Why Nike’s Challenges are a Goldmine for B2Bs Trying To Revitalize Mature Products

While Nike is a consumer brand, its recent struggles and strategic challenges offer highly relevant insights for B2B marketers. Nike’s journey from the top to its recent underperformance underscores a crucial lesson for companies managing mature products: constant vigilance and brand revitalization isn’t optional—it’s essential. So, how can B2B brands facing similar challenges breathe new life into established products?

Understand Where Things Went Wrong Nike’s recent pivot to a direct-to-consumer strategy created friction with its independent retail partners, weakening a distribution channel that had long been vital to its market reach. For B2BWhile Nike is a consumer brand, its recent struggles and strategic challenges offer highly relevant insights for B2B marketers. Nike’s journey from the top to its recent underperformance underscores a crucial lesson for companies managing mature products: constant vigilance and brand revitalization isn’t optional—it’s essential. So, how can B2B brands facing similar challenges breathe new life into established products?

Understand Where Things Went Wrong Nike’s recent pivot to a direct-to-consumer strategy created friction with its independent retail partners, weakening a distribution channel that had long been vital to its market reach. For B2Bbrands, this misstep serves as a reminder to fully understand the complexities of their stakeholder map before implementing sweeping changes. As outlined in our first book, The Accidental Marketer, effective Stakeholder Mapping  involves identifying and prioritizing each group’s needs and influence. Nike’s strategy could have been more effective if it had balanced its new direct sales efforts with the needs of its retail partners, preventing a divide that ultimately impacted its brand reach.

Rethink Positioning: Lessons from Brand Evolution

Nike’s struggle to maintain relevance among younger consumers highlights the challenge of staying fresh while remaining true to brand identity. While Nike once captured attention through innovation and cultural resonance, it now faces competition from newer, more agile brands. This challenge is not unique to consumer brands; many mature B2B brands face similar pressures.

Chapters 2 and 3 of The Accidental Marketer outline techniques for understanding and adapting to customer expectations. One such technique is the Vietnam Card Sort, which allows marketers to uncover emerging needs by prompting customers to think more openly. In a B2B context, regularly using such methods can help brands stay ahead of changing customer expectations and avoid the pitfalls of becoming “yesterday’s solution.”

Embracing Change: Strategic Opportunities for B2Bs

To maintain relevance, mature B2B brands can pursue multiple strategic avenues. Drawing on the framework from Chapter 8 of The Accidental Marketer, here are three approaches that B2B companies can consider:

1. Strengthen Core Offerings: Enhancing existing products to meet evolving market demands can refresh customer interest. For example, a B2B software company might add AI-driven analytics capabilities to its platform, helping customers gain deeper insights into their data while remaining aligned with its core offering.
2. Explore Adjacent Markets: Just as Nike considers expanding into outerwear, B2B companies can look to related markets. For instance, an industrial equipment manufacturer could expand from automotive to aerospace applications, leveraging similar expertise to meet the needs of a new industry segment.
3. Innovate Through Strategic Partnerships: Forming alliances can open new doors for B2B brands. A supplier of components for medical devices might partner with a logistics company, ensuring faster and more reliable delivery to healthcare providers—creating added value and a competitive edge.

How AI Can Support Strategic Thinking

For B2B brands focused on revitalizing mature products, AI provides a powerful tool for quickly assessing potential strategies. Intelligent systems, like our proprietary  AI-driven tool Scout^TM, provide companies with rapid insights by analyzing vast amounts of data. Rather than starting from scratch, teams can review pre-existing strategic options, allowing for more informed decision-making.

AI can be particularly helpful in examining various approaches and predicting market responses, enabling B2B brands to quickly adapt their strategies. By offering this accelerated analysis, AI allows B2B companies to make well-informed, agile choices that keep them competitive.

Revitalizing Your Mature Products: A Path Forward

Whether through enhancing core offerings, exploring adjacent markets, or forming strategic partnerships, mature B2B brands have multiple avenues to reinvigorate their product lines. By leveraging tools like AI and continuously adapting to customer needs, these companies can remain relevant and competitive. As Nike’s journey shows, the key to long-term success lies in regularly rethinking and renewing strategy—keeping your mature products fresh and aligned with market demands. Embracing these principles will help B2B brands not only survive but thrive in an ever-changing landscape.