TakeAway: Under Armour started slowly, but wants “to be a legitimate number two [after Nike] in the basketball market, and that may take time.”
To get there, CEO Plank focuses on a set of principles for success – “Passion,” “Vision” and “People.” He also abides by what he calls the “four pillars of greatness:
- Build a great product
- Tell a great story
- Service the business
- Build a great team.
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Excerpted from Knowledge@Wharton, “Under Armour’s Kevin Plank: Creating ‘the Biggest, Baddest Brand on the Planet’” By Suzanne Vranica, January 5, 2011
Plank says: “Great companies have to manage the cadence of what they do. Every great brand is like a great story. Every commercial we run, every product we make, is like a chapter in that book. If we don’t manage the cadence, though, we will get too far ahead of ourselves.”
“Organic growth is happening everywhere,” Plank noted. “Our object cannot be to try to convince 25-year-olds to change brands, though that is always something good. But now 8-, 9- and 10-year-olds have a relationship with Under Armour [and say] it is their brand. I tell them that their great-great grandfather [bought products from] the guys from Germany [Adidas] and their grandfather grew up with the guys from Oregon [Nike]. But you will grow up with Under Armour.” Accordingly, Plank has gone after young athletes to become the faces of Under Armour because they have great potential for marketing into the future. Plank also likes his team young. He said the average age of his more than 3,000 employees is 32, “and we want to keep [the work environment] young and fresh.” Under Armour’s advertisements tend to include young athletes in action – competing in extreme sports “X Games” events, snowboarding, soccer, wall-climbing, ultimate fighting and beach volleyball.
Plank plans to solidify the company’s growth in the women’s sports apparel market, which he said now accounts for about 30% of sales. He is also looking to create more of a presence for the brand in Europe and Asia – an effort that will take time because the company has to break into the soccer and, to a lesser extent, basketball markets.
Under Armour’s advertising makes full use of two of Plank’s favorite slogans – often together: “We must protect this house” and “We will.” Protecting the brand ensures consumer respect, and Plank believes the company must work hard to continually improve. In fact, he says “we have not yet built our defining product at Under Armour. We are not living in the past. Our larger competitors are 20 times our size. There is running room all over.”
Edit by AMW
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Full Article:
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2665
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