Under Armour is an American company that produces footwear, sports, and casual apparel. Under Armour’s marketing company predominantly includes sponsorship agreements with many celebrity athletes and product placements in series such as House of Cards and numerous Marvel movies. Under Armour’s online presence is quite useful due to its well-functioning web site where customers can view and buy their products online with worldwide shipping. Moreover, their social media pages are actively used in brand promotion.
The strong part of Under Armour’s marketing strategy is User-Generated Content (UGC) in their social media accounts. Nowadays, customers do not care about what the brand says about their products. According to Smith and Anderson (2019), the feedback from their peers and famous athletes is more valuable for the customers. The company has implemented customer reviews, ratings, and feedback on their website, and videos on Instagram from different wear-testers and famous sportsmen like Dwayne Johnson and Stephen Curry. Their marketing philosophy is to inspire athletes to pursue their goals. One of the strengths of the company’s marketing strategy is to apply patient sponsorship, which means they are sponsoring high-profile novice athletes rather than focusing on already famous athletes.
Comparing to other companies, Under Armour has a lot of work to do to develop their online presence. For example, the number of views on the Nike’s latest video on Instagram page reached almost 900 thousand, while Under Armour’s latest video was watched by 73 thousand people. Nike actively posts stories with famous athletes and their workout and daily routine, which attracts many viewers.
Supporting minorities in sport on their Instagram page and publishing their stories of success is also a successful tool in attracting more people to the product. According to Balan (2017), “content that focused on user experience and aspirational values” attract more viewers on Nike’s Instagram page (p.5). Under Armour also posts videos about athletes and their stories of success on their Instagram page. However, not many viewers are attracted, which shows that the company should improve its social media management tools.
The weaknesses of Under Armour’s can be turned into the company’s opportunities if the thoughtful and well-planned strategy will be implemented. The company can use honest storylines about not-yet-famous athletes who wear Under Armour equipment to reach their goals to develop their online presence. Such campaigns can be posted to Instagram, Facebook, and other social media pages. It will increase the number of subscribers and customers that are interested in their products.
Also, the company can encourage customers to give online feedback to their products. Researchers note that many companies offer their customers gifts or discounts for leaving online feedback or review for their products (Marketing News, 2019). This strategy can help to get reviews, photos, or videos from the customers that are using their products.
The main threat to the company’s development is stiff competition. Under Armour produces apparel, footwear, and accessories, which is a highly competitive market. The most significant competitors of the company are Adidas, Nike, Puma, and Columbia Sportswear. Under Armour is not in the best position comparing to other companies in the most influential social media platform Instagram.
While Adidas and Nike Instagram pages have 25.4 and 100 million subscribers relatively, Under Armour has only 7.9 million subscribers, which means campaigns and different products posted on Instagram by Adidas and Nike are more likely to be viewed compared to Under Armour. According to Kell (2016), Nike is now the largest sportswear company with $3.74 billion in sales, while Adidas and Under Armour are generating $877.6 million and $827 million, respectively.
To conclude, Under Armour’s marketing strategy is sufficient enough to be competitive among other sportswear companies like Nike, Adidas, and others. Also, it is implementing new strategies that help them to make their products more selling by sponsoring famous athletes and sharing customer feedback. However, the company should also be aware of some weaknesses and threats to improve them and turn to opportunities for development.
References
A Look At Under Armours International Presence – Forbes. (n.d.). Web.
Balan, C. (2017). Nike on Instagram: Themes of branded content and their engagement power. CBU International Conference Proceedings, 5, 13–18. Web.
Kell, J. (2016). Why Adidas is outperforming Nike, Under Armour. Web.
Smith, A., & Anderson, M. (2019). Online reviews and ratings. Web.
The Reviews Are In: It’s Worth Promoting Customer Feedback. (2019). Marketing News, 53(10), 12–14.