Company History And How Under Armour Entered Market Based On Its Overall Business Strategy

Competitors in the industry can wreak havoc on the bottom line for a company. With rivals, a price competition usually ensues, which benefits the customers but hurts the competing businesses that share a common strategy. In reviewing rival sellers, many competitors exist within the sports apparel and footwear industry, but most of them are unable to compete with the industry giants, Nike and Adidas. They are well seated in the industry and their sales reveal this ultimate strength, however, Under Armour is putting pressure on these mammoths. In 2015, global sales of sports clothing and footwear equated to $250 billion, of which Nike grabbed $30.6 billion, Adidas held in its grasp $18.8 billion and Under Armour had a much smaller piece of the pie, at $3.9 billion globally. In reviewing these numbers, it looks like Under Armour is really subpar to the industry giants, but this is not exactly the case. Under Armour in the past couple of

Under Armour’s business strategy towards market segmentation is broken down into three different basis; Age, Gender, Uses. The first major market segmentation is by age, different age groups demand different products and Under Armour has produced certain merchandise to appeal to each generation. The second is Gender, both male and female respectively make up roughly 50% of the market equally.To appeal to females UA produces apparel in brighter colo, as a fashion forward athletic wear. While for males they they cater toward masculine vibe of tight fitting and resistant to wear and tear. Lastly, UA segments by the range of uses for their products.

Under Armour is a very famous sportswear company in the world. It sold products in three categories: apparel, footwear, and accessories. It had a wide variety of innerwear and outerwear in the apparel segment, a broad line of footwear, and a line of accessories for both men and women. Kevin A. Plank, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Under Armour (UA), was a walk-on special team’s player for University of Maryland football team. As an athlete, he knew what kind of sportswear material would be popular for athletes. Under Armour created a new category of sports apparel: “performance apparel” which focused on the athlete’s performance. In this segment, it had a 78% market in 2009. Because, it paid more attentions on quality, performance

Sociocultural/Demographic – Under Armour was able to build its brand image through extensive sponsorship. Under Armour now provides gear to the NFL, MLB, MLS, NHL the USA baseball and Ski teams including other professional leagues abroad. In 2005, Under Armour was supplying over 100 NCAA division I-A football programs and 30 NFL teams. Only four years since its founding Under Armour had become a globally recognized brand, and was still looking for areas to branch into within the performance apparel industry and introduced a women’s and youth line.

Under Armour’s (UA) current CEO Kevin Kant founded the company in 1996, which has witnessed the company grow in recent years to become a key player in the sporting gear and apparel industry. UA focuses its products and marketing efforts towards the youth, men, and women. The amount of resources that are allocated to each group of customers differs in that initially, UA primary source of revenue was from men even if youth and women products were also produced and sold. The specificity of UA’s products and their sporting activities selectivity can be attributed to UA’s limited global market share in the sporting gear and apparel industry. The company’s mission statement is inspiring, but in order to gain competitive advantages against larger

Under Armour, Inc. is ranked among the established sports Kit producers across the globe. It thus enjoys massive sales in several markets. Under Armour has its headquarters Baltimore, Maryland with Kevin Plank as the current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Robin Thurston as the Chief Finance Office. The company is committed to developing its brand continuously through advertisement. It is presently listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) market with a share price of $46.99. The company through its CEO believes that for the company to remain viable in the market, it has to ensure that that its products satisfy the taste of the consumers (Thompson, 2015). Clearly, this has bored fruits, basing the argument on the high consumer

Under Armour Inc. is a relatively new competitor in providing high quality and functional sporting goods. Under Armour Inc. encompasses footwear, apparel, and accessories for all types of sport enthusiasts. The company currently provides jobs to about 10,700 employees. However, they are still up and coming and are expected to create new opportunities and work for many others. Their main headquarter is located in Maryland, Baltimore. Though they operate all over North America, Asia, and certain countries of Europe. Throughout all their operations they mostly sell through retailers and whole sale. In addition, they do have factory outlets and their own “direct to consumer” channels located in North America. Under Armour has really been on the

Under Armour is in the Textile- Apparel Clothing industry, in the consumer goods sector. The market has been driven by economic recovery, new product offerings and a

Under Armour, Inc. is ranked among the established sports Kit producers across the globe. It thus enjoys massive sales in several markets. Under Armour has its headquarters Baltimore, Maryland with Kevin Plank as the current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Robin Thurston as the Chief Finance Office. The company is committed to developing its brand continuously through advertisement. It is presently listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) market with a share price of $46.99. The company through its CEO believes that for the company to remain viable in the market, it has to ensure that that its products satisfy the taste of the consumers (Thompson, 2015). Clearly, this has bored fruits, basing the argument on the high consumer turnover that the company enjoys. Moreover, the company has various opportunities to expand in the American markets. All the employees in the organization have to undergo a form of training on the operations of the company. The company is appreciated by several consumers across the globe as a result of the high-quality products it produces and the unique marketing strategies. It is founded on the slogan “protect this house.”

After completing our research on Under Armour, we found many ways in which they could work to increase their market share. Under Armour first, needs to work on supplying a wider variety of shoes, such as casual wear, to keep up with their current competitors such as Nike. They also must focus more of their attention on the female market and allowing customers to more easily access the brand, increasing distribution through new store locations. Their use of endorsements has been beneficial in targeted areas for Under Armour so far, so an increase in endorsement efforts in other sports will help to not only spread brand awareness but also increase brand equity.

The significant factors that caused Under Armour’s slow and declining sales growth as well as the company’s rising expenses were the inability to expand the market online and in traditional stores as well as the lack of marketing in not only the target demographics but also the struggling demographics that the company was trying to reach. In the case presentation, Under Armour was entering the market as an underdog under athletic powerhouses Nike and Adidas, so the company needed to not only create but sustain a viable marketing strategy that imposes on existing markets and captures new audiences consistently to continually increase sales. While a portion of this strategy was done during the company’s early years, recent numbers show a continuous decline in sales and market share to not only the industry powerhouses, but also to international companies as well. Under Armour has great and innovative products, but falls short in presenting those products to a broad and general audience, in area where competitors are most successful and

The strength of the competitive forces vary among the Under Armour, Nike, and The Adidas Group. The buyer bargaining power of Under Armour, is somewhat weak. Under Armour’s growth strategy entails, “Securing

Under Armour has infused their products and their brand image in various visual media forms, including over a dozen popular television shows and numerous motion pictures (Shank, 2009). The look and appeal of Under Armour was ideal as it was the combination of the intense, hard core athletic gear that could help with performance coupled with a hip, fresh look that would be able to appeal to consumers. To differentiate its product line from its competitors Under Armour leveraged its sophisticated design software, new manufacturing techniques, the latest in material engineering, and robust information technology systems to produce virtually everything it makes (Shank, 2009). The utilization of the marketing technique of product placement in television, movies, and video games has allowed Under Armour to promote the benefits of its product line to a larger audience (Shank, 2009). In 1998, Warner Brothers studio was

The performance industry is made up of companies that design and sell clothing, footwear, and accessories. Under Armour is an international brand focusing on health, fitness and sports. Under Armour is looking to push aside their competitors and become athletes first choice when it comes to performance gear. One of Under Armour’s objectives is to be the market share leader in the sporting apparel industry. Their goal is to provide the highest quality and most innovative products. Consumers know the specific retailers that distribute Under Armour apparel because Under Armour is using a selective distribution process which means that only a few retail outlets in a specific geographic region have their products. This is a good thing because their products can be view as a more prestigious good in the sporting apparel industry which means people will feel a since of pride when wearing it.

With the aid of the internal environment and IFAS (Exhibit 8), we were able to identify strategic factors that could potentially be detrimental to the company’s performance if they were not highlighted. The first strategic factor was the company’s Innovation, Research & Development. For the past decades, Under Armour has been attempting to position itself as a pioneer in apparel performance. This is highlighted by the it’s initial offering of compression shirts, which paved the way for fellow competitors. The company was able to do this because of its strong Research & Development departments, which is shown in exhibit 8.