What Is Lululemon Competitive Advantage

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

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)

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.

Lululemon Athletica produces high quality active wear at a premium price. The business has attracted customers by creating an environment/culture that fitness-oriented customers enjoy and respond to. According to (Beyer, Faifman, Ho, Kezunovic, & Olian), Lululemon understands their customers as well as their target market. Lululemon provides guests with an unrivaled experience, which has created many loyal customers that are quick to tell their friends and family about the company. Employee training and product knowledge is an important element in Lululemon’s strategy because employees are able to provide relatively technical answers to guests’ questions about their products.

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.

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

They approach community yoga teachers to wear their products so they can test it and recommend it to their students. Besides this, they give them free items and opportunities to deepen their relationships with them. On the whole, being able to focus on one aspect alone helps lululemon to make them standout among the pool of competitors accompanied by their community based strategy.

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”.

The North Face has a marketing strategy that enables the company to focus on the athlete, the potential of the athlete, and the athlete using The North Face gear for performance. In comparison, Patagonia focuses on the clothing in which they produce and sell, rather than the company's model. Patagonia places emphasis on fabric technology in their marketing efforts and mainly depicts the clothing on company websites and catalogs. Therefore, this is an area in which both Patagonia and The North Face can improve in order to increase product communication towards target consumers. Both Patagonia and The North Face have exceptional product technologies, which they can use to market their brand and inspire consumers to explore the possibilities of their products. However, The North Face invests

2XU Outlet is a popular clothing brand in Australia, which provides a wide range of men’s and women’s workout apparel. Their collection includes tri suits, wet suits, and compression outfits. Customers can browse through the brand’s products on the website not only by category, but also by the type of sports they engage in such as running, triathlon, cycling, swimming, or just exercising in the gym. Founded and based in Melbourne, Australia, the company’s philosophy is to create products that will advance human performance. 2XU employs state of the art fabric and construction technology to take their products beyond what was previously thought possible. 2XU is fast becoming the most technical performance sports brand on the planet

Understanding customer needs will help Nike to define new market opportunities and drive innovation and revenue growth in every aspect of its organisation. The most basic concept underlying marketing is that of human needs. Human needs are states of felt deprivation (Kotler and Armstrong, 2006). Customer logic is derived from evaluation of a company and its product based upon customer needs, customer benefits, and product features. For branded athletic shoes, Nike has to understand customer needs on a global level as the products are sold

The main issue that Lululemon is facing is the mass decline of stakeholder satisfaction, including customers and shareholders, associated with general public criticism regarding actions of the company prior to the recall of the Luon yoga pants and the management of damage control and the recall. Specifically, these criticisms were targeted at the quality of the Luon pants, the comments made by the company regarding the pants, the controversial advertisements in their stores, the alleged dishonesty of the company, and the values of the company that were publicized through these proceedings. Moreover, each of these factors in turn, as a part of the overall issue of stakeholder dissatisfaction with the activities and behaviour of the company, at the general time of the Luon pants recall helped to exacerbate the situation to the point where the stock prices fell significantly, the CEO of Lululemon resigned, and the company incurred heavy losses in the process of recalling the defective pants.