GIS IN ACTION 21 Nike Learns Who Its Customers Are Thinking Strategically with GIS Highlights „ Nike uses Esri Business Analyst to help solve complex business problems. „ Nike’s GIS solution includes a secure Internet application, allowing information and tools to be accessible throughout the company and its affiliates. „ GIS helps the company distribute product in relation to where customers are located. Located in Beaverton, Oregon, a Portland suburb, Nike has redefined the shoe market. The company’s success and worldwide reach are due in part to its innovative people and their use of forward-thinking technology to apply resources wisely across the organization. One of those technologies is GIS. Information like customer and store locations can be placed on a street map, along with marketing information, including profiles of areas down to a census block group or customer address. This makes GIS useful in obvious applications like site selection and property management but also an important technology for the entire retail process, from planning and building to buying and shipping products. Seeing Is Everything Nike first licensed GIS from Esri in 1993 for use in the company’s Sales department to help staff management understand where Nike product was being distributed. Being able to visualize this on a map gave new insights into where to distribute product based on demographic information; sales history; and other factors, such as where schools with competitive sports teams are located. Seeing all this information combined visually on a map made the decisionmaking process more fact based and easier to communicate throughout the company and to partners. Beginning in 2003, the Sustainable Business & Innovation department also began using GIS technology to map shoe collection locations for Nike’s Reuse-a-Shoe program. The technology allowed the company to locate shoe repositories for donations and find communities in need of Maps make the decision-making process more fact based and easier to communicate. resurfaced sports courts. Since the beginning of the Reuse-a-Shoe program, the company has recycled more than 20 million pairs of athletic shoes and contributed to more than 250 sports surfaces. Nike has continued to expand the use of the technology to retail and operational, or commerce, areas of the organization. Understanding the Marketplace, One Customer at a Time Today, Nike uses Esri Business Analyst software as both a desktop and server-based GIS that can be used over the Internet as a secure Seeing the existing suite of markets and activities in stores improves analysis, such as site selection and market optimization. provide information, such as retail expenditure, market research information for sports participation, and much more. While affiliates cannot change the base data, they can incorporate their business information, such as their own store locations, and benefit from using the Nike information for their own marketing analyses. Significant Returns with GIS GIS reduces the time and effort spent on researching information and creating reports. Analyzing the data provides new insights and improves the quality and scope of business data. Moving to server-based GIS ensures that data is shared by the company and the same data is used by everyone. Having the information Nike needs in a central place means reports can be run quickly. By seeing the existing suite of markets and activities in stores, analyses, such as site selection and market optimization, are improved. Unlimited access to the data and maps allows global employees to see the same information simultaneously, and it can be shared more broadly across multiple groups. The Road Ahead GIS data and software have provided an effective solution for Nike. Communication has been enhanced, and the ease of use has made sharing information effective. With GIS, Nike has the technology to keep its finger on the pulse of everyday business operations. More Information For more information on how businesses use GIS, visit www.esri.com/business. Viewing information on a map gives sales staff new insights into where to distribute products. application. GIS is used to help solve complex business problems across its organization. Business Analyst provides access to data including geographic, demographic, and marketplace information that Nike combines with its own point-of-sale and “door,” or retail store, location data. Using Business Analyst, Nike’s regional teams map, analyze, and share key planning information with other departments. GIS provides added business intelligence to retail marketplace strategy and the evaluation of marketplace return on investment. Repeatable Workflows The process Nike uses to apply GIS is replicable for any location, since the data and tools used are standardized. Using Business Analyst, trade area rings of appropriate size around doors are created and analyzed using demographic and other data provided through Business Analyst, along with data points created from internal information, like customer data. Various reports, such as demographic, income, and retail expenditure for each area of interest, can be easily created and consolidated into one comprehensive report. The GIS solution includes a secure Internet application, information, and tools that are accessible throughout the company and by Nike affiliates, such as Cole Haan, Converse, Hurley, and Umbro. Business Analyst users create custom reports via pull-down menus that This article cannot be reproduced or translated in whole or in part without prior permission from Nike, Inc. Copyright © 2010 Nike, Inc. All rights reserved. Business intelligence can be added to retail marketplace information to evaluate return on investment.