Nike’s global success comes from many strategic points, but as CEO Mark Parker discussed during the company’s March 21 third quarter earnings call, its “complete offense” is the guiding light toward brand loyalty.
“The foundation for Nike’s success, and one of our greatest competitive advantages, is our complete offense,” Parker said, according to Seeking Alpha. “It’s what gives us the power to use our size and scale to accelerate growth and the flexibility to stay nimble and fast. Through our complete offense, we serve a wide range of athletes personally across 13 categories, six geographies, men’s, women’s, and young athletes, up and down the price points, in wholesale, owned retail, and online.”
Nike’s complete offense, Parker added, “creates a culture of shared innovation within Nike where we turn insights from one sport into breakthroughs for all athletes, as we’re dealing with footwear platforms like Flyknit, Lunarlon, and Air or apparel with Dri-FIT and Tech Pack. And it allows us to create and curate a targeted mix of products, services, and environments into amazing retail experiences for consumers. We develop new concepts and collaborate with our wholesale partners to bring them to life in completely new ways around the world. The complete offense is our proven game plan to drive long-term profitable growth, and it’s never been as powerful as it is today. For example, we’re seeing strong growth in China and Western Europe as well as in our global women’s business and the Running category. We are creating deeper and more meaningful connections with our consumers through all of our dimensions from competition to training to sportswear."
What’s more, the complete offense allows Nike to manage through volatility and take important actions to sustain business momentum.
“Our relentless flow of innovation is one of the reasons I remain so confident in Nike’s future,” Parker said. “Let me take you through some of the concepts that will redefine how NKE serves the athlete. In running, the Air VaporMax gives runner -- runners an amazing lightweight, high performance ride with the most complete and visually stunning NIKE Air Sole cushioning system ever. The LunarEpic creates a new fit and sensation with a mid-height stretch Flyknit collar, laser-cut Lunarlon sidewalls and cushioning pods creating a whole new look and feel for performance running. Launched earlier this month, runners are giving us great feedback and consumer response has been very strong.”
Third-quarter sales rose 8%, to $8 billion.