Since its creation in 1996, Kevin Plank's Under Armour has under gone rapid expansion. It has taken over the performance apparel market in the United States, outselling sporting giants such as Nike and Addidas. The company has even expanded beyond the performance apparel line and introduced products including footwear and casual wear. Although it has an immense following in the United States, Under Armour has been facing many difficult barriers to their entry into foreign markets, specifically Europe. These 'entrance barriers' include the increase in competition, the limited scope of their main sport (American Football) in Europe, and the small range of the company compared to the larger, more established companies. However, given the lack of a clear apparel king in Europe and Under Armour's history with clever advertising, it is possible for them to assert their marketing muscles and become a force in the foreign market.
Under Armour, a relatively small-market company, has a very strong foot hold on the American market for performance apparel. It has carved out a nich...
The apparel industry is among the most volatile sectors in the market today. Subject to overnight changes in trends and fashion, the industry leaders must be accurate with their predictions and quick to accommodate changes. Because of these fluctuations, it is very hard to assign a competitive advantage to one company over another. While Jones Apparel Group seems to have a comparative advantage in profitability and leverage, Liz Claiborne has been historically more effective at generating revenue from its assets. While Liz is surging to eclipse Jones’ ROE numbers as of late, Jones Apparel Group holds a historical comparative advantage in return on equity and overall financial health.
Rivalry is especially strong in the outdoor apparel industry. Patagonia competes with many comparable outdoor clothing brands who feature cheaper, more affordable alternatives of high quality. With innovation and sustainability being a core value of their target market, Patagonia must consistently introduce new technology, increased durability, and added comfort in order to remain relevant and competitive. The threats that Patagonia faces has to do with the bargaining power of buyers and the threat of industry competition. As a company focused on quality, Patagonia faces the threat of buyers forcing down their prices by not purchasing their goods. Buyers might feel that their products, although high-quality, are too pricy to purchase. There is also the threat of
Under Armour hopes to grab 10% of the sportswear market in their future. While Nike has 26.38$ billion capitalization, Under Armour is at 1.28 billion capitalization. Although they are both very successful companies, they advertise things very differently. While Under Armour focused on the working out part and being fit, Nike just wanted to get the point across that everyone was happy and content while wearing Nike. Nike was very clear that they wanted everyone to be able to wear Nike and feel comfortable while doing it. Under Armour only focused on athletes. While both of these industries had some of the same intentions such as, putting famous names out there and showing countries all over the world with their brand, they had two different intentions in their commercials. Both companies futures look very bright but can Under Armour keep
Athletic clothing companies aggressively compete with one another to carry on their legacy and survive as a business. Consumers are constantly being persuaded by these companies to buy their brand athletic apparel. There are thousands of options, therefore the company with the all around best product often wins the sell. Nike dominates the athletic apparel market and continues, to expand its reaches. Nike’s potential to grow will allow the company to continually lead the industry, and perhaps be the greatest company ever created.
My topic of choice was pretty tough. As I concluded my research on Under Armour, I can assure you that they have many areas to improve in to even be considered a major threat to Nike or Adidas. Their products are heading in the right direction, but more guidance is needed from senior correspondents that have more experience in the field of marketing and strategy. Under Armour revenues are increasing, but at the current pace, Nike will double their net gross in a year. Athletes and universities are contributing in branding Under Armour along with remaining loyal, but their apparel to me is not attractive. For starters, every major football team that I have noticed supporting them has very bland uniforms or very flashy uniforms. As the saying goes, “bad publicity is better than no publicity”; at least we are discussing them along side Nike and Adidas.
Clothing manufacturer American Apparel has a long notorious history for pushing the limits with their 'risqué ad campaigns. Their advertisements has been condemned sexual exploiting women and essentially using pornography to sell its clothes. American Apparel has become one the most pornographic advertisers of all time.
In an increasingly competitive market with strong rivals such as Reebok, Adidas, Nike’s latest strategy is offering consumers the shoes they desire. This is done by providing customers with the option of designing their own shoes. At Nikeid.c...
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.
Founded in 1996 by University of Maryland graduate Kevin Plank, Under Armour has become the leading supplier of the athletic performance apparel industry. Under Armour began with simple idea to create a t-shirt that would enhance athletic performance by regulating body temperature and removing perspiration without absorbing it. Under Armour was based out of Plank's grandmother's basement in D.C. until he moved the headquarters to, and built a manufacturing plant in, South Baltimore.
In order to beat its competitors, Under Armour Company can engage in market sensitive fresh product invention. New products are more likely to draw curiosity amongst the populations especially if they commensurate well with the prevailing trends (Hill & Jones 2009, p. 308).
What makes a person choose one brand of clothing over another? Is it the price? Or is it the style of the clothing? There are numerous factors that will play a key role in determining who will purchase your products and why they will choose to purchase your product. Kevin Plank, the founder of Under Armour and former captain of the special teams on Maryland University’s football team, would become infuriated at the amount of times he was forced to change his undershirt during games and practices due to how heavy with sweat they would become. He set out to create a shirt that would help keep an athlete cool and dry during intense physical activity. This simple idea would develop into a powerhouse in the sports apparel industry and has broken into the sports equipment industry as well.
Customer behavior can be defined as the process used by organizations, individuals and groups, to select, buy or use particular products or services to satisfy their needs and the impact it has on the society (Wikipedia, consumer behavior). Every product in the market is given a different value by an individual user based on the need it satisfies and also the level of the want. For example a person may put choosing a car as just for a means of transport from point A to point B but for another individual a car is not only used as a mode of transport but also as a means of his lifestyle. Many marketers use these difference of needs in consumers to create different marketing campaigns to attract consumers that use their products.
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.
Analysis of sports clothing industry, including its main features, key market drivers and competition within industry.
According to global industry analyst, the world sports clothing industry is anticipated to exceed $126 billion by 2015, Because of more active lifestyle, with older demographics and woman becoming more energetic, this drives the market. The entire sports clothing industry is highly filled with so many brands like Nike, Adidas, Umbro and Reebook all over the world competing, even the high leading brands have to work twice has hard in other to keep their share in the market because most of this small firm have quality products and also a very fine marketing style which has increased competing style in the industry. All over the world people demand more versatile wear, which indicates that’s retailers continue to produce new style of sports clothing for both men and women.