By William Flood
Under Armour (NYSE: NYSE:UA) (UAA) is one of those companies that grasps: a) the importance of Millennials, b) understands e-commerce and the multichannel - mobile in particular, and c) has the marketing know-how to navigate this increasingly complex market.
Investors who know a thing or two about financial statements can connect the proverbial dots. The first stop is being attuned to revenue; revenue, of course, is the precursor to profits. Most importantly, revenue is driven by marketing.
More dot-connecting - it's no secret that most brick-and-mortar companies are increasingly faced with an inability to compete in the digital world.
The story is that e-commerce simply trumps physical retail, given convenience and even price in some cases. However, that's not really the whole tale. Relatively unknown is that many pure-play e-commerce companies are not doing as well as consumers believe, where the hybrids - the multi-channel retailers that combine bricks-and-mortar with e-commerce - are holding up well. Mobile commerce, which is expanding faster than web-based online buying, is part of that omni-channel mix. It's about blending the two and using physical stores as distribution centers.
One final dot to add when it comes to the idea that "marketing-drives-profits" is the increasing impact that millennials are having in the retail space. Generation Y as it's known, are those born between 1982 and 2000, and represent 83 million buyers (as compared to 75 million baby boomers). They're also displacing the boomer generation as the driving force of the economy.
Millennials will drive $UA.
Millennials are exceedingly brand conscious and want brands that reflect their generation, not prior ones. Under Armour was founded in 1996, and from the outset seemed to chart a course different from rivals such as Nike (NKE).
Gen Y is tech-savvy, particularly with mobile. They have grown up
