Under Armour: Strategic Communication Plan for New Fashion Line

This report presents a strategic communication plan for Under Armour's new fashion line launch, emphasizing the use of a brand ambassador to drive sales and increase market visibility. The rationale is based on the proven success of celebrity endorsements, such as Nike's partnership with Michael Jordan and Under Armour's own 'Project Rock' initiative with Dwayne Johnson. The plan justifies the investment in a brand ambassador by highlighting its potential to achieve market share, boost brand awareness, ensure sustainability, and enhance corporate governance. It also addresses the importance of effective research and collaboration between marketing and research teams to select the most suitable brand ambassador. The report further reflects on feedback received, emphasizing the importance of confidence, practice, and preparation in effective communication. The ultimate goal is to replicate the success of previous endorsement campaigns and benefit all stakeholders through strategic implementation.

Running head: STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION PLAN
Strategic Communication Plan
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author notes:

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Part 1
Key Message
The purpose of the campaign is to initiate the sales of the new fashion line that is
being launched by Under Armour Inc. The aim of this initiative is to make the launch of the
new fashion line successfully in the market. It has been proven that a brand ambassador helps
to propel a product at any phase in a product’s product life cycle (Chan, Leung & Luk, 2013).
Thus the rationale behind choosing to stick with the current strategy as compared to the other
strategies is justified. The aim of paper is to communicate the idea of including a brand
ambassador to the stakeholders of the company. The decision has been taken considering
other similar cases where introducing a brand ambassador propelled the success of the brand.
The ‘Project Rock’ initiative was used by the company to make itself more visible in the
fitness industry. Furthermore the iconic wrestler turned actor Dwayne Johnson helped attract
audiences of varied demographics towards the direction of the brand. Thus the same
technique is assumed to help the success and launch of the newly formulated fashion line of
the company.
Background and rationale
Celebrity brand endorsement and brand endorsements in a general sense have the
ability to put a particular, product, service or initiative forward to the masses (Ambroise et
al., 2014). It can be said that a successful brand ambassador has the power to increase the
brand’s visibility (Douglas & Craig, 2013). They have the power to increase the sales that the
brand generates and provide a platform on which a brand can sustain for years, in the long
run. Selection of a brand ambassador can become a challenging task (Nelson & Deborah,
2017). It has to be considered how the public figure or the celebrity to be endorsed is
perceived by the public. The reputation that the celebrity might have can be correlated with

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the brand they are endorsing. Michael Jordan needs no formal introduction, he can be
considered one of the greatest basketball player of all time. Furthermore, his persona on the
court and off it was highly dynamic. Nike realised the same and decided to give Jordan an
endorsement contract. This initiative changed the position of Nike in the United States
market. The success of the brand further led to the creation of the brand that was named after
the athlete himself. It was called Jordan and it represented what Michael Jordan stood for
(Smith, 2014). They buyer of the Jordan Sneakers could relate to the lifestyle of Michael
Jordan along with the luxury factor. That is the reason why Jordan is still a successful
company on its own. This endorsement can be considered as one of the most successful
celebrity brand endorsements in history. Even though celebrity brand endorsement existed
from way before the aforementioned endorsement, the latter helped brands across the world
identify the importance of celebrity brand endorsements (McKelvey, Goins & Krauss, 2015).
There can be numerous other examples of celebrity brand endorsements that helped increase
a brand’s visibility. Other notable celebrity brand endorsements that shook the industry are;
David Beckham’s Gillette endorsement, Britney Spear’s endorsement with Pepsi, Leonardo
Dicaprio’s TAG Heuer endorsement and many more.
Insights can be taken form the performance of Under Armour’s endorsement with
Dwayne Johnson. Even though celebrity brand endorsements are considered expensive, the
company’s capabilities have been realised and it deemed that the company can afford yet
another celebrity brand endorsement. The success of brand endorsements in the past have
proven that the company’s product and the image will be highlighted by a brand endorsement
even though a certain amount of risk is associated with the same (Prasad, 2013). However, if
the marketing team collaborate their efforts with the research team, the company can come up
with an effective idea to select the most suitable brand ambassador.

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Justification
Regardless the stature of the company, they are subject to competition with other
companies constantly (Luca, & Zervas, 2016). Companies use various strategies to
differentiate themselves from their contemporaries. Companies use various sales promotion
tactics, such as discounts, offers and marketing strategies such as penetration and
segmentation to win over their audience (Ryan, 2016). Most of the companies in all the
industries are always under close scrutiny. The organisations make sure that the strategy they
are employing is not known by its competitors. However the celebrity brand endorsement can
be considered as strategies that are not kept as secrets. Companies tend to proudly state their
accomplishments in the terms of the celebrity contracts. The technique of communication that
will be employed is Tell-Sell as the information is readily available and will be used to
motivate response form the people who are pitched. As mentioned earlier brand endorsement
provide a great deal of competence to the initiatives of a company. It further helps the
company gain and retain the attention of the stakeholders. Following are the key reasons why
this plan should be undertaken;
1. Achieving market share: The Company aims to launch the fashion line of products
that will give them exposure to a completely new segment than what they excel in.
Along with research they need to justify why the consumers will shift from existing
fashion brands to that of Under Armour. A suitable brand ambassador will highlight
the brand and act favourably in achievement of the stakeholder’s interest that is
market share acquirement.
2. Brand awareness: Brand ambassadors are said to boost the brand image of a
company. From the above discussion it is evident that brand value is boosted by the
help of a brand ambassador. The company has developed a decent brand value with

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the ‘Project Rock’ initiative and the company aims to create a brand image of its
upcoming fashion line.
3. Sustainability: Not only will the campaign turn out to be profitable for the
organisation, it will help in boosting the quality of life of its stakeholders. The
campaign will be a success and will give employment opportunities to youth across
the country. The success of the campaign will help provide employment to the youth
and contribute in mitigating the issue of unemployment.
4. Corporate Governance: The Success of the campaign will be responsible for
achievement of corporate governance. The customers, employees, shareholders, board
of directors and the community as a whole are identified as the stakeholders of the
company. The campaign will help in generating revenue, which will satisfy the
shareholders and board of directors. Furthermore, the fashionable products will be
provided to a varied demographic group. The employees will also benefit as
favourable performance could lead to a possibility of pay hike or appraisal.
The above factors help justify that the campaign should be given a green light as it
would lead to favourable returns and will also help in justifying the rationale behind the
selection of the brand endorsement strategy. The degree of success, and the nature of the
campaign would replicate the company’s success with its previous endorsement campaign.
Furthermore it has been proven that if effective research has been carried out before
operations, all the stakeholder of the company can benefit from it.
Interpretation of feedback
From the feedback that I received, I realised that I have realised that I am correctly
aligned to my objective of becoming a better communicator. My supervisors have been
successful to make be believe in my abilities to communicate effectively without fear. I have
come to know the importance of exuding confidence while communicating and have also

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been able to come to realisation of the fact that there exists a thin line between confidence
and over confidence. I have identified two components other than confidence. Practice and
preparation are the latter two components that will help me communicate effectively, thus I
have decided to utilise the feedback that I have received and I will use it to mend and bolster
my communication capabilities with the help of the same.
REFERENCES
Ambroise, L., Pantin-Sohier, G., Valette-Florence, P., & Albert, N. (2014). From
endorsement to celebrity co-branding: Personality transfer. Journal of Brand
Management, 21(4), 273-285.
Chan, K., Leung Ng, Y., & Luk, E. K. (2013). Impact of celebrity endorsement in advertising
on brand image among Chinese adolescents. Young Consumers, 14(2), 167-179.
Douglas, S. P., & Craig, C. S. (2013). Dynamics of international brand architecture:
Overview and directions for future research. DYNAMICS, 21, 916-932.
Luca, M., & Zervas, G. (2016). Fake it till you make it: Reputation, competition, and Yelp
review fraud. Management Science, 62(12), 3412-3427.
McKelvey, S., Goins, J., & Krauss, F. (2015). The Air Jordan Rules, Image Advertising Adds
New Dimension to Right of Publicity-First Amendment Tension. Fordham Intell.
Prop. Media & Ent. LJ, 26, 945.
Nelson, O., & Deborah, A. (2017). Celebrity Endorsement Influence on Brand Credibility: A
Critical Review of Previous Studies. Online Journal of Communication and Media
Technologies, 7(1), 15.
Prasad, C. J. (2013). Brand endorsement by celebrities impacts towards customer
satisfaction. African journal of business management, 7(35), 3630-3635.

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Ryan, D. (2016). Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the
digital generation. Kogan Page Publishers.
Smith, S. (2014). There Is No Next: NBA Legends on the Legacy of Michael Jordan.
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