Evaluation Essay on Under Armour

Introduction

Under Armour, Inc. is an international company headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. It is the leading inventor marketer and distributor of customized performance clothing including boots and other accessories in athletics. The design of the athletic apparel is made to make athletes perform and feel better, and the products are sold all over the world to consumers who have exercise as part of their lifestyles.

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Public relations is a means of communication that is used by organizations, companies, and individuals to the public and the media (Johnston and Sheehan, 2014). A public relations officer directly or indirectly (Tambini, 2010) communicates via media (DeFleur et al., 2014) with the target audience with the aim of maintaining a positive image and enhance the bond between an organization and the audience (Grunig, Grunig, and Toth, 2011).

Under Armour have engaged in several PR activities in 2018, the latest being the announcement of the company hosting an investors day on 12th of December 2018 (Under Armour, Inc., 2018). The press release stated that the top management would give a breakdown of the long-term strategies that the company has, an outlook about the company's financial performance. According to the media release, the management would also provide key initiatives aimed at delivering the value of shares (Van Rooij, Lusardi, and Alessie, 2009) that is sustainable and growth-oriented profit-generating initiative. This investor meeting would attract more investor (Manning, 2012) to buy stocks with them as well as creating confidence to the investors (Doyle, 2015). This was a public relations statement in that it enhanced the public figure (Johnston and Sheehan, 2014).

In March 2018, the company announced the security of the users' data; these were the users of MyFitnessPal, which is the company's website and application (Under Armour, Inc., 2018). This release happened after the company noticed that a third party had gained access to user data associated with MyFitnessPal in the late February. The press release was a public relations statement that alerted the users of MyFitnessPal about the security threat. As such the customers would stay put, and in instances of mishandling of user login data, they would not blame the company and paint a bad public picture to the public (Gaboriau, 2018). This is because the customers were notified about the security issue and that the company was engaging security firms to help in investigating the issue (Calhoun, 2013). As a result, the customer's trust (Engelberg and Parsons, 2011) on the company's ability to handle the matter would keep the customers at good terms with it (GamesCricketRugbyEnduranceCFL et al., 2018).

In its area of sponsorship, the company has run the Under Armour Challenge that tests athlete ability of strength, endurance, and determination. The winners of the challenge receive a one-year sponsorship from Under Armour together with VIP tickets to attend a Q&A with Michael Phelps. The challenge serves as a public relations activity that is aimed at popularizing the company in Dubai (Davey, 2018).

The approach used by the company is mainly focused on endorsing athletes rather than the normal team jersey sponsorships. It mainly focuses on sports and performance positioning. The presence of the brand in SXSW2018 (En.elevent.co, 2018) was highly felt since they wanted to create awareness for the connected application and new products that had HOVR technology used to make them. The huge footprint at the center of Austin had a dome, red that had some pleasant red glow inside it. The event that was attended by more than 400,000 people served as a great audience for Under Armour to market its new line of products (PennLive.com, 2018). Under Armour is a company that nurtures talent through sponsoring young athletes before they reach their stardom era.

References

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Manning, P. (2012). Financial journalism, news sources and the banking crisis. Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism, 14(2), pp.173-189.PennLive.com. (2018). The world's most valuable sports organizations: Where would UFC rank?. [online] Available at: http://www.pennlive.com/sports/index.ssf/2016/07/the_worlds_most_valuable_sport.html [Accessed 2 Feb. 2018].

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Tambini, D. (2010). WHAT ARE FINANCIAL JOURNALISTS FOR?. Journalism Studies, 11(2), pp.158-174.Under Armour, Inc. (2018). Under Armour Notifies MyFitnessPal Users Of Data Security Issue | Under Armour, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.uabiz.com/news-releases/news-release-details/under-armour-notifies-myfitnesspal-users-data-security-issue

Under Armour, Inc. (2018). Under Armour To Host Investor Day On December 12, 2018 | Under Armour, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.uabiz.com/news-releases/news-release-details/under-armour-host-investor-day-december-12-2018

Van Rooij, M., Lusardi, A. and Alessie, R. (2009). Financial Literacy and Stock Market Participation. Journal of Financial Economics, 101, pp.449-472.