Letter To Lululemon Essay

As women have continued to embrace a variety of fitness and athletic activities, including yoga, we believe other athletic apparel companies are not effectively addressing their unique style, fit and performance needs. We believe we have been able to help address this void in the

Over the last 10 years’ gym memberships within the United States have increased from 41.3 million to 54.1 million. The biggest trend over the last few years is becoming fit, more and more each day people are finding ways to live fit and healthier lifestyles. From eating the right nutritional foods, working out and people just wanting to follow the latest and greatest trends. The increase in gym memberships and the amount of people working out leads to the increase in athletic attire. For this exact reason athleisure wear was born, it is the newest fashion trends were people wear athletic clothing regardless if they intend go to the gym or not that day. People are wearing it to the office, shopping, to run errands and other social events. Athleisure wear consist of articles of clothing such as spandex, leggings, yoga pants, sports bras and fashionable sweats. Over the last 10 years an increase in athleisure wear has spread at a rapid rate globally, particularly in the women’s fashion industry. Since 2013 the increase in athleisure wear apparel has grown by 14% and accounts for 18% of the total clothing retail market. With this trend still catching on, active wear is expected to continue to grow at an average rate of 3.3% annually. Due to this rapid increase in purchasing athleisure wear the apparel industry will continue to grow especially Nike because they are the market leaders in active sportswear. For that exact reason I believe that Nike is a

The athletic apparel industry has shown a large increase in popularity. Global sales of sport clothing have increased from 146.1 billion US dollars in 2007 to 162 billion US dollars in 2012(Global Participative Sport as Consumption). Particularly in the United States, sales of sport apparel have increased by 7% from 2013 to 2014 (Wingus). There has been a large trend in healthy living, as “activewear accounted for $33.7 billion in sales and made up 16 percent of the apparel market” (Wingus). The industry is booming, as sportswear, specifically yoga pants, has transformed into people’s daily apparel. (Refer to Appendix Table 1) Huffington post noted, “people are wearing trendy workout clothes all day, every

Levi’s decided to place their product in department stores as they had good relations with the retailers due to their volume sales of jeans. They did not have any real relationship with the specialty stores where the independent male shopped. Rather than placing their new products which would be considered as high-end in these specialty stores and where they would be among the lower price range, they chose to place their products in the department stores where their products showed a deviation from the regular Levi formula and were considered very pricy as compared to other high-end department store brands such as Haggar’s. This price raised some concerns among the retailers as they were unsure if Levi’s formal wear would move out of the stores at a required pace. Also, due to price-quality inference, if Levi’s was placed in a specialty store, the Q2 customer might prefer to buy a more expensive product.  Levi tried to sell these formal clothes in the same stores as their casual clothes for the same segment of customers. Customers saw these formal clothes at the same place priced higher than the casuals, and therefore found them to be expensive.

In the athletic apparel industry, as in any industry, it is key to stay in touch with the current trends in order to keep your products relevant. With Lululemon focused on such a niche activity it will be important that they explore other markets within the sports apparel industry in the future so as to stay relevant. We can see the company’s first steps in doing just this when they recently introduced their men’s apparel line. A summary of the athletic apparel industry’s external environment are listed in Exhibit 1.

Another challenge for Louis Vuitton is the market and brand dilution as it has already entered and successfully fit in the Japanese market. The products have already maintained the “acceptable” group, and the company has become to feel difficult to increase the revenue. The figure provided in the case showed that nearly half of the Japanese have Louis Vuitton-monogrammed items by the time of 2007. This seemed to make LV prevalent but not luxury any more. To maintain its brand image, it is

Economic: Continued economic struggles, especially within the European Union, have the potential to negatively affect Lululemon’s international expansion(Thomas

The first Lululemon store was initially created as a place for people to gather to learn and share ideas about a healthy lifestyle. As the company expanded, Lulu could no longer target every individual walking into the store with knowledge of healthy living. At this point, the company shifted its focus to educating their employees who could positively influence everyone who walked into the stores. The thought and reasoning that went into the first Lulu store has continued as the company has grown. It has continued to target active people while pushing everyone towards a healthy lifestyle. Its main target market is young woman, between 15 and 34 years old, in the middle to upper classes. One of

Lululemon’s ability to source profitably merchandise may be affected; if new trade restrictions are imposed by The United States and other countries where products are produced or sold. These may include additional quotas, duties, tariffs, or other restrictions or regulation. Moreover, China increased in labor cost and other factors associated with production could increase the cost of product. (“Lululemon Athletica Annual Report, 2012”).

This will be the perfect opportunity for the target audience to see the coffee ground athletic apparel used in a competitive sports

Companies like Under Armour, Nike and Adidas/Reebok have high threats of substitute´s products. These companies share the sport apparel industry and are vulnerable to competitive pressure from the actions of buyers whenever they view that their products can be substituted for others. The availability of substitutes invites the costumer to compare performance, features, and ease of use as well as price. Under Armour’s major competitors are Nike and Adidas/Reebok because they have a similar or competing product offerings. The top sport apparel brands offer similar products and that is why each one of them needs to keep a high standard and produce good quality products in order for customers to keep buying their product.

The women's apparel market is highly competitive. With the launch of a new active-wear line from Harrington Collection's, more and more competitors will start to realise the potential value in in producing an active-wear line of their own. The active-wear market is growing so rapidly (expected to double turnover from 2007 to 2009), that eventually all of Harrington's competitors would likely be expected to launch a line of their own, relying on existing brand loyalty and high-scale advertising campaigns to capture market share and move units.

The Lululemon brand ranked highest among their competitors for “luxury fashion apparel”. Organizing a like-minded community for body-conscious and health-aware as well as fashion-pursuing female customers is one of the most fundamental parts of Lululemon’s marketing strategy. Lululemon is the first mainstream clothing company to really put the “salon” business model into every detail of their business management. Resembling the core of Apple’s retail strategy, in which like-minded thinkers came together to share their own opinions, culture, and theories. Customers go to the Apple store and salesmen will teach them how to use the products. Lululemon will do the same thing, they could teach customers. In recent retail environment, buyer and seller are put on the same sides under the effect of this strategy. Both are focused on an idea of self-betterment that overshadows the commercial transaction itself. This ethic strategy transforms the stores into a space for personal communication with low pressure. The employee have the chances to talk to the customers about their passions and pursuits, and customers will select the ideal garments with the help of the employee. The final purchase transaction comes to be an investment in customers themselves, representing their own ideas and goals. In fact, Lululemon keeps setting goal behind the counter to make customized service to guests. Salon-model strategy is a trend to interest consumers overtook the desire to just own or consume more

Clothes are made in the Far East or North America. Prices start around £250, or $482, per pair of jeans. They don’t carry any stock, are never on sale, and receive cash upfront before manufacturing. They have very high sales per square foot – about $2000.

The cost is kept low with labor and the production. This helps competing in the export trading world. “I am telling, in textile nobody can beat Bangladesh in price and quality”