The Big Interview – Under Armour

Chris Carroll, Director of Marketing for EMEA at Under Armour, speaks exclusively to sportindustry.biz on the launch of a new partnership with Harrods and the importance of identity to the brand…

You have just launched a partnership with Harrods, what was the thinking behind the move and how does it affect your plans throughout 2013?

Harrods is an important retail partner for us in the UK, it allows us to showcase our retail brand experience to a global consumer and makes our premium product available to them – that was the thinking behind it. Harrods is an iconic retail brand and we are an iconic sports performance brand so the marriage fits perfectly. It is an important part of our overall strategy in the UK and Europe to deepen our touch-points to our consumers and allow our consumers to have access to our brand – at a retail level and an experiential level. 

It’s part of our developing strategy in Europe to expand in a very targeted and focused way to live our mission, which is all about empowering athletes everywhere and this is another step that allows us to do that. 

Under Armour has always seemed to do things a little bit differently from some of the competition – would you say that’s a defining part of the company’s strategy?

It’s in the DNA of the brand and who Under Armour is. We are all about being real and authentic and we have a very specific tone of voice and brand and we take our mission very seriously. Our mission is a relentless pursuit of technology innovation and design, our passion in delivering that makes us different from others and we are proud of that. 

The company has been active in the UK for a few years now. Has everything gone according to plan?

We have made good strides in the UK, which is an important market for us as part of our international footprint. With the economic situation combined with the changing retail landscape we are very comfortable with where we are and we have aggressive plans moving forward to evolve not only our footprint but our connection with athletes – athletes in metropolitan England. We are happy where we are at, and even happier to set targets of where we are going. 

There seems to have been a gradual acquisition of partners – Welsh rugby, Tottenham Hotspur, players etc – but actually it all seems to be happening quite fast. What’s next on the agenda?

As I said, our mission is to enable athletes everywhere, and to do that we need to have the right relationships with the right athletes. Tottenham Hotspur, of the Premier League, right now are nicely towards the top of the table and we also have Michael Dawson, an important ingredient of that success. They are very important in terms of bringing the brand to life and bringing the product stories and the brand stories to life to the UK and international consumer. 

We will continue to be associated with the right athletes and have strict criteria of who we do and who we don’t associate with. Regardless of geography, it’s not only UK based athletes that resonate with our UK consumers. We have partnerships with some iconic legends including the most decorated Olympian Michael Phelps, the most decorated skier Lindsey Vonn, Tom Brady who transcends his sport of American football and is known as a world-class athlete. That’s a course that has been a winning formula for us. 

We have a good mix of globally and locally relevant associations. The Welsh Rugby Union also plays an important part in our marketing strategy here in the UK, but they also resonate outside Europe as well.  

A key part of Under Armour’s offering is the technical/performance development. Is this more or less important than the ‘style’, or is it a case of both needing to be top of their class?

Everything we do is about innovation, design and getting that balance right. We know our consumer wants to perform better, so we know we need to innovate, but we also know they need to look good and that’s where design comes in. 

Innovation and design work together, and we do not jeopardise one for the other. We are a sports performance brand so it’s very valuable and important that we are rooted in both areas. Our Storm technology in outerwear, hoodies and training gear can take a significant amount of water by running off the fibres. That’s great technology and it’s designed well so athletes appreciate it. 

Obviously London 2012 was a huge focal point for the capital last year – you weren’t an Olympic sponsor – did the Games affect your business last year? 

London 2012 had a positive effect on the industry and that particularly helped us. We were not an official sponsor but the fact that the world’s biggest sporting event came to the city, the UK population mobilised themselves and we received a benefit from that. It also doesn’t hurt that we fuel the world’s most decorated Olympian Michael Phelps. In the aftermath of the Games, Londoners were more active and that is good for us too.

What’s your biggest target for 2013?

Our biggest target is to build on the success of 2012, continue the retail success that we’ve seen in Harrods, more activities of that kind, and making sure that our products are continually on the athletes of the UK. It’s making sure that we are successful and that athletes are wearing our products and we are enabling them. 

Plus, if Tottenham can get into the Champions League, that would be a bonus!