Team Project – Part 2
Team 5 – Hawkeye Marketing
Stephanie Jensen
Moyin Li
Joseph Snyder
Yuqi Sun
Wenzhe Zhang
Introduction to Marketing
University of Iowa Tippie College of Business
03 April, 2016

Nike Segments Consumers by Athletes and Non-Athletes In a time when most things are no longer in simple black and white, Nike remains binary by segmenting its consumers into two distinct, opposite categories: athletes and non-athletes. While these segments are particularly broad, there’s a reason for it: it would be impractical to target the two groups in the same way. To successfully reach the company’s target markets, Nike employs differentiated marketing strategies. Athletes are mainly targeted with one of Nike’s major marketing strategies: the “hero athlete” (Kalb). The company pairs up with prominent athletes to endorse their brand. Athletes will then wish to be affiliated with these sports figures, so they will go out and buy Nike footwear to accomplish this.
Contrastingly, in order to successfully target the non-athletes, Nike employs ad campaigns to inspire and motivate them to continue working hard. Around the London Olympics in 2012, Nike launched a new campaign with ordinary people enjoying themselves in their respective niches. The campaign was titled “Find Your Greatness,” and it included slogans such as, “Greatness doesn’t need a stadium.” This appealed to everyday citizens, because if someone else just like them can enjoy doing something that makes them feel great, then they can, too (Alexander).
Athlete Consumer Segment
The athlete segment is comprised of athletes that participate in all sports at both the professional and amateur level. This includes professional, Olympic, collegiate, high school, and youth categories. An aggregate analysis of various data sources indicate that there are approximately 21.8 million athletes in the United