1. Shadelle Goodson, Caroline Duncan, Tanece Moore,
Imani Ervins and Sekinah McDuffie
Nike Brand Analysis

2. Executive Summary
For our research,we decided to conduct a brand analysis of Nike. We wanted to analyze
the attitudes and perceptions of Winthrop students towards Nike as opposed to other athletic wear
brands. We did this by creating a survey of 15 questions that targeted our research objectives
which were:how is Nike perceived by its customers, what motivates customers to choose Nike as
opposed to its competitors, what factors do consumers consider important when in the market for
athletic apparel, and how do consumers perceive Nike advertising campaigns such as the
Livestrong and Just Do It campaigns.
We conducted primary research by distributing a survey and using a non-probability
sampling. Our survey was composed of multiple styles of questions from Likert to rank-order and
on. Our sample was made of individuals ages 17 to 28 over half of which were women. Most of
these individuals are college students at Winthrop University. We also found that most of our
sample was employed and they varied in race and ethnicity.
In conclusion, we found that in relation to Nike, most of our consumers perceived the
brand as being a brand of comfort as opposed to their competitors. We found that comfort is what
motivates consumers to choose Nike. When in the market for athletic apparel, consumers
consider brand name when looking at Adidas, quality when looking at Under Armour and
comfort when it comes to Nike. Lastly, we found that Nike campaigns and scandals such as the
Livestrong/ Just Do It campaign did not have a huge effect on whether or not it motivated
consumers to purchase Nike. We recommend that Nike focuses more on their apparel in regards
to
comfort. They already do a good job in this area,but if they enhanced what they already had, it
would put them above their competitors even more.
Marketing Research 482

3. Project Introduction
Nike, Inc. is an American multinational sportswear corporation that is engaged in
the design, development, manufacturing and worldwide marketing and sales of
footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories and services. Nike markets its products
under its own brand as well as Nike Golf, Nike Pro, Nike +, Air Jordan, Nike Blazers,
Air Force 1, Nike Dunk, Air Max, Foampostie, Nike Skateboarding and subsidiaries
including the Jordan brand, Hurley International and Converse. Nike is highly
known to sponsor many high-profile athletes sports teams around the world with
its highly recognizable trademarks of the swoosh logo and “Just Do It”.
Over last few years Nike has consistently ranked in the top 5 in areas such as
most innovative brands and most valuable apparel brand, where last year Nike
reigned in at Number 1. Nike over the years has continually remained at the top in
its industry amongst other athletic apparel companies. This led us to wonder how is
the Nike Brand perceived to consumers.
For our research, we wanted to do an analysis of the Nike brand within the
Winthrop community. We wanted to understand what motivates consumers in the
Winthrop community to purchase Nike. Not only did we want to find what
motivates consumers to purchase the Nike brand, we also wanted to know how the
Nike brand stands against other popular athletic wear such as Adidas and Under
Armour. To understand how Nike stands amongst its competitors we wanted to gain
an understanding of what would motivate or influence consumers to purchase Nike
over Adidas and Under Armour.

4. For our research our target audience were Winthrop University students,
from the ages of 18 to 30. The reason we decided t on this particular age group was
to not exclude graduate students, because they too are a part of the Winthrop
community.

5. Research Methodology
Plan of research
Prior to conducting our research, we came up with five specific domains of our topic
in which we wanted to gain more information. First, we wanted to look at the
competition of Nike; How has Nike differentiated their products from their
competition (Adidas, Under Armor, Puma, etc.)? Secondly, we focused on the
consumer side; what do consumers look for/prefer when shopping for athletic
apparel/shoes? The last three domains we were interested in consisted of the
product performance, Ad campaigns, and current trends in the market.
Drawing from our five domains, we composed researched objectives and several
research questions pertaining to each objective in which we would later test. We
wanted to understand the following research objectives:
1. How Nike is perceived with respect to its competitors
2. What motivates consumers to choose Nike over other athletic brands
3. What factors consumers consider important when looking for athletic
apparel
4. How consumers perceive the Just Do It and Livestrong Campaigns
After proposing our objectives and several research questions for each objective, we
were able to create an online survey questionnaire via Qualtrics that would help us
gain more insight on our objectives. Our questionnaire was tested and finalized by
setting certain stipulations. Our first criteria was to set the minimum age
requirement at 17 years old, as this is a minimum age for a traditional college

6. student. Secondly we had a marketing research professional review our survey
before distributing it.
Type of research
They type of research we used in this study was primary research, specifically
structured questionnaires that dealt mainly with interval level and categorical level
variables. Our structured questionnaires allowed for close-ended questions where
the respondents had the ability to answer “yes’ or “no” pertaining to their
employment, semantic differential question relating to certain brands at a particular
point on an interval numerical scale of one through five (one being the lowest and
five being the highest), and a Likert-Type scale (ranging from never to always)
involving how often they wear athletic apparel.
With this type of quantitative research method, we as researchers are able to
quantify the problem by generating numerical data that can be transformed into
useable statistics. We were able to comprehensively gather and quantify
information that helped lead to our understanding of human behavior and attitudes
to certain brands, while concurrently using measurable data to formulate facts, see
patterns, opinions and motivations the population has towards certain athletic
brands.
Sampling Method
The sampling method we used was non-probability sampling, which can sometimes
be called convenience sampling. After finalizing our survey, we individually posted
a link to our social media accounts asking people to participate in our survey

7. study. By posting our survey link to several social media accounts, the probability of
every unit or the sample size could not be determined, as it was left up to the
individuals to choose to participate in the study.
Questionnaire
As a group, we created a 15-question survey on Qualtrics (an online survey
platform) where we were able to view the completed surveys and see the amount of
surveys that were both started and in progress. Our questionnaire was left open
from March 2nd and closed on March 22nd.
Our questionnaire consisted of an opening statement explaining the purpose of the
study, encouraging honest responses, and we informed the possible participants
that their answers are 100% confidential and 100% voluntary in which they are
welcome to terminate the survey at any point.
In order to get the appropriate responses for our study, we asked a series of rank-
order questions, ranking their attitudes and feelings towards three athletic brands
(Nike, Adidas, and Under Armor). Other questions that were proposed to the
respondents related to their athleticism and their knowledge and feelings toward
the Nike Livestrong Campaign.
At the end of the survey, we provided four demographic questions: sex, age,
ethnicity (race), and employment. From collecting these demographic questions, it
enables us to cross-tabulate and compare subgroups to see how the responses vary
between each of the groups. Demographic questions are an important aspect of a
survey, and by asking these questions, we are able to see if demographics influence

8. their knowledge, attitudes and behaviors toward certain brands: Nike, Adidas, and
Under Armour.

9. Sample Size and Sample Characteristics
Demographics
We chose 17 years old as the lowest age possible to take our survey because it is the
youngest age a typical college student is. The oldest respondent is 28, because we
wanted to keep the age range as close to a traditional college student’s age as
possible. As we targeted college students for our survey, the ages ranged from 17 to
28 with a mean distribution of 20.275 (20 years old).
We needed to know what gender the majority of our respondents are in order to
have background information and understand our sample. When asked to indicate
their gender we found that 14 out of the 80 people (18%) are males, 65 people
(81%) are females, and 1 person (1%) prefers not to answer.

10. In order to obtain accurate results, we surveyed a diverse group of people. We
believe that this sample helps reflect those who purchase athletic apparel. When
asked what ethnicity respondents are, we found that 2 people are Asian, 33 are
African-American, 3 are Hispanic, 1 is Native American or American Indian, 44 are
white, 2 prefer not to answer, and 2 are something other than listed on the survey.

11. We asked respondents about their employment status because all of them are
college students who more than likely have a limited budget. Due to the limited
budget, some people may be less inclined to purchase Nike products due to the price
they must pay. We found that our distribution was about even with 41 employed
responses and 39 unemployed responses.

12. We wanted to know the respondent’s self-perceived athletic ability in order to
better understand our sample. When asked to describe their athletic ability 12
people said they are very unathletic, 15 said somewhat unathletic, 5 said neither, 37
said somewhat athletic, and 11 said very athletic.

13. Lastly, we wanted to know how frequently respondents wear athletic apparel in
order to understand how their perceptions of athletic apparel affect them. When
asked how often do they wear athletic apparel 4 respondents said never, 12 said
rarely, 28 said sometimes, 26 said often, and 10 said always.

14. Data Analysis
The objectives given for this specific research consisted of the following:
● RO 1. Understand how Nike is perceived on a scale rank..
● RO 2.What motivates consumers to choose Nike.

15. ● RO 3.What factors consumers consider important when purchasing athletic
wear.
● RO 4. Consumer perceives the Just Do It/ Livestrong.
After submitting a host of surveys and gathering significant information, the
process then led to an analysis through SPSS. Integrating these results was quite
interesting. As we integrated these findings, it became more apparent what
consumers preferred and it was evident that the results were aligned with our
objectives and expectations. Here, we will go through each objective supported by
its findings and analyze the data that we obtained from our survey.
Our first objective was to understand how Nike is perceived with respect
amongst its competitors. Students of the Winthrop community were asked to rank
the Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour brand based on the factors of brand name,
price, trendy, and quality. When given the questionnaire, the factors were on a
semantic differentiation scale from 1-5. The means of the factors ranged from 3.08-
4.41 (See Statistics Table 1). According to statistics, consumers associated Nike
mostly with the factors of “Comfort”. Hypothetically, some would assume Nike to be
associated best with quality, however these results convey otherwise. This could
possibly be something Nike would look into when searching for improvements.
Although “Comfort” is an important factor, Nike should focus on the “Trendy Image”
aspect , having a low mean of 3.38, also along with “Brand Name”, being that it had
the lowest mean of 3.08.
Our second objective was to understand what motivates consumers to
choose Nike over other athletic apparel. The factors of quality, comfort, style, fit,

16. image, price and brand name ,were all given to students of the Winthrop community
who sometimes wear athletic apparel to see how well they associate these factors to
the Nike brand. Examining the same semantic differentiation scale, with the means
ranging from 3.08-4.41, when choosing athletic apparel consumers look for comfort
instead of the other elements of the brand. “Comfort” had the highest mean of 4.41
and “Brand Name” had the lowest mean of 3.08 (See Statistics Table 2). Examining
the data further, thirty-six participants agreed that comfort had a very strong
association with choosing Nike as a brand.
For our third objective we wanted to understand what factors consumers
consider important when looking for athletic apparel. Again, the factors of quality,
style, trendy image, brand name and price were all measured. With these factors,
the statistics of Nike’s competitors, Adidas and Under Armour, were observed. As
stated before when consumers are considering Nike, they look for comfort first.
When observing the statistics of the Adidas brand, “Brand Name” had the
highest mean of 3.74 and “Price” had the lowest mean of 3.41 (See Statistics Table 3)
. What does this tell us? Consumers focus more on the brand name when it comes to
Adidas rather than the other factors. Having a mean of 3.59, “Comfort” had the
second highest mean in relation to Adidas.
Under Armour had a range of means between 3.23-3.50 (See Statistics Table
4). “Quality” had the highest mean of 3.50 with this brand and “Price” having the
lowest of 3.23.
As seen, consumers prefer different factors with different brands. Some
results were surprising, however some matched our expectations of each brand.

17. Nike can take an advantage of this and improve on the factors its competitors held
the highest mean in. For example, with Adidas having the highest mean in “Comfort”,
Nike can look into this and make improvements to the comfort of it’s clothing so that
it can remain above the competition.
Lastly, our fourth objective we seeked to understand how consumers
perceived the Just Do It and Livestrong campaign. Questions were surveyed to
students of the Winthrop community about the awareness of the Livestrong
campaign and how much motivation it had towards them when purchasing Nike
products. When asked about the awareness of the Livestrong campaign many were
aware, however the campaign did not affect consumers purchasing the Nike brand.
When observing the means, the question “How much has the scandal
influenced your purchasing of Nike apparel?”, had the lowest mean of 1.21 (See
Statistics Table 5). It can be seen that scandal had no influence on consumers
purchasing the Nike brand.
Out of all the participants, 97 responded that this scandal had no influence on
them buying products from Nike. When asked how familiar they were with the
Livestrong campaign, this question held the highest mean of 2.34, which would be a
great thing for Nike. Being aware of any campaigns, endorsements, and
sponsorships allows the market to be cognizant of what’s going on within the Nike
brand.