Under Armour: Where Do We Go From Here?
Source startingbusiness.com.
MKT 345 - Consumer Behavior - Module 2 Blog
In the case study article, what market segments were identified and what segmentation strategies were implemented?
In Under Armour’s Willful Digital Moves, the market segments that were identified were gender and occupation. Under Armour wanted to not just target women, but also female athletes in their marketing campaign. The segmentation strategies that Under Armour implemented were from a psychographic base, and positioning a follower brand which is “to separate the brand from the leader by creating what appears to the customer as a new product category” (Kardes, Frank, et al., 2020). Since they didn’t want to repeat some of Nike and Adidas’ mistakes by just doing celebrity endorsements, they chose more unorthodox athletes and it was a success. They did the complete opposite of what the leaders were doing. When they chose Gisele Bündchen as their main focus for their ad “I Will What I Want”, it generated lots of positive and negative comments that Under Armour used to their advantage. The message was clear, you don’t have to be the “regular” athlete, you can also be a model and a mother, showcasing that all women are able to achieve their goals and do more than just one thing. This also ties into another segmentation strategy which is repositioning. This is when you want to “change the way consumers perceive a brand, either a firm’s own brand or a competitor’s” (Kardes, Frank, et al., 2020). By stepping away from its original target market, which was just men, Under Armour was able to attack the female market. By using Gisele as the representation of their brand, another strategy used was positioning by product user. This relates to models like Gisele and lets them envision that they too can wear Under Armour. When Misty Copeland, an American Ballet Theatre ballerina soloist appeared on “I Will What I Want”, it also showed that ballerinas can be strong female athletes. Male football players were no longer the only ones who are associated with the product. The main message of “who had the physical and mental strength to tune out the external pressures and turn inward and chart their own course” carried throughout the marketing campaign (Kardes, Frank, et al., 2020).
What do you believe are four to five key points to remember when implementing segmentation strategies?
I believe that the main key points to remember when implementing segmentation strategies: 1) focus on brand awareness, 2) try to decrease brand cannibalization as much as possible, 3) not all acquisition strategies work and doing what everyone else is doing, and 4) be very clear with your positioning. This all links together if you do your research really well and also look at the current events and changes that can affect future trends. The article noted that there was an increase in word-of-mouth and viral marketing and that more consumers are trusting recommendations from family and friends rather than big companies and other forms of traditional marketing and advertising. This is a very useful point to understand because by creating loyal customers first, they will be the ones to recommend your brand or service to others and continue its growth. It is much harder to attract new category users and increase demand than to keep retention and keep building on happy customers.
Identify a new market segment that you have noticed recently (during your own shopping experience online, in a commercial ad, or in a secondary resource such as a magazine) that you believe would be a great market to explore. How might you create a segmentation strategy to reach this new market segment?
A new market segment that I noticed recently is how brands are bringing back “the old” and rejuvenating them so that the younger generation can enjoy them. A perfect example are the parents who are fans of products and brands, they are passing them on to their children. Making something that is family-friendly for the whole family to enjoy keeps a brand’s longevity over the years and also relevancy. Just like how Star Wars has maintained its success and cult following over the year, children, teens, and young adults are familiar with Star Wars and it was not even in their era! I think this would be a great market to explore because I have seen so many brands come back to life because marketers found ways to attract a younger audience. An idea of how I can create a segmentation strategy to reach this new market segment is by using an acquisition strategy. Create a kid-friendly toy or TV show that is age appropriate for children, like what Star Wars did when they created Clone Wars, an animated version to appeal to children. Making the Baby Yoda, Grogu toy was a hit because it’s still connected to Star Wars but still different from the original movies.
References:
Kardes, Frank, et al. Consumer Behavior. Available from: MBS Direct, (2nd Edition). Cengage Learning US, 2020.
