Cover Story : Growing Up With Under Armour

Sports outfitter's pull marketing techniques win teen athletes' loyalty - and sales

Today's teens have been inundated from their earliest recollections with advertising, be it on TV, online, in their favorite video games and movies, and the list goes on. To effectively sell to this generation of consumers, Under Armour studies what makes it tick. What are teens thinking about? How do they behave? What motivates them to purchase?

The answers to these questions are the basis for the Baltimore-based sports apparel manufacturer/marketer's mission: to make all athletes better through passion, science and the relentless pursuit of innovation. The company relies on a heavy dose of customer feedback for guidance, particularly from its core demographic — teen athletes.

Chasing Elusive Youths
As many marketers have found, teens can be elusive, shifting from one media channel to the next in a heartbeat. The one constant, however, is that teens are almost always online. With an integrated marketing strategy built on creating emotional connections with young athletes, Under Armour positions itself as the brand they can trust. This trust fosters customer loyalty and lifetime relationships with the brand that are easily passed to the next generation of teen athletes.

"We build product and [cultivate] our brand with an inspirational message to get younger athletes to grow up with the brand," says Mark Kuhns, Under Armour's vice president of global direct. "It's not about pushing a sales message at them or following them all over the place to tell them about Under Armour; it's about being in places where they naturally go. They have a chance to interact with our brand." (Kuhns provided details for this article in an exclusive interview with All About ROI in September, as well as during a recent presentation he gave at the Internet Retailer conference in June.)

For a company that develops, markets and distributes branded performance apparel, footwear and accessories, those places are plentiful. Regardless of the selling channel, consumers consistently respond. Under Armour routinely posts profitable quarters, including this year's second fiscal quarter when net revenues and income increased 5.1 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively. Based on current projections, Under Armour anticipates net revenues of approximately $810 million for fiscal 2009.

"Under Armour was smart in realizing areas of opportunity to grow the brand," says Brent Niemuth, vice president/creative director at the multichannel design and marketing firm J. Schmid & Assoc. "This wasn't random growth or a shotgun approach; it was calculated and precise. Under Armour knew it was competing against the behemoth Nike in many ways, so it decided to attack small, niche markets first and try to own them. It did this successfully with football — more specifically, high school football. It positioned itself as an aspirational brand, knowing that high school football players aspired to be like their NFL heroes. Teenage boys were the perfect target for this aggressive, in-your-face brand."

Pull, Not Push
Rather than chasing teens around from Facebook to TV to mobile phones and so on, Under Armour created tools that allow consumers to reach out to the company instead. It's pull marketing at its best.

Under Armour's approach is exemplified by its presence on the social networking sites Facebook and Twitter. The company also hosts offline events in local markets across the country. Called Under Armour Combines, these events recruit the best athletes and coaches in particular regions to compete in various athletic events that test the speed, power and evasiveness of teen athletes — all while outfitted in Under Armour apparel, of course. Afterward, the athletes are provided with feedback on their performances — namely, how they fared against other competitors.

Connects With Youths, Online and Off
By providing these targeted youth athletes with experience, knowledge and opportunities, Under Armour connects with them online and offline. And this stays with the athletes no matter where they go, be it Facebook, ESPN, YouTube, Twitter, sports blogs or other outlets, Kuhns says. It creates a sense of community for consumers, providing utility in their daily lives, while Under Armour tightens its relationship with them.

By conducting focus groups at all age levels (youth, high school, collegiate and professional), being in locker rooms and on the field of play, Under Armour listens to athletes. "They tell us about the apparel and footwear they're wearing," Kuhns says, "what they like and don't like, Under Armour vs. some of our competitors, and ways we can improve and innovate our merchandise."

At the center of Under Armour's marketing strategy is its e-commerce website. But the site represents more than a sales vehicle for the company; it's a forum to get into the fabric of customers' lives. It started with more modest intentions, however. "We started UnderArmour.com to simplify our message: 'heat gear for when it's hot, cold gear for when it's cold,'" Kuhns recalls. With a straightforward approach and easy-to-navigate architecture, the site seeks to forge a value connection in the lives of its customers, rather than just being a place to sell products.

Take Under Armour's 2008 launch of its footwear line for runners, for example: The company communicated the debut through several different channels — TV, catalog, retail point of purchase displays and messaging — but a microsite tied it all together. This microsite was found not only on Under Armour's website, but also on the websites of some of its key wholesale partners (Dick's Sporting Goods, Modell's, The Sports Authority), and helped tell the story and educate consumers about its new running shoes.

As for its website, Under Armour aims "to communicate some of the larger product stories and launches — inspirational themes that we have going on," Kuhns says. "So when kids see this, they can understand how it relates to their sport."

To that end, Under Armour has added content to its website from top athletic trainers to help younger athletes improve their speed, power and evasiveness. This is all done to help customers improve their performance as athletes.

National Exposure
Helping propel the Under Armour brand into a household name over the years has been the exposure it gains each fall from pro football players routinely wearing its merchandise, particularly under their uniforms in cold-weather games. It's become synonymous with hot and cold weather apparel choices for many professional sporting leagues, most notably the NFL. In addition, Under Armour was named an official footwear supplier to the NFL 
in 2006.

That exposure continues today in the collegiate ranks, where Under Armour is the official apparel sponsor for several larger schools' football programs, including Auburn University, Texas Tech University and the University of South Carolina, as well as Plank's alma mater, the University of Maryland, of course. What's more, Under Armour is the official apparel supplier to the Atlantic Coast and Southeastern Conferences, and other apparel deals have been signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs of the NHL and the German soccer league club Hannover 96.

"These partnerships help provide us with intelligence on what athletes really want from Under Armour and what they need to help them get better," Kuhns says. "We gather intelligence from these partnerships to continue with product innovation so we can be more relevant by providing better product and 
better experiences."

Combating the Recession
Focus and key personnel hires have contributed to Under Armour's consistent profitability during the recession. The marketer has focused on product innovation, what's important to today's athletes, controlling costs and identifying opportunities where it needs to grow revenue. Hiring former Lands' End President David McCreight as president; former Izod Womenswear President Suzanne Karkus as senior vice president of apparel; and former Timberland Co-President Gene McCarthy as senior vice president of footwear, all within the past two years, has provided stability and expertise at the executive level.

"The reason for Under Armour's success is it's always maintained a focus," says Niemuth. "It's always been about performance and aggression. All of the products it sells somehow help you improve your performance on the field. They don't just help you play … They help you WIN."

As it gears up for continued growth, Under Armour continuously seeks more ways to contact and connect with younger audiences. Although it doesn't use its catalog as a prospecting tool, Under Armour takes advantage of multiple other channels to recruit new customers. The company's retail stores and wholesale partners serve as acquisition sources; display ads, affiliate marketing and search account for the majority of its prospecting efforts online. —Additional reporting by Paul Miller

• MORE ON
• E-COMMERCE
• MARKETING