Que.

Derive and articulate the different approaches Under Armour has used to reach and
resonate with women.

Ans. Under Armour largely attributed its recent success to three sources. First being,
expansion to Europe, South America (totaling 10% of UA’s sales) and China. Secondly,
uprising growth of its footwear vertical (up 57% year-over-year for 2014–2015) and
thirdly due to the major efforts taken by the company to accelerate its women’s vertical. The
aim was to reach target of $1.9 billion in UA sales to women by 2019.

Kevin Plank, while founding UA knew that to compete with already established brands like
Nike, Adidas and to be on top they would have to attract women reaching global markets with
huge advertising campaigns.

In 2003, UA’s initial strategy to enter women’s market with “Shrink it and Pink it” did not
work at all and saw a major fallback. The company was not clear how to target women hence
failed in their positioning and brand promotion. By the end of 2013, UA’s sales to women were
hardly 30%.

2010 onwards Under Armour started putting more serious efforts to promote the brand to
women. The different approaches Under Armour has used to reach and resonate with women
are as follows:

 In 2010, Women-focused TV ads with Protect Tis House I Will campaign featuring
alpine skier Lindsey Vonn, soccer player Lauren Holiday, track and field sprinter
Monica Hargrove aired on ESPN, CW and MTV.

 In 2012, moving forward from just airing ad campaigns on sports channels to Bravo,
E!, VH1, and Nickelodeon as well as on social media and fitness sites with No Matter
What, Sweat Every Day I Will campaign.

 In 2014, UA tried to leverage by introducing new advertisements from the mental angle
resonating women’s motivation to work out and be active. For this UA hired one
Portland based consulting firm and gave rise to I Will What I Want campaign,
completely women specific.