Lindstrom 1 Nate Lindstrom Professor Fruchter Marketing Principles 17 April 2011

Under Armor Case Study Analysis

Under Armor was founded in early 1996 by Kevin Plank, a football player and former University of Maryland special team captain. Plank and co-founder Jordan Lindgren, also a former UM football player, launched their business from Planks grandmothers basement in Washington, DC. Plank, who got tired of having to change out of the sweat-soaked t-shirts he wore under his football jersey, noticed that his shorts, which were made out of a Coolmax-like fabric, stayed dry. This was the inspiration to first create a t-shirt using moisture-wicking fabric, and thus the Under Armor brand was launched. By the end of 1996, Under Armor had generated more than fifteen thousand dollars in revenue purely through word-of-mouth sales. In 1997, Plank had more than one hundred thousand dollars in orders to fill and moved the manufacturing process to a factory in Ohio. Under Armor first began to garner widespread attention when USA Today ran a front page photo of Oakland Raiders quarterback Jeff George wearing an Under Armor shirt. As a result, Georgia Tech ordered 350 shirts from Under Armor, a purchase which opened the door to signing a contract with North Carolina State University. Thanks to positive reviews from the players, word began to spread about Under Armor and orders began to pour in.

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Oakland Raiders quarterback Jeff Georges wearing an Under Armor shirt beneath his football jersey.

Under Armor become profitable in 1998, and received its first big break in the form of the 1999 Oliver Stone movie Any Given Sunday, in which a starring character played by Jamie Foxx wore an Under Armor jockstrap after Plank had sent samples of his products to the movies costume designer. Building on the visibility brought about by the movie, Plank purchased a fullpage ad in ESPN: The Magazine. That ad alone generated close to $750,000 in sales, and just three years after starting the company Plank finally put himself on the payroll. Marcus Stevens, the senior creative director for Under Armor, and who joined the company in 1997, says the keys to Under Armors success lies within their keys to greatness: y y y y Build a great product Tell a great story about the product Provide great service Build a great team

Lindstrom 3 (Kerin, Hartley, & Rudelius, 2011). These simple words are written on a whiteboard in Planks office, and Plank says that every morning when I arrive in my office and every evening before I leave I look at those words (Big Think, 2008). Stevens says that absolutely everything Under Armor doesfrom advertising to marketing to selecting players to endorse their products to providing customer serviceis executed in a way that aligns with their keys to greatness. Toward this end, Plank has structured the company in a way that encourages a sportsthemed team atmosphere. By hiring only the best and brightest people possible, Plank built a great team across the width and breadth of the company, from the receptionist to the sales team to customer service (Kerin, Hartley, & Rudelius, 2011). The sports theme permeates every aspect of the company. For example, meetings are called huddles, and at the end of a meeting, rather than asking what the action items are, a play is called (Kerin, Hartley, & Rudelius, 2011).

A Georges St. Pierre t-shirt made from Under Armor fabric and bearing the popular slogan Protect This House.

Lindstrom 4 Under Armor has enjoyed a series of successes where their advertising initiatives are concerned. After the success of their product placement within the movie Any Given Sunday, and the sharp increase in sales thanks to their ad inside ESPNs magazine, Under Armor launched a television advertising campaign featuring Eric Big E Ogbogu, football defense end for New York Jets, Cincinnati Bengals, and the Dallas Cowboys (Under Armor). This television ad introduced a new tagline, Protect This House, and which quickly passed into such popular usage that not only were fans seen at football games carrying signs bearing the slogan, but also it was used by celebrities including Oprah Winfrey and David Letterman (Kerin, Hartley, & Rudelius, 2011). Under Armor ran its first-ever Super Bowl ad in 2008, featuring a number of iconic sports figures, including: y y y y y Indianapolis Colts safety Bob Sanders Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis Chicago Cubs outfielder Alfonso Soriano Figure skater Kimmie Meissner Former Dallas Cowboys player Eric Big E Ogbogu y San Francisco 49ers tight end Vernon Davis y y Snowboarder Lindsay Jacobellis Freestyle skier Jen Hudak NASCAR driver Carl Edwards appearing in Under Armors sixty-second Super Bowl commercial wearing an Under Armor jersey.

Lindstrom 5 (Under Armor). The Super Bowl commercial was a huge success. USA Today ranked it among the top five ads in its Ad Meter, and web orders for Under Armor products more than tripled in the weeks following the super bowl (Kerin, Hartley, & Rudelius, 2011). Unlike many other companies which have enjoyed a mix of successes and failures with their advertising and marketing campaigns, Under Armor has managed to hit homerun after homerun with their campaigns. Why is this? Everything [we do] has to be integrated with the keys to greatness, says Kevin Haley, senior vice president of sports marketing (Kerin, Hartley, & Rudelius, 2011). It is this dedication to the company vision that has allowed Under Armor to go from starting in a basement in 1996 to earning more than $800 million in revenue in fiscal year 2009 (Under Armor, 2010).

The Under Armor logo, featuring a stylized combination of the letters U and A, first envisioned by company cofounder Jordan Lindgren.

Lindstrom 6 Works Cited Big Think. (2008, November 11). A Conversation with Kevin Plank. Retrieved April 15, 2011, from Big Think: http://www.bigthink.com Kerin, R., Hartley, S., & Rudelius, W. (2011). Marketing, 10th Edition. New York: McGrawHill. Under Armor. (2010, December 31). SEC Income Statement Filing. Retrieved April 16, 2011, from Wikinvest: http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Under_Armour_(UA)/Data/Income_Statement Under Armor. (n.d.). Press Releases. Retrieved April 17, 2011, from Investor Relations: http://investor.underarmour.com/releases.cfm