Analysis of Under Armour's 'I Will What I Want' Marketing Campaign

This report analyzes Under Armour's "I Will What I Want" marketing campaign, launched in 2015 to target the women's market segment and address the perception of the brand as being primarily for men. The paper examines the campaign's objectives, strategies, and the communication channels employed, including advertising, public relations, and personal selling. It applies the AIDA model (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action) to evaluate the campaign's effectiveness in increasing brand awareness, generating interest, creating desire for the brand, and driving consumer action. The report explores the use of brand ambassadors, media coverage, and the overall marketing mix to achieve a 28% increase in women's product sales. Additionally, the report discusses the application of marketing communication theories and provides a critical evaluation of the campaign's successes and areas for improvement. The report also includes a reflection on the analysis, considering the impact of the campaign on brand perception and consumer behavior. This document, available on Desklib, provides a comprehensive understanding of the campaign's strategies and outcomes.

Running head: PRINCIPLE OF MARKETING COMMUNICATION
PRINCIPLE OF MARKETING COMMUNICATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The main aim of this paper will be to analyse the issue or campaign related to the
communications in the context of the company of Under Armour, which is one of the major
brands from the region of America. Critical evaluation of the issue will be done in this paper, by
using the recognized frameworks and marketing communications theory. The meaning of the
campaign performed by the organization using proper academic concepts. This will include the
meaning that has been created among the audience and the utilization process of the
communication mix that has been performed by this organization across the campaign. The
selection of media influences within performing the campaign of the organization along with the
utilization of the creativity in order to engage the audiences will also be discussed in this paper.
A critical evaluation of the campaign, which was “I will what I want”, that was launched in the
market place of America in the year 2015 to solve a critical business problem, which was how
does a brand long associated with American football win over a massive new target that outright
rejects the brand. Academic materials and tends in the marketing communications will be used in
evaluation of the paper in the context of the communication mix. The main focus of discussion
of this paper will be to assess the process of achieving a remarkable 28 per cent of increase in the
overall sales through this campaign by this business house along with the amount of impact on
the perception of people about the brand name or the products that are sold under this particular
campaign. At the end, a critical reflection will be done based on the critical evaluation of the
previous assessment and the improvements that has been performed while improving this
particular assignment.

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About the Organization
Under Armour, Inc. is an organization based in the United States who are engaged in
manufacturing and marketing of sports, footwear and casual apparel. The organization, which
was founded in the year 1996, have a worldwide presence and belongs from the fashion industry.
Toiletries is also another range of product that is sold by this business entity, which employs
over 15,800 employees in all the market places where Under Armour possess as presence. In the
context of the overall products that are manufactured and sold by this company are jackets,
shorts, athletic shoes, hoodies, t-shirts, pants and accessories like gloves, protective gear, bags
and caps. In this context, it can be said that it has been assumed in the global market place that
the organization is engaged in manufacturing the products mainly for men, but the overall
concept was changed from the year 2014. But this possess no impact on the overall position of
Under Armour, and the management has successfully placed themselves ahead of the
competitors in all the market places where they are operating. But, it has been found by the
research team of this American business house that the products that are meant for women only
sold products of 500 million dollars only, whereas the overall sales stood at 2.3 billion dollars in
the year 2013. In order to address this particular issue, the management launched a Total Market
Campaign, where mainly the women market segment was targeted, and the title which was used
to target this segment was “I Will What I Want” (underarmour.com 2020).
Analysis of the Campaign
It has been already stated that the campaign under the title “I Will What I Want” was
meant mainly for women, as the overall products that are sold to the women market segment was
very less in comparison to the overall sales of the organization of Under Armour in the year
2013, the figures of which are discussed earlier in this paper. It has been found in various market

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researches that a huge segment of the market were missing to purchase and use the fashion
apparels and accessories as the women segment felt that the brand of Under Armour was totally
hypermasculine and it was only meant for the male segment. The management of this
organization planned this campaign in order to convince the women segment for another chance,
and this campaign was designed to enable the women to define the term performances through
their own lives. Two new brand ambassadors were introduced to introduce the products freshly
to the women segment. It can be noted in this context that the experiences of these brand
ambassadors, who were Gisele Bundchen and Misty Copeland. The details about the campaign
were also published in publications like The Washington Post and Time, along with appearance
of the above mentioned brand ambassadors on popular American prime time shows like Good
Morning America and The Tonight Show. Other renowned personalities also involved in this
campaign and appeared in these shows. In the next few years, the commitment of the brand
towards the performances of the women grew. The products of Under Armour were used on the
campaign website, where the new brand ambassadors were showcased, which provided an
opportunity to the visitors to go through the products by themselves, and follow the stories,
poems and poets that were provided by the brand ambassadors in all the commercials. And as a
result, the overall sales of the women products increased to 28%, and the rate of increased traffic
towards the official website of the organization increased to 42% (Droga5 2020).
Application of Marketing Communication Theories
Marketing communication, which is the base of the topic that will be discussed in this
paper, can be described as an integral part for conveying messages between the business entities
and their consumers. Brand awareness is performed through this process and the target audience
comes to know about the product or the service along with features and attributes through which

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the users will be benefitted by using them. The selected campaign will be analysed by using the
AIDA model, which is an acronym for Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action.
Awareness
The management of Under Armour took the help of various communication channels to
make people, mainly the women segment about the campaign of “I Will What I Want”. Apart
from taking active part in popular American prime time shows, they also published in renowned
publications of America. Through their brand ambassadors, they successfully aware the sports
women or female athletes. In this context, it can ne stated that the advertisements of this
campaign captured 5 billion media impressions across the world, and helped to ignite the level of
interest among the women to try the fashion apparels and accessories of the brand of Under
Armour. The actions taken by the women segmented resulted in increasing of the overall sales of
the women products to 28%, and this was the mission or the marketing objective that was set by
the management of this American company.
Interest
All the actions taken by the management of Under Armour, which also included 35
million paid media views, successfully ignited the interest level among the women segment
through the selection of female brand ambassadors throughout the entire campaign. The women
could relate the experiences shared by the brand ambassadors through different activities that
they performed throughout the campaign. For example, appearing in the prime shows and
sharing their experiences and performing different activities in gym sessions and posting them in
the social media pages along with showing them in the prime shows helped to attract the women
target segment and created an interest level to try the different fashion ranges of this American
manufacturing company.

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Desire
It can be stated in this context that this campaign was started to meet the desired
marketing objective of Under Armour, which was to change the mindset of their women target
segment of this organization. The shift from male to female customers was desired by the
management of this organization. This helped to successfully build on some popular campaign in
the market places where they operate, for example, “Choose beauty” of Dove and “Like a Girl”,
which are designed to avoid the stereotype approaches that are followed by the global business
houses on the market places around the world (Budiawan, Satria and Simanjuntak 2017).
Action
The action that was taken by the management of Under Armour went to be successful
and as a result, the campaign received several accolades from across the world, which includes
Cyber Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions Festival in June 2015 with 2 Gold, 7 Silver and 2 Bronze.
The campaign also won 1 Gold and 1 Bronze CLIO award. The performances of the brand
ambassadors caught more than 10 million views on the platform of YouTube along with earning
paid media. The sales of the women products also increased to 28%, and it can be noted in this
context that it surpassed the sales of the globally reputed organization of Adidas, and Under
Armour was regarded as the 2nd largest sportswear brand within the region of the United States.
Marketing of the Campaign
It has been already discussed that the management of the organization have successfully met
the marketing objectives that were set before starting the campaign, which was totally meant for
increasing the women customer base along with increasing the overall sales volume of the wide
array of products that are sold by this business house. In order to achieve this, different modes of
communication mix were used by this company to attract the women target segment and sale the

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wide array of products that are exclusively meant for women. It can be noted in this context that
there are five different elements of communication mix, which are personal selling, advertising,
public relations, sales promotions and direct or internet marketing (Hadiyati 2016).
Personal Selling
After igniting the interest level of the people, women target segment started to increase
the footfalls in all the outlets of this organization, which resulted in increasing the sales volume
to 28% globally. The employees of the outlets helped the women to persuade them to purchase
the wide array of women clothing line and accessories, which helped in increasing the
productivity of the organization by satisfying the needs and requirements of the women target
market, who once though that the brand of Under Armour was meant only for men. In this way,
women as well as the girls became able to purchase the apparels and accessories through Shop
by Category, Shop by Sport and Shop by Collection apart from the New Arrivals that were
available in the stores of the organization.
Advertising
It can be noted in this context that the main objective of the management of this company
is to aware the brand to the women target segment, which they ultimately achieved through
performing the campaign of “I Will What I Want”. The interest level of the women segment got
ignited through this campaign, and helped to increase the footfalls as well as the overall volume
of sales of the women apparels and accessories. From selection of the women brand ambassadors
to advertising different experiences related to them are successfully performed by the
management of Under Armour. And as a result, they received several awards and accolades from
different entities and institutions apart from increase in the overall sales volume of the product.

7PRINCIPLE OF MARKETING COMMUNICATION
Public Relations
It can be noted in this context that this element of communication mix is successfully
followed by the management of the organization of Under Armour, and addresses the social
issues in the market places where they operate across the world. For example, it experiences
significant level of social pressure in terms of the usage of sweatshops in the context of
improving the green technology integration performed by this organization. Apart from this, they
provide sponsorship to some of the sporting events apart from similar kind of activities in order
to communicate with the target customers of the organization about what it does for addressing
the social issues (Smedescu et al 2016).
Sales Promotions
Innovative sales promotional offers are offered to the customers, so that it will help to
attract the target segment of the organization, both men and women, and will help them to enjoy
the 2nd position as the largest sportswear brand within the region of the United States. Apart from
this, seasonal offers are also provided by the management to the owners, so that it will help to
possess the number of repeat customers in the outlets of Under Armour.
Internet or Direct Marketing
In this context, it can be said that Under Armour uses the internet marketing successfully,
and this has been observed through the success of this campaign. For example, new arrivals for
the women, who also became aware as well as a healthy customer base for towards this
organization, can be made aware about the new or fresh arrivals, which will increase both the
market share and footfalls for this business house (Frimpong 2014).

8PRINCIPLE OF MARKETING COMMUNICATION
Evaluation
From all the above discussion, it can be stated that the management successfully
increased the women customer base through the campaign of “I Will What I Want”. But, to do
this, the attraction has been shifted towards the women market segment more than the men
segment. Above all, it can be said that the overall sales of the women products increased to 28%,
and the rate of increased traffic towards the official website of the organization increased to 42%.
But, the brand ambassadors had to face criticisms while sharing their experiences through
performing different activities and sharing their experiences. But they successfully managed to
turn down all the criticisms through their inner strengths and abilities. Usage of AIDA model
along with the communication mix elements has helped the organization to successfully
complete the campaign and are the women market segment of the brand and start to sale the
fashion apparels and accessories to the women segment.
Conclusion
From the above analysis and discussion, it can be concluded that the marketing objective
of Under Armour was to change the viewpoint of the women target segment, who thought it
being a masculine brand, but the campaign of “I Will What I Want” successfully changed the
overall mindset of the women segment by using famous female brand ambassadors in the
campaign where they shared their own stories by showcasing the range of female garments and
accessories throughout the campaign. The campaign can be treated as the biggest women-
focused company ever launched. The campaign can be treated as a very good example of
influencer marketing. The company have effectively featured the athletic women who were
successful in their respective field and thereafter, portrayed the stories, which the female
customers can relate to. The campaign was very authentic as the women themselves have opened

9PRINCIPLE OF MARKETING COMMUNICATION
up publicly about the criticisms that they have faced. The management of Under Armour was
analysed through the marketing communication model of AIDA along with the usage of
elements of communication mix. They made the women market segment comfortable with the
brand apart from satisfying the needs and wants of them from the global market place. Thus, it
can be said that the management of Under Armour successfully managed the campaign in order
to attract the women segment towards the wide array of products sold by them.
Reflection
This essay has been prepared by using some of the modules like AIDA model as the
marketing communication mix along with the five different elements of communication mix,
which are personal selling, advertising, public relations, sales promotions and direct or internet
marketing, which are used to critically analyse the campaign of “I Will What I Want”. I have
evaluated the marketing objectives for which this campaign has been launched in the market
places of America along with the other regions where the organization have their presence and
run their operations. I have learnt about effective use of the theory of marketing communication
in the form of AIDA model through this campaign which I have used for the evaluation of the
campaign (Gever and Olijo 2017). I have also learnt about the communication mix and its
elements, and gained a good understanding of the communication mix. I have also successfully
learned at assessing the promotional activities that are performed by this organization through
the wide range of its products to the targeted market segment of female customers. I have also
learned to critically evaluate the campaign that has been done in this paper, by using the
recognized frameworks and marketing communications theory. I have learned to understand the
meaning that has been created among the women audience along with the utilization process of
the communication mix that has been performed by this organization throughout the campaign.

10PRINCIPLE OF MARKETING COMMUNICATION
The selection of media influences along with the utilization of the creativity in order to engage
the audiences has also been discussed in this paper by me, which gained me the overall
knowledge of critically evaluate a particular topic.
The selected campaign is a great example of a marketing campaign. It has been
successful at increasing the sales as well as the revenue for the organization, which can be
regarded as the main aim of any promotional or marketing strategy according to the module
materials. I have learned how an organization invests a healthy amount of money to make the
campaign as well as the promotional activities to be effective in order to attract the attention of
the women target segment (Kesavan, Bernacchi and Mascarenhas 2013). I have learned through
this assignment that the modern customers can be highly attracted to a vast range of
advertisements along with effective marketing strategy. I believe that marketing communication
is an integral part for conveying messages between the business entities and their consumers,
through which brand awareness can be performed and the target audience comes to know about
the product or the service along with features and attributes through which the users will be
benefitted by using them. Strong relationship can be built through these processes, and I can
conclude that advertising is the key element in the marketing communication mix. I have gained
a good knowledge and understanding of what a perfect promotional or marketing campaign
should look like and how to make it effective. This paper will help me to use the knowledge
gained in solving my next assignments related to the modules learned.

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