MN5055NI Digital Marketing

70% Individual Coursework

2020-2021 Autumn.

Student Name: Suyog Shrestha

London Met ID: 18029604
College ID: NP01BA4A180055
Assignment Due Date: 24rd / Jan/2021
Assignment Submission Date: 24rd /Jan/ 2021

I confirm that I understand my coursework needs to be submitted online via Google Classroom under the relevant
module page before the deadline in order for my assignment to be accepted and marked. I am fully aware that late
submissions will be treated as non-submission and marks of zero will be awarded.
Contents
1. Background of the Organization..............................................................................................................3
a. Introduction.........................................................................................................................................3
b. Digital Presence...................................................................................................................................3
2. Analysis of digital presence.....................................................................................................................4
a. Social Media marketing.......................................................................................................................4
i.New marketing strategy.....................................................................................................................5
a.6 Cs.......................................................................................................................................................6
i. Content:............................................................................................................................................6
ii. Communication:..............................................................................................................................6
iii. Coupons:........................................................................................................................................6
iv. Convenience:..................................................................................................................................6
v. Collaborations:................................................................................................................................6
vi.Competition:....................................................................................................................................7
d. Marketing mix:................................................................................................................................7
i. Product Strategy:..............................................................................................................................7
ii. Price/ Pricing strategy:....................................................................................................................7
iii. Place and Distribution Strategy:.....................................................................................................7
iv. Promotion and advertising Strategy:...............................................................................................8
3. Keyword Research/SEO/PPC..................................................................................................................8
4. Marketing Tool........................................................................................................................................9
a. Social media marketing........................................................................................................................9
b. Content marketing...............................................................................................................................9
5. Legal........................................................................................................................................................9
6.Referencing............................................................................................................................................10
Bibliography...............................................................................................................................................10
1. Background of the Organization

a. Introduction
Under Armour, Inc. is an American sports equipment company that manufactures casual apparel,
sports and casual apparel footwear. Under Armour, Inc., was established by former University of
Maryland football player Kevin Plank on 1996 in Washington, D.C, United States. Under
Armour is known as a high level athletic apparel and casual clothing company and the original
innovator of performance attire. They are mainly focused in a market directed towards the
overall athletic community or people with a more active way of life. Under Armour sells athletic
equipment, accessories and apparel. They sells enormous variety of attire including tops,
bottoms, footwear and outerwear for men, women and children. They sell apparel and gear for
more than 14 games. The products of Under Armour are very high quality and have a premium
price. Under Armour is not quite the same as their competitors since they offer a more
flamboyant approach to supplying athletic clothing. They are different from their top rivals since
they have a high performance line of athletic attire that absorbs moisture away from the athlete’s
body to improve their performance in hot or cold conditions. Under Armour, sells high-
performance products that are mainly focused on professional and college/ school athletes. The
brand started by focusing on the male athlete between the ages of 17-49, but its new $15 million
advertising campaign moved and extended its emphasis on women. Now their targeted
customers are young athletic males and females and anyone who wants to be fit or become better
at the sport they play. This report will focus on athletic apparel and footwear of this company.
[ CITATION Ask20 \l 1033 ]

b. Digital Presence
Under Armour has been using the online platform for promoting their products for a very long
time. It is one of the best when influencing people to buy their products. Their main targeted
customers on online platform are athletic males and females and anyone who wants to be fit and
healthy. They even have a sub-brand dedicated to only women. Celebrities like Dawyne Johnson
(Actor/ Wrestler) and Stephen Curry (NBA player) are their main clients when promoting their
new product or new campaign. The website of Under Armour is www.underarmour.com and
even has their official Under Armour shopping application with 4.8 ratings.

Under Armour main goal is to "Always Connect" with buyers. So, the brand focus to "live at the
center of the consumer's life. The brand connection to the athletes is what separates it from
others competitors. Under Armour fulfills this goals by executing targeted digital
communications through an Omni channel approach, creating an engaging digital customer
experience.

The organization expertly adopts social media to consistently share important, exciting content,
ensuring and maintaining a strong presence on all platforms where its target buyers invest their
time and attention. Its online newsletter and digital newsroom additionally offer direct
communications that work to keep up with loyal customers and contribute to valuable consumer
retention. And also Under Armour has begun joining user-generated content, for example,
customer videos, reviews and social media posts into its product listings.[ CITATION Eff20 \l 1033 ]

2. Analysis of digital presence

a. Social Media marketing

Under Armour has the most used social apps such as Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook,
YouTube, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Instagram is their main social app for influence and promote
their product to the customers. They have more than 8.6 million followers on Instagram. They
also do have other sub accounts on Instagram designated to their respective countries like USA,
Canada, Japan, Australia, Brazil including for regions like Middle East and Asia. Under Armour
utilize their Facebook page and twitter page by interacting with consumers and building a good
relation with them and YouTube as a promoting tool, which features its current product and
commercials and Pinterest profile to specially focus on women, featuring its nutrition, workouts
and products etc. And also LinkedIn which provides details about the organization and position
that are hiring. Under Armour has taken advantage of every essential social media.

With a huge part of audience which is primarily communicating in digital, Under Armour has
invested heavily on digital platforms. The UA Shop application is one illustration of how the
brand is utilizing a huge community on the Connected Fitness Platform and giving an elevated
personalized shopping experience. With regards to business, Under Armour is using the digital
world as the backbone and comprehending the customer cross-channel and providing a better
understanding of what they want, their interests and then connecting the dots to experiences in a
physical retail store and on digital commerce channels, for example UA.com and our health and
fitness apps.

The organization is sprinkling into its online items postings customer ratings, reviews, pictures
and videos recordings, for example, Instagram stories of customers wearing its products, as well
as feedback from its “wear testers,” which range from the athletes that test Under Armour
products pre-launch to representatives like Dwayne Johnson and Stephen Curry.

i.New marketing strategy

Finally, Under Armour has made huge investments in mobile application, with a goal to
engaging with existing and potential consumers on a daily basis. By obtaining fitness apps like
MapMyRun, Endomondo, and MyFitnessPal it has strengthened its digital ecosystem, because of
this strategic expansion, Under Armour is currently the world's biggest online fitness and
wellness community. Under Armour has invested more than $700 million on acquiring multiple
fitness. Their primary objective is to merge physical and digital fitness into one experience. The
brand currently approaches more than 200 million registered users, which makes Under Armour
one of the largest players in the digital health and fitness industry. [ CITATION BMI20 \l 1033 ]

Under Armour immediately acquired market share and started competing with sportswear giants
such as Nike, Puma, Rebook, New balance and Adidas. Although Under Armour begin in sports
fashion, they immediately opted for a digital strategy to improve and grow the brand. Therefore,
Under Armour uses the application information of their 200+ million users to improve insights
into their customer lifestyle with the goal to provide better products and services.

The insights generated by the Under Armour Digital group are coordinated in the design and
production process. Resulting in new items that are created based on their immense amount of
information and therefore are proven to contribute to better results.

Under Armour is cultivating desire and engaging in a way that culminates into a transaction. The
brand motive is to understand customer motivation and mindset through the information. The
brand strategically sells their product as an interaction of mutual value. At first the user might
not be interested in purchasing the products or be engaged with the brand at all but after
providing them some values to the users the brand tries to sell their product in a form of reward
for e.g.; potentially new workout attire once they have hit a milestone, or new shoes if they’re
running and have achieved a renewal limit. And not to intercept at the wrong time. They utilize
information to ensure it's the ideal time, and the appetite is there to have a business conversation.
They discovered the most ideal approaches to communicate to these networks is through
triggered rewards—reaching out to people whenever they've hit achievements or specific limits
in their health and fitness journey. This sort of correspondence has seen four-to-six times more
responsiveness, prompting to higher conversion rates and this kind of strategies are what
separates Under Armour from its competitors.[ CITATION Man17 \l 1033 ]

a.6 Cs
i. Content:
ii. Communication:
Under Armour doesn't communicate directly with their customers for selling their products. They
don’t' have call center for the customers purchase directly from their stores but they can if they
go to their website purchase it through delivery. Although it's easier to directly have conversation
for buying products, customers have good feeds backs for their online shopping experience.

iii. Coupons:
Under Armour has 20% off coupons for Military, Healthcare workers and Teachers respectively.
College students can also get a 10% coupons. They have free shipping for good over $60
purchased online. https://coupons.businessinsider.com/underarmour

iv. Convenience:
Under Armour has spent around 1 billion in sportswear, fitness and sports innovative products to
insure their loyal customers. Although they might be lacking behind on many sports with other
competitors, they are the ones leading on sportswear for Gym and other fitness activities.

v. Collaborations:
Under Armour has a lot of collaborations with sports and players. Their top promoters are
Dwayne Johnson and Stephen Curry who are known on most parts of the world. Every now and
then Under Armour release new basketball shoes for Stephen curry and fitness shoes for Dwayne
Johnson with their own signature designs and logos. Their largest collaboration are with NFL
player followed by athletics, soccer and basketball players. In 2019 they did a collaboration with
JBL a headset developing and selling company to enhance the experience of runners.

vi.Competition:
When you compare Under Armour to other sports wear brand like Nike, Adidas and Puma, it's
way below in terms of consumers and brand value. They haven't reached the level of marketing
of Nike, Puma and Adidas. Although in most of the sports are dominated by Nike and Adidas, no
one come close to Under Armour with influence in NFL (National Football League) in USA.
Under Armour also tops easily on the largest digital health and Fitness Company on earth.
[ CITATION Muh18 \l 1033 ]

d. Marketing mix:
i. Product Strategy:
Under Armour is a sport wear and a casual wear brand for ages of 8 and above. It is one of the
world's best sport's wear brand. They have 3 types of basic fibers HeatGear, ColdGear and
AllSeasonGear. As the name suggests, heat gear is for hot climates which is good in absorbing
moisture, ColdGear for cold climates and AllseasonGear for both hot and cold weather. Under
Armour is known as the first brand to use micro fiber which is keeps the body warm, cool, dry
and stable as per the wearer's need. Under Armour has involve in sports like Football, Soccer,
Golf, and Basketball and so on. They also have special shoes for training, running and hiking

ii. Price/ Pricing strategy:

Since Under Armour is known for its excellent quality goods, they use valued-based pricing
strategy. Although other brands have upper hand because of their brand value, Under Armour do
charge a little more than other due to their unique fabrics and materials. They value more on the
function of the product than on pricing and designing of the material. Because of this people do
value them slight above for their functionality when compared to other brands.

iii. Place and Distribution Strategy:

Under Armour use the hybrid distribution channel which consists of both direct and indirect
channels. In direct channel, the goods and products are directly sold from the Under Armour
Store and its online website to the customer’s. The online website stores has a service of
shipping around 200 countries. While on the other hand, Under Armour products are sold
through retail stores where goods are directly brought from the factory.

iv. Promotion and advertising Strategy:

Under Armour use in-house marketing strategy to insure that their new products are not leaked.
Like any other brands, Under Armour to advertise their products on bill boards, Television and
Social Media App such as Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.

They started a lot of campaigns and some of the most famous were to fight racisms and helping
the local kids play basketball. These campaigns made positive mind sets to the people and was
successful in increasing sales. They do a lot of give away in social media platforms, like discount
code and also offer free shipping if the order is more than $60.[ CITATION MBA20 \l 1033 ]

3. Keyword Research/SEO/PPC

A keyword research is a process where the internet user perform a search in search engine or
search bar, and the company include certain related words so that the company’s name or content
pops up on top rather than other companies. It is also a popular term used in digital marketing.
The keywords and phrases help the costumers to find your website and content in search engine.
Since, Under Armour is huge brand the companies name and official website pops at the top
when you search the name of company in search engines. The effective keyword of Under
Armour may include men’s athletic clothes, women’s athletic clothes, athletic footwear, athletic
accessories and sport clothing etc. Under armour has paid and agreed terms on many search
engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.[ CITATION AWI20 \l 1033 ]
Furthermore, it is still extremely important to both company SEO process and its success with
search engine rankings or else, the company maybe choosing the wrong keywords, which may
end up in little to no traffic to the firm’s website. It is no surprise that the Under Armour
Company has fairly well and maintained SEO and keyword research due to its huge brand and
the power unlike small sportswear. If you go to the search engine and type keyword such as
“Stephen Curry’s shoe” or “Dwyane Johnson” these key words lead you to Under Armour
related sites. And since SEO is continuously changing with look search engines persistently
changing algorithms, Under Armour has been utilizing SEO and keywords.
4. Marketing Tool
a. Social media marketing
All though Under Armour is doing great in social media marketing but they haven’t reach the
level of their main competitors like Nike and Adidas. They are still the underdog in athletic wear
companies. Under Armour are mostly focused on professional athletes while Nike and Adidas
democratizes fitness. So it would be better if Under Armour starts too focused in the position of
being more aspirational and creative. The product categories of Under Armour to buy the
product in the social media platform are much lesser than its competitors.

b. Content marketing.

Although Under Armour and its competitors are head to head in innovation they are lacking
behind in many categories like entertainment, impact and consistency in content marketing.
Under Armour has done fine job in initiating as a brand for women empowerment with its “I
WILL WHAT I WANT” campaign but hasn’t been as consistent as its competitors like Nike and
Adidas. And the brand is lacking behind to impact and entertain the people by their tagline and
video content as their competitors for e.g. Nike” Just Do It” tagline and their videos contents
racked up more than 9 million views on YouTube.[ CITATION Aar18 \l 1033 ]

5. Legal
The legal issues made by content marketing are just as similar as assorted and abundant as the
actual strategies. More importantly, the stakes of causing a legitimate error as you execute your
content marketing strategy can be high since the utilization of the content is ultimately for some
business purpose, and its misuse more likely to cause financial consequences. So it’s vital to
understand these issues for Under Armour to avoid embarrassment or, worse, legal action.

These are the top three areas of legitimate compliance:

-Publish only content that is original or that you have composed permission to publish.

-Acquire rights, in writing or hard copy, to content made by freelancers or independent

contractors,
-Assemble and track licenses and use rights for pictures or artwork incorporated into your
content.

-Make proper use of the trademarks mentioned in your content.[ CITATION Leg20 \l 1033 ]

6.Referencing

Bibliography
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strategy/.

Askinglot. (2020). Underarmour. https://askinglot.com/who-is-the-target-market-for-under-

armour#:~:text=Their%20target%20market%20is%20men,target%20market%20is%20interested
%20in.

AWIN. (2020). AWIN. https://ui.awin.com/merchant-profile-terms/15431/ppc.

BMI. (2020). BMI. https://www.businessmodelsinc.com/the-business-model-of-under-

armour/#:~:text=Under%20Armour%20is%20showcasing%20how,canvas%20of%20Under
%20Armour%20below.

LegalCreative. (2020). https://www.legalandcreative.com/2014/04/content-marketing-done-rights-

start-here-legal-compliance-issues-content-marketers-need-to-understand/.

MBA Team. (2020). mbaskool. https://www.mbaskool.com/marketing-mix/products/17310-under-

armour.html.

Pafitis, E. (2020). Starting Business. https://www.startingbusiness.com/blog/marketing-strategy-under-

armour.

shahid, M. b. (2018). e27. https://e27.co/6-cs-e-commerce-marketing-20180124/.

Taube, A. (2018). Content Marketing. https://contently.com/2015/07/08/content-marketing-

showdown-under-armour-vs-nike/.