Under Armour Marketing Strategy Essay Example

still towards younger consumers in the family life cycle, whether they are married or have children.

III. Product

Under Armour provides a heterogeneous shopping product making the purchasing decision highly individual. Under Armour’s product offerings consist of apparel, footwear, and accessories for men, women, and youth. They market their products at multiple price levels and strive to provide consumers with a superior alternative to traditional athletic products.

• A. Apparel Under Armour’s apparel is offered in a variety of styles and fits intended to enhance comfort and mobility, help regulate body temperature and improve performance regardless of weather conditions. They have engineered their products to replace traditional non-performance fabrics in the world of athletics and fitness with performance alternatives
  

designed and merchandised along three different gearlines: HEATGEAR when it is hot, COLDGEAR when it is cold, and ALLSEASONGEAR when it is between the extremes. Each gearline includes three fit types: compression (tight fitting), fitted (athletic cut), and loose (relaxed). The three gearlines are marketed to tell a very simple story about their highly technical products and extended across the sporting goods, outdoor, and active lifestyle markets. Under Amour’s apparel is currently entering the maturity stage of the product life cycle. Sales increase rates are slowly beginning to decrease.

expanding their production and marketing of performance products. The fabrics and technology used in manufacturing Under Armour’s products are generally not unique to them, and they do not currently own any fabric or process patents.

Many of UnderArmour’s competitors are large apparel, footwear, and sporting goods companies with strong worldwide brand recognition and significantly greater resources than Under Armour, such as Nike and Adidas. Under Armour also competes with other manufactures, including those specializing in outdoor apparel, and private label offerings of certain retailers, including some of their customers. Due to their brand image and brand equity, the performance and quality of their products, and their selective distribution, Under Armour has been able to compete successfully in the sporting goods market.

In the future, Under Armour expects to compete for consumer preferences and may face greater competition on pricing. The purchasing decisions of Under Armour’s consumers often reflect highly subjective preferences that can be influenced by many factors, including advertising, media, product sponsorships, product improvements, and changing styles. Under Armour packaging’s main function is for promoting the product and increasing the brand equity. Under Armour’s packaging contains the “UA” symbol and an image of one of Under Armour’s contracted professional athletes. Another large focus from their packaging is product information, containing information about product technology.

IV. Price

The general pricing strategy for Under Armour is a value-based strategy, derived from Under Armour’s reputation. Under Armour products have a reputation that is unchallenged and will remain that way unless there is a dramatic change in the market. People have come to expect great value out of Under Armour, and their reputation is one reason why they do so well.

Under Armour

products thrive because no one can duplicate what they have done in the sporting goods market. One of the biggest concerns with Under Armour’s pricing strategy is the fact that Under Armour’s competitors are able to provide a similar product of lesser quality at a lower price. Under Armour stands behind their products and sets their prices based on what their product is worth to the consumer. Under Armour will continue to offer a high quality product at a price they believe represents the quality of their product and promotes brand equity.

V. Place

Under Armour utilizes a selective distribution strategy, providing their products in certain retail stores that would be best fit for selling their product, such as sporting goods stores. By utilizing a selective distribution strategy, Under Armour is able to maintain a superior product image to be able to charge a premium price and increase brand equity. Under Armour distributes their product in a couple of different ways. They sell wholesale to sporting goods carrier who in turn sell to consumer, but they also sell directly to the consumer through their website.

By using a retail channel for distribution and a direct channel for distribution, Under Armour utilizes a dual distribution arrangement. Under Armour’s distribution strategy works well for their product. By providing their product in various sporting goods retailers, Under Armour is able to maximize sales and provide a product that can be made available to the consumer immediately. Distributing to retailers also helps Under Armour because their products may be purchased while a consumer is searching for other goods. The online store is also beneficial in various ways.

It allows Under Armour to have

greater control over distribution, while providing a greater variety of their product available online. Another benefit to their online distribution is that retailers may run out of a product, whereas the online store is less likely to have a shortage.

VI. Promotion

Under Armour currently focuses marketing and selling their products to consumers for use in athletics, fitness, and outdoor activities. They maintain control over their brand image with an in-house marketing and promotions department that designs and produces most of Under Armour’s advertising campaigns.

Under Armour seeks to drive consumer demand for their products by building brand equity and awareness as a leading performance athletic brand. Under Armour utilizes advertising, direct marketing, sales promotions, and public relations to market their products to consumers.

• A. Advertising Under Armour uses numerous approaches to advertise their products. The primary source of Under Armour’s advertising comes from television commercials and sponsorships with athletes and teams on the collegiate and professional level. Although television and sponsorships are the primary sources of advertisement, Under Armour also has advertised in magazines, the internet, and on billboards. Under Armour utilizes their sponsorships with collegiate and professional teams and players to advertise their products by having them seen on the field, giving their products exposure to various consumer audiences through the internet, television, magazines, and live at sporting events. This exposure to consumers helps Under Armour to establish on-field authenticity as consumers can see their products being worn by high-performing athletes. They also have sponsorship agreements with individual athletes, including Olympic Gold Medalist Lindsey Vonn, UFC Welterweight Champion George St-Pierre, NFL Players Vernon Davis and Patrick Willis, and Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Phelps.

• B. Direct Marketing
  

Utilizing direct marketing to communicate with potential consumers, Under Armour entices consumers to order Under Armour merchandise from their official web site online or attracts consumers to visit their nearest sporting goods store to purchase Under Armour products. Under Armour mainly uses e-mail, direct mail, and catalogs to directly market to potential consumers. Winning the 2007 Interactive Advertising Official Honoree award for e-mail marketing shows Under Armour’s dedication and success utilizing their direct marking strategy. Consumers can also easily request a catalog from Under Armour’s official web site.

secure the public’s trust in the company. One of the main purposes of using public relations is for the public to develop a greater level of trust in the company.

VII. Summary

Under Armour has strived to create a high quality product that stands out from competitors through advanced technologies and high brand equity. Under Armour uses heavy advertising and sponsorships with collegiate and professional athletic teams to market their products to their target market. Under Armour has become a leading performance athletic brand.