First Draft of Report

FIRST DRAFT

Brand Report

1. Executive Summary

Within this report, suggestions to revive Umbro from its current brand positioning will be discussed, looking at their social media statistics, and influencer marketing to see how much audience engagement is being produced. The purpose is to help Umbro come to terms with the problems which they are facing and how they can rejuvenate and bring a wider demographic to the table. Through primary and secondary research findings, this report will give an insight into the main concerns the general public have on the brand, and their own personal opinions of what the brand needs to change to keep up to date with its competitors. Many respondents stated that they never buy from Umbro as they had ‘forgot about it’ or that they ‘don’t advertise enough’, both these statements will be taken into consideration throughout the report. Therefore, for Umbro to really begin to excel and change the direction the brand is taking, advertisements are key; particularly on Instagram and also use influencers to regain the younger audience appeal will ultimately help the brand head in the right direction.

2. Introduction to the Brand

Umbro has previously been a successful sportswear brand who originated from specialising in football and particularly football boots. They are currently part of the Iconix Brand Group subsidiary, which aren’t excelling particularly well. The brand still pride themselves on football gear and equipment, this is still sold on their website and in Sports Direct but it is clear to see that there has been a huge decline in sales; hence the lack of advertising and lack of audience consumption. They have attempted to develop new collections for a fashionable alternative to the brand, however these too don’t seem to be going well either. For Example, on their own website umbro.co.uk, almost everything has between 30 and 50 percent off. 

This report will explore Umbro’s current brand positioning, starting by identifying the brand’s positives and negatives in today’s society, establish why they have become irrelevant and why a large majority state that Umbro is ‘outdated’. Common findings through a primary research questionnaire on Umbro’s current brand position were that the public were more likely to buy from Adidas and Nike as they have collections which appeal to a mass audience, all of different styles and interests due to the vast range of products which they produce and advertise regularly, keeping a constant fresh look to the brand, something Umbro is definitely struggling with. This helps to understand why they aren’t being sold and promoted in stores such as JD and Schuh, and why all products are hugely discounted online. Using this information, this report will suggest alternative roots that the brand could go down keeping the current audience interested and branch out by appealing to different audiences with their own consumer needs. It is clear to see that today, Umbro are struggling to promote themselves, particularly to a generation Z audience with a strong interest in fashion.

3. Macro Economic Analysis

3.1 Political (PESTEL) 

In terms of political issues surrounding Umbro, most of their factories in which their products are manufactured are in China and Hong Kong, and has been this way since 1999. Therefore political happenings such as Brexit are not going to effect the manufacturing and importing process of their products. Although using factories in China is cheaper for the company, some negatives may include a job loss in the UK for those in the fashion industry as Umbro previously manufactured their products in the UK. 

3.2 Economical (PESTEL)

Economical performance within Umbro is currently low, there are clear issues including annual revenue, stock pricing and pricing of products. According to campaignlive.co.uk, Nike bought Umbro for over 500 million dollars in 2007, there was a glimpse of hope for the brand, however, in 2009 Nike announced that they had to take an impairment charge of 401 million dollars as the company’s future cash flow had fallen below the levels Nike had expected. Another worrying factor is that on the website ‘Owler’, they have stated that Umbro’s estimated annual revenue is only $4.2 Million, to put that into comparison, Adidas’s revenue was $30 Billion. On Umbro’s official website, the majority of the stock is between 30 and 50 percent off, suggesting that the sales of product are at an all time low. And as for the stocks, Iconix Brand group (current owner of Umbro) have been at a constant decrease for the past 5 years. 

3.3 Social (PESTEL)

Umbro’s competitor’s have a much stronger social media presence, with a clear demographic which has been targeted by using influencer’s the audience can connect with. Adidas have several instagram accounts which are all regularly posted on, the main account has 23 million followers, Adidas Originals has 31.7 followers; the most followed Adidas account suggesting that a large proportion of the audience enjoy this style of product. Umbro on the other hand have many different Instagram accounts for all countries which they supply, however only three are verified. They have 336k followers, and the feed is very all over the place. The brand needs to develop a much clearer direction in terms of connecting with their target demographic, whether to stick to a strong football supplier or dive in deep and be confident in new collections, sharing them regularly. 

3.4 Technological (PESTEL)

Umbro’s technological impact is minimal, they have accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter however the advertising campaigns are nothing out of the ordinary and regularly never seen or heard of. Many of the collaborations that Umbro were apart of have not been promoted enough on social media, and with a huge population of young people having a huge interest in sportswear and streetwear then they need to rethink ways to target these individuals, which means having a big online persona. 

3.5 Environmental (PESTEL)

Environment issues need to be considered. As Umbro manufacture there products in China and are sold all over the world, this means that the products will be travelled by air; increasing pollution. Ideally, once you have bought your product and had enough wear, the products should be recycled (if possible) or donated to reduce landfill. Umbro are not a company who promote sustainability often therefore the audience are not being told want to do with the product at the end of use. This could result in large more amount of landfill. Ideally the products could be sold through websites like Depop or Asos, could be donated to charity shops or other family members, or start making the products out of recyclable materials. The same can go for packaging, plastic packaging should be reduced, increase cardboard with labelled to direct the user to recycle. 

3.6 Legal (PESTEL)

Moving on to legal issues, items should be correctly labelled; for example if the product is not machine washable, this should be labelled as so. Again, as Umbro is manufactured in China, the wages paid should be at least minimum wage, and of a legal age, working a legal amount of hours. An issue which Iconix Brand Group have came across is racial bias within the company. Jay Z is currently suing the brand after they bought his company ‘Rocawear’ and now have a lack of African American arbitrators within the company.

4. Brand Marketing Positioning

Through gaining responses from a questionnaire, common comments made it very clear where the consumer considers Umbro’s brand position. Such as; ‘they don’t advertise enough’, ‘I forgot about them’, ‘more football orientated’, ‘don’t notice it’. These comments were made by a very dominant 18-24 age group therefore it shows that the decline this age group shows towards the company is making the brand decrease massively in sales. It is fair to say that the company is not succeeding no where near as much as its competitors, advertisements are not present or concentrated at all on any social media; hence the negativity from young people. This shows that there are clear money issues. Umbro is a bit all over the place in terms of products, it is as if they are not confident in what they produce so they do not advertise and do not continue with similar collections apart from football attire. One respondent suggested that Umbro need to filter out their products from sports wear and fashion, and the offering needs to be clear. 

4.1 Strengths (SWOT)

Umbro’s strong points are definitely football apparel. Umbro are still kitting out many football teams every year; including England, Chelsea. The football boots which they manufacture are high quality and stick to the roots of the brand as they still make the original football boots which helped the brand excel. Although the different sections of Umbro apparel are not as clear and defined as they could be, they still sell a large variety of products. The price point is also another strength to the consumer, most products are largely discounted and the ones that are not, are still very reasonable. The more expensive products are the boots which is understandable as they are high quality. Collaborations with Missguided and Off White are intriguing and widen the target audience.

4.2 Weaknesses (SWOT)

Some negatives with Umbro’s brand position include the lack of advertisements on and offline. They need to promote their products otherwise it will result in the brand declining and audience consumption decreasing. The social media presence can be improved, on Twitter, they usually only use it to wish footballers happy birthday, never promoting new products. Their Instagram feed is also all over the place and do not get the audience engagement like competitor’s do.

4.3 Opportunity (SWOT)

Opportunities which Umbro could take on board might be opening their own stores with new and refreshed stock rather than relying on JD, Sports Direct and other third party brands to promote their products. It is clear to see that these stores are not promoting Umbro at all, so being your own promotor would be a great opportunity. By having an Umbro store they could have a collection which regularly changes, or ‘drops’ building audience anticipation and more engagement as it would make the audience want to travel to the store or click on the link to see these brand new products. This could create a cult following similar to Supreme and Palace increasing brand loyalty. Viral advertising campaigns to go alongside these drops would increase clicks and sales.

4.4 Threats (SWOT)

Other popular sports brands are the main threat to Umbro, they are succeeding with advertisements, collaborations and already having solid unique collections. For example; Adidas and Adidas Originals. Third party stores like JD and Sports Direct when advertising usually promote these more popular brands as they know that they will get the sales. Nike, Fila, Reebok for example, therefore they do not necessarily have the brands back. With the legal issues between Iconix Brand Group and Jay Z currently, this does not reflect well on the brand as Jay Z is a very popular influencer, he could take down Umbro easily. His voice would be heard by many people, possibly resulting in the brand continuing to decline.

5. Competitors 

Umbro’s main competition are other sports brands, particularly those which have a huge influence on fashion as well as having the high quality performance garments which athletes and sports enthusiasts buy into. This brand positioning map shows Umbro being low price and far left into the performance category, they have attempted to release fashion pieces by themselves as a brand and by collaborating with other streetwear and high quality companies. For example, they collaborated with Palace which suggests that Umbro were wanting to take an alternate street wear route within the brand, however the collaboration is fairly unknown to those who are not large fans of Palace which meant that Umbro did not increase the audience engagement to a level that they were hoping for. Umbro could adapt there brand to be like Palace and Supreme, having there own signature pieces which are limited addition, to raise audience anticipation within the brand, and having higher demand for products, ultimately resulting in an increase in sales and exposure to a wider demographic. Brands such as Champion and Fila have done wonders for the collision between fashion and sportswear. As well as having a reputation for high quality performance in sports attire (Fila within the tennis community), they have succeeded massively in having a clear fashion section of their brand, something which Umbro are struggling to do. 

6. Consumer Demographic

Umbro’s target demographic is quite blurred in terms of the different stock they produce, along with the decline in sales resulting in reduced price attire. Umbro are well known for supplying football teams with equipment, clothing and football boots of a very high quality. They currently still sponsor the kits of Bournemouth, Everton, West Ham in the Premier League, and England. This can suggest that their main target market are those with a huge interest in Football and who are fans of these teams. This is evident in the questionnaire results. The majority of respondents who answered ‘yes’ to owning any products by Umbro went on to say that they were either football attire or equipment. They are most likely in the C2, D and E categories on the Socio Demographic scale, having low income since the pricing of Umbro’s garments are extremely cheap or discounted massively. Those based in the UK will be Umbro’s main target audience as they sponsor some bigger UK football teams.