ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Under Armour – Harvard Business Review

Updated on May 17, 2012

I was reading an article in Harvard Business Review recently by Kevin Plank, the founder of the brand, Under Armour.

Under Armour is a newish brand in Australia and we are starting to see it become commonplace with AFL stars wearing the clothing and protective clothing and now even in basketball shoes.

What got me interested in this article was the process Under Armour went through to get celebrity endorsement for their product when they were a start up brand.

Start up Challenger Brand

Plank was 23 and straight out of college when he started Under Armour. The concept of the brand was to allow athletes to wear some comfortable clothing under their padding as t-shirts were uncomfortable and filled with sweat. So the idea of an ‘under amour’ product was born that was comfortable, light weight and could soak up the sweat.

The development of this product was innovative and targeted at elite athletes, who would then inspire consumers to get the same gear.

The brand launched in 1996, the days of pre-Facebook, so it was hard to get a following. What plank did was to say to people he knew from college that were playing in the big leagues that he was working for a cool company with some great products and that they should check it out. If they sounded interested he gave them a piece for themselves and another piece for the guy in the next locker to try.

He positioned the product that could be a tool that could make them perform a bit better and therefore they could get paid more, rather than just a favour to himself.

What happened is that once a few players in the team started wearing the product the team felt obligated to buy it for the rest of the team. So this grassroots, guerrilla campaign started to get the first orders flowing.

The Next Steps

From these small beginnings Under Armour signed up the Georgia State football team followed by the Atlanta Falcons and New York Giants. It all started with some free shirts to players and their performance improvement leading to full team orders.

The turning point came in 1997 when the Miami Dolphins called saying that a couple of players had the Under Armour shirts and could he have 150 units so that everyone on the team that Sunday (including Dan Marino) would be wearing one on Sunday. Plank said he couldn’t give away that many shirts and how would that affect his relationship with the other teams that had paid?

Plank stuck to his guns and said that he makes a quality product and that the team would have to pay a fair price for the shirts. So on the Wednesday plank had stared down the offer of the century, but had stuck to his values.

The next day the Dolphins called back, placed an order on a 45 day billing cycle and the shirts were worn on Sunday’s game!

This is a real example of sticking to your guns, understanding the value of your product and not giving it away, but selling it for what it is worth.

Barry Bonds
Barry Bonds
Brandon Jennings
Brandon Jennings

Today

Under Armour use celebrity endorsement today to drive the sales of their business. But they do it in a different way to ensure that they stay true to their brand values and only back proven achievers.

The first endorsement was with Barry Bonds. Barry loved the product and was wearing the gear, but then asked for an endorsement to continue wearing it. He liked the gear so the team were able to negotiate a $5,000 fee as well as $5,000 to his favourite charity.

Today Under Armour has Tom Brady from the Patriots as the brand advocate because he is a proven achiever. Unlike other brands Under Armour won’t take a punt on draft picks from the NBA. In 2010 John Wall, the #1 pick was paid $5 million for an endorsement deal and the #2, Evan Turner, was valued by Under Armour for $150,000 but was signed for $2 million by another brand.

The key for Under Armour is that once they have the celebrity onboard they want to go further than just endorsements. Brandon Jennings from the Milwaukee Bucks is signed to the brand and during the recent lockout he became an intern at the Under Armour Headquarters with the title of ‘Curator of Cool’ where he hung out with the designers to help come up with new ideas.

For Under Armour endorsement is important, but just as important is the aligned to the culture and the brand merits and going beyond just endorsing the product.

What we can learn?

I think that there are two distinct learning opportunities from Under Armour:

1. Understand the value of your brand and don’t discount it or give it away unnecessarily. There are times when we are in start up for a new product or even when sales are low. You need to stick to your guns and help customers to understand the benefits of your product and the value that is inherent within the brand. That way you build sustainable, profitable business for the future.

2. When using celebrity endorsement, go beyond the simple endorsement, make the celebrity a part of your brand, embracing the values of your organisation. Look at ways to untap other opportunities, whether this is working with your people to develop new lines, inspiring your staff or using them in the community. Think outside the box.

You can find the full article online at Harvard Business Review – ‘Under Armour’s Founder on Learning to Leverage Celebrity Endorsements’ by Kevin Plank in the May 2012 edition.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)