Summary
This B2 Business English lesson delves into Nike's strategic efforts to rebuild its brand after a period of challenges. Students will engage with an authentic video interview featuring Nike's CEO, gaining valuable insights into how a major corporation navigates missteps, re-establishes its core identity, and implements strategies for innovation and market recovery.
The lesson covers essential business concepts such as brand management, market dynamics, and strategic decision-making. Activities include a warm-up discussion on brand success, a listening comprehension task focused on Nike's past struggles with excess inventory and falling market share, and vocabulary exercises introducing key business terms like freefall, slashed prices, reinvent, and wholesale partners. Grammar practice focuses on the Past Simple Passive, allowing students to accurately describe past business events. The lesson culminates in speaking practice, encouraging learners to apply new vocabulary and grammar in discussions about competitive markets and strategic recovery.
Activities
- A warm-up discussion where students reflect on successful and unsuccessful brands and the importance of innovation in business.
- Listening comprehension exercises based on a video interview with Nike's CEO, analyzing the company's past missteps and current strategies for recovery.
- Vocabulary practice focusing on business-related terms such as freefall, excess inventory, slashed prices, reinvent, and wholesale partners.
- A grammar focus on the Past Simple Passive, helping students describe past business actions and events where the actor is less important than the action itself.
- Speaking practice where students discuss brand challenges, competitive markets, and strategic recovery, utilizing the lesson's vocabulary and grammar points.
We're here at the uh LeBron James R&D lab and it's our advanced R&D center. We opened this up in in 2020. This is really the heartbeat of our innovation.
>> You've basically been at Nike more than 35 years and you were brought back to fix a few missteps. How do you try to even reinvent a company that you know so well?
>> It can overwhelm you, anybody, if you try to go, hey, we got to fix everything all at once. But what I tried to do is go back to what is essential to Nike and that is putting the athlete back at the center of everything that we do.
>> A year ago, Nike was in freefall. The company had fallen behind on innovation. It lost tens of billions in market value after a series of missteps. Nike's former CEO leaned on sneaker head culture and lost focus on athletics. But as the company flooded the market with shoes like the Air Jordan 1, people lost interest. Nike slashed prices to get rid of excess inventory. But a year later, it's still trying to finish the job.
>> Your biggest franchises, Air Jordan 1, Air Force One, and Nike Dunk. I know you've managed those franchises before, and I just wanted to hear what your plan is now in making them as cool as they were in 2022, 2023.
>> Yeah, we became over uh just referenced. I think we've done a really nice job of getting Air Force One back in a really in a good uh inventory position. We [music] still have work to do on the Dunk and Air Jordan 1's returning to the right level of inventory.
>> I do see like the Nike Dunk on sale online still.
>> No question. We still have work to do to clean up the [music] Dunk. >> Yeah, we're in the process of doing that.
>> Analysts estimate that in fiscal 2025, Nike made $4 billion on the Nike Dunk. It's now being phased out and Nike is trying to get rid of its remaining stock.
>> We're working with our not only ourselves, but our wholesale partners to get that inventory out of the marketplace. Am I going to tell you it's going to be huge next year? No. Do I think the Dunk will have its moment again? No question. Is it 2 years, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years? I can't tell you that. But there will be a a moment for the duck again, not unlike what we're already starting to see with with the Air Force One.
>> Today, I just saw a bunch of products that you're about to release. How did you make them happen?
>> Yeah, we have a 4 in one jacket that we'll be launching come the Olympics and then of course Project Amplify, the platform to help an athlete go further faster. And we're really excited about the opportunities there as well. I think the question everyone wants to know is when's the Caitlyn Clark shoe gonna come out? [laughter]
>> Well, that shoe's coming and uh and you know, we're going to continue to invest in in our women's business. We've had a great response to the logo that we created for Caitlyn Clark. She's been a tremendous person to work with and we want to make certain that we have everything from her logo to the product exactly the way that she wants it before we launch it.
>> You've been talking about the progress the company has made in the running category. I think the space is more competitive than it ever was. Would you agree?
>> Well, I think there's no question that we've always had competition and there's certainly competition in the running space. We now have a general manager for Nike running, which I think's helped us get sharper on the product and the storytelling, but it also makes us more competitive. And so I think the alignment around the sport offense, taking our three brands, Nike, Jordan, Converse, and then segmenting the brand by sport is absolutely going to make us uh more competitive and help us drive revenue and and certainly market share gains.
>> In 2019, you guys split up with Amazon and now you're back to selling your products on Amazon. How is it different now that, you know, six years ago?
>> It's not just about opening more distribution. Our strategy is to make certain that wherever the consumer chooses to shop for our product that we show up in a really thoughtful way in terms of the assortment for that specific consumer because there are different consumers that shop different retailers.
>> After years of focusing on its direct to consumer approach, Nike is once again leaning on retail partners to help boost sales.
>> You've gone back to other places like Macy's, DSW. Recently, the Jordan brand opened up a space [music] inside Academy Sports. How are you making sure the premiumness of the brand is like protected?
>> Wherever our product shows up, whether it's Nike Direct, digital or physical, wholesale, digital or physical, making certain that we have a consumer right assortment for that shopper for that location. Elevate the presentation, drive sell through, try to be the most profitable brand wherever we are. And that's how we drive in revenue and profit for ourselves along with our retailers. That's how we take back market share, right? There's a consumer that wants to access the Jordan brand at all price points. And the great news is the team has the product at an elevated price point and the distribution where that product shows up and then in academy they have a a consumer that we serve there. And and it's not just about entry level. We also have cleed and other products there as well.
>> So the last thing I wanted to ask was about your employee base. Last year was a tough moment in Nike history. It was clear that there was some discontent among employees with the direction that the company was taking. I wanted to know how you've made an impact on that.
>> I think people know that I I care deeply about this place that and they respect uh the years of experience that I have here, the knowledge that I have, not just the company but the consumer and the overall industry that I like to compete. that come to the office every single day ready to compete and that we have shifted back to doing what we were created to do and that is to serve the athlete and it has really elevated uh the morale here on the this campus [music] the focus that we have and it's the reason why we've been able to to deliver the results that we've been able to deliver over the last year. [music] It's the team rallying and we're just getting started.
Vocabulary focus
The vocabulary section introduces key business terms and phrases used in the video, such as "innovation," "misstep," "freefall," "slashed prices," "excess inventory," "reinvent," "wholesale partners," and "market share." Students will learn to use these terms to discuss brand performance, market strategies, and corporate challenges.
Grammar focus
This lesson concentrates on the Past Simple Passive. Students will learn to use the structure "was/were + past participle" to describe past actions and events where the emphasis is on the action itself, rather than who performed it. This is particularly useful for discussing business outcomes and historical company developments.
