Complete 12 pages APA formatted article: Marketing plan for NIKE. Nike was founded on January 25th 1964 by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight as Blue Ribbon Sports. The company adopted the name Nike on May

Complete 12 pages APA formatted article: Marketing plan for NIKE. Nike was founded on January 25th 1964 by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight as Blue Ribbon Sports. The company adopted the name Nike on May 30, 1978 and began marketing its products and services under its own brand. Today, the company operates retail stores under the Niketown name. In addition, the company is known worldwide for sponsoring a great deal of sports activities and supporting many sports teams. The Nike brand is presently found in many countries across the world notably in the United States, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas (Esty & Winston, 2009). Courtesy of its innovative design and effective marketing strategies, the company has obtained a very huge position in the sports markets in these regions. More importantly, Nike’s products are usually associated with high quality and this has been a major boost for the company over the years. Situation analysis Company mission and objectives Nike has always been focused to the realization of its goals, mission and objectives. More importantly, the organization has a strong sense of values which have created a kind of organizational culture often admired by many organizations. The mission of the organization is “to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world” (Esty & Winston, 2009) In this regard, it is seen that Nike actually exists in order to ensure that the world is well supplied with quality equipment, shoes, apparels and other quality products. The focus of Nike is to bring a new reality to the world of athletics. In the same way, Nike’s vision stresses on the aspect of people and profit and the need to implement sustainable principles within the market. The organization greatly appreciates the dynamic nature of the market and is therefore at the forefront in instituting the very changes that are almost imperative for its continued success. One major goal of the organization is always the creation of partnerships in the hope of adding value. In this regard, Nike UK has been a strong force in creating valuable partnerships with other organizations and the social media which has seen the creation of such brands like Nike. A combination of these vision, values and goals have been the core marketing formula for the organization. In this regard, the organization has seen much progress and success (Rigsby & Greco, 2003). Products Nike engages in the production of various types of sports equipment. The initial products were track running shoes. However, the company has greatly diversified its product line and manufactures shoes, shorts, jerseys and base layers for various types of sporting activities. The Nike Air Max was the initial shoe line introduced by the company back in 1987 and has remained popular for a long time. Some of the recent products introduced include Nike NYX, Nike SB and Nike 6.0 Shoes all for skateboarding. Similarly, the company launched a type of cricked shoes known as Air Zoom Yorker which are designed to be very effective and are actually 30% lighter than the competitors in the market (Katz, 2012). While Nike is majorly known for athletics products, it should be noted that the organization actually produces an assortment of products for basketball, combat sports, golf, football and many other sporting activities.