Under Armour is an American company founded in 1996 that sells footwear and sports apparel. It mainly focuses its market on the athletic community or individuals who have a sportier lifestyle. Under Armour has emerged in the past few years as a serious contender in the sportswear industry. Due to its success Under Armour is looking into ways to expand even more. At the end of 2016, revenue increased by 22% to $4.8 billion compared to 2015 (Under Armour Company, 2016). However, regardless of the success it has achieved, Under Armour has failed in its attempt to enter into the international market as only approximately 15.4% of its net revenue was generated from international sales in 2016. Considering the fact that China is regarded as the biggest sportswear market in the world with a very high potential for further growth, Under Armour must alter its company selling strategy and focus on developing the Chinese market as a starting point to improve its international market performance and to surpass its fierce competitors such as Nike and Adidas.
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Despite the ambiguous economy in 2016, sportswear experienced a strong current value growth contributed by constant consumer demand (Euromonitor International, 2017). In 2016, sportswear’s current value increased by 12% equaling CNY 186.6 billion. This can be further illustrated in men’s sports footwear, which recorded a growth of 18% in current value (Euromonitor International, 2017). Hence, due to the growing consumer demand in the sportswear market in China, more and more sportswear companies are attempting to expand and establish themselves in order to remain competitive and grasp a higher market share since 2016, Nike remained to be the firm, which has the highest value share within China’s sportswear industry attaining up to 22% (Euromonitor International,
Under Armour uses pathos as well to sell their product. The way Under Armour’s ad sells is almost the same as Adidas. Under Armour’s ad creates a message that all of the greatest athletes had to work hard to get where they are now. The ad is also trying to convince the audiences that their product is what will help to be a better athlete. They also use the famous athlete to convince the audience that their products will make them become great, as well as, get their money.
Under Armour provides innovatively designed performance products that incorporated a variety of technologically advanced fabrics and specialized manufacturing techniques, all in attempt to make the wearer feel “drier, lighter, and more comfortable.” This is Under Armour’s core competitive strength.
Under Armour and Nike are very close competitors in the athletic wear for sports and recreational use. Both Under Armour and Nike have goods and bads but at the end of the day Under Armour is a better company, with a better clothes line. Nike came out over thirty years before Under Armour, but Under Armour has by far surpassed Nike in popularity and style. In another thirty years when Under Armour has been out as long as Nike today, Under Armour will be more superior than Nike in the athletic field. Nike will eventually be over ran by nike and will be a small company like Adidas
Haven't you always wondered who made Nike and Under Armour? Well Nike was founded in 1964 by Bill Bowerman. Nike was making great progress for 32 years and then Under armour was founded by Kevin Plank in 1996. Nike was still making very good progress but was kind of splitting it with the new company Under Armour. Nike has always made more money and more people choose to spend their money at Nike stores.
They make sportswear for all levels from youth to professional and sell footwear, apparel, and accessories to men, women, and kids in all sizes. They have also expanded their business all over the world to sell to many different countries. Under Armour has a unique dry-fit clothing line that keeps them separated from some of their main competitors. 3.
The factories around the world (China, Asia, and Vietnam) assist in manufacturing and distribution of the products. (Mahdi et al., 2015). The globalization and technology have impacted competition and larger expansion of the corporation around the world. The Nike brand is nearly in every culture of the world from the result of globalization and technology impact. The technology has grown on the quality of the research and innovation the company is performing that is resulting in great volumes of customer cares and choices. The globalization and technology have also helped stabilize the prices of the products and avail them all year round so that there are no experiences of low supply and thus raise in the products prices. (Mahdi et al., 2015). The market is always satisfied with the quality and volume of supply that meets all the fluctuation like the sudden increase in demand or its fall. The impacts of globalization have made the company produce high quality, durable and limited the production impact on the environmental pollution and degradation. It is playing a global roll in the management and conservation of the environment worldwide by taking part in community participation and charitable organizations that serve the society in community issues alongside environment (Mahdi et al.,
Under Armour started in 1996 by Kevin Plank, a 23-year-old former University of Maryland football player. As a special teams captain, he turned an idea brainstormed on the football filed into a new industry changing the way athletes dress forever. Since he hated having to change his sweat-soaked cotton t-shirts over and over again during two-a-days, he figured there had to be something better, which in turn led to his solution. The basic concept ...
Under Armour’s target market is consumers that are involved in physical activities. The demographic age groups that they cater to varies from youth to adults. Their products can with stand any weather condition from cold weather to warm weather, which means their product can be used in any geographic location. These consumers can be either light user like walkers or heavy users like football players.
Under Armour is a leading athletic clothing line directed towards the overall athlete who is looking for the most comfort during extracurricular activities. The mission of the company is, "to provide the world with technically advanced products engineered with exclusive fabric construction, supreme moisture management, and proven innovation. In short, every Under Armour product is doing something for you; it's making you better."
The Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association has projected that revenues from athletic footwear will grow at a rate of 5.1% (Wheelen, Hunger, Hoffman, & Bamford, 2015, 2012, 2010). Under Armour should target at least this 5% growth rate in its footwear segment
Under Amour Company ventured into a market segment that was overcrowded, it had thousands of companies that competed against each other. Out of the many companies involved in the trade, the two most formidable threats seemed to be orchestrated by Nike and Adidas. These are two giant sports apparel and footwear, which pride themselves as having been long term veterans in the industry. Nike in particular was christened as the ultimate shoe and athletic apparel company with revenues of $18.6 billion, net income of $1.9 billion and more than thirty two thousand employees globally in the year 2008. This makes it the largest athletic shoe and apparel seller in the world. This company has seen major expansions in outlets throughout the world over the years. Adidas on its part has managed to build a powerful brand through its technological innovations and aggressive marketing where they spend up to thirteen per cent of their revenue besides offering high quality services. These scenarios seem to present Under Armour with a massive competitive disadvantage.
The sports apparel and accessories industry has a highly competitive market. Businesses are constantly competing for elite athletes to sponsor, raw materials, and every opportunity to expand. Under Armour is able to not only survive but thrive in this market because of their ability to think outside of the box. They are constantly creating new and exciting products that help athletes everywhere.
Many global companies like Nike, Inc. are seen as role models both in the market place as well as in society in large. That is why they are expected to act responsibly in their dealings with humanity and the natural world. Nike benefits from the global sourcing opportunities, therefore areas such as production and logistics have been outsourced to partner companies in low-wage countries like China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand. As a result the company is limited nowadays to its core competencies of Design and Marketing.
Nike’s Asian operations had previously continued to soar generating US$300 million in 1994 in revenues to a whopping US$1.2 billion in 1997. However based on the Asian economic crisis, this had adversely affected revenues, while regional layoffs were inevitable. Nike also performed well in the European market generating about US$2 billion in sales and a good growth momentum was expected, however, some parts of Europe were only slowly recovering from an economic downturn. In the Americas (Canada and the U.S.A.), Nike experienced a growth rate for several quarters. The U.S. alone generated approximately US$5 billion in sales. The Latin American market at this point was exposed to economic volatility; however Nike still saw them as a market with “great potential for the future”.
Nike’s positioning in the market has more of a mass appeal compared to their main competitor Adidas who strive to make products for elite athletes. The positioning strategy for Nike is currently working at a satisfactory level as Nikes global annual sales between 2013-2014 was reported as 27.8 billion (Statista, 2014) compared to Adidas’ 19.95 billion (Statista, 2014). The global market for sports apparel is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4% between 2012-2019, Nikes compound annual growth rate during 2010-2012 was 12.3% which is an excellent result as the brand’s growth was larger than the market as well as outgrowing Nike’s closest competitors Adidas, Puma and Asics (Forbes,