Under Armour's Marketing Strategies: A Case Study Analysis

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Assessment 2
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1) Positioning statement
Under Armour is one of the American's companies that is engaged in casual, sportswear and
footwear. The company is headquartered at Baltimore, Unites States.
The positioning statement of UA is “To provide all athletes with the innovative sportswear,
and footwear which will enhance their passion and confidence. Under Armour through
innovation pursuit of design and relentless provide perfect products to the athletes.”
Drivers of UA’s initial brand building success
From the analysis of the case study, it can be seen that the first unusual risk was taken by
Plank in the year 1999 and provided apparel of UA to the film ‘Any given Sunday' to Oliver
Stone that offered a creative shot for the awareness of the brand. The print campaign of UA
was reinforced by the football movie product that helped in generating 7, 50,000 dollars in
UA sales. The company developed the sponsorship and licensing relationship with National
Hockey League, Major League Baseball and wide programs of collegiate. After being
acquired by Dick's sporting goods, UA emerged as the high scoring big-box distribution of
sporting goods. This made UA a successful brand. In the year 2000 to 2016 UA invested
heavily in the fabric technologies including cold black, cool switch, armor vent, cold gear,
and UA recharge. After apparel, the company made an entry in the footwear market in 2005.
There are three main drivers for UA growth that includes 22% apparel growth, 25% direct to
consumer growth and growth of footwear by 95% (Forbes, 2019).
UA entered into the ad campaign by launching the footwear with 25 million dollars that
introduced both the aspirations of UA and its shoes which the company is going to provide to
the future athletes. This move is considered as the risky move by UA which results as the
biggest move for the company (Prophet, 2014). It started involving pro athletes as the
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company’s products endorsers. The company began to move to the women apparel which as
per Plank will bring a lot of revenue to the company. It began to provide women athlete with
a sports bra, training shoes, and compression shoes. The promotion of what’s beautiful had
three iterations from the year 2011. The digital promotion was adopted by UA and it added a
Facebook page of fan for the women and over 8, 50,000 likes were garnered. All these
promotional strategies of the company worked as a key driving force for the company's
growth at the initial stage (Forbes, 2019).
2) Recommendations for the ideal approach of going forward to achieving 1.9 billion
dollars goals in sales to women by 2019
The business of women has benefitted from the growth of a leisure category that is growing
at a very fast pace in comparison to the other categories of apparel. It can be seen from the
case study that UA is needed to adopt a very clear strategy for pushing forwards the women's
business while maintaining the brand differentiation against Nike. Under armor can adopt
various strategies for increasing its selling of women products-
 It can select women athletes to endorse their women products.
 The company is required to focus on maintaining the customer relationship and
should offer excellent customer services to its women customers. A satisfied customer
can also work as an advertising source for the company (Tsimonis, and Dimitriadis,
2014).
 The company can develop a strategic partnership for serving a larger business
opportunity.
 The company should make the effective use of social –media by making the page of
the women on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. It is a very effective source of
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connecting with the women customers and attracting them with the innovative and
quantity products advertising (Buil, et. al, 2013).
 Regular feedback from the women customers should be asked so that the
improvements can be made in the products of the company.
 Women get attracted to the offers and discounts and this strategy can work strongly
for the company. Different packages, bundles, and deals can be offered by UA for
attracting the women customers. Quantity discounts, tie-in discounts, seasonal
discounts, conditional discounts, and stripped discounts are the different types of
discounts that can be offered.
 Deals can be promoted on social media. Qualified leads can be accessed, more
channels for marketing can be chosen for products selling and lowering the costs of
acquiring and attracting more women customers.
 The profile of social media can be used as a mini-website for the company's business.
 Free trials and demonstration can be used for advertising the products.
 An advertising campaign can be launched where the women will be invited and can
get demonstrations about the products, and different schemes can be offered.
 The competitive advantage should be developed and it should be conveyed by the
company to its women customers (Hyder, 2016).
 Market research should be conducted by the company analyzing the target women
customers and market share. After which the right price policies should be
determined.
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 Proper techniques of negotiations should be learned to find arrangement or solution.
 The competitor’s strategy should be studied well so that the company can formulate
such a strategy by which it can gain a competitive advantage.
 The complementary services should be offered to women customers so that they
remain connected with the company for a longer time- period and become the
company's regular customers who will develop the customer’s loyalty of a company.
 Determination of the right target market should be made and investment should be
only on the marketing strategies that work. The pain points of women customers
should be determined as the company can focus on providing the customers with such
points. This can be done either by taking feedback from the customers from time to
time (Daghighi, et. al, 2017).
All these different strategies will help Under Armour to earn revenue of 1.9 billion dollars
by the year 2019. As the women customers will get attracted through these strategies
which will bring revenue to the company.
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References
 Buil, I., De Chernatony, L. and Martínez, E., 2013. Examining the role of
advertising and sales promotions in brand equity creation. Journal of Business
Research, 66(1), pp.115-122.
 Daghighi, A., Nahvi, A. and Kim, U., 2017. Optimal cultivation pattern to
increase revenue and reduce water use: Application of linear programming to
Arjan plain in Fars province. Agriculture, 7(9), p.73.
 Forbes., 2019. Here Are The Key Growth Drivers For Under Armour. [Online].
Forbes. Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2016/09/29/here-are-the-key-
growth-drivers-for-under-armour/#154369907db5. [Accessed on 20 July 2019]
 Hyder, S., 2016. The zen of social media marketing: An easier way to build
credibility, generate buzz, and increase revenue. BenBella Books, Inc.
 Prophet., 2014. I Will” vs. “Just Do It”: The Under Armour Success Story.
[online]. Prophet. Available at: https://www.prophet.com/2014/08/i-will-vs-just-
do-it-the-under-armour-success-story/. [Accessed on 20 July 2019]
 Tsimonis, G. and Dimitriadis, S., 2014. Brand strategies in social
media. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 32(3), pp.328-344.
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