Recently, a forum themed “Favorable Brand Ecosystem” was hosted together by Fudan University School of Management, Alibaba’s Taotian Group and Shanghai Marketing Association. At the forum, it was officially announced that Nike’s branding and marketing practices have become part of the materials studied at the Fudan MBA Program.
Professor Jiang Qingyun from the Marketing Department and Ms. Ji Ying, Senior Director of Nike's Direct Retail E-commerce Business in the Greater China Region at Tmall, engaged in a discussion on the DTC (Direct to Customer) strategy adopted by Nike since 2012, as well as its values for the development of the brand.
Ms. Ji pointed out that in China, Nike’s target market has always been the young consumers from the “Generation Z”. The DTC strategy clearly has an edge on helping Nike get better insights into these customers of the new era and build a closer relationship with them. Through analysing the main differences between Tmall and Amazon, she went on to explain the advantages that Nike gains by collaborating with Tmall while implementing its DTC strategy.
