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Rise of lululemon analysis
Analysis of lululemon
What are the key elements of lululemon strategy
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Industry & Market Analysis Market Needs 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 Lulu’s top products is its yoga pants, which along with a majority of the products Lulu creates, are made to wear during exercise. The style and fit of this clothing helps men and women alike to look good while working out, this leads to a boost in self-confidence and self-esteem. On the other hand, the close fitting material incentivizes people to stay active and eat healthy in order to fit into the clothing that is offered by Lululemon. In the past few years Lulu has expanded its target market to include active males as well. The same material is used in the male products, so the male consumers benefit in similar ways as the woman consumers. Industry Environment Lululemon is an athletic company that is in the clothing industry and more specifically in the retail sector of the economy. The clothing industry is a multi-million dollar industry that is devoted to the making and selling products for consumers to wear. Lululemon produces various athletic attire for both men and women including exercise... ... middle of paper ... ...n/age/data/2011comp.html> "When it comes to sport, kids think they can dance." The Sydney Morning Herald. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Dec. 2013 . "SBRnet | Sport Business Research Network." SBRnet | Sport Business Research Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Dec. 2013. . Barnes PM, Schoenborn CA. Physical activity among adults: United States, 2000. Advance data from vital and health statistic; no. 333. Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistic. 2003. Kilpatrick, Marcus, Edward Hebert, and John Bartholomew. "College Students' Motivation for Physical Activity: Differentiating Men's and Women's Motives for Sport Participation and Exercise ." Journal of American College Health 54 (2005): 92. Mintel . Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
The most recognized brands amongst US males in the sports and fitness clothing market are Nike, Adidas, Reebok, and Puma (Statista, 2014). However, there is a large amount of opportunity to gain market share as only Nike hold a high percentage favoritism from male shoppers (Statista, 2012). Multiple brands have a stronger focus on women’s clothing such as: Fabletics, Athleta, and Lululemon. Lululemon has a similar business model however the brand has a stronger connection with women and yoga.
With much success expanding into a global market, Lululemon’s vision was to evaluate the world from mediocrity to greatness. To achieve this vision, a strategy was developed with a network of leaders and established three different kinds of calculated sales programs in the hope of increasing love for yoga and improving the level of health within their communities. These are opportunities missed by the company, with the potential to provide the company with financial growth and further brand recognition. Increasing the products they offer to all genders and ages is only going to create more product awareness and consumer loyalty.
Lululemon, a premium yoga-focused retail chain, serves two market segments. One segment consists of consumers who are characterized as “trendy urban” and the other segment consists of “wealthy” consumers. The “trendy urban” segment, in summary, is fashion oriented or active women who live in metropolitan areas. The “wealthy” market segment is affluent women who live in either urban or suburban areas. As discussed below, these two market segments are defined by differences in demographics, geography as well as behavioral and psychographic characteristics.
Lululemon Athletica, founded by Dennis J. "Chip" Wilson in 1998, is a Vancouver-based Canadian clothing-line producing organization specialized in retailing yoga-oriented athletic apparel. The majority of its customers are women who participate both in yoga and other forms of athletic sports; although, in recent years with the production of a variety of wear products for cardio sports, such as running, cycling, mountain climbing, and so on, there has also been a sudden increase of male customers as well. In ratio terms, however, women are still the majority customer demographic of the organization. In order to maintain its sustainable competitive advantage over other athletic wear companies, the company focuses and applies all its energy in
In 2007, Lululemon became a public company and since then it has expanded aggressively into different markets. Laurent Potdevin, current CEO of Lululemon, said in a statement, “2014 is an investment year with an emphasis on strengthening our foundation, reigniting our product engine, and accelerating sustainable and controlled global expansion”. Positioning strategy Retail Strategy Store’s retail mission and/or vision statement. At its very core, Lululemon’s intent is to “elevate the world from mediocrity to greatness”. On the company’s website, their mission statement is “creating components for people to live longer, healthier, fun lives”.
Since 1998, Lululemon has transformed the way people dress to workout. Through innovative products and technical athletic fabrics, a brand was created to provide clothing for workouts such as yoga, running and cycling. Lululemon opened its first store in Vancouver in 2000 with the plan to have the store be a community hub for people to learn and discuss their physical fitness and overall health goals. As Lululemon was more than a store to provide products for consumers, their goal was to influence every person who walked into the store. A basic criterion for investment is Lululemon’s mission to create components for people to live longer, healthier, fun lives. All Lululemon locations maintain strong relationships with local communities and host in-store events such as complimentary yoga classes and goal-setting workshops.
Wilson has started many retail companies, foundations and programs. His most known company is Lululemon Athletica, often referred to as Lululemon. Started in 1998, in 16 years the company has become the leading brand in yoga apparel. The business started because female participation in sports increased in those years. The first store was in Kitsilano. It is a small town in Vancouver where Wilson was born and brought up. Originally, Lululemon sold all women sports wear. After the some success, the company launched a subsidiary in 2001 called Fashion Active Lab. This company specialized in yoga clothing. The success of yoga clothing, created a new opportunity for Lululemon. In 2009, they started a new subsidiary called Ivivva Athletica. This company’s target market was girls ages 6 to 12. On July 27, 2007, Lululemon hit the NASDAQ market for public trading under the symbol LULU. On December 10, 2013 Wilson sa...
They believe that the market is divided equally with each gender making up 50% of their customers. The way that they attract females is by creating fashionable colors for the merchandise produced for females. The reason for this is that they know females generally wear sporting clothes as casual wear. Under Armour have in response to that have created yoga pants that can be worn for everyday use. “Under Armour have also produced a campaign called “Power in Pink” which is for the awareness and support for victims of breast cancer” (Barret, 2007). For males they have produced more durable and skin tight fittings with a robust color scheme. The third segmentation stage is the diverse uses consumers have for their products, examples being the use of their merchandise as professional or casual wear. Under Armour have been able to market their brand by sponsoring professional athletes as well as teams which have led to a noticeable increase in sales across the board. The last form of segmentation is the climate in which the consumers will use their merchandise in. The way Under Armour manages to accommodate both climates is that their apparel is made from a material that regulates the body temperature when doing activity in either
"How Much Physical Activity Do Adults Need?" Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 01 Dec. 2011. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
The sports apparel and accessories industry has a highly competitive market. Businesses are constantly competing for elite athletes to sponsor, raw materials, and every opportunity to expand. Under Armour is able to not only survive but thrive in this market because of their ability to think outside of the box. They are constantly creating new and exciting products that help athletes everywhere.
considered normal for a well-established business. Lululemon's price earnings ratio tells us that there is increased growth and performance anticipated in the future.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, How much physical activity do adults need? Centers for Disease April 12, 2014
C-79). The company is also offering products and apparel intended for other healthy and athletic lifestyle pastimes rather than solely for yoga. These include swimwear, which were introduce for women in fiscal 2013 and men in the spring of 2014, dance apparel through its ivivva brand, as well as expected golf and tennis products (Thompson, 2014, p. C-80). Additionally, Lululemon offers such products as gear bags, water bottles, caps, gloves, headbands, and socks. This supports the company’s core component to “broaden the lululemon product line beyond yoga, running, and general fitness (specifically swimming, golf, and tennis) and include offerings for both males and females of many ages” (Thompson, 2014, p. C-79) for its fiscal 2014 business strategy. This indicates that the senior administrators of Lululemon have been transitioning the company’s competitive strategy from having a narrow market focus just on yoga
Lululemon Athletica is likely to have a growth rate of 381% with Under Armour coming second at 128.67 and finally Nike at 20.84%. Since the size of the market is expected to grow, revenues are also expected to follow suit. In order for Lululemon Athletica to become a market leader, it needs to engage in development and research to come up with new products (MarketWatch, 2013).
However, although regular exercise could bring a significant number of benefits, in the United States, it may not be seen as frequent activity. According to the report of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2002), 68% of Americans do not participate often in physical exercise. The statistic of this report show that only 25% of adults engage in physical activity at the recommended levels every day. 29% of adults have a sedentary lifestyle (exercise less than 30 minutes per day). In order to encourage and maintain the citizens exercise regularly, the United States local governments have applied different policies, mainly intervention. The research of Task Force (2002) evaluated 11 selected types of interventions divided into three main groups, including informational approaches and social approaches.