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Under Armour
Under Armour is an American sports clothing brand and accessories company. This company supply sportswear and casual apparel. It is founded by Kevin Plank in 1995. He was the captain on the university of Maryland football team ,he found out that the cotton T-shirts and his teammates are always soaked with sweat. After graduation, he made a exclusive T-shirt which can stayed light under the hot sun. He then supply the “exclusive T-shirt” to his Maryland teammates. His teammates provided some feedback, he went on to work and quickly invented out with a new T-shirt from microfibers that can keep the athletes cool and dry.
He had earned around $20,000 usd dollars by selling these t-shirt at the concerts. He ended up going about $40,000 in credit card debt spread across five cards. After one year which is 1997,he was broke. In late 1997,he made a profit of $100,000usd dollar by selling the products to two dozen NFL teams. Major teams and retailer began selling the products. In 2002,the company carried 2500 retail outlets in the world. The company raised $115 Million usd dollars for expansion capital in less than 10 years. In 2002 Under Armour began testing its women's apparel line, hoping to make a new success on the market. Just after few months, the women gear product line is officially launched in retail stores and website.
While Under Armour was a significant success, the company had been unwilling to patent his products. Other competitors had begun to compete in the market. Companies like Reebok and Nike invented “Play Dry” T-shirt and “pro compression” T-shirt respectively. These two companies are putting a threat to under armour. These three companies had made a deal. Reebok secured with the NFL group, while Nike inked a deal with the MLB group. While Under Armour still hold the performance gear at the market .
In 2014, Under Armour had hit in the market in Asia. There is an outlet at KLCC and a few outlets in Singapore. This shows that the products are in a high demands. The company had stated to develop more outlets in Asia in these few years time.

Product development
Product development is the beginning stage of product life cycle, it involves either modification of existing product or creating a new product to the market. Consistent product development is a way for the company to strive success in the future, the company need to keep changing and follow the trends in the marketplace in order to ensure their profitability. They can bring in new sort of product or services and become the inventor of the product in the market which means customers can choose for a better options in the market. A success product development has to create a product that can amazed customers and wanting them to give a try on the product, the company need to invest heavily in innovation. This may take up high risk, but the payoff could be great. Product development involves risk of investing capital and time. Thus, it is a must for the company planned that. A good product development helps to enhance the satisfaction of the consumer , make huge profitability on income and creating new business opportunities. To play safe, the company need to create prototype to run the test in the best in order to decide what improvement can be made to improved on the current product. After the prototype, the company are able to make more improvement on the product in order to meet the demands of the consumers. For example, Kevin Plank used his own saving money to create Under Armour T-shirt. He went broke after one years(risk of investing a new product) . Under Armour had made several changes to the products after the prototype. The company used a better raw material like microfibers to create the sporting T-shirts. After the changes, customers are satisfied with the products . feedback is really important from the customers as company always want to stand out or improve the product quality.

Introduction
At this stage, company have to spend a lot of money doing advertising/promotion in order to let people aware of their product. Advertising may be expensive. The company have to order raw materials to produce the goods. The sales are low in the beginning as the market size for the product is small. Things like research and development, consumer testing can be very costly ,especially their competitive zone. The pricing of their products are close to other similar company like Adidas, Nike and Reebok. For example, Nike company sells a T-shirt for $29usd. While Under Armour company sell the T-shirt for $25usd. Kevin started his business at his grandmother’s basement .By the end of 1998, the company outgrew and moved to new headquarter and warehouse in Baltimore. Around 15 years later, KP sports changed their name to Under Armour, and become public. Under Armour offers 10% off Coupons, promo codes. The company started selling their products in USA in the early stage. In 2015, the product had developed into mostly around the world like what Nike Company did. For example, There are 2 Under Armour outlets which located at KLCC and Pavilion shopping mall. The price are affordable.

Growth
The second stage of product life cycle is growth. It produces regularly high levels of earnings, and place better weight on putting into earnings in constant expansion, which built on product positioning in the market, rise sales and increase profitability. A growth company be likely to have moneymaking investment chances for its own earnings as sales start to increase while people are more aware of the product. The growth stage is when the profit and sales increases as well as the profit margin. When a business is able to cut budgets and net more money from rising profitability, it also grows.
Chart showing growth pattern of Under Armour over the past 5 years.
Under Armour had been able to capture 3% of the US share market. The company has a opportunity to grow above the market rate because of its unique and technically more refined product-line. It has been pioneering through competitors and create own-self demand for its own product.

Maturity During the maturity stage, the product is well-known in the market and the company is aiming to keep up the market’s reputation that they have constructed. That is when the sales reached the peak and the competition will keep on growing. In this stage, the price will drop due to high level of competition and so the company’s profit will drop as well. This is doubtlessly the most changeling time, most of the companies need to invest carefully in marketing. On the other hand, the best way to stand out the product is to make changes to the product or improve the product quality such as changing its features or be outstanding from other companies that will beneficial to the company. Most importantly is to win over competitors customers and make money for the company. There are few ways to win over competitors customers such as making promotion, re-modified the product and lowering the prices. Lastly, they will hold a strong position in the niche market .

"Under Armour is not the cheapest product in the store, but we are the best," Plank told a packed crowd of shareholders.
Decline
During decline stage, sales growth decreased, profits declined, competitors remains high and the product reaches its ‘death’ stage. Sales declines because competitors had won over our customers. Customers always want a fresh product, so if the company do not keep on updating or follow the market trends, its disadvantage will rise such as profits will go down , image of the company will be bad. Company can choose to eliminate weak items which do not make much profits, or lowering the price and make more promotion to ‘get rid’ all the weak items. In this stage , investment in lessened and the product can be discontinued or sold it to other company with a lower price.

Conclusion and recommendation
While Under Armour has established itself as a player in high-performance athletic apparel, its shoe business is still miniature. But because the company has established its brand so well, the chance to grow its footwear business is huge. The design of Under Armour shoes is less delightful than other company like Nike or Adidas. Nike and Adidas still established casual shoes wear but Under Armour do not. They only established the sports wear shoes.
Nike was founded in 1964 while Adidas was founded in 1949, Under Armour has disadvantage with its late arrival. The benefit of starting early in the market is the opportunity to hold percentage of markets share. The following shows the market shares of Under Armour, Nike and adidas. Figures in billion $usd | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | Under Armour | $1.06 | $1.47 | $1.83 | $2.33 | Nike | $18.96 | $20.89 | $24.14 | $25.33 | Adidas | $11.99 | $13.32 | $14.88 | $14.49 |

To settle these problems, Under Armour have to invest more on advertising, brand image and the sales volume.

Reference
SearchCIO,. 'What Is Product Development (New Product Development)? - Definition From Whatis.Com'. N.p., 2015. Web. 7 Apr. 2015.
Akrani, Gaurav. 'What Is Product Development? Meaning Definition Example'. Kalyan-city.blogspot.com. N.p., 2015. Web. 7 Apr. 2015.
Underarmour.jobs,. 'Under Armour | Our History'. N.p., 2015. Web. 7 Apr. 2015.
Fundable,. 'Under Armour Startup Story -How Founder Kevin Plank Built Under Armour'. N.p., 2014. Web. 7 Apr. 2015.
Apparel, Under. 'History Of Under Armour Performance Apparel – Fundinguniverse'. Fundinguniverse.com. N.p., 2015. Web. 7 Apr. 2015.
Marketing Donut,. 'Product Development'. N.p., 2015. Web. 7 Apr. 2015.
Wikipedia,. 'Under Armour'. N.p., 2015. Web. 7 Apr. 2015.
Referenceforbusiness.com,. 'Under Armour Performance Apparel - Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information On Under Armour Performance Apparel'. N.p., 2015. Web. 7 Apr. 2015.
Bidnessetc.com,. 'Under Armour Madness In Europe: Stage Set For Increasing Penetration As Brand Awareness Grows'. N.p., 2015. Web. 7 Apr. 2015.
Seekingalpha.com,. 'Our Top Growth Pick In The Sports Clothing Sector'. N.p., 2015. Web. 7 Apr. 2015.
'Maturity'. Boundless (2014): n. pag. Web. 7 Apr. 2015.
Marketing Research is About Testing, Testing and More Testing. 'Planning: Early Maturity Stage - Knowthis.Com'. Knowthis.com. N.p., 2015. Web. 7 Apr. 2015. tribunedigital-baltimoresun,. 'Under Armour: New Products In Footwear, Women's Apparel Expected To Drive Growth'. N.p., 2013. Web. 7 Apr. 2015.
Hall, Jason. 'Under Armour Earnings: 3 Things To Watch For'. Fool.com. N.p., 2015. Web. 7 Apr. 2015.
N.p., 2015. Web. 7 Apr. 2015.
'Decline'. Boundless (2014): n. pag. Web. 7 Apr. 2015.

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