Under Armour Case Study Essay

Macy's is one of the premier retailer franchises within the United States. To begin, Macy's Inc. is one of the nation's largest and well known department store chains. Started over 150 years ago, Macy's has continually generated excellent returns for its shareholders and employees. Currently, in the midst of a global recession, Macy's has generated huge profits with same store sales increasing 5.3% year to date. In 2012 same store sales increased 4.6% in the month of February alone (Macy's Inc., 2012). In fact, throughout the duration of 2012, Macy's is projecting even larger profits for its underlying business operations. Even though Macy's has experienced success with both its assortments and brand, its competitors haven't faired so well. Sears, due in part to part to a lackluster holiday season, has been forced to close nearly 120 locations to generate excess liquidity in an effort to shore up its balance sheet (Isadora, 2011).Other competitors who cater specifically to the middle class consumer have also lost significant amounts of market share as consumers trade down due to the economy. Macy's, with its ride array of assortments and products continues to grow as it attempts to capture market share from failing competitors. Macy's is also unique as it operates in a unique market

Macy’s mission statement establish the importance of concentrate all of their resources in the customers. Reaching customers are essential to the success of a company like Macy’s, and for many years they did a good job. However, for nobody is a secret that Macy’s company is in trouble and that the sales growth has been weakening over the last years. Also, experts consider that things could be worse shortly. Many factors are contributing to this situation, such as the global recession, technologic, socio-cultural trends, political, economic and demographic.

The recent recession in 2016 has impacted Macy’s negatively because many shoppers have neglected full price stores and shop at discount stores, such as Marshalls, and TJ Maxx. According to Market’s Insider, “Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren acknowledged this trend last year and said on an earnings call that consumers — and especially millennials — are migrating toward lower-priced discount stores”. According to Business of Fashion, Customers also are gravitating toward online shopping, where you can compare all options to find the best one. Consumers are now driven by price and style, not necessarily the brand, which has created less loyalty among customers. Overall, consumers aren’t shopping as much as they used to. According to Business of Fashion,

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.

Macy's is one of the premier retailer franchises within the United States. To begin, Macy's Inc. is one of the nation's largest and well known department store chains. Started over 150 years ago, Macy's has continually generated excellent returns for its shareholders and employees. Currently, in the midst of a global recession, Macy's has generated huge profits with same store sales increasing 5.3% year to date. In 2012 same store sales increased 4.6% in the month of February alone (Macy's Inc., 2012). In fact, throughout the duration of 2012, Macy's is projecting even larger profits for its underlying business operations. Even though Macy's has experienced success with both its assortments and brand, its competitors haven't faired so well. Sears, due in part to part to a lackluster holiday season, has been forced to close nearly 120 locations to generate excess liquidity in an effort to shore up its balance sheet (Isadora, 2011).Other competitors who cater specifically to the middle class consumer have also lost significant amounts of market share as consumers trade down due to the economy. Macy's, with its ride array of assortments and products continues to grow as it attempts to capture market share from failing competitors. Macy's is also unique as it operates in a unique market demographic. It is upscale, but not to the extent of Saks Fifth Avenue or a Nordstrom. It is also not as low scale as a JC Penny or Sears. As such, the company occupies a unique

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

(The Wall Street Journal May 12,2016) As a result, sales have been declining since 2009, which is most likely due to the competition presented by mobile and social commerce, brick-and-mortar retailers are introducing digital technology into their stores whereas Macy’s has been less aggressive in past years. For example, Macy’s must now compete against companies like Amazon.com, which is an online retail website that is considered the largest online retailer in the world, which sells just about any item a person could possibly want to buy.

For one, Macy’s recognized its competitive advantage: salespeople. Amazon and other online retailers do not have the personal expertise salespeople can provide, so Macy’s plans on improving their existing employees rather than adding more inefficient ones. Furthermore, this provides a point of differentiation for Macy’s in terms of customer service. One of the reasons people are turning away from brick-and-mortar stores besides online shopping is due to a

In black and white, the department store sector has been declining. Overall sales have fallen over the past five years by roughly 1.5 % and Macy’s has been sorely impacted. The Ohio based department chain has faced weak store traffic, which has caused a higher retention rate of inventory as sales plummeted. Sales for the previous two quarters were lower than expected, with the retail giant attributing difficulties due to low international tourism spending because of the stronger US dollar. Macy’s reported a sales decline of 2% last quarter while competitors Nordstrom and Dillards reported a 4.9% and 1% same store sales growth, respectively. The Individual stores scattered across the country have struggled as the company has announced the closing of around 35-40 locations, which would lead to a net loss of $300 million in revenue.

Macy's is one of the premier retailer franchises within the United States. To begin, Macy's Inc. is one of the nation's largest and well known department store chains. Started over 150 years ago, Macy's has continually generated excellent returns for its shareholders and employees. Currently, in the midst of a global recession, Macy's has generated huge profits with same store sales increasing 5.3% year to date. In 2012 same store sales increased 4.6% in the month of February alone (Macy's Inc., 2012). In fact, throughout the duration of 2012, Macy's is projecting even larger profits for its underlying business operations. Even though Macy's has experienced success with both its assortments and brand, its competitors haven't faired so well. Sears, due in part to part to a lackluster holiday season, has been forced to close nearly 120 locations to generate excess liquidity in an effort to shore up its balance sheet (Isadora, 2011).Other competitors who cater specifically to the middle class consumer have also lost significant amounts of market share as consumers trade down due to the economy. Macy's, with its ride array of assortments and products continues to grow as it attempts to capture market share from failing competitors. Macy's is also unique as it operates in a unique market demographic. It is upscale, but not to the extent of Saks Fifth Avenue or a Nordstrom. It is also not as low scale as a JC Penny or Sears. As such, the company occupies a

Customers of Nike, Under Armour, and Adidas currently living in the D.C. Metropolitan area were asked to complete a survey that asked 4 simple questions about these different brands. The summary asked them to vote on which brand they prefer, wear, trust, and who is currently dominant in the apparel industry. This graph was used to help back up our facts as to why Nike should be chosen to carry apparel for your store. Nike is what the people want. This was based on a poll of 84 participants in total, and 83 for the last questions.

Under Armour is an American athletic apparel brand that was established in 1996, and has been increasing their product offering and outreach ever since. While known as a premium brand in the US, Under Armour still has little global outreach in comparison to its competitors. However, with the slowly increasing brand awareness and their expanding product offering, Under Armour has continued to gain more and more market share. However, in comparison to their close competitors, Nike and Adidas, Under Armour is still a relatively new brand in the industry and has a long way to go before they can be competitively on the same level as their competitors in markets outside of North America.

Macy's is one of the premier retailer franchises within the United States. To begin, Macy's Inc. is one of the nation's largest and well known department store chains. Started over 150 years ago, Macy's has continually generated excellent returns for its shareholders and employees. Currently, in the midst of a global recession, Macy's has generated huge profits with same store sales increasing 5.3% year to date. In 2012 same store sales increased 4.6% in the month of February alone (Macy's Inc., 2012). In fact, throughout the duration of 2012, Macy's is projecting even larger profits for its underlying business operations. Even though Macy's has experienced success with both its assortments and brand, its competitors haven't faired so well. Sears, due in part to part to a lackluster holiday season, has been forced to close nearly 120 locations to generate excess liquidity in an effort to shore up its balance sheet (Isadora, 2011).Other competitors who cater specifically to the middle class consumer have also lost significant amounts of market share as consumers trade down due to the economy. Macy's, with its ride array of assortments and products continues to grow as it attempts to capture market share from failing competitors. Macy's is also unique as it operates in a unique market demographic. It is upscale, but not to the extent of Saks Fifth Avenue or a Nordstrom. It is also not as low scale as a JC Penny

We found that there are several available substitutes creating a middle-tired buying power. Although the industry has several players, Under Armour’s ability to supply premium differentiating products helps maintain its competitiveness against lower-tier brands. Studies have shown that many customers purchase brands due to brand recognition and association (Strider); this in turn has lead companies such as Nike, Adidas and Under Armour to invest heavily in athletic sponsorships and endorsements. Stephen Curry and Tom Brady are among the athletes whom Under Armour has signed to a multi-million dollar endorsements (Under Armour Roster).

We decided to do our project on Under Armour Inc., an American manufacturer of footwear, sports and casual apparel. We chose Under Armour because they have been a fluctuating company that seemed to be on the rise less than 3 years ago, but inversely has been in a steady decline. There have been numerous stories in the news about their questionable business strategy. Whether it is political endorsements, insufficient profit margins or their declining stock price, Under Armour is an excellent example of a company that could be in a more favorable situation if better strategic moves were made by the leading management. We believe that we will be able to analyze Under Armour’s short history and provide the best course of action.