Nike's Environment(s)

The major environments affecting any business are its micro and macro environments. In order to be a successful company, the company must proactively and efficiently deal with these two types of environment. Nike is doing a great job with this so far and it seems that they can only get better.

Although Nike is a household name, and holds a strong stance in the market of athletic footwear, it still pays close attention to the needs of its customers. Customers are a major portion of the micro environment. Without customers, there would be no business. For example, Nike is always looking and researching ways to improve their most popular running shoe, the Shox. They even provide a program on the Internet where you can create your own running shoe by being able to choose the color layout of the shoe. Nike is known for its higher quality and therefore, higher pricing, but they are increasing their market share in the middle and lower price ranges to not exclude any potential customers. Nike also does a great job at making their products appeal to younger, fashion savvy market as well as remaining appealing to the more conservative and function-oriented market. They satisfy the needs of customers who repeatedly purchase the same products and those who are constantly searching for the newest product out there.

Nike holds the position as leader in athletic footwear so it is managing competing brands efficiently in order to remain on top. It always appears that Nike is two steps ahead of their competing brands like Adidas and New Balance.

Nike has a large impact on their macro environment, and in turn, it has a big impact on them as well. It is a known fact that Nike was in a little trouble with the working conditions of the factories overseas. They have publicly apologized and are making huge efforts to ensure the lives of the people working in these factories are given the chance to have the best quality of life. Nike is also big on using their brand power to invest money into grants and product donations as examples. They take corporate responsibility very seriously. They are also making efforts to Go Green and calling the process, The GreenXchange. An example of this is they have begun to use an environmentally friendly rubber on the soles of some of their running shoes and one of them happens to be the Nike Shox Experience.

Overall, Nike has a nice balance of dealing with its micro and macro environments. They are a very open-minded company and always willing to try new ways of doing business that will satisfy the needs of the employees, suppliers, and customers while keeping up with the Go Green attitude this country has so strongly taken part in.