Marketing Strategy For Lululemon Athletica Inc.

The brand discussed in this report is Lululemon Athletica Inc. The brand is an athletic apparel retailer, whose main objective is building a community with a healthy lifestyle. Lululemon’s target market is middle/upper class 30-year-old woman. The brand is positioned as a premium high fashion brand for the athletic community. Some of Lululemon’s main competitors include Nike, Under Armour and Gap.

This report has been created with the intent to analyze the athletic apparel industry with a specific focus on Lululemon Athletica, Inc., further refered to as Lululemon. In this report you will find that the strengths and weaknesses of Lululemon’s current strategies and future goals are analyzed and compared to that of its closest competitors. In conclusion to the analysis, recommendations have been made to potentially guide Lululemon Athletica, Inc. in a positive direction in regards to its future endeavors. The following

Lululemon Athletica’s (LULU) competitive advantage hinges on the company’s use of the four management pillars; efficiency, quality, innovation and responsiveness to clients (Tsang et al, 2013). LULU achieves unrivalled efficiency through outsourcing and technological advances. Even though LULU continues to design their merchandises in Canada, the manufacturing is outsourced from countries such as Bangladesh, China and Indonesia. The company has benefited from technological advancements by allowing customers the comfort of buying merchandises online, through the company’s website, which comprises of free shipping straight from the manufacturing plant, and thus saves on shipping costs, time, as well as retail store resources like signage and employees.

Customers make purchasing decisions based on the information they have among products and the values of goods a company offers. For that reason, companies have to promote their products to increase products awareness. In order to achieve organizational goals, companies must understand the market’s needs to ensure the success of their businesses. Such information can be gained through research. The industry that will form the basis of this paper is Western Canadian Shoe Association. The three brands under study are Reebok, Adidas, and Nike.

Lululemon is a rapidly growing company with a different niche for its products. Its philosophy as well as their business model has allowed them to increase revenue over the past years. The dilemma they faced is how to continue expanding without losing their special niche, grassroots and a nontraditional feel of the brand that sets them apart from their competitors.

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 company which our focus centers on is the prestigious Lululemon. What started out as an underground yoga and design studio blossomed today into a $225 million-dollar company that offers premium athletic clothing at high-end prices. It all started one day when the company founder, Chip Wilson, decided to try something new – yoga, a physical activity that emerged in 1997 which appealed to the independent woman. Wilson was a fanatic in every type of board; he took joy in surfing, snowboarding, and skateboarding. After his first session of yoga, Wilson found the experience so exhilarating and akin to the post feeling of boarding. Yoga today is the central focus surrounding Lululemon, the lifestyle which the customers pursue.

Instead of conducting traditional marketing which has huge marketing budgets, Lululemon heavily relays on word of mouth. Moreover, the grassroots branding strategy make them differentiated from their competitors. Lululemon providing free class and made instructors be their models which become a very successful way to promote their products.

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.

Lululemon is a large company, making clothing for athletic activities, not only are they in the women’s athletic range, but they have hit the men’s market and youth range as well. A SWOT analysis will be used to break down Lululemons strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to the business. Strengths which Lululemon have achieved include multi-faceted and community-based approach strategy, making customers feel part of a community through marketing strategies like there “ambassador program, social media, in-store community boards and grassroots initiatives” (Lululemon, 2016 Annual Report, 2016, p. 3). Touchpoints which have been a part of this multi-channel include Lululemons websites www.lululemon.co.nz and ivivva.com which is based around female youth active ware. With Lululemon having 12,500 full-time employees worldwide (Lululemon Athletica Inc. (LULU), 2017) with 406 stores (Lululemon, 2016), their large market capital of $8.33 billion (Lululemon Athletica Inc. (LULU), 2017), shows the total value of Lululemons shares of stock. Lululemon having $581.1 million in net revenue, this is an increase of 13% while their gross profit increased by 17% rising to $297.4 million. (Lululemon Athletica Inc. Announces Second Quarter Fiscal 2017 Results, 2017). This shows a steady increase in profit for Lululemon for 2017 which is a strength for them.

This paper commences by defining the problems that were faced by Lululemon Athletica Inc in 2013. After, the author explores the causes of the issues that the company was experiencing and the effects that they had on Lululemon Athletica Inc. The next step is to look at ways in which the issues could have been addressed both for the short-term and long-term. When all is said and done, the audience will fully appreciate why “Lululemon Athletica Inc should revert to its fundamentals – that is, to concentrate on the needs of the consumer”.

Lululemon Athletica Inc. was incorporated in the month of November 2005, and is a manufacturer and vendor of practical strapping rendering attire for men, women and female adolescence. The objective of the attires is for healthful situations such as running, cycling, general fitness exercise and yoga. In the attires, it comprises aptitude britches, shorts, tops, jackets and other fitness related products like underwear, bags, bras, socks, yoga mats, yoga instruction discs and water bottles. They primarily operate in North America and Australia.

This case is an unintentional, product failure crisis. The initial crisis was handled by using the compensation strategy, where Lululemon offered full refunds on their product. The company was active in answering customer concerns and inquiry; however, despite these messages, it was not effective enough for the customers (Hansen, 2016). Lululemon appeared to be evading responsibility, thus discrediting the brand. Through various sources, the company had initially put the blame to their suppliers without further discussing with them prior to their announcement. Their denial approach, that this crisis was not the fault of the company, may have resulted in a decrease in the organization’s credibility and increased hostility of the stakeholders.

Jordan Clark Organizational Strategy Mr. Lonnie Jackson 27 October 2014 Patagonia Case Study 1. Patagonia’s business model is not focused on making a profit. Instead, the company is focused on “doing things right” and while still making a profit so that they continue to have other companies respect. Overall Patagonia’s business model differs greatly than that of other outdoor clothing retailers. Patagonia’s target market are “core users” or people who lead the “dirtbag” lifestyle.

Lucozade Sport uses a strategy which is specific to sportsmen and sportswomen in order to sell their product. I will be analysing the segmentation, targeting and positioning strategy that Lucozade Sport adopt while also talking about how Lucozade Sport’s marketing mix which ensures it stands out from other competitors. The information gathered has been collected from various websites and articles to do with Lucozade Sport.