The central of UA’s growth is signing athletes before they hit superstardom. Therefore they can sign them for less and once they hit superstardom the athlete becomes a great marketing attention.
A lot of scientific research is performed to analyse how an athlete can perform over the next five to ten years, having a team dedicated to this task. For example:
• Tottenham FC (English Premier League) were in sixth place on the ladder when UA signed them, now they are one of the top teams in English Premier League.
• Golfer Jordan Speith was rank 7th in the world, now he has won multiple championships and major championships where he won the biggest title in golf “The Masters” championship. He also became number …show more content…
This occurs because the product is not so widely distributed that you will find it in almost any retail outlet (Trimble, C., 2008).
2.2 Competition
UA’s intensity of rivalry is very high and has to compete with powerful large brands with similar products and prices. This leads to battle for market share based on brand. Its primary competitors a strong mix of new and already established companies that are expanding into performance goods are mostly Nike, Adidas, Columbia Sportswear and The North Face.
2.3 Distribution
Under Armour® distribution channel is mostly a hybrid one as they sell directly to the consumer through their web site, but they also sell wholesale to sporting goods carriers who in turn sell to consumers. Under Armour® stated that “Approximately 90.5% of our net revenues were derived from wholesale distribution” (Edgar-Online.com, 2005).
Under Armour feels that they target their consumers best by using a selective distribution strategy, this is used for products that are not available everywhere, but there are some within a geographical