For this project, you are being asked to create a brand analysis report/brand audit for Nike and Adidas with regard to their sports apparel and footwear offerings.
The tips below give suggestions for finding useful information for some of the components of project 2.
The most current information about the latest product offerings for Nike and Adidas will be available on each company's website.
For information about each company's major products and services, see each company's profile in Business Source Ultimate.
For information about each company's marketing strategies, in Business Source Ultimate and/or ABI/INFORM Collection, run searches such as:
nike AND ("market* strateg*" OR "ad* campaign*")
For information about each company's target market, in Business Source Ultimate and/or ABI/INFORM Collection, run searches such as:
nike AND ("target market*" OR "market research")
For information about each company's brand positioning, in Business Source Ultimate and/or ABI/INFORM Collection, run searches such as:
nike AND ("brand position*" OR "market position*")
It may also help to find market share information for each company.
For information about how consumers perceive each of the companies, in Business Source Ultimate and/or ABI/INFORM Collection, run searches such as:
nike AND (consumer* OR customer*) AND (perce* OR opinion* OR belie* OR attitude*)
Since consumer perception of companies is related to what consumers think of a company's products/services, it might also help to look for documents that discuss some of the branding elements discussed in your class. So, for example, you could run searches such as:
nike AND "brand personality"
nike AND "brand image"
etc.
It may also be helpful to consult the Consumer & Brand reports available from Statista. To find those reports in that database, click on the Reports link from the menu bar toward the top of the database's home page and then on the Consumer & Brand reports link. You can then enter a company's name in the search box to find reports that discuss how consumers feel about the company and its products/services.
For information about trends in sports apparel and/or footwear, in Business Source Ultimate and/or ABI/INFORM Collection, run searches such as:
("sports apparel" OR footwear) AND trend*
For additional information about relevant trends, see Finding Industry Trends and Projections.
For information about each company's innovations and/or use of technology in product development, in Business Source Ultimate and/or ABI/INFORM Collection, run searches such as:
nike AND (innovat* OR technolog*) AND "product development"
For information about each company's environmental impact and/or sustainability practices, in Business Source Ultimate and/or ABI/INFORM Collection, run searches such as:
nike AND (environmental* OR sustainab*)
Whether you're searching in UMGC Library databases or on the free web, your search results may sometimes include mentions of market reports or data compilations from market research firms such as Forrester Research, Frost & Sullivan, the Gartner Group, etc. Such reports are generally quite expensive; many cost anywhere from hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars apiece.
That being the case, the full text of such reports are not generally available in any library research database, and the UMGC Library may not be able to obtain the full-text reports for you via our DocumentExpress interlibrary loan service.
But press releases and other documents that discuss these reports -- documents that are often available from UMGC Library databases and/or posted on the free web -- may be useful for your research since such documents often summarize key findings from the reports.
If you need additional assistance with finding information for project 2, please Ask a Librarian; if you have questions about the requirements for the assignment, please contact your instructor.