Second report draft

Executive summary - 

The purpose of this report is to evaluate consumer needs and market research on the current sportswear brand Umbro. Both primary and secondary research was carried out and it is apparent from this that Umbro is rapidly decreasing in sales, where they declined 49% to 56 million pounds (Lagorce A. 2007). Through looking at a varied of different research methods including online resources like articles, blogs, reports and social media it has become clear the Umbro are becoming less relevant to consumers and are being outcasted by competitors. Due to looking at each of these factors a series of recommendations will be suggested which will explore more of their marketing techniques, brand values, and appearance. Other performances and fashion competitors have been considered in order to understand how successful their marketing skills are, this was an important strategy to conclude why Umbro are so unsuccessful compared to similar brands. 

Primary research including carrying out a survey which was sent to 100 people aged between 15-78 which showed a varied of answers and opinions. Over 50% of people asked hadn’t heard of the asked collaborations (Sibley E. 2019), other primary research that had been conducted were trying to get in contact with the brand which unfortunately wasn’t successful. Secondary research has been carried out on Umbro’s current competitors in the market, reading articles to support my findings and so forth which has helped conclude all my recommendations for the brand. 

Conducting all this research, recommendations have been made to help improve the brand strategies of Umbro, this has been suggested by current consumers and hopefully future consumers, this evidence has been taken from Primary Research surveys and asking the general public on opinions. Recommendations will be made on the following: brand visuals, marketing and advertising, promotions and social media, these are all areas in which they are lacking and this is the way to catch consumers attention quickly. Their social media platforms will be a key recommendation made as they currently post the same post on all different platforms so they need to diversify the content posted. 

Introduction - 

Humphreys Brothers LTD founded in 1924 by brothers Harold and Wallace Humphreys, starting off as a small sportswear company, which then developed into Umbro. They are one of the earliest suppliers to professional football teams where one of their earliest successes were kitting out Manchester City who went on to win the FA cup in 1934 (“About Umbro - Global", 2019), Umbro also kitted 15 out of the 16 teams that competed in the 1966 World Cup Finals (Farrell. T 2018) whereas now they are currently supplying to only 15% of the Premier League (Score and Change, 2017).

Through this report, it will become clear where Umbro sit amongst its competitors, this will show an insight into the brands marketing strategies and what current consumers think of the brand. This report will uncover what marketing strategies Umbro are making and how (un)successful this is compared to competitors like Nike and Adidas. It will highlight the current issues with the brand and this is where recommendations will be made.

An outdated brand like Umbro has had issues with defining the identity of whom they are, throughout doing primary research it has been named an “outdated brand” which was expected whereas Nike was labeled the opposite. From research, their biggest issue is their identity and what route they want to take whether this is football focused or that vintage streetwear. Advertising and their social media seem to be a recurring issue for Umbro where they are just not focused on this. They don’t seem to try and reach their consumers by showing themselves on social media, but this has been shown to be the main platform of trying to connect with them. Secondary research has shown that Umbro has definitely faced some global issues but nothing they can’t overcome with change.

Macro Economic Analysis -

Political - 

Following the Prime Ministers speech in 2017, there is potentially so much at stake from a trade point, both for participants and the businesses that provide goods of the sector. The UK currently import sports goods to the value of EUR 2.9 billion and exports for 1.7. Consumers of sports goods are more exposed to risks of Brexit, first being imported goods rise in price as sterling falls and second being a long term. Consideration for this is the potential for barriers (tariffs) on imported sporting products, these may arise even where UK trade is with countries outside the EU ("Brexit: A tricky trade-off for the sports sector?", 2017). 

Economical - 

During Nikes ownership, Umbro’s revenues went from £210 million in 2006 to £170 in 2011 (Gelles, 2012), these are currently lower than ever but within the next year, they were due to rise from £145 to £167 million (Media, 2018). This shows that Umbro has been unable to recover itself since Nike.

Social - 

Some consumers of sportswear have took offence to the fact that sports brands like Nike and Puma are using models instead of athletes to promote their apparel. Bella Hadid wearing Nike, Kylie Jenner wearing Puma and Aly Railman (Athlete) wearing Rebook ("Should Sportswear Brands use Athletes not Models? - Brandwave Marketing LTD", 2019). A tweet read “I’ll take the one promoted by the athlete please”, which is showing that using athletes to promote sportswear can become more successful. 

Technological - 

Umbro has the least amount of followers on all social media platforms compared to its competitors, they only have 346K followers on Instagram ("Umbro (@umbro) • Instagram photos and videos", 2019) compared to Nike having 83.8 million ("@nike • Instagram photos and videos", 2019), and Adidas having 23.1 million ("@adidas • Instagram photos and videos", 2019). Umbro also receives the least amount of likes or activity compared to Nike and Adidas due to the amount of followers, this suggests that their competitors have better global popularity. 

Environmental - 

Umbro did a collaboration with sustainable designer Christopher Raeburn to create a time capsule collection embracing Raeburn’s “Remade, Reduced and Recycled” company ethos and Umbro’s heritage. This collection gave Umbro a new brand image of being environmentally friendly and sustainable within the industry. All the material is made from 100% recycled organic cotton, this collection was the least wasteful and most sustainable of their clothing history ("Umbro X Christopher Raeburn Capsule Collection", 2019). 

Legal - 

As Umbro is well known in over 90 countries (Encyclopaedia, 2006)……., all of these have different laws, and therefore all operate differently. This causes Umbro to work in different ways depending on the country, this can affect the success of them due to the location. Countries like China and North Korea have very political systems where they don’t allow western products into the country. This being said Umbro will either have to adapt their products or get rid of these ("The Textile and Apparel Market in China”, 2017). Umbro’s global rank of 358,379 ("umbro.com Traffic Statistics", 2019), compared to Nikes 458 ("nike.com Traffic Statistics", 2019), this shows that even though Umbro is known globally it's still not successful .

Brand Market Position -

Strengths - 

They are very well known in around 90 countries (“Umbro plc | encyclopedia.com, 2006), also having a lasting presence of 85 years ("SWOT ANALYSIS OF UMBRO by Sayed Arif in Marketing category on ManagementParadise.com", 2019) in hometown Manchester with launch of kits for them, once having a strong management as it was encouraged by Nike. Umbro has been sponsored for several events especially in football tournaments in the UK, they have an association with international players as brand ambassadors which has boosted the brands image. ("Umbro SWOT Analysis | Competitors & USP | BrandGuide | MBA Skool-Study.Learn.Share.", 2019) 

Weaknesses - 

Umbro is not very well active on social media, they have limited social media engagement having only 345k followers (“Umbro (@umbro) - Instagram posts and videos”, 2019) compared to Nike who have 84.8 million ("@nike • Instagram photos and videos", 2019). They are not very present with outdoor advertising unlike their competitors who are trying to grab consumers attention across all platforms of advertisement, Nike recently published a billboard (Lieu, 2018) to celebrate its 30th anniversary of the “Just Do It” campaign which was a big success. 

Opportunities -

They have lots of opportunities to re-establish their brand by attracting a younger audience and becoming more relevant on social media using influencers such as Kalysse Anthony ("Kalysse Anthony (@kalysseanthony) • Instagram photos and videos", 2019) to promote new products. They also could open up to a more streetwear culture by focusing on their vintage fashion items as well as their football wear when the season starts. 

Threats - 

Umbro’s biggest threats are their current competitors like Nike and Adidas, especially Nike being the parent group to Umbro they could potentially run them out. Umbro will not be the supplier to the Football Association anymore as a decision has been made to switch to Nike (Nakrani, 2013). Fake imitations of Umbro’s shirts can affect the brands sales, due to the counterfeit shirts being so realistic and a lot cheaper. ("Umbro SWOT Analysis | Competitors & USP | BrandGuide | MBA Skool-Study.Learn.Share.", 2019) 

Competitors -

Currently, Umbro sits with a range of current competitors such as Nike, Adidas, North Face, Calvin Klein, Gymshark, Under Amour, New Balance, Fila, Converse, and Sketchers ("Umbro SWOT Analysis | Competitors & USP | BrandGuide | MBA Skool-Study.Learn.Share.", 2019). Both of these brand positioning maps showcase Umbro and where it currently is positioned, the current position of Umbro is a cheaper brand than Nike and more of a performance brand, compared to Nike being both a fashion and performance brand with a slightly higher price. Their closest competitors are Nike and Adidas as they sell similar products and also have taken over sponsoring football teams that used to be sponsored by Umbro. These brands both have very good marketing skills and are known worldwide because of their advertising, whether this be on TV or physical posters on billboards etc. (—Billboards, 2019) This is something that Umbro do not do, so doesn’t get as much recognition as they do. 

Conducting a primary survey this is where consumers have placed Umbro but then in the suggestions recommended that it be made into more of a fashion brand. All of these competing brands both have a performance and fashion line within each brand and have a balance between them both which is something that Umbro is not as keen on having. From conducting a survey, the results were clear that the brands that focused on fashion lines and social media marketing were more successful, these are brands like Nike and Adidas, this is something that is successful for Umbro if they focused on these to attract a wider range of consumers. “Be more like Nike” (Sibley, 2018) is a comment that was made in the survey and this shows that Umbro is declining as it’s being wished that they were more like one of its competitors. Within the survey a question that asked in order which would you most likely buy from, Umbro scored an average out of 6 2.73 whereas Nike’s average was 5.28 which shows that the popularity of Umbro is decreasing. (Sibley, 2018)

Consumer Demographic -

The current consumer for the brand Umbro is of an older generation, typical England fan has been described as a “beer-swigging, pie-munching, balding and a bit of a foul mouth” (Kemp, 2019), this is the description of a typical England fan, but because England’s kits are supplied from Umbro, this is also the reputation that Umbro has. This is something that Umbro do not want as their consumer demographic, competitors like Nike and Adidas consumers are a much young audience, this is something that Umbro need to aim to attract within their rebrand. As Umbro focus mainly on their football kits, the consumers are mostly footballers, football coaches etc. this is something Umbro need to expand on as this is such a limited amount of people to promote towards especially with up-coming competitors promoting to these as well as a different demographic. Football teams which are sponsored by Umbro, their fans tend to be the consumers that buy Umbro clothing, but they aren’t doing this because its tailor-made by Umbro they’re doing it in support of their team, this is therefore increasing their sales because of their loyalty to their football team, if one football team was to switch from Umbro to Nike consumers would not be concerned for Umbro. They do currently have a fashion/streetwear line which is only advertised when they collaborate, advertised only by the joining company and not by Umbro which is a factor of why their sales are decreasing. ASOS x Umbro or Missguided x Umbro was a recent collaboration which was bought by many different consumers, including both genders and all ages. Umbro were very successful in these collaborations as consumers from ASOS and Missguided were buying into a sportswear brand. This is something that Umbro need to prioritise on, as having such a limited target audience is decreasing their sales even more, and eventually they will be taken over by other competitors and not have teams wearing Umbro anymore, so having a fashion line is something that if this scenario was to happen they would fall back on to their fashion line. 

Product selection -

Umbro’s product range includes providing clothing for a range of consumers; Men, Women and Children’s for both performance and lifestyle wear which can be personalised for a price. Umbro currently focuses on football equipment, such as football kit uniforms; jerseys, shorts and socks, goalkeeper gloves, balls and boots, apart of manufacturing other apparel such a jackets and t-shirts ("Umbro", 2019) all products price from around £2.99 ("Buy Umbro Mens Football Socks Black/White", 2019) up to £832 for a Men’s blue hooded Umbro jacket from the Umbro x Vetements collaboration ("Vetements - Blue Hooded X Umbro Jacket for Men - Lyst", 2019. Personalisation is also available for football jerseys, boots and equipment for an added price on the original product, this is something not all sporting retailers supply so to do this can attract consumers to buying something they can make personal. As ("Sportswear Brands & Customisation", 2013) states “Customisation is part of their strategy and if you have a fast look to sportswear brands websites, you will quickly find the “customisation” tab. Customisation makes feel the customer unique and he now has the opportunity to create the shoes really matching to its personality, lifestyle and/or sport.”, brands like Umbro use this so that their consumers can make a connection with the products they’re buying and have a one-off product specifically for themselves. 

Social Media and Influencer Marketing -

Umbro is not as successful on social media platforms as competitors in the sporting industry. Having 346K followers on Instagram, 689K Facebook and 128.2K on Twitter, despite Facebook having the most followers, they seem to be getting the most attraction on Instagram gaining 109,105 followers from June 2018 to February 2019 ("Umbro | Instagram Statistics / Analytics | Trackalytics", 2019). When posting something new on their social media they post the same on all active accounts, which reaches out to all their followers but for those followers that do follow them on more than one platform, this can become repetitive. On their social media posts, Umbro promotes products in different ways including; flat layouts, photoshoots, typography, infographics and reposts of other Umbro accounts. The ways in which the products are promoted on models are useful to potential consumers as they can see how these fit and look and have more of an insight than it being looked at on a mannequin. For instance, they have used the Instagram feature of “IGTV” which they posted on in August 2018 to show the 2018/19 kit to Schalke players which have 2188 views, they also utilise Instagram highlights where they have realised new products and included the link to them which takes you straight to the website to purchase. Umbro does not have any current Social Influencers who use their personal accounts to promote Umbro’s products whereas competitor Nike has many influencers including @cnkdaily, @nicoleroggow and @airmaxclub ("influence.co: Easily Connect With Instagram Influencers", 2019) as this is a much easier tactic to attract new consumers. Umbro has used celebrities in campaigns such as using football star Ashlyn Harris for their marketing campaign in 2017 which focused on both on-field and off-field apparel (Iconix Brand Group, 2017). Umbro has also been recognised by celebrities Justin Bieber and Bella Hadid both showing off the Umbro x Off-White collection in 2017 (Fitzpatrick, 2017) and both of these having such a high popularity rate, wearing brands like this, followers of the celebrity are more likely going to be interested so using celebrities to promote can be a success. 

Marketing mix -

Product -

Umbro are such a well-known company who supply to many, serving customers worldwide, their products are liable to many, such as adults and children, both genders. They are also a supplier of uniform for football teams and clubs such as West Ham United, Everton and AFC Bournemouth (Change, 2017). As well as football kits and shirts, Umbro also produces sports equipment like gloves, shin pads, balls, this is also something they are expanding as they are now producing a casual clothing line. This is made up of everyday lifestyle clothing items such as sweatshirts, track pants ("Umbro Marketing Mix (4Ps) Strategy | MBA Skool-Study.Learn.Share.", 2019).

Price -

Umbro's products are priced 35% lower than most of its competitors ("Umbro Marketing Mix (4Ps) Strategy | MBA Skool-Study.Learn.Share.", 2019), such as Nike and Adidas these are also companies that produce sportswear and leisurewear, they are both out-shining Umbro as a brand. Umbro is also trying to get their products across to youthful consumers so they offer a student discount ("20% Umbro Student Discount - Student Beans iD - SportStylist", 2019) on their website too to make their products affordable. 

Place - 

Umbro is well known in over 80 countries including, USA, England, Sweden, South Africa ("Umbro Marketing Mix (4Ps) Strategy | MBA Skool-Study.Learn.Share.", 2019), they have expanded their business by signing contracts with others outside the UK. They also have a well-known space on the internet with their own website but are also sold in sports retailers shops JD, Sports Direct and online stores such as ASOS. 

Promotion -

Umbro being a strong part of the football industry since 1924(“About Umbro - Global", 2019), its current social media platforms; Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are becoming very unsuccessful compared to competitors as they fail to promote their collections and collaborations. Umbro currently does not have any TV adverts or public adverts, and due to not having any physical stores it does not carry out any visual merchandising. The brand, however, does offer various discounts and deals to its customers offering those with a lower income to be able to afford the brands name. 

Conclusion -

To summarise, Umbro’s biggest issue within both the fashion and sportswear world is their marketing strategy, this is something they need to change in order to become more successful. To improve and regain popularity again they need to understand how to attract new consumers and understand what they are demanding of Umbro, this can be done through a rebrand, re-identifying who they are what their intentions through both on and off social media. 

Recommendations 

The brand -

Umbro should rebrand themselves as a Streetwear brand as well as a supplier of Football kits that they sponsor, they currently have both of these, but they seem to be losing their identity when they focus on sportswear more. Consumers tend to shop at Umbros competitors instead of them as they seem to understand who they are as brands, Nike being as stated by ("Yahoo is now part of Oath", 2019) “NIKE, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, markets, and sells athletic footwear, apparel, equipment, and accessories worldwide. The company offers NIKE brand products in six categories: running, NIKE basketball, the Jordan brand, football, training, and sportswear.” Whereas Umbro is described as a brand that sells football-related apparel, footwear and equipment. ("Umbro", 2019) With the rebrand I think they should have a balance between the two sides of Umbro, an advertise both of them just as much, but when certain football seasons start, promote more of themselves as a football brand. 

Consumer Demographic -

Umbro should expand on their consumer demographic and who they promote to, currently their target market is very limited where re-thinking the consumer demographic will increase future sales and attract more consumers to buy from them. Instead of their demographic being limited to fans of football and just supplying to teams expanding this to more of a youthful culture then this would would help increase sales. With their rebrand if they were to produce streetwear-like clothing then this would be a bigger success, competitor Adidas has a sub-brand of Adidas Originals, Adidas overall has a net sale world-wide of 21.22 billion euros (Facts, 2019) which has increase within the release of Adidas Originals. This is something that Umbro need to consider that in order to increase sales they have to start providing for a large audience, a proposed target market would be 15-25 age group for their streetwear collection and then a wider range for their football kits, as an age range can’t be shown for who wears and follows the sport. I think expanding to a streetwear brand they will attract a much larger target audience as streetwear is such a highlighted trend within 2019, consumers will buy into this. Umbro has been called a ‘old-school brand’ so if this was to come back into fashion I think generation Z will buy into this as this is a brand that was very high when they were a much younger age, so it will also be a come-back of their childhood. 

Logo -

Umbro should reduce the amount of logos they have and maybe come up with the two best looking ones for each of the football and then fashion side of the brand that is being imposed. This will avoid confusion with customers and show that they know their identity and this will come across strongly. They are famous for using the diamond shape, some with Umbro written underneath and some without, the brand logo with the name is more efficient because if consumers do not recognise the diamond shape than the name underneath identifies them. Their brand has been in a variety of colours but using the black and white logo this is the most recognisable one which represents the brand best. This is something they should consider within their rebrand as it will be most appealing to both a younger and older audience. 

Social media and influencers -

Umbro need to focus on their social media as that is where all their potential consumers are using, their social media platforms are something they need to change within the rebrand. They will receive more engagement if they promoted on these platforms, having 348K followers on instagram this isn’t as much engagement that Umbro’s competitors receive, like Nike having 84 million. They re-upload the same pictures and captions over all three social media accounts; Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, one thing when rebranding would be to decide what they will promote on each account to create diversity. They could start to use social media influencers that could help to promote new products or competitions as this create brand loyalty and engagement with consumers. Potential social media influencers they could use are @wuzg00d and @kalysseanthony, these are influencers who have worked with Nike to help promote different collaborations so this could work in Umbro’s favour. Releasing online competitions or countdowns is another tactic to engage with customers as they are excited for the release date, Umbro have not long done this on their instagram and this was very successful receiving a high average on their post than some of their others, when rebranding a recommendation will be made to make this a regular occurrence, maybe once a month. 

Store and location -

Umbro’s original heritage being in Cheadle, next to Manchester, England, they have a strong connection with Manchester having one of United’s player Denis Law became the first footballer to be sponsored by the firm, when he signed an exclusive deal with the brand. (Black, M. 2019). They are noticed globally by kitting out teams all over the world, having this availability all over the world is useful for their sales, they have a strong connection with those teams that they are contracted with. 

Umbro do not have any stores around the world, they are purely an online company but sold in certain retailers i.e. Sports Direct, JD Sports, Asos, which is useful for the up-coming generations as they are brought up into a digital world but for existing generations who like to physically shop this is not useful. Having some stores will be useful for Umbro’s rebrand as they will therefore expand to a whole new generation, who prefer shopping and being able to physically look what they are buying and trying on. This is something that is restricting them as their products are only sold in certain sports retailers in the UK which is restricting to brick and mortar shoppers as they will want to see the physical product. Umbro within their rebrand should definably consider opening stores which can help to increase sales and consumer variety, this will help with promotion, staying local to their heritage and opening a store up in Manchester will show loyalty to their hometown. 

Products -

Their new product range should include more streetwear including: sweatshirts, shorts, jogging bottoms, hats, socks and t-shirts. These are basic clothing pieces but when branded consumers tend to buy into them, they already have a streetwear clothing range and have collaborated with companies like MissGuided, Boohoo, Vetements and Off-White etc. using brands like these are helpful for brand loyalty and promotion. Collaborating with these brands was helpful was because the brands that they collaborated with had an increase in sales due to their new collections. This is something in their rebrand they should continue to do as this was more successful knowing that an ‘outdated’ brand like Umbro was joining with brands that are very fashionable. As well as rebranding into a new streetwear brand they will also still have their football wear which is something that consumers will still demand for from Umbro, they will just not be as focused on their kits out of the football season. 

Advertising strategy / promotion -

Currently Umbro’s only form of promotion is through their social media accounts, promoting on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, they do have online adverts that appear on Facebook. To become more popular and well known for what they are doing using outdoor advertising would be a recommended strategy for them, this will help to promote their brand and also grab the attention of potential consumers. Performance wear is one of Umbro’s biggest products, these outfits are worn outside for activities so promoting outside of social media could be useful to be noticed by others that are entertained by outside activities. Also if they are wanting to promoting online, running competitions and online promotion advertisements that are interactive so that you are being straight to the website that this is being sold on. Another way of promoting the release of new products, like having a pre-release date on these, Adidas has recently done pop up stores all over the world, this was a huge success for them and their sales, this is something that Umbro should consider doing as this is helping promote the release of new products. Using the idea of a shoe box, for potentially selling new shoes, this is something instead of making a store under the circumstances on not knowing how successful this will, a pop-up store will show the potential sale figures that a store will have. Placing these pop-up stores in hometown Manchester and the bigger cities like London or Liverpool, or using the hometowns of the teams that they sponsor. 

Competitors -

Umbro’s current competitors are sportswear brands like Nike, Adidas, Puma, these even with the rebrand will still be a competitor but also brands like ASOS, Selfridges and retailers will become their competitors as these will sell different streetwear apparel which is what the rebrand of Umbro will be selling and promoting. Most of their proposed competing brands have both a streetwear collection as well as a performance collection to support their sporting background. These proposed brands and retailers are much cheaper than buying from Nike or Adidas which is something Umbro should aim to become as consumers will have a lower disposable income so would be able to afford this brand. Umbro should aim to compete with these brands as they already been over-casted by them, these proposed brands they are on a similar level of attraction on social media and brand sales, these are much better brands to compete with as they are very similar in the products they sell and how much for. They also promote in very similar ways to Umbro, most of it being online but also they have outdoor adverts which help attract new and up-coming customers, which is something that Umbro need to carry out in their rebrand. It does make this easier for Selfriedges and JD sports as they do have stores in and out of the UK, whereas Umbro do not have any so is much harder to promote as they have the chance to promote through their window displays and in-store.