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NIKE

Communication Plan

Team #32

Bendall, Samantha
Coats, Tyler
Lundy, Ellen
Maier, Jonas
Yang, Haoyu

10/11/2018
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Table of Contents

Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………………...3

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………....4

Company Narratives ……………………………………………………………………………..4

Internal…………………………………………………………………………………….4

External……………………………………………………………………………………5

Background & Analysis……………………………………………………………………….....6

Water………………………………………………………………………………………6

Waste………………………………………………………………………………………6

Chemistry………………………………………………………………………………….6

Energy……………………………………………………………………………………..7

Influence on Stakeholders…………………………………………………………………7

Recommendations……………………………………………………………………………......7

Customer…………………………………………………………………………………..7

Energy and Emissions……………………………………………………………………..8

Communication……………………………………………………………………………8

Response………………………………………………………………………………………….8

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………....10

References……………………………………………………………………………………….11
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Executive Summary:
Introduction
Nike was founded in 1964 by co-founders Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight who originally named the
company “Blue Ribbon Sports.” Nike’s revenue is about 33 billion dollars and is expected to grow even
more as athleisure wear is becoming more popular. As a corporation, Nike strives to increase revenue
while making an impact on the world in many different aspects, one of them being from an environmental
standpoint.

Company Narratives
Nike’s internal and external narratives are the opposite. Internally, Nike provides information through the
narrative about our company is an innovative and environmentally friendly firm and we encourage
customers from different levels. Our company also values our employees’ development. However, for
external narrative, Nike faces environmental and labor issues, that a large number of people think that our
company still need to decrease environmental impacts from the supply chain and improve labor benefits.

Background & Analysis

In the past, Nike faced multiple challenges regarding our economic footprint. Due to this, our attention
within the company shifted toward reducing our economic footprint in the areas of water, waste,
chemistry, and energy. These factors are driven mainly by our key stakeholders, which are our customers,
employers, and the community. An improvement in the categories mentioned earlier will not only help us
as a company but will also support our community and strengthen the trust to our customers and
employees in the long run.

Recommendations
To fix these problems facing our key stakeholders, we have three main recommendations. Our primary
emphasis will be on eliminating our footwear manufacturing waste followed by re-innovating our
company to powered entirely by renewable energy. To have our stakeholders fully understand how
connected we are to our problems, we will implement a series of social media campaigns and television
advertisements. These advertisements will help stimulate our presence as a leader in minimizing the
environmental footprint worldwide.

Response
We plan to limit the amount of waste we are producing from our manufacturing, recycle all materials
created from our factories, incorporate total reusable energy usage, and advertise to all of our customers
the efforts we are making to go green. To do this, we are going to give our professionals a 350 million
budget for the entire project. 200 million of this comes from the actual transformation, and the rest will
allocate towards advertisements. We feel that the ROI on this project is far higher than the initial costs.
When our customers understand how passionate we are about becoming eco-friendly and caring for the
planet, they will be much more inclined than they already are to buy our products, which will only lead us
towards more success.
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Introduction:
Nike is known for being a sports apparel, equipment, and accessory company which has
significantly grown since we developed it in 1964. Our company’s original name was “Blue
Ribbon Sports” and has been on the Fortune 500 list for twenty-four consecutive years. Blue
Ribbon Sports was founded in 1964 by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight who had a great impact
on the company’s overall success. In 1971, we changed our company name from Blue Ribbon
Sports to Nike and our co-founder Bill Bowerman came up with our unique mission statement,
“To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.” This purpose along with our
company slogan, "Just Do It" have been very influential to our customers.

Since 1971, Nike has been quite victorious in selling athletic apparel and shoes. Between the
innovation in the Nike Sports Research Lab and community outreach, we have experienced
much success. Although there is much competition in the retail and sportswear industries, Nike is
the leading brand among our main shoe competitors, Adidas and Reebok. Adidas has a
worldwide revenue of 16 billion dollars, and Reebok has a global income of 3 billion dollars.
While Nike doubles in revenue compared to Adidas at 33 billion dollars (Bhasin, 2018). As a
company, we have many competitors around the world, considering athleisure wear has become
quite prevalent in recent years. Also, we are the top supplier in the sportswear and sports
equipment industry and have been for years.

Nike currently has offices in forty-five countries outside the United States and has over seven
hundred stores globally. Our company headquarters is in Beaverton, Oregon where we create
many ideas to increase our revenue while making efforts to be a more environmentally friendly
company. Nike’s growth has provided us the opportunity to make an impact on the sports
industry and the world in many different aspects. Nike values sustainability and innovation, and
as a company, we make every effort to live by our values. We are mainly looking for new and
innovative ways to improve our environmental impact and our green footprint. A healthy
environment allows many of our leading sports to happen. Therefore our athletes and customers
should care just as much as we do to preserve this planet. As a whole, we consistently strive to
grow our reputation, environmental impact, and our overall success as a business.

Company Narratives:
Internal Narrative
Nike’s mission is “to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world,” however,
one element that separates this ambition from the narratives is that this a shared purpose and
Nike actively encourages people to inspire each other (Bonchek, 2016). In the effort to achieve
this mission, Nike’s “Just Do It” slogan has been the central part of our narrative for quite some
time now which is recognized by consumers. Many remember Nike as one of the most valuable
apparel brands in the world on many occasions (Friedman, 2015).
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Furthermore, although the “just do it” narrative is part of the inspiration in the mission, it also
helps define the respective roles that the company wishes to uphold. For example, Nike is saying
something to the effect of “we will bring the shoes, the equipment, and the clothing; you bring
your drive, your discipline, and your competitive spirit” (Bonchek, 2016). Nike serves as a great
example of a compelling narrative that goes far beyond the products Nike sells, as well as
engages the customer on a range of different levels.

Nike is no stranger to creating internal narratives to engage our employees and keep its internal
resources aligned in its mission and vision in various ways and through multiple mediums to
ensure they can relay essential developments. At Nike, our company hosts a variety of live
consumer events across the country, and many of the employees cannot participate due to that
the company is so large and geographically diverse. For example, Nike runs dozens of sports
training camps for young people each year around lacrosse, soccer, basketball, tennis and other
sports; Nike often chooses to create video recaps for each event to use for internal
communications so that internal employees can share in the excitement (Odell, 2015).

Also, Nike values that the company is not only pursuing high profits and benefitting the
stakeholders of our business but also focus on developing an environmentally friendly company
in a world with limited resources. Our company has established a sustainable upgrade for our
products to protect the environment. As our company states on the website:” 75% of all Nike
product contains recycled materials.” As Nike moves toward the sustainable goals, our company
will keep developing and utilizing eco-friendly materials that have a lower carbon footprint and
use less water.

External Narrative
Our research regarding external narrative revealed that most people believe that even Nike has
made few positive changes to the environment, our company has a way to go before it can be
called a genuinely environmentally friendly company due to Nike has not committed to
eliminating hazardous chemicals from the supply chain. As Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports
that environmental campaigners accused suppliers to major clothing brands including Nike of
poisoning China's major rivers with hazardous chemicals linked to hormonal problems, which is
just the tip of the entire iceberg (AFP, 2011). People think that Nike, as one of the largest sports
industries, is responsible for reducing the negative impacts from its facilities in the world.

Additionally, many stakeholders think that Nike’s labor condition is not good enough. Nike
received a ‘C’ rating in the 2017 Ethical Fashion Report, showing no improvements over the
2016 ranking (Robertson, 2017). For example, a large number of workers in Nike’s facilities face
the rights violations including squalid living conditions, lower salary and withheld passports of
foreign workers. Nike provides minimal worker empowerment initiatives across its supply chain
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and has received the bottom score with implementing a living wage or improving wages across
its supply chain.

Background & Analysis:

Over the past years, Nike faced multiple challenges, issues, and problems in regards to their
environmental narratives. These challenges mainly come from the manufacturing chain that Nike
has in the production of our products. Our critical ecological issues are Water, Waste, Chemistry,
and Energy (Apparel, 2012). Nevertheless, these issues and challenges give our company and
also our key stakeholders, which are our customers, employee and the community, plenty of
space for improvement and opportunities.

Water
Throughout the manufacturing process of our Nike product, we set the goal to improve our
efficiency by 15% per unit in apparel material dyeing and finishing, and footwear manufacturing
(Apparel, 2012). This improvement starts with our employees whom we will train on these
specific environmental goals of Nike. Our employees are responsible for the rating of our
products, which tracks the company’s water usage footprint. This practice started in 2009, and
since then our companies rating for the water footprint has been classified as sustainable. (BoF,
2016)

Waste
Manufacturing cannot occur without garbage, but it is always the goal to keep the waste as low
as possible. Nike wants to achieve a 10% reduction in waste from manufacturing, and shoebox
weight per unit, building on waste reduction in shoe manufacturing of over 35% per pair in the
past ten years (Apparel, 2012). The primary strategy for this is the reuse of materials. For
example, 75% of Nike’s products contain recycled material. Our customers are very supportive
of this strategy because reusing materials helps the whole community become a better place.

Chemistry
In 2016, Nike got attacked because we did not eliminate all of our toxic chemicals from our
supply chain, which motivated Nike to works toward a goal to achieve zero discharge of
hazardous chemicals for all products across the pathways in our supply chain by the year 2020
(Apparel, 2012). This goal is especially important to our customers, to regain their trust due to
the incident in 2016.

We are a company that invests into technology, sustainability, energy, and innovation (BoF,
2016) and we cannot afford another crisis like this again. A scandal like this threatens our
customer relationships, as well as the prestige and social point of view in the communities to
which we sell.
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Energy
Our manufacturing process has a considerable impact on our CO2 emissions and energy use in
general. Nike’s goal is it to achieve a 20% reduction in CO2 emissions per unit (Apparel, 2012),
and to do so we are in the process of using 100% renewable energy to power our factories (Nike
News, 2018). Hannah Jones (CSO and CV of Nike) says that “Investing in renewable energy is
good for athletes, the planet and for business.” This step towards renewable energy is a big
priority for Nike, and because of this goal, we signed a large contract with Karankawa Wind
Farm in Texas, which will incorporate the renewable energy of wind. This alteration is the
equivalent to the energy use of 400,000 average American households for a year, and also
reduces the CO2 emissions by the equivalent of 800,000 cars driving for one year.

Influence on Stakeholders
Our companies define our stakeholders as our customers, employees and the community. Due to
our issues and concerns about environmental challenges in the past, our social standpoint in
society got damaged. The areas named earlier of improvement with the specific goals will help
Nike to regain the trust of our customers. Furthermore, it will help us to make a clear statement
to the community and also our employees on what Nike stands for and that we care about our
environment. This mission will cause us to stand out from our competition and help us grow as a
company.

Recommendations:
With the current problem of our internal environmental impact narrative not matching with our
external narrative, we have to start with the root of our business: our key stakeholders. As noted
above, our key stakeholders are our customers, communities, and employees. Each has their role
in how our company operates and maximizes success. All three of the stakeholders are distinct
and need to have different communication plans and messages.

Customers
According to our 2016-2017 Sustainability Report, the main issues we need to fix to align with
our customers are chemistry, energy, non-renewable resource depletion, material waste, and
water use. (NIKE, 2017). We have a five-year plan that we plan to implement by 2020. To
satisfy the needs of a significant stakeholder, we are going to start with having zero footwear
manufacturing waste from our factories. In the past year alone, we have decreased our shoe
producing waste contribution towards landfills from 6.6% in 2016 to 4.0% in 2016. (NIKE,
2017). However, our total waste index is up from 98.2 in 2016 to 100.8 in 2017, (NIKE, 2017).
In our five year plan, we will get our waste contribution towards landfills percentage to 0%
worldwide along with our total waste index percentage to decrease by 10%. To do this, we will
recycle 100% of our waste that comes out of our factories when manufacturing our products.
Currently, 96% of Nike finished goods are being recycled or converted into energy. (NIKE,
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2017). By being able to bring that number to 100%, we will continue our pledge to divert
millions of tons of waste from landfills and minimize our environmental footprint.

Energy and Emissions

While bringing our waste index down in multiple areas is one of the main issues, another area
that we plan on bettering is our energy and emissions. In regards to energy consumption per
kilogram and carbon emissions per kilogram, each has decreased over the past year from 15.46
to 14.95 and 4.68 to 4.55 respectively. By 2020, we want to reduce each of these numbers by
35% overall, (NIKE, 2017). We plan on achieving this goal by using 100 percent renewable
energy by 2019 in North America by signing power purchase agreements which will slowly lead
to becoming fully renewable energy conscious by 2025. Decreasing our energy and emissions
output will significantly benefit our environment and lead to a healthier business lifestyle and
happier customers.

Communication
To be able to communicate that we are working on these problems to our customers, we will
begin released advertisements throughout multiple media sources. The primary media source
which we will use is television followed by various platforms of social media (Snapchat,
Instagram, Twitter). Starting with television, we will release one big advertisement concerning
our 2020 efforts to minimize our environmental footprint at the beginning of the National
Football League’s week one games. This televised event has an estimated 113.97 million viewers
this current year which is down only one percent from the same week last year, (Morgan, 2018).
By releasing an advertisement during these games, we will reach most of our primary customer
base and be able to draw them in with their favorite athletes talking about the issues they have
expressed as most important to them.

With the social media platforms we are going to use to reach our customers, we will release
rotating images the week before the main television advertisement. These smaller ads will
contribute to our customer's curiosity about our plan to minimize our green footprint by 50%.
Each social media post will have backgrounds of different nature sights featuring a quote from
multiple athletes explaining how critical environmental issues are.

Response:
In short, our next steps are quite straightforward. We want to limit the amount of waste we are
producing from our manufacturing, recycle all materials created from our factories, incorporate
total reusable energy usage, and advertise to all of our customers the efforts we are making to go
green. To do this, we must determine the best way to complete these goals.

The first step we are going to start with is limiting our waste that goes towards the landfills. As
stated earlier, we have reduced the amount of waste that ends up in the landfill by 2.6%, which
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we are very proud of. As a company, we have discovered that it is hard to limit waste while the
demand for our product is increasing at such a fast rate. We are attempting to eliminate waste
while making more products. Even so, Nike is doing a great job as shown in the statistics
provided earlier, with traveling in the right direction towards being a truly green company.
However, ultimately we as a business are not going to be satisfied until we are no longer
contributing towards landfills, and recycling all waste generated from our production process.

Once we have entirely recycled all of our waste from productions, we can then focus our
attention on the energy and emissions portion of our manufacturing methods. Energy is what
keeps our company alive. Without it, we cannot create our products, distribute them to our
buyers, or advertise and market to potential customers. To ensure that as a company we are doing
everything we can to limit our environmental footprint, we must incorporate renewable energy
into our manufacturing processes. Doing so means only using solar, hydro, thermal, and wind
methods for creating energy.

Budget and ROI

Our goal is to reduce our carbon footprint by 35% and to do so we must take advantage of these
energy options. Between these two methods of limiting waste and incorporating reusable energy,
we estimate to operate under a budget of 200 million dollars. The budget will be for three years,
until 2022, and will cover only the costs of converting our products into a recyclable material,
and the contracts and expenses needed for switching to complete renewable energy usage.
During this process of rebuilding the way our company manufactures and maintains its
operations, it is essential that our customers be aware we are doing so. Furthermore, it is
necessary to advertise and to promote our efforts strategically and effectively.

In today's world, connecting and relating to the consumer is one of the most valuable aspects of
advertising. Nike is continually looking for feedback and responding to social movements in
which our world is participating. We plan on implementing a series of advertisements over the
three years of our project, to ensure that our customers know that we care for the environment,
and feel it is vital to join the go-green movement. Our budget for the advertisement portion of the
project is 150 million dollars. The reason it is so high is that the platforms we will be using to
connect with our customers are the platforms that they use most frequently, social media and
television. With the plan to run teaser ads before the big release, each 30-second prime-time
commercial is about $150,000, and for the big reveal, 30 seconds will cost approximately 1.4
million dollars.

After we advertise on television, the next step is to promote on social media, which will cost
about 1.5 million on snapchat per week, and 2.2 million per week. We feel that although it is
expensive, we will see a substantial return on the investment for this project overall. In today's'
society, customers not only look for value, but they consider how we made it, if it is recyclable,
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and if it is environmentally friendly. We believe that when our customers understand how
passionate we are about becoming eco-friendly and caring for the planet, they will be much more
inclined than they already are to buy our products, which will only lead us towards more success.

Conclusion:
All in all, Nike strives to be a more environmentally friendly company, and we are making every
effort to do so. Internally, our company values sustainability, innovation, and developing an
environmentally friendly firm for the world. For external narrative, many people believe that our
company still need to keep reducing the environmental impact. Our primary goal in regards to
our environmental challenges is to reduce our waste, water, energy, and chemistry. To achieve
these goals, we need the support of our key stakeholders which include our customers,
employees, and the community. Reducing our environmental footprint is not an easy change, but
with the help of our stakeholders this change will profit Nike and open new opportunities for us.

We plan on implementing many recommendations. First, we want to decrease our footwear

manufacturing waste to zero while also converting fully to renewable energy. To advertise these
suggestions to the public, we will release multiple commercials as well as social media content
throughout us minimizing our environmental footprint. Our budget for this project is in total 350
million dollars, which covers both advertising costs and implementation costs. We feel that the
ROI on this investment is very promising because our customers are going to be more inclined to
purchase our product knowing it is coming from a sustainable and environmentally friendly
company.
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References:
AFP. (2011, July 13). Nike, Adidas suppliers 'polluting China rivers'. Retrieved from
https://phys.org/news/2011-07-nike-adidas-suppliers-polluting-china.html
Apparel. (2012). Nike Aims to Reduce Environmental Impact of Apparel, Footwear by
2015. Retrieved from
https://apparelmag.com/nike-aims-reduce-environmental-impact-apparel-footwear-2015
Bhasin, Hitesh. (2018, Jun 14). Top 10 Nike Competitors. Retrieved from
https://www.marketing91.com/top-10-nike-competitors/
Bonchek, M. (2016, March 25). How to Build a Strategic Narrative.Retrieved from Harvard
Business Review: https://hbr.org/2016/03/how-to-build-a-strategic-narrative
Friedman, V. (2015, May 29). Nike Is the Most Valuable Apparel Brand in the World. Retrieved
From
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/30/fashion/nike-is-the-most-valuable-apparel-brand-
in-the-world.html
Kate Abnett, BoF. (2016). Just Fix It: How Nike Learned to Embrace Sustainability.
Retrieved from
https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/people/just-fix-it-hannah-jones-nike
https://adage.com/article/news/costs-ad-prices-tv-mobile-billboards/297928/
Morgan, Richard. (2018). What the NFL’s ratings look like after the first week of games. New
York Post. Retrieved from
https://nypost.com/2018/09/12/what-the-nfls-ratings-look-like-after-the-first-week-of-g
ames/
NIKE, Inc. (2017). FY16/17 Sustainable Business Report. Retrieved from
https://sustainability-nike.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/18175102/N
IKE-FY1617-Sustainable-Business-Report_FINAL.pdf
Nike News. (2018) Retrieved from
https://news.nike.com/news/sustainable-innovation-air-bag-manufacture
Odell, P. (2015, January 30). Nike Uses Content Marketing Videos for Internal
Communications.Retrieved from Chief Marketer:
https://www.chiefmarketer.com/nike-uses-content-marketing-videos-internal-
communications/
Robertson, L. (2017, May 19). How Ethical is Nike?. Retrieved from
https://goodonyou.eco/how-ethical-is-nike/