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The current state of competition in the Nike industry
Under Armour's strategic analysis
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UA Written Analysis: Vice President As a leading developer and manufacturer of sporting apparel, footwear, and accessories, Under Armour (UA) has been able to rapidly expand both our domestic and international market share due to exceptional marketing strategies and high-profile endorsement contracts with globally recognized athletes (UA, 2016; David & David, 2016). For example, our endorsements with professional superstars such as Stephan Curry, Bryce Harper, Tom Brady, Cam Newton, and Michael Phelps, has allowed to strengthen our brand image as well as global awareness against our major competitors (Feloni, 2015). For example, with the support of these athletes and our ever-improving supply chain management process, we have been able to …show more content…
Specifically, a Competitive Profile Matrix (CPM), Internal Factor Evaluation (IFE), and External Factor Evaluation (EFE) Matrix are provided in Appendix A, B, and C respectively (David & David, 2015). Designed to identify our strengths and weakness and quantifying their importance to industry success, UA’s rating in critical success factors such as advertising, product quality, price competitiveness, management, financial position, customer loyalty, global expansion, and market share, remains lower compared to their main competitor and market share leader Nike (David & David, 2015). Specifically, management effectiveness, financial position, and market share remain factors in which we can direct additional resources and improve our strategies in a highly competitive global market place. As depicted in Appendix A, although price competitiveness and customer loyalty are the lowest ranks factors, both apparel and footwear industry analysis dictates a high degree of buyer independence and low-cost switching, which remains a significant hurdle for the entire industry (MarketLine, 2015a; MarketLine, 2015b). Both factors indicate that brand loyalty is not an important factor and that there is a high tendency to switch between brands (MarketLine, 2015a; MarketLine, 2015b). Therefore, it will be in UA’s best interest to improve our management effectiveness and financial position to improve their market
Under Armour’s product is swim gear. They sell their product by doing what Adidas did, used motivation, emotion, and a message to connect with the audience. But, Under Armour used a famous celebrity named Michael Phelps. The audience starts to pay attention to the ad and either feels connected or wants to be a better athlete like Phelps. Under Armour finally manipulated their audience into buying their
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
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.
Executive Summary Introduction Kimi Ford, a portfolio manager at NorthPoint Group, a mutual-fund management firm, was considering buying shares in the fund she manages, the NorthPoint Large-Cap Fund, with an emphasis on value investing. Ford held an analysts’ meeting to disclose its fiscal-year 2001 results and, most importantly, to communicate a strategy for revitalizing the company. Nike has maintained revenue of about $9 billion since 1997. However, its net income had fallen from almost $800 million to $580 million. Moreover, Nike’s market share in U.S. athletic shoes has fallen from 48% in 1997 to 42% in 2000.
Nike’s goal is to remain unique and different from others in terms of the items offered on the market. Arguably, Nike belongs to a monopolistically competitive market as there only a few organizations with the ability to regulate the amount charged for their product which means they cannot make their prices high as this is likely to make customers move on to other available choices (Nike, Inc., 2012). However, Nike can find a balance between the prices to charge for their products and remaining competitive with other companies in the industry. Nike has formed a distinction between the appearance and performance of their footwear and that of their competitors. Although products are differentiated from other companies, they still influence each other because they are items of the same
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."
Under Armour has always set aggressive targets for themselves and they should not change that now. The leadership team believes that “a 3% share of the (athletic footwear) market would nearly double UA’s total revenue” (Wheelen, Hunger, Hoffman, & Bamford, 2015, 2012, 2010), and this should be another one of the metrics that Under Armour monitors and grows.
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.
The marketing goals are: Increase customer retention, Increase eCommerce Sales, Increase our Community Involvement. The first goal specifically works towards reaching 60% repeat sales through different promotional strategies like emotional marketing and sponsoring different professional athletes. Customer retention is extremely important to maintain Nike’s market leader position. Increasing eCommerce is a major focus for Nike. Last year we were able to increase our eCommerce sales by a profitable 51%. Our second goal is to continue this trend by increasing online sales by 50% every year for the next four years. It is our belief that doing so will solidify Nike as a leader in the online athletic market. Nike truly believes that sport can change
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”.
Nevertheless, Nike is an extremely diverse company with outstanding organizational structure, impressive marketing strategy, and innovative products. The organizational structure of the Nike Corporation helped them become a leading innovator for the world with creative apparels and shoes. Their intelligent marketing strategies assist them in advertising their products to motive their customers and sell them. Their innovative product motivates customers with great performance footwear and quality designs to take on any obstacles. The Nike Corporation discovers various ways to improve their organizational structure to inspire the world.
In reviewing the case of New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc. it is clear that there are a few major problems that the company is facing. First of all, New Balance falls behind its other major competitors, Nike, Adidas and Reebok, in the area of marketing. Unlike its competitors, New Balance does not undertake celebrity endorsements. This puts them at a disadvantage when it comes to brand building. This also causes the company to lose out somewhat on gaining awareness on a global scale as it lacks endorsements in major sporting events. Most global brand names generate strong brand recognition through celebrity endorsements in sporting events that would give them the needed momentum to carry their brand name further into the global market.