Chapter 4: The Marketing Environment

Umbro's target market has always been the same since the mission statement was implied to the company, which was given in the beginning of the company. They, the marketing group,don't stress it enough on how imperative it is for them to interact and target their market with the people who have a passion and every day culture for soccer. Most of these people are not locatd in the United States, they are mostly located in other continents such as Europe, South America, Central Amaerica, and etc. In order to succeed in America they must exude that passion through the people who live by soccer every day. Not only are they exposing great advertisement through the soccer culture but great soccer apparel and footwear is being designed and merchandised. The prices on the items are very reasonable for the quality provided to the customers. Most of the jerseys are from English teams due to the brand's inheritence. Not to mention, Umbro is collaborating with top designers Aitor Throup and Peter Saville on the England football shirts, adding to the number of innovative creative thinkers to work with the brand.

A lot of the values that Umbro sends out is upward mobility which means "success would come to anyone who got an education, worked hard, and played by the rules." Not only do they share culture with the people but they recieve feedback by asking them to complete a survey through the web so Umbro can be aware of any discommunications, improvements, and compliments. The CEO of the company once stated, "Society implies ideas about looking for the currency when in reality all we try to exude is the passion and love for soccer through our apparel and footwear. Each of our products has a storyline to them which can be defined as culure."

 

Umbro doesn't have an exact demography in terms of age or race because soccer is not about race nor age but the embracement of the sport through apparel and other soccer equipment that Umbro provides for the football intitution.

Chapter 3 - Ethics & Social Responsibility

According to the text in MKTG,discipline is very imperative when it comes todecision making and strategic planning in the marketing. Search engines hadnothing about ethical behavior for Umbro but my perception about ethics is verybroad.

Umbro should have an open minded attitude with asocial behavior to be able to interact with different people with differentpersonalities. A marketer’s communication skill has to be remarkable in orderto identify the customers/society. For example, if you are talking to a buyerwho likes to feel comfortable and well greeted before initiating into ameeting, then the best thing to do is keep him company with a positive attitudeand a smile. Not only that, but offer them anything like food, a drink, somemellow music before showing the line to him/her.

There a several responsibilities that a marketer aresponsible for and these are legal, economic, ethical, and philanthropicresponsibilities. These all fall into corporate social responsibility which tome is a major concept to pertain in your marketing career.

Another concept to keep in mind while being in themarketing career is false advertisement. False advertising or deceptiveadvertising is the use of false or misleading statements in advertising.As advertising has the potential to persuade people into commercialtransactions that they might otherwise avoid, many governments around the worlduse regulations to control false, deceptive or misleading advertising."Truth" refers to essentially the same concept, that customers havethe right to knowwhat they are buying, and that all necessary information should be on thelabel. One thing I know about Umbro is that their products and internationalcommercials is how they actually present themselves. Umbro has a passion forembracing the most popular sport in the world and you can see that throughtheir montages and commercials.

Umbro’s marketingcan be defined as green marketing due to the fact that they expose the passionand excitement of soccer in every product they advertise. They also try andcreate different venues for the youth to interact through soccer games withincommunities around the globe. This is creating a positive energy in theenvironment which minimizes negative effects throughout society by keeping thepeople happy and active.

Chapter 2: Stragetic Planning for Competitive Advantage

Umbro's one plan, besides creating great numbers with their products, is to expand the culture of soccer to those who embody it in their every day lives. To these people soccer isn't just a sport but a passion that was built throughout their life. Other brands, such as Nike, Adidas, Puma and etc. may see it as just another sport but Umbro enhances the soccer institution by sharing their passion for the sport with the people. Not only is the company creating a connection with the people, but they retrieve new members in to the Umbro institution due to their passionate way of embodying the sport through their brand.

When Nike marched in waving its wallet and trumped Umbro for the much-prized contract to supply Manchester United's kit from next year, it only underlined what observers already knew - that football had become a global media property.

Against that sort of competition, Umbro begins to look like the Premiership equivalent of Southampton: nice people but without the ability to mount a serious challenge to the high value institutions such as Nike, Adidas and Reebok. Last year, Umbro spent £500,000 on advertising, a fraction of Nike's £8m budget.

Not everything is lost, however. The strengths of Nike and Adidas, huge budgets and the desire for world domination of all sports markets, are also weaknesses in the football market. For Umbro there is only one sport: football (soccer). This gives it a powerful heritage and allows it to suggest that its rivals are not as focused on the soccer perspective.

This is a great opportunity for Nike on the other hand due to the concentration on the soccer department from Umbro.

Umbro is known on developing positive brand values and not seek to improve the image of the player that advertises their brand. The great thing about Umbro is that they use their own assets as tools for their own purposes and not allow them, the player representing the brand, to dominate  their campaign. For example, young people should remember UMBRO.COM and not Michael Owen as a result of your promotions. The media you choose should target young audiences.


The four Ps are imperative in the marketing career because it is the other half, besides the culture and creating a connection with the people, of a successful company.

Product/Price
I believe product and price kind of merge together in the same category. Umbro is one of the few companies that makes high quality products and sell them for a reasonable price. On the other hand, companies like Adidas and Nike sell high quality soccer appereal/equipment for a high price most of the time. Another reason why Umbro is such a great soccer institution for most of the people who advertise it.

Place
Umbro is a brand that is located all around the world and is still expanding trying to increase their number of locations immensely. It's amazing how a company starts off in one country, England, and becomes known worldwide to the soccer association and the people who follow it.

Promotion

Umbro has done a lot of promotions throughout the years they have been in business and one of the most imperative promotions that elevated the brand drastically was providing beautiful ladies with the country jerseys they made for the 2012 World Cup. Attracting the people is a big role in the marketing world and in my opinion this was a brilliant idea to catch the people's, mostly men of course, attention.

Chapter One: History & Mission Statement

An amazing soccer equipment institution was foundedin the year 1924, Umbro. This brand Umbro designs, sources, and marketssport-related apparel, footwear, and equipment. Its products are sold in over90 countries worldwide. This brand originated from England and was founded byHarold Humphreys, along with his brother Wallace in a small workshop inWilmslow, Cheshire, inspired by the growing interest in football witnessednationwide. Umbro's gear was enhanced in the year 1934 FA Cup final where inthe match, Manchester City and Portsmouth, two England teams, the jerseys werethe advertisement for this brand. Later on after a period of time Umbro beganto expand rapidly throughout the market and various teams began to represent iton their jerseys. The following teams that carried Umbro in every match theyplayed were Sheffield United and Preston North End, ManchesterUnited and Blackpool. All of these were England teams. Thebrand began to revolutionize their gear from better quality jersey tocomfortable and stylish cleats. By 2008, Umbro was bought by America’s topknown sportswear brand, Nike. In September 2012, the Football Association announced that futureEngland kits would be manufactured by Nike.

 

“That history givesus the essence of the brand. We are an English football tailoring brand, that isour unique point of view,” said Trevor Cairns, the marketing director. Hepoints out that although Nike itself has a high profile within football, thebrand has only been in the sport for about 15 years and is focused on producinghigh-performance product innovations for the field of play. Umbro’s revisedbrand is focused on “where football and culture collide”. Cairns explained:“Football is the biggest shared culture in the world. Whoever engages with thegame, Umbro can have a conversation with them. Nike is more focused on the guywho plays and trains three times a week.”

Umbro is an inspirational brand that exists to provide the culture of the most popular sport in the world.