The biggest strength of the Under Armour was that it had no quality issues. People were satisfied with the quality that Under Armour was delivering to them. It made a successful entry into the world of sports wear and footwear market. The sports market has already been dominated with two arch rivals that were leading the industry. Another difficulty of entering into this market is that the customers of this market are mostly very specific about the quality. They would not compromise on quality and would only go for the best quality product, so convincing a customer to go for a new brand and spend money on a new product when other products of high quality are available that was a huge success of Under Armour. The brand Under Armour went successful because, of the strong mind and passion of its founder Kevin Plank, he was himself very proud of creating a successful brand that is standing parallel to the big names like Addidas, Nike and Reebok. This is what made the company capable, it is always the belief and faith of one man that leads to huge success. A strong mind is needed for a successful company. Mr Plank had the idea, that he promoted in his campaigns it was “to make athletes better;” this was the belief that led him to establish a company of sports apparels and footwears. Under Armour had risen from a start up to a public company and it was in itself a big achievement, however this success was followed by a scrutiny from the press and financial analysts, many people were questioning weather the company would be able to retain this big success or this was just a one time thing. Another advantage that the company had was that the founder Kevin Plank was an athlete himself, he joined the football team in 1992, at the University of Maryland, from the students body. He was smaller than the average of the team that was 5’11. He worked very hard on himself and with the team and eventually became the captain of the team. It was from his soccer experience that the only difference between the body of a player and the heavy protective equipment is a cotton T-shirt that was wore by all the players. He had the idea that a player needs a better quality T-shirt that would repel the sweat on a player’s body. He started experimenting with different materials. He used several different materials and finally got the formula that polyester which is water repellant could be modified with a silicon based solution and this would draw water away from the skin. He then added, spandex to the fabric that made the T-shirt to cling to the body and it would compress the muscles, this is believed to increase the speed and endurance. He started his company and introduced the T-shirt, this first made its first big sale when the whole team at Georgia Tech purchased it. This is how his experience as a football player became his strength to excel in sports apparel.

Question no 2

Who are the firm’s key competitors? Assess the competitive advantages – and disadvantages of Under Armour versus these competitors.

The major competitors of Under Armour were Adidas, Nike, and Reebok. The international exposure of these brands was way much then the Under Armour. The brand Nike was well-known for its iconic logo; just do it. Nike was the one who started the trend of endorsements by popular athletes and star sportsmen. Nike also made an endorsement with Michael Jordan and also with the multi-sports star Bo-Jackson. In 2005, Nike spent $1.6 billion on advertising and promotions; in 2006 $400 was the budget of contract endorsements only. In 2005, Adidas was ranked the second largest in the athletic apparel and footwear company, across the globe. Its net sales were. 6.6 billion euros or 8.4 billion dollars. Footwear were only 45% of its net sales and 42% were the apparel sales.Reebok had the place as the third largest  athletic apparel and footwear company, its sales in 2004 were of $3.8 billion and its net income was of $192.4 million. More than half of the sales of the Rebok were from the united states. In the US it had exclusive contracts with the National Basket ball Association, that included NFL and Major league Baseball

  Under Armour gained success in the early 2000s, its competitors had no idea what it would do next, so their response was slowed down as they could not guess anything. It was definitely an advantage that Under Armour had over its competitors. The other advantage was its T-shirt, no other brand had ever introduced a T-shirt to wear underneath the protective kit, and that shirt also reduced sweat so that was another advantage that Under Armour had. Its product was unprecedented and its competitors could not guess it. The product of Under Armour reaped a huge success and its competitors just watched it happening in front of their eyes. The Chief Product Officer who was also the Chief Operating Officer, had the believe that it was the limited size of the base layer opportunity in the market that kept the competitors from responding in an effective manner.

3: What new business opportunities should Under Armour pursue to reach its $10 billion revenue goal? What new resources, capabilities, and competencies will it need to be successful?

There are some competencies, capabilities and resources needed to increase sales and Under Armour had to work on those to increase its sales. For increasing its sales it has to use its existing customer base. Because they are the ones who are already buying your products and are willing to buy more. They should be primed so that they would buy more products from the same brand.

Existing customer behavior: For increasing its sales and to achieve its target sales, UD has to study the behavior of its customers. He have to analyze which of its products are most liked by its customers and what makes those products likeable.

Clarify you mission: UA need to make your mission or goal very clear to the business managers and to its workers as well. So the mission or goal is clear to everyone and now everyone can move in the same direction

Customer needs: It is a fact that customers will only buy the stuff they need so they would obviously not buy anything they do not need, no matter how good the quality is. So customize the products according to the needs of the customers. Another thing is to enhance the features of the product or services that reduce the cost and solve the problems of the customers as well.

Effective marketing: Do effective marketing, so that people get to know about your products and they get the desire to buy the products.

The right price: Proper market research on competitors should be done before setting the right price. UA should make proper research on its products and then also research about the prices of its competitors for the same product and then set the price that would be most suitable for its business and for the customers as well. If the price is set higher than its competitors then it should make sure that it must have some quality that makes it better than other so that people would buy from it. if the price is set low than It is most of the times for the boost in sales.

Use of Social Media: This is the age of social media. This should be taken advantage of as around 98% of the businesses use it to advertise their businesses. Without the use of social media any business will left behind. Hire bloggers to write posts about the products. Use the social apps to build a customer base and advertise the products there.

Competitive Advantage: Under Dog should define a competitive advantage for itself over its competitors. Under Armour should define that what is that advantage that the customers would get by buying the products from them and not from the competitors. Under Armour has to make its cutomers know that what is the factor that makes it better than others.

Defining the customers: Under Armour needs to comprehend the needs of its customers more clearly, it needs to investigate that what is it that would fulfill the needs of the athletes in a better way? What would make them more comfortable? They should also gather some more information like, what is the age group of its customers, are they adults or teenagers? Among which gender is the brand more popular, is it the males or the females? What is the budget of most of its customers? Are they capable of buying a very expensive product with a high quality or would they just be satisfied with whatever they get within their budget?

Diversity: Under Armour should definitely try to introduce more products that cater to the needs of its customers. They should ask it from the athletes that what do they want next and what do they expect as their new product? This would make it beneficial for both the customers as well as the brand. Brand would try to make products that would cater to the needs of the customers and customers would get whatever they desired.