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Nike

The Nike athletic machine began as a small distributing outfit located in the trunk of Phil Knight's car. From these rather inauspicious beginnings, Knight's brainchild grew to become the shoe and athletic company that would come to define many aspects of popular culture and myriad varieties of 'cool.'
Nike emanated from two sources: Bill Bowerman's quest for lighter, more durable racing shoes for his Oregon runners, and Knight's search for a way to make a living without having to give up his love of athletics. Bowerman coached track at the University of Oregon where Phil Knight ran in 1959. Bowerman's desire for better quality running shoes clearly influenced Knight in his search for a marketing strategy. Between them, the seed of the most influential sporting company grew.

As with the product, the first P of the marketing mix, marketers also have a specialised view of price. So, in marketing terms, price is the means whereby an organization covers costs of research, manufacturing, marketing and other activities.
In a profit-making organization the surplus is profit. Price is also important in non-for-profit organizations. Here, the organizations must ensure that any costs incurred from the sale or dispensation of services must be within the constraints of an agreed budget. Organisational objectives are sometimes compromised by a realisation that certain levels of profit cannot be achieved.
The strategic price-setting process is quite complex. Marketers see price setting as a four-stage process, these are:
1. selecting a pricing goal
2. considering the various factors that might influence pricing
3. selecting a method of setting the base price
4. Designing appropriate price adjusting strategies.
Marketers usually work with three variables to set actual prices:
1. Cost-based: what profit margin can/should we add to the cost of the product?
2. Demand-based: how much of the product will we be able to sell at different price levels?
3. Competition-based:...