The Demand For High Performance Sports Apparel Essay

Efficiency, Lululemon makes attaining their clothes very easy for customers. It is easy because they design their products in Canada, but products are now being made in other countries like China, Indonesia, Peru, Israel, and Bangladesh. Lululemon also uses technology to help with selling their products. Lululemon gives a customer the option to purchase products online, which includes free shipping from the factory. Since they offer free shipping directly from their factory, it saves on costs, shipping time, and resources.

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

Over the years Lululemon has built significant brand equity among yoga enthusiasts. The number of yoga participants in the United States has jumped more than five-fold, from three million in 2000 to 16.5 million in 2005, growth opportunities for the business are excellent.[4]

Lululemon is a high quality clothing brand selling items at an expensive price. Customers are willing to pay a substantial amount of money to purchase this clothing. Lululemon has the power to adjust prices constantly because they have a high budget. Hundreds of companies sell athletic clothes, but it can be argued that customers spend money to buy the logo rather than the clothing itself. Some of Lululemon’s competitors are Athleta, Nike, Fabletics, and Under Armor. Lululemon's $98 pair of leggings looks almost exactly like Athleta's $79 pair. Lululemon has the ability to do this because they know their customers will choose to buy their logo oppose to Athleta’s. The target area for Lululemon is typically upper middle class women but men and

Lululemon’s negligence towards their poor quality products can be traced back to 2012 when some of the first poor quality reviews

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

Demographics is the salient macro-environmental force for driving Lululemon’s success in a very competitive market and defines their target market (Ibisworld, 2016). Lululemon’s core demographic profile is females aged 23-34 (gen y) and 17-19 (gen z) (Molly o 'shea, 2015). Generation y is the largest demographic purchasing new technological gadgets and fashion apparel (Larissa Faw, 2012). The L.A Times also reported “Women in their 20s and 30s are spending money on workout gear because they feel a need to impress their peers.” Lululemon is successful through their online platforms by building brand awareness this appeals to generation z known as the digital natives (Creative Concepts, 2016). Lululemon has already built a strong market through females, however

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.

First of all, the sport apparels of Lululemon are well-designed. It is product are famous in comfortable and stylish. Secondly, the company also perform well in its supply chain management. For example, the company outsources the production to the contract manufacturers for lowering down the production cost. Besides, the company also deliver its products serval times per week for providing a steady flow of new inventory.

There are a lot of suppliers available in the market that want to produce for lululemon because of the increased value of the company

All too common products success or failure rides heavily on how the product image characterized matches against the consumers associated beliefs for that same product when they contemplate on buying the product (Bhasin, 2016). Furthermore, the consumers’ willingness to buy based on those core beliefs and expectation of the product, further drives customers in reaching the final purchase decision. A company’s product can easily be short-lived or adopted quickly by a competitor company (Bhasin, 2016). Knowing this makes it critical for businesses to understand additional drivers associated with the customers shopping experience, along with the customer’s core belief and their expectation from the product purchase. Therefore, the following tables created provide details of Lululemon and Planet Fitness. This table shares each company’s core beliefs, basic product offering, customer expectation of a product and the company augmented benefits provided to the product for Lululemon Athletic Apparel and Planet Fitness.

Prestige Pricing – Even though Lululemon clothing is not comparable to a Rolex or Louis Vuitton purse, it is prestigious and exclusive in its product category. This is what Lulu’s target market loves about their brand. Its high quality not found in every city and mall, fashion forward and represents a healthy, well off lifestyle.

Established in 1998, Lululemon Athletica turned into an amazingly and successful company throughout their 19 years of operation.(1) Their vision is for stores to create more than a place where people could get gear to sweat in. Lululemon wants to create a community hub where people could learn and discuss the physical aspects of healthy living, mindfulness and living a life of possibility. Lululemon also emphasizes the importance to create real relationships with guests and understand were passionate lies. This is why I chose Lululemon to research. For businesses to succeed you need more than just profits. In today’s day and age I believe that building good communities and trust based relationships with your customers and employees is just as important. Ethics and Social Responsibility is the foundation of Lululemon. This can highlight many of the company’s strengths but also have a negative impact on their financials. From the marketing side, Lululemon uses different marketing and business strategies. Social activities that grab the attention of fitness goers offer a different approach to the company’s marketing. Looking into the future, Lululemon will need to continue to reach fitness enthusiast but also dig deeper into those individuals’ families. By doing this it will help spread their vision of living healthier life styles.

"Another course of action Lululemon is taking to handle external pressures is by overseas expansion, particularly in Europe and Asia. Lululemon will implement a polycentric attitude when developing their brand on foreign soil, meaning they will hire local experts instead of western managers from the host

Lululemon has a growing reputation for making defective yoga pants (due to sheerness and “see-through”), which has made it necessary tore call these products from the retail markets. More so, various customers were upset with the neglect of corporate management to effectively address and respond to the low quality material of the yoga pants. In some cases, women’s yoga pants were sheer enough to be “see-through” when the material was stretched. Customers were then asked to “bend over” in the store for store employees/managers to ensure that the pants had, in fact, were “see-through” due to sheerness (Lululemon Athletica Inc. 2014, p.7). This caused embarrassment and anger from customers that perceived they were experiencing low quality customer service.