D1.Evaluate the effectiveness of the promotional mix for a branded product

Nike is a very well established business which regularly promotes and advertises its products. The brand Nike has many strengths and weaknesses that I will be evaluating in this piece of work! Strengths | Weaknesses | Worldwide | A bit expensive | Most recognized name in active sportswear | Lack retail stores | over 700 shops globally in about 45 different countries | Don’t have their own factory | Nike is one of the most widely-known companies in the world | Breaking many labour laws | “swoosh”(the tick) one of the most instantly-recognizable corporate symbols in history | Paying workers below minimum wage to make more money as a company | Have products for a big range of customers | Cheaper products if you shop online |

Now I will explain how the promotional activities of the brand help promote its message to the target market: Advertising - Nike uses advertising to persuade its customers to want to buy their products. They use a huge range of different techniques in order to catch their customer’s attentions from billboards to TV advertisements. These kinds of techniques have huge advantages to Nikes reputation because it is a way of getting customers to recognize their brand instantly. They also advertise their brand on both online and in- store, this allows their products to get even more noticed. However this can also become a loss for Nike because their customers may not have the time to watch adverts and read magazines, however personally I think that Nike do a very good job at advertising their product because they offer a huge range of different techniques.

Sales Promotions - Nike has an enormous amount of sales promotion to advertise all their new products. The four main ways Nike uses sales promotion are currently through TV commercials, social media, magazine ads, and they use the athletes who represents them as a well-known brand. They also have loads of clearances whether it’s on their website or in store and they provide you with a service to also customise your own shoes however you want, I think this is a very good techniques that Nike uses because it enables there brand to become more recognizable. However some people may not be interested in all this because already Nike is a fairly expensive brand and to customise their own shoes would be even more expensive so instead of attracting customers towards the products some customers might choose to attract away from the products.

Personal Selling - The way Nike is involved in personal selling is they are always introducing new products throughout the year. So the way they present this product is they have all types on conventions to show off the new product whatever it might be. With these conventions they can actually present the new product fully explain what the features are and they get a chance to explain really why you should buy this product. Also when you walk into a Nike store they tend to come up to you and actually show you there new products or what’s on trend etc...
They also do this on their online shopping website by introducing their new products on their homepage and can send out catalogues to regular customers.
However this can also be bad because some people may never hardly go onto Nikes website and if they do go into the store them may not want the worker to come up to them and may find it time consuming.

Celebrity endorsement – Nike uses Celebrities from tennis players to football players to help them promote their brand. I think that this is a very good technique that Nike uses to bring more noticeability towards their products because celebrities can have a huge impact on some people and they may inspire people to be like them this will include dressing like them as well.
However this can also have its downside because it can stop the customer to actually buy any products because of the fact this brand is actually quite expensive because celebrities are wearing them and might choose to actually not take no notice in the brand altogether.

Product Range – Nike’s product range offers an amazing variety of different products for most ages from toddlers at 2 years old to men at 60 years old. They provide their customers with products such as tracksuits to shoes to sport bags. I think that Nike’s product range is really good because they provide a better range of products than most other sport brands.
However this can also be bad for Nike because some customers might just be looking for a store with one specific thing for example all women’s clothes so this could mean that some customers may choose to go to other shops that only provide what they are looking for instead.

Public Relations – Nike have a very good reputation in society today because of the way that they represent their brand and products in the media. For example Nike provide articles about their brand and products in newspapers and when customers will read this it will come across as reliable information and will hopefully persuade them to take interest in buying products from Nike.
This can also be bad because all the information might not be accurate and the customer might not be satisfied about what it written.

Overall, Nike has many features about their brand and products that have a huge impact on the successfulness of their brand. They are a worldwide brand who provide products that appeal to everybody’s needs. Their famous swoosh tick logo is instantly recognisable and the various colours and design of their products are hugely admired. The services that Nike provide are very reassuring to their customers and help them build their brand more and more.