Essay About Armour Company And Core Competencies

Under Armor Case Study
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Jacob O’NealU.A. Case StudyFebruary 23, 2016        The competitive forces affecting Under Armour company as well as the other companies are very strong. The industry they are involved in is very competitive in brand name and product recognition. These companies use a lot of celebrity endorsements, product placements and just plain old normal advertising to grow brand recognition and sales. These companies rely heavily on brand loyalty. Companies that want to enter into this industry do not face high barriers of entry, but there are not many new entries because no one wants to compete with the big dogs. The companies in this industry are all involved in mainly the same markets and are already established making it not easy for any company to try and enter this industry.        The Under Armour company does many things well but they have a few things that set them apart from the rest. These core competencies are as follows, Moisture wicking fabric, Strong brand name, Logo, and Brand loyalty. The most important is their product which is the moisture wicking long lasting fabric they used to start the company in the first place. When Under Armor changed their logo to the interlocking U and A their brand name recognition went up a lot and from my point of view it will be a huge part to their future growth.Strengths Brand-name/logo recognition is highSales grew at a much higher rate (26.3%) than industry leader Nike  (6.3%)Moderate bargaining power for suppliesNewer company with a fresh imageAppearance of a high quality productWeaknessesGlobal sales are extremely low and not growing.Current news about their Olympic suits underperforming Share in the athletic footwear market is very low (2.25%)Opportunities Footwear market can be greatly improvedForeign markets have been basically untouched so they can grow those areas.Teams and leagues can be signed for exclusive contractsNew apparel markets can easily be entered ThreatsNike and Adidas control global market and are going make entering harder on U.A.Consumers have little to no bargaining powerRetailers have all the bargaining powerCurrent situation with the Olympic speed skating suits