Under Armour Tries to Leverage its Network

Under Armour has found it very difficult to break into the mature US sporting goods market, where strong brand loyalties are already established. Over the past couple of years, most of its growth has actually come from international markets. Due to this underwhelming domestic performance, the company’s stock has taken a hit over the past year. Yet, Under Armour is not giving up. One of the ways that the sportswear company is trying to change loyalties is by targeting college students. And in particular, University of Maryland students.

As a University of Maryland student, and especially as a business major, I am constantly reminded of the success that Kevin Plank–a UMD graduate–has earned with his company. Thus, UMD students are already primed to feel a relationship with the brand. This relationship is highlighted anywhere we go: whether its shirts for an event or athletic equipment for our teams, as UMD students, we are always sporting Under Armour clothes. So, I wasn’t surprised recently when I received a promotional email from Under Armour. Unfortunately for the brand, I saw right through their marketing plan and promptly deleted the email.

First, the email was clearly mass marketed, as I can see from mail240.atl171.mcdlv.net. While I don’t expect these promotional emails to be specifically crafted for me, I expect the company to at least make it seem like it’s coming directly from an actual person as opposed to a machine. Moreover, I have never signed up for Under Armour promotional emails or newsletters and frankly I don’t appreciate the University selling my email to Under Armour. The University is of course hoping that this promotional campaign works as well because the more profitable Under Armour is, the more donations the University is going to receive from Kevin Plank.

Secondly, the email is not aesthetically appealing at all. The fact that it’s left justified and only fills up half of my screen shows that the company is either incapable of making email designs that have evolved past the nineties or simply doesn’t view me as a customer that is worth spending the time to make a creative design for. Another reason why this design fails in attracting me is that there are too many words and no mechanisms to guide me through the email. So, the email involves too much work for me to decipher and I will delete it right away.

This email is also in clear contradiction with the brand image of Under Armour. The company works hard to position itself as a premium product. And yet, the message of the email is Buy Under Armour because we’re giving you a 35% off coupon. Additionally, the time frame creates no sense of urgency. Even if I were enticed by the offer, I will likely simply think “I’m too busy right now to take advantage of this. I will come back to it later.” But then later rolls around and I have already forgotten about the offer. So, the offer goes unused and Under Armour fails to gain a consumer.

Regardless of all of the shortcomings of the email, Under Armour did get one thing right: the timing. As data scientists at Target figured out, consumers are most likely to change their buying habits whenever there’s a large event that occurs in their life. Graduation is a large event. As graduates, we are more open to trying new things and to potentially change our image at the beginning of this new phase in our life.

Would you use this coupon? How would your reaction to this email change depending on whether or not you have already made a purchase from Under Armour?

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