Marketing Analysis : Lulu Lemon

Lululemon’s Pricing Strategy aims to communicate to its guest that they are a brand that supports innovative, high quality apparel. Their items, specifically the Groove pant, is targeted at educated women with higher than average incomes, Therefore

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

Lululemon is one of the Canada’s best retailers of technical athletic yoga apparel. Lululemon’s yoga inspired apparel is marketed under the two brand names Lululemon Athletica for more mature women and Ivivva Athletica for younger girls. Lululemon primary target customers are educated and hard working women, who understand the importance of healthy and active lifestyle. Majority of these women are Caucasian who are mainly urban and have higher income, since Lululemon is an expensive brand .Most of their products are design to offer fit, performance and comfort while incorporating both style and function. On another hand, American Apparel

The rivalry among existing competitors is strong. It is becoming increasingly harder to develop new and unique products based solely around a small niche activity. There are only so many aspects of yoga that can be explored and that products can be developed to accompany. Although Lululemon was the first, new competitors are seeing the profit to be had in this niche market and are entering with the goal of creating new more creative strategies to compete with Lululemon and take part of their large market share. (Morning Star)

Lulemon Athletica is an athletic apparel company based out of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The company was founded by Dennis “Chip” Wilson, in the year 1998.

a few percent, in 2012 the gross profit margin is the highest it has ever been

Lululemon Athletica Inc., founded in 1998 in Vancouver by Chip Wilson, is a company which designs and produces high-end yoga and technical athletic clothing. They have operated primarily in North America and Australia; their initial target customer was an educated woman who lives an active and healthy lifestyle. They opened their first store in Kitsilano in BC in November, 2000. The first store was intended to act as a community hub where people could learn and discuss about the physical aspects and mental aspects of a healthy life, in addition to selling yoga clothing.

Through lots of feedback from the guests, ambassadors and elite athletes, Lululemon now designs for yoga, running, cycling, workout and most other sweaty classes for women and men.

Lululemon Inc. has a strong history of making quality fitness clothing for yoga and other athletic purposes by the founder of the company. Dennis “Chip” Wilson in 1998. After becoming “overwhelmed” by the company’s success in Vancouver, Wilson transferred management of the company to trained managers (Nicholes, 2016, p.6). During this time, Corporate CEO Christine Day’s leadership was put into question due to the low level quality of material used to make the Luon Pants, which had a “see-through problem” due to the extreme sheerness of the pant material. More so, in 2013, corporate leadership had a lawsuit brought against the company directors, including Christine Day, of massively raising the

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

The fitness clothing market is growing rapidly. Customers’ new found inclination towards living healthier lifestyles has produced an increase in participation of people into various physical activities. Hence, the high levels of competition in the fitness and

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 industry that Lululemen operates in is the Women`s Apparel industry which is a mature, large and fragmented market that has highly sensitive to the economic conditions and trends.

Popular athletic brands such as Nike, adidas and Under Armor are specializing in different aspects such as basketball and outdoor sports which are mainly for men thus, it has a different target market and brand identity as opposed to lululemon.

In 2013, Lululemon Athletica Inc found it succession of problems that damaged the company’s reputation, these included the following: (i) quality control was top on the list as there was a recall of 17 per cent of the company 's Luon pants, (ii) lawsuits issues with investors, (iii) withdrawal from the Canadian stock exchange, and (iv) bad publicity (Huang, 2014, p.5-7).