Under Armour’s rapid rise to success has to be credited to its brilliant strategic planning capabilities. The company continues to make key strategic moves to continue its growth and market share acquisition and a competitive sports apparel industry. Under Armour strategic plan is to outperform its competitors and gain market share from innovative design, and wider product selection. The goal is to achieve the competitive advantage of outcompeting rivals on the basis of differentiation features, such as higher quality, wider product selection, added performance, value added services, more attractive styling, and technological superiority (Thompson, 5). The marketing strategy has also played a key role in the massive growth of Under Armour.
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It gives the firm the ability to examine its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and treats so it can make educated decisions. One of its strengths would be the firm’s ability to use innovation as a tool to stay competitive. Innovation was a tool the company used since its humble beginnings to create its first compression undershirts. UA has kept its promise to meet the need of the needs of the athletic industry with new innovative designs. This is exemplified by its diverse product mix, various market segment, and new product offerings. UA offers three variations of its apparel gear for various weather conditions: HeatGear for hot weather conditions; ColdGear® for cold weather conditions; and AllSeasonGear for mild weather conditions (Thompson, 46). Another strength of Under Armour would be the broad product offering which it presents to consumers. They have not just established a reputation as an innovative company but also a competitor in a vast product segments. They are continuously expanding their product offering as an aspect of their strategic plan. Initially they started with football as their sole focus however they have now expanded to multiple sports including soccer, basketball, baseball golf etc. Financial stability and steady grown is another strength of the company. Under Armour has experienced positive revenue growth for the past 5 years with a compounded annual growth rate of 19.3% (Under Armour 2012 Annual Report, 5). So they are constantly provided value to she holders which is a positive sign for the longevity of any company. A weakness that Under Armour faces is the loss of quality due to outsourcing of manufacturing. Many of the specialty raw material that UA uses in its products are developed and manufactured by third parties and are only available from a limited number of sources (Thomas, 51). The quality assurance aspect of its products have become
It gives the firm the ability to examine its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and treats so it can make educated decisions. One of its strengths would be the firm’s ability to use innovation as a tool to stay competitive. Innovation was a tool the company used since its humble beginnings to create its first compression undershirts. UA has kept its promise to meet the need of the needs of the athletic industry with new innovative designs. This is exemplified by its diverse product mix, various market segment, and new product offerings. UA offers three variations of its apparel gear for various weather conditions: HeatGear for hot weather conditions; ColdGear® for cold weather conditions; and AllSeasonGear for mild weather conditions (Thompson, 46). Another strength of Under Armour would be the broad product offering which it presents to consumers. They have not just established a reputation as an innovative company but also a competitor in a vast product segments. They are continuously expanding their product offering as an aspect of their strategic plan. Initially they started with football as their sole focus however they have now expanded to multiple sports including soccer, basketball, baseball golf etc. Financial stability and steady grown is another strength of the company. Under Armour has experienced positive revenue growth for the past 5 years with a compounded annual growth rate of 19.3% (Under Armour 2012 Annual Report, 5). So they are constantly provided value to she holders which is a positive sign for the longevity of any company. A weakness that Under Armour faces is the loss of quality due to outsourcing of manufacturing. Many of the specialty raw material that UA uses in its products are developed and manufactured by third parties and are only available from a limited number of sources (Thomas, 51). The quality assurance aspect of its products have become