As one of the world’s largest and most heavily valued brands, Nike‘s expansion into sports fashion is as natural as Coca Cola‘s expansion into bottled water or music downloads.
Nike appears to be teetering on the edge of large brand syndrome. Bloated, it seems to be expanding quickly in all and any direction. Its clothing range at one point showed off limited edition Maria Sharapova inspired dresses and more recently Kanye Yeezys. While dosing itself with celebrity ‘cool’, Nike needs to ensure that it doesn’t lose its core self.
Adidas still leads in Europe. To win over Europe and win globally, Nike should be aiming its efforts more on providing sports gear for the world’s most popular and lucrative sport, football. At the same time, Nike needs to concentrate on a central mission of delivering global quality, innovation and value on a country by country basis.
Continually asking itself questions about its customers and focussing on their needs is key to avoiding large brand syndrome.