How Under Armour Markets Its Brand - Case Study Example

UNDER ARMOUR MARKETING By Student’s Name Code + Name of Course Professor/Tutor Institution City/State Date How Under Armour Market’s its Brand In order for a marketing program to have a noteworthy impact, its customers need to be exposed to it, give it some attention, and perceive it. Consumers necessitate a basic level of focus to perceive a stimulus, which then culminates to the customers’ preference for a certain brand over another. Different approaches have been applied by Under Armour to ensure it is well perceived by its customers. The Under Armour emblem (an interlocking A and U) is progressively in the consumer’s domain as the firm continues gaining more attention on and off the sports market. Established by Kevin Plank in 1996, a previous member of the Maryland’s University football team, Under Armour designs gear and apparel to enable its athletes feel and exploit their greatest potential in any type of weather, on the track or in sports events (Kraft & Lee 2009, pg. 112). This paper explains how Under Armour gets attention from its customers. The company does this by ensuring that its brand is personally relevant, easy to process and surprising, the use of subjective and objective understanding through sponsoring up-and-rising athletes and ensuring that its consumers can openly see diverse models including its mission and assurance on its website. What Under Armour Is Doing To Ensure Its Brand Is Personally Appropriate, Easy To Process and Surprising One of Under Armour’s early challenges was selling with its little-known brand name. Another challenge experienced by the company was that numerous of its initial products comprising undershirts, which absorb away moisture were not very visible to its target consumers (Tybout & Carpenter 2001, pg. 74). In dissimilarity, the logos of rival brands were often prominent and visible on athletic caps, shoes, and shirts. Therefore, the company originally placed itself as “a product for the next generation of athletes” (Rosenau & Wilson 2014, pg. 17). While Nike was supporting well-known and recognized athletes, the sponsorships of Under Armour’s went for up-and-rising athletes known for their commitment and athleticism. Its original endorsement pact was with a Dallas Cowboys football athlete from Maryland University contributed to the growth of this company. More currently, the performance of the company’s apparel has been endorsed by sports personalities such as Derrick Williams a basketball palyer, Heather Mitts (soccer player), and Cam Newtown (football player) (Thomaselli 2001, pg. 11). By positioning itself as a product for the athletes of the subsequent generation and by sponsoring up and rising athletes unlike its competitors, its audience deduces this as a sign of community service meant to support new athletes who are revered for their athleticism and dedication. Additionally by using new and rising athletes to highlight their product, Under Armour gets mass recognition, which culminates in luring young and committed athletes. Under Armour keeps on making, their products appropriate by continuously promoting and using technology to accord its customers with the best sports apparel (Salter 2005, pg. 70). The Under Armour's brand gains the attention and visibility of its customers as these sponsored players perform well. In addition, the firm provides incentives to its clients including discounts on novel products and wholesale discounts. The company also strives to maintain the element of surprise and relevancy through selling a variety of sports apparel both heavy and light for both males and females (Mark 2000, pg. 17). Under Armour has ensured it puts tremendous efforts to lure women to its brand. In the previous decade, the firm has augmented its credibility by making heavy investments in terms of effort and time to reach out to its female consumers. The firm in September 2010, the firm launched a Facebook fan page called "Under Armour Women," (Mehta 2009, pg. 29) to cater to its female customers. Through the platform, members can get to upload different videos workouts and videos. The objective is to market its sports products to the females in a similar way it does to its male counterparts. The firm has also created a healthy long-term relationship with its customers, retailers, as well as the wholesalers. The underscore is; persuasion is the basic element of the firm’s marketing objective, which comprises two major ingredients. These are relevancy and credibility. The Under Armour Company also exploits the social media platform to stay linked with and provide the consumers with fast and critical information regarding their products. Under Armour has surprise element because they began out as a small firm entering an industry prevailed upon by corporate giants such as Nike (Kraft & Lee 2009, pg. 113). Nevertheless, they were able to grow, develop, and become a serious competitor in the industry. One of the ways they were able to expand apart from having great product ideas and strategies was by establishing a powerful brand vision. Under Armour creates sports gear for college sports teams, which are bold and colorful. These products command attention and thereby make Under Armour a vision of athleticism for young, athletic, and dedicated players (Mark 2000, pg. 17). Moreover, Under Armour’s product is easy to process. This is because they keep their statement clear, which is their intention to improve all athletes by giving the best sports apparel. The Role of Subjective and Objective Comprehension in Under Armour’s Capability to Market its Merchandises by Sponsoring Up-and-Rising Athletes Under Armour’s athletes continue doing well, and this ensures that their teams win games and championships as well. As a result, Under Armour’s brand gains visibility and attention. Although not every upcoming star turns into a sports legend, the brand nevertheless gets coverage as these athletes gain media coverage, become recognized in their sports, and feature in Under Armour ads (Mahan & McDaniel 2006, pg. 409). Now that the firm generates more than 1 billion dollars in yearly income from the sale of footwear, footwear, and accessories for children, men, and women, this can also be attributed to its objective and subjective comprehension in its ability to sponsor up-and-rising athletes. Objective comprehension is often understood as the grasping or extracting of a pre-specified connotation from an advertisement. These communications are usually accorded or rather directly inferred by the advert as expected by the advertiser (Tybout & Carpenter 2001,pg. 76). Therefore, objective comprehension is primarily a one-dimensional concept with the main aim of ensuring the audience of the message draw precise amount of implication from the communication. Subjective comprehension, on the other hand, is taken as the construct of meanings by a person through the stimulation of mental perceptions associated with the processing context and the advertisement. Consumers who consider Under Armour’s message subjectively may understand the communication as viewing Under Armour’s clothing on talented professional players. These customers, therefore, feel that if they too adorn that apparel, then they will be also be professional athletes. In different terms, consumers could misconstrue the message and believe that if they embrace Under Armour’s clothing, they are also top athletes. By using the subjective and objective comprehension in the advertisements, consumers can draw practical understanding inferences with ease. These comprehensions cannot be linked to the advert messages directly. Thus, by sponsoring up-rising athletes, the consumers draw hands-on comprehension inferences. The implication is that the firm is not merely promoting a high-quality creation but also sponsoring the community’s welfare. The use of the subjective and objective comprehension in the advertisements ensures that the consumers feel more engaged. The strategy furthermore assists them to gain higher product knowledge, which in turn augments their comprehension explanations. The consequence is that Under Armour does not individually sell of its products, rather, the advertisements assists customers to gain awareness regarding what the company associates with (Kraft & Lee 2009, pg. 113). Whereas Nike was promoting established and well-known athletes, the sponsorships of Under Armour’s went to up-and-risers known for their athleticism and dedication (Tybout & Carpenter 2001, pg. 79). Customers who regard Under Armour’s adverts as objective comprehend that the apparel and clothing will allow them to perform better and undertake their play at their greatest levels. Moreover, through sponsoring up-and-rising athletes objective consumers consider the message as stating that Under Armour promotes young athletes and wishes that they succeed and perform to the best of their ability. Why Under Armour Would Want to be sure that its Consumers can Clearly See Diverse Models As Well As Its Mission And Assurance On The Brand’s Website Unlike its rivals like Nike, Under Armour has an enthusiastic perspective of enabling the growth of the careers of its athletes. Moreover, for the previous decade, the firm has provided its customers worldwide with precisely superior merchandises designed with their exceptional fabric designs, as well as complete moisture management demonstrated innovation in all its goods (Lussier & Kimball 2009, pg. 11). The firm has been creating a powerful brand image in the previous years. This has accorded it with different strengths such as a powerful brand equity for both the firm and its customers. Another strength is its innovativeness coupled with professional and armature athletes' sponsorship according it exceptional public relations, a superior brand, and a solid brand name. Moreover, the firm has an exclusively identifiable logo, experiences fast growth and yields apparel of high quality (Thomaselli 2001, pg. 13). Therefore, with the exceptional and concrete mission statement coupled with the firm’s distinctive strengths, Under Armour intends to ensure that the consumers comprehends that they have the best merchandises in the market as well as gaining a value proposition for their money. Athletes and assortment models are used to link with the consumers’ culture and assist in developing a personal interconnection between the brand and the buyer. Ensuring brand diversity will culminate in a bigger customer base. The mission statement of Under Armour is visibly seen on the company’s website to inform its customers regarding the aim of the product is and the various ways in which it will serve them. The mission statement of Under Armours states,-“Make all athletes better” (Jensen et. Al, 2015, pg. 80). This mission speaks to the physical resources ability of the customers. Consumers will obtain a product to support their physical necessities, whether it is hiking, weight lifting, football or baseball and Under Armour provides its consumers, with the relevant resources to act, and the capacity to obtain a top of the line merchandise. The Under Armour’s web site features its brand mission-“Make all athletes better” and places its “Universal guarantee of performance” in a noticeable position (Mahan & McDaniel 2006, pg. 410). The company moreover provides a complete refund in situations where its customers show dissatisfaction with a product for any particular reason. Athletes and the assortment diversity of models on the Under Armour site as well as in its advertisements, often depicted participating in a sports event, welcomes a broad range of clients to recognize the brand. The close connection between the University of Maryland and Under Armour has led to added opportunities for product and brand exposure. To gain attention and sell more team products, professional and college football teams are swapping to more fashionable apparel and uniforms, with flashier styles and colors. As part of this development, Under Armour has created over thirty diverse items for football players at the Maryland university to wear (Fetchko, Roy & Clow 2012, pg 21). The media, fans, and competing teams cannot help but see the eye-catching combinations of helmets, shirts, and pants worn by members of their teams on different occasions. In this case, Under Armour’s is their familiar logo on every item. The assurance of the product is also openly seen on the website (Jensen et. Al, 2015, pg. 81). This is because Under Armour intends to make its clients feel as important. As said previously, demonstrated, the company takes it upon itself to refund the customers fully. This also demonstrates that Under Armour is very assertive in their product and completely cares about their clients. Under Armour expects its potential clients to read their guarantee because a client having a hard time deciding on whether or not to obtain a product will observe that they can have a complete refund if they are discontented. This offers the customer with a low threat-high reward scenario and may ultimately influence their choice. Products, which are continuously updated through technological improvements, have a powerful brand name, and a robust mission statement and assurance creates loyalty and trust with customers. In conclusion, the Under Armour Company is a famous brand that has progressively expanded in its consumer’s domain as the firm continues gaining more attention on and off the market. Upon its establishment by Kevin Plank, Under Armour designs have assisted athletes to feel great and to exploit their greatest potential in any kind of weather and in particular in sports events. The company originally placed itself as “a product for the next generation of athletes.” By positioning itself this way and by sponsoring up and rising athletes unlike its competitors, the gesture has had its audience deducing this as a sign of community service by supporting new athletes who are recognized for their athleticism and dedication. The subjective and objective comprehension used in its ads has enabled its consumers to draw practical understanding inferences with ease. These comprehensions cannot be necessarily associated with the advert messages directly. Nevertheless, the brand has grown powerful brand image in the current years. In addition, the Under Armour’s web site features its brand mission-“Make all athletes better” and positions its “Universal guarantee of performance” in a visible position. The assurance of the product is also openly seen on the website. This is because Under Armour intends to make its clients to feel as important and to keep increasing its sales. Bibliography Fetchko, M, Roy, D & Clow, KE 2012. Sports marketing. Pearson Higher Ed. Jensen, J, Wakefield, L, Cobbs, J & Turner, B A 2015, ‘Forecasting Sponsorship Costs: Marketing Intelligence in the Athletic Apparel Industry.’ Special Issue on “The Dynamics of Sports Marketing and Management" in Marketing Intelligence and Planning. Pp. 79-81. Kraft, P & Lee, J 2009, ‘Protecting the house of Under Armour.’ Sports Marketing Quarterly, Vol. 18, pp. 112-116. Lussier, RN & Kimball, DC 2009. Applied sport management skills. Human Kinetics. Mahan, J & McDaniel, S R 2006, ‘The new online arena: Sport, marketing, and media converge in cyberspace.’ Handbook of sports and media, vol. 12, no. 12, pp. 409-431. Mark, A 2000, ‘Under armour’s star presence. Catalog Age, vol. 17, no. 12, pp. 24. Mehta, S, N 2009, ‘Return on technology Under Armour Reboots. 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