A specification that must be made however is that changes in the structure of the budget have occurred. In this order of ideas, the marketing specialists at Nike are more centred on interactive and innovative marketing, rather than traditional marketing operations. In a time of financial difficulties then, the number one shoemaker of the globe is trying to approach the audience using less conventional means. Nike officials argued that they were not in the business of keeping the media companies alive, but that their primary interest was that of best communicating with the audience. In this order of ideas then, the multinational organization drastically reduced marketing budgets for television advertisements and other traditional means and supplemented the budgets for innovative marketing campaigns. "Last year, Nike spent just 33% of its $678 million United States advertising budget on ads with television networks and other traditional media companies. That's down from 55% 10 years ago. [...]Nike -- the 800-pound interrupt marketing gorilla in the sports world -- is increasingly betting on social media, branded content and engagement marketing (where brands engage with the passions and values of their customers)" (Chandler, 2007).
4. Conclusions
Economic crises are generated by a combination of forces and affect organizations and individuals in a multitude of manners. The responses forwarded by each party depend on individual characteristics. Ford for instance decreased its marketing budgets, to then increase them; Nike on the other hand kept them at constant levels but distributed them differently.
However each economic entity will respond to the crisis as the management sees fit and in accordance with the personal features of the organization run, the outside observer can easily reveal a trend of reducing marketing costs when signs of economic crisis are presented. In this order of ideas, most players in the industry find it important to reduce operational costs in times of financial difficulties. Foremost, even those who do not entirely subscribe...