Characteristics of the Partnership between Under Armour and Dwayne Johnson

Running head: SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Social media marketing
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1SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Introduction
In the current business scenario, social media forms an important medium for the
marketers in reaching out to their target customers. This is due to the reason that social media
platforms are well penetrated across the world and huge chunk of the global population is
actively involved in it. However, with the increase in the preferences and competition in the
social media sector, marketers are in the need for innovative approaches to attract the customers
and one of these approaches is to communicate through the official social media handle of any
celebrity. This is well effective because these types of endorsements are being done from the
personal id of the celebrities and thus forms a sense of authenticity among the targeted
customers. Among the latest trends of celebrity endorsements of the products in the social media,
the partnership between Under Armour and Dwayne Johnson topped the chart. This is due to the
reason that according to the survey being done by Spotted, the partnership between these two
entities ranked highest in terms of public perception. Thus, there might be a few characteristics
of this partnership that lead their way to the top over the others.
This paper will analyze these characteristics of this partnership along with discussing
about the two identified entities. In addition, the target customer analysis will also be done and
the analysis over the social media channels being used by both Under Armour and Dwayne
Johnson in communicating with their target customers. Based on the gaps to be identified, a few
recommendations will also be discussed.
Brand and celebrity description
Under Armour is an Australian sports apparel brand operating across the world and their
product portfolio includes footwear, sports goods and causal apparels. They are also one of the

2SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
leading sportswear brands outside of Europe and United States to compete with the leading
players in this sector such as Adidas and Nike. They are constantly working towards covering the
larger global market and achieve the market leadership position. In doing so, Under Armour is
having partnerships with number of celebrities across different fields for their brand
endorsements including Dwayne Johnson.
On the other hand, Dwayne Johnson is a wrestler turned actor predominantly working in
Hollywood movies. He was one of the biggest stars of WWE till 2004 when he retired in
pursuing his acting career. Later he also got huge success in Hollywood also and currently is one
of the highest paying film stars in the world. He was also named as one of the top 100 influential
people in the world as of 2016. Moreover, Dwayne Johnson is also a fitness freak and he runs his
own of fitness video series through his personal social media handle. Thus, it can be concluded
that the market positioning of Under Armour as an active lifestyle and sport brand is getting
perfectly matched with the fitness freak personality of Dwayne Johnson.
Target customer analysis
Identification of the target customers for Under Armour will be done based on different
segmentation variables in order to cover the different perspectives. In terms of the demographic
variables, customers between the age group of 18 and 30 are the primary target customers. This
is due to the reason that this age group is boasting of young group of people from both the
genders who are having the purchasing power as well as preferences for active lifestyles.
Moreover, this age group is also more health conscious and thus their awareness towards sports
goods is more. In terms of the geographic segmentation, customers from the Tier I regions are
being targeted due to the fact that customers from the metropolitan regions are having the