social media marketing companies. The description is developed from the fact that apart from using social media platforms, Nike has been able to create its own social media platforms from which consumers can develop their online profiles. The rise of Nike to this level can be directly attributed to its realization of the needs of its target market. Fill, Hughes and De Francesco (2013) points out that the company realized the importance of moving away from the traditional marketing concepts and invests more in social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Nike+. This approach massively increased the ability of the Nike to market itself as a global brand.

Methodology

To understand the benefits of Nike from social media marketing, the methodology section seeks to identify the number of social media platforms the company has ventured into. Each platform will be described in regards to the size of active followers, subscribers and interaction rate. In additional, the variety of products and services Nike markets on social media will be identified.

The population for the research is the general users of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Nike+. The population would then be divided on how many of active users are subscribed to Nike pages. Also, the population of relevant in the research would be mainly consumers of Nike products as influenced by social media. To sample the results the research will mainly focus on the number of active users on the Nike platform. This may be determined by the prevalence of online interactions. The growth rate on the size of the subscribers would also be determined.

Data collection will be from online sources. Also, the Nike pages on the various media platforms would be used to identify the number of followers Twitter has. Online information sources will be used to collect data from the past performance of social media by Nike. This includes identifying the recorded growth rates in consumer preference.

Findings and Analysis

Primary Data

On Facebook, Nike has 24 million likes on its main company page. On all its pages of Facebook, Nike has an average of 2 million likes. Its competitors only have an average of 6 million likes. On Facebook, 68, 000 people talk about Nike between 23rd April and 2nd May (Brand Equity, 2016).

On Twitter, Nike has 6 million followers. Its competitors have an average of 929,000 followers which denotes the high follower population Nike enjoys on Twitter. In the past 10 days, Nike has an average of 12.9 on the number of tweets per day (Brand Equity, 2016). During the same period, 48% of the tweets have been retweeted. Considering that Twitter has the greatest traffic during weekdays, 74% of Nike’s tweets are during the period (Brand Equity, 2016).

Nike+ has 18 million global users. To increase the size of access, the platform incorporates the use of Nike FuelBand, Mobile phone apps, shoe inserts, and the Xbox training programs (Brand Equity, 2016).

Analysis

On Twitter, the main Nike account has 6 million followers from which the account offer consumers support services. Nike maximizes on the availability of features that allows for photo and video postings. Videos and pictures of celebrity sport personalities are posted while using Nike products. This acts as a marketing and brand promotion tool. Also on Twitter, Nike has over 30 more accounts which focus on different products and demographics. For instance, Nike has an account for its females consumers, Female Nike, which focuses on their products designed for women. Also, Nike France Football page focuses on the demographic and specializes on football products and consumer support. For the sole purpose of consumer support, Nike has @NikeSupport from where consumer tweets across the globe are replied from one hub (White, 2014). From the Twitter accounts, Nike also directs users to websites from which they can acquire complete products information or general catalogues.

The main page is largely used for product promotion in form of videos and pictures. For instance, if Nike launches a new product they market in on Facebook posting videos of celebrities wearing the apparel. This is a significant marketing strategy as the 24 million followers are likely to view the video and know the product exists. To the brand, the platform provides a central hub Nike can utilize to access its target market. Similar to Twitter, Nike has pages on Facebook on different apparels. For instance, it has Nike Football and Nike Basketball directly aimed at marketing the two sports in regards to apparels used in the sports. Also, Nike also directs consumers to their main website pages from Facebook increasing their consumer traffic to their online shops (Moth, 2013).

In 2009, Nike launched Nike+. Different from other social media platforms, Nike+ offers a more personal interaction to its consumers. The platforms allows for the recording of sporting data through FuelBands. From the data, a person can be able to monitor their performance. Nike+ website highlights that the platform has exceptionally improved the Nike brand as a sporting company as famous athlete can be able to use this platform to gauge and improve their performance (Nike+, 2016). Nike+ website provides shopping options, product evaluation and education and the option to have personal trainers. This has greatly improved the Nike brand as a leader in sport apparel industry. Nike+ had 18 million users in 2008, and the number rose to 28 million in 2013 (White, 2014). This shows the reach the website has, and the significant impact on the brand Nike.

The same strategies are used on Instagram where Nike has 7 million followers (Brand Equity, 2016). Vine and Pinterest are also used by Nike for social media brand promotion.

Conclusion

From the argument presented, it is an accurate assumption that Nike has extensively utilized the available social media platforms to promote its brand. With a minimum of 5 million followers in major platforms, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, Nike has been able to capture the attention of these users towards considering Nike as the leading sports brand. The results have been exceptional as its social media followers are highly increasing showing the increasing interest of the market towards the brand. Social media also offers the option of using one hub for marketing different products and into different demographics at very minimal costs compared to traditional marketing approaches. With growing social media users, the platform provides Nike with a growing market pool from which the company can increase its brand reach in the global market.