Effective Social Media Campaign for Under Armour

Executive Summary

Under Armour is one of the major producers of sportswear and sports gear globally. The company has been able to identify itself in the market as a quality producer of sportswear and has set up new industry standards and benchmarks. Although the company is struggling to enhance its performance in recent years. In regards to marketing, this is due to their inability to adapt to the change in market conditions and innovate their social media marketing strategy. In this executive summary the focus is specifically given on three aspects which are improving the brand value through an effective social media strategy, understanding the regional differences and creating different marketing elements and aspects regional wise and creating a platform to interact with the customers personally.

Currently, one of the major issues that Under Armour is facing is its major dip in brand value. This could be one of the major factors that resulted in a dip in Under Armour's performance recently. In order to re-establish their brand value Under Armour should involve in consumer engagement activities . Sportswear is considered as an industry which relies on brand loyalty due to the fact that if an athlete is impressed on a certain sportswear product it would be difficult to shift him/her to another brand since this could affect the performance. This means that it is important for Under Armour to retain its current customers. I think an effective social media strategy could help Under Armour to reassure their brand loyalty which would be described in this paper.

Moreover, in the present it could be conveyed that Under Armour is focusing heavily on its American consumer rather than focusing on potential customers in other regions. I am suggesting an effective social media strategy where Under Armour should reduce some of the expensive investment deals made on American athletes and focus on other regions as well. Under Armour could focus on endorsing youtubers, reviewers and social media influencers who spend an active sporty lifestyle and are popular in their respective regions. Furthermore, Under Armour is not the major player in its market. The two major players in the sportswear market are Nike and Adidas. In order for Under Armour to create a unique property in this highly competitive market they should focus on creating an interactive communication model with their consumer. Under Armor should launch online Q & A sessions via social media platforms where customers could solve any issue about Under Armour through an expert and also they could conduct time to time video interviews where real consumers raise their issues from a high ranked member of the company such as the CEO.

Basically, this social media campaign is based on considering the current status of the company. The time frame of the campaign is 1 year and the effort is to reinstate the customer loyalty, diversify the sales and to create a positive perception through the consumers about the product. Moreover, the campaign also aims to gain competitive advantage by exploring new marketing avenues that their competitors have not concentrated on so far. Further details about each of these aspects are discussed in the paper.

The Rise of Under Armour and its Current Situation

Under Armour started its business as a small scale production and sales business in the US in 1996. Over the years the business managed to develop itself into a whole new sportswear empire threatening its competitors such as Nike and Adidas. The reason why Under Armour was able to establish itself as a unique brand in the sportswear and sports gear industry was the vision of their founder and former CEO Kevin Plank. Baer, (2015) mentions that Kevin Plank was the captain of the Maryland university football team. Kevin Plank’s passion for sports enabled him to understand the expectations of his potential customers which helped him to reach his target market easily. The first product made by Under Armour had a synthetic based layer in order to wick over the sweat. This itself was a unique feature since many sportswear companies at the time used cotton wear which was not an effective means to treat the heavy sweat acquired by athletes. Baer, (2015) illustrates that by 2015 Under Armour managed to acquire a sales value of over 200 million dollars and this is an impressive number for a business which had operated in the market for only 10 years. Under Armour managed to seal endorsement deals with many celebrities such as Jamie Foxx and sports teams such as Dillon Panthers. This helped Under Armour to expand its market, especially the US market. Although, currently Under Armour is struggling when it comes to business performance.

Current issues with Under Armour's social media campaign

Currently Under Armour is going through a rough phase as a business. The same could be stated regarding their social media and online sales strategy too. Mickle (n,d.) mentions that Under Armour’s Facebook and Instagram posts focus primarily on promoting the brand through advertisements. This could be an effective strategy a few years ago but currently consumers are used to this marketing strategy which makes this strategy an outdated means of promotion. They also focus on promotional activities such as discount coupons and celebrity endorsement campaigns which could not be considered as innovative strategies of online and social media marketing.

Under Armour also has other failures in social media campaign such as using hashtags on Facebook which is proven to be pointless since this could mix up the specific purpose of each platform i.e Instagram is known as the platform which uses hashtags and this could confuse their potential consumers. They also suffer from a lack of engagement with their consumers in social media for example, they do not respond to tweets on twitter which is one of the primary purposes of having a Twitter account since the platform is based on dialogue. Moreover, Under Armour does not concentrate on the means to attract the female market in their social media platforms. They have posts which are endorsed by female celebrities on social media although it should be mentioned that these are not epic or powerful enough to attract new consumers considering the efforts of their competitors.

Social media campaign proposal

Improving Brand loyalty through social media

Under Armour is operating in a highly competitive market. This means that if Under Armour loses a customer they could move to other competitors such as Nike and Adidas. Under Armour should give priority to retain its current customer base. Ciment & Hanburry (2019) mentions that Under Armour has lost a large number of its current customers especially young consumers. In order to retain its customers Under Armour should prevent customers from moving to rival brands. Under Armour could create a social media campaign where they inform their customers about virtually every changes and updates about the brand through their social media platforms. This could give the consumer a sense of belonging and make them feel that the business considers them as shareholders rather than stakeholders.

At the beginning of the campaign (first 3 months) Under Armour needs to recruit specialists who could actively respond to issues raised by consumers regarding a product. They could conduct Q & A sessions with their customers and Under Armour needs to reply promptly to as many questions as possible raised by the consumers. When focusing on specific platforms, in Instagram they could use a hashtag (# Ask Armour) and on Facebook a post could be designed to inform consumers about the Q & A sessions which could encourage shares. Moreover, at the final stages of the campaign, the fans on Instagram and Facebook who have the highest level of interaction could be given an opportunity to interview and question the CEO of the company.

Diversifying sales through social media influencers

In order to market the products to specific regions such as EMEA, Asia Pacific and Latin America Under Armour has to evaluate and focus specifically on the consumer in these regions and their personal interests. Under Armour has focused heavily on reaching its product through the NBA and NFL endorsement deals which are popular in the US but not so much in other regions. Since its competitors (Nike, Adidas and Reebok) are spending heavily on endorsement deals on celebrities who are sports persons Under Armour could focus on a different angle by using Youtubers and social media influencers who are maintaining a healthy, sporty lifestyle. Moreover, since they are living in the respective regions they have a better idea of the expectations and on how to market the product to their fans. This type of advertising is persuasive and also informative since these personals spend some time explaining the advantages and how effective the product is. Using Social media influencers could be an effective marketing campaign as they have already shown the ability to influence and attract people and their is a likelihood that they have a more personal relationship with their fans.

Nearly 80 percent of the sales acquired by Under Armour is from the North American market. This is where the proposed social media strategy comes into effect where the company could improve its sales avenues by expanding its market to Asia Pacific, EMEA and Latin American markets.

Finances incurred and investments

Hanbery & Climent, (2019) describes that Under Armour is facing 1 percent decrease in sales in 2019. The income from operations of Under Armour had also decreased in 2018 compared to 2017. This is not an impressive figure considering the growth of Under Armour’s competitors in the market. This social media strategy is designed to help Under Armour to execute this strategy by using minimum finances possible but at the same time the effort is to attract a large market. The marketing cost which is 10.5 percent of the annual revenue would not increase due to this, because the plan is to eliminate some extensive American endorsement deals and invest in these finances in the Asian Pacific and EMEA market. Using several social media influencers in these markets would cost way less than endorsing a single NFL or an NBL player. Moreover the company could attract many enthusiastic investors outside of the US who would be familiar with the brand since it is endorsed by their native people and investor confidence could take a positive turn.

The administrative cost of Under Armour would increase since this social media campaign uses a lot of human resources. In instances such as holding Q &A sessions through social media platforms new recruits have to be joined into the company and officials needed to be appointed for each targeted region in order to select social media influencers. This process could maywell increase the administrative cost of the company to 43 percent although this could be easily covered by short-term increments in sales in different regions.

Benefits of this Social media Campaign

Under Armour could yield many benefits from this proposed social media campaign. The primary benefit that Under Armour could gain from this social media campaign is that it provides the opportunity for Under Armour to explore new markets outside of North America. The focus is to improve the Asia pacific revenue to 13 percent, EMEA revenue to 11 percent and Latin American revenue to 4 percent of the total sales revenue within a year. Since Under Armour is using an untouched avenue of social media advertising unlike their competitors (who use sports personals and celebrities) this could create panic among competitors and they would focus heavily on means to draw Under Armour away from the business and this could create an opportunity for Under Armour to capture the market of its competitors. This social media strategy is also planned to regain the consumers in North America who have lost their confidence in the brand. This is a practical social media campaign since it addresses the current issues faced by Under Armour as a business and the campaign is planned to gain maximum results through a minimal cost.

Future Developments and Conclusion

The current social media campaign is planned for a year and the results of this campaign could be evaluated within a year. If this social media campaign is proven to be successful Under Armour could further develop this campaign. They could use a list of approximately 7 selected sports personals who are vastly popular in their respective regions and create a collective social media campaign by involving these celebrities with social media influencers. This could be a costly campaign although, this campaign could help Under armour to attract a large number of consumers globally and also help them to wipe out competitors and gain a drastic improvement in their market share.

The proposed social media campaign could help Under Armour to retain its brand loyalty and at the same time increase its global market share as well. If Under Armour executes this social media campaign successfully they could thrive in the market and eventually could help them to develop as the market leader in the sportswear industry.

References

1. Baeer. D. (2015). Here’s how Under Armour grew into a $15 billion athletic-apparel empire. Business Insider. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-under-armour-2015-2.
2. Hanbury. M & Climent. S. (2019). Here’s how Under Armour went from a new hotspot sportswear brand taking on Nike to having a wholly uncertain future. Business Insider. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/under-armour-history-to-uncertainty-2019-8.
3. Brand Value of Sports Company Under Armour From 2012 to 2017. Adapted From “Statistia,” by C.Gough (2018). Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/632265/under-armour-brand-value/
4. The Decline of Under Armour Inc. in 6 Charts. Adapted From, “citybizlist,” by M.Fool & L.Sun. Retrieved from https://baltimore.citybizlist.com/article/423047/the-decline-of-under-armour-inc-in-6-charts.