Lululemon was one of the first sports apparel brands to focus on women’s activewear, as prior to them women’s activewear were produced according to the marketing mantra “pink it, shrink it”. Lululemon created new categories to women’s pants each having different purposes that women can prefer according to the activity they want to wear it in, such as ones with supporting fit, stylish ones, more comfortable ones, more elastic ones etc. As the trend grew, others hopped on the train and now almost every apparel brand have their own lines of activewear and athleisure clothing. From mainstream fashion brands like H&M and Zara, to fantasy lingerie brands like Victoria’s Secret and even high fashion brands like Gucci are not missing out on the trend since it looks like it is here to stay.
There are several reasons why the category grew so quickly. The most important one is the undeniable rise of the “taking care of your body” trend in the 21st century, with its
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Although it started with functional, comfortable, athletic clothing, it later changed its focus from performance/functionality to lifestyle. This change in direction was beneficial for the casual apparel brands who don’t have the technology to create performance allowing them to be successful by just looking like activewear, but it made things harder for sportswear brands who have the performance, but not so much the fashion. Because of this many sportswear brands started collaborating with fashion designers (e.g. Adidas with Stella McCartney) and started endorsing female celebrities that are also fashion icons (Puma-Rihanna, Reebok- GiGi Hadid, Nike - Bella Hadid, Under Armour- Gisele Bundchen etc.), and male celebrities especially rapper and R&B singers (Adidas- Kanye West, Reebok- Kendrick Lamar and Future, Nike- Frank Ocean etc.) to capture the sense of “contemporary street fashion”, instead of their usual pro-athlete
While looking at many different reviews people posted online, customers of lululemon athletica seem to be very pleased with the wear and tear of their products. Many different sources say that lululemon athletica’s clothing lasts for an extremely long time therefore people feel that their getting their money’s worth. lululemon athletica is a trend in itself because many consumers want to show off that they work out and wear an expensive clothing line while doing so and love flaunt
Sports apparel often focuses on performance wear and true sports: basketball, baseball, or soccer. Fitness clothing tends to be more closely tied to gyms, fitness activity groups, and non-sport fitness. Also fitness clothing tends to have more need for fashion consciousness. The target segment
For example, lifestyle is one the major psychological factors that pushes the organization’s strategy. Lululemon wanted to create a “community hub where people could learn and discuss the physical aspects of healthy living, mindfulness and living a life of possibility”. Customers buy high end ‘lulu’ leggings to be part of the self-transformation movement lifestyle. The clienteles who purchase Lululemon’s leggings also perceive them to be of higher quality, thus don’t mind spending more if they receive better quality in return. Overall these psychological factors make Lululemon a popular exclusive brand that promotes the idea of a better lifestyle, this consumer behavior has helped Lululemon become more known with many sociocultural influences. With the increase of yoga and social media throughout the years, Lululemon is presented as a staple for yogi’s and athletes online and in person. Yoga instructors teach classes, pose in Instagram photos, and participate in self-exploration experiences all while wearing Lululemon leggings. This sparks the interest of consumers new to the lifestyle who view this as an influence to buy a pair. Lululemon also have a loyal clientele base that rave about the quality and comfort that come with buying a pair of Lululemon leggings. With the popularity, and the higher cost, many see buying a pair of leggings as
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.
Lululemon was able to corner the market in a market driven business, which has strengthens and weaknesses to consider. This company could benefit from more aggressive advertising because they have such great brand recognition and consumer loyalty. With the retail market changing and more competitors entering the market, Lululemon needs to stay competitive and offer a broader spectrum of products and expand their markets into areas they already have great brand recognition. Lululemon takes pride is offering a high quality product and this company changed the way the world sees yoga appeal today. In very recent years yoga has become a popular sport and the consumers today want to look stylish while doing so and this company offers the rights products to do
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.
The retail industry is continuously growing. There are many successful companies and entrepreneurs in this industry. One successful entrepreneur is Dennis Wilson, also known as Chip Wilson.
Dennis Wilson, the founder of Lululemon, believed that the cotton fabric that was being used for yoga at the time, was unsuitable for the sweaty sport (“Lululemon Athletica: Our Company History.” 2014). As a result, Wilson decided to open a design studio in 1998, which would specialize in making yoga-wear from technical athletic fabrics. Wilson aimed to make active-wear that was not only durable, but could also be considered stylish.
It’s because when I sport the Nike swoosh, I feel as if I representing the Nike brand and the beautiful, driven, fit women I see in their advertisements. Feeling this way gives me the inspiration and confidence to play my best. I feel as if I identify with the women in the advertisements by wearing Nike. “The relationship between persons and the product remains one of the most crucial signifiers within advertisements. Persons in advertisements supply the consumer with a certain identification frame—whether the person is presented as a user or is presented within a lifestyle setting, the viewer is invited to identify him/herself with the presented person.” 202 Brand Culture. The Nike brand does a great job at doing this to their consumers to create brand loyalty. Nike brand users, just like myself, see the athletes using the brands and feel a certain connection to them. Brand loyalty should not only be a goal for brands because of the benefit of having their logo advertised on consumers who fit within their target market, but also for PRICE SOMETHING ECONOMY
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.
Old school era artists wore baggy streetwear clothing, whereas now there is no such thing as simple. Artists still rock streetwear, but now everything is name brand and designer alongside lots of expensive bling. This is in exception to underground rappers as their aesthetics tend to be rather eccentric consisting of “face tattoos, hair dyed in wild colors, and a prescription-drug ooze.” Common fashion seen in the rap genre is “high-end or preppy clothes mixed with oversized sportswear items.” In the past, it was rather difficult to match high fashion with superior motive; however, now it is more common to mix different
Lorna Jane Pty Ltd being one of the major players of the fitness and athletic clothing industry in Australia has a competitive edge among other companies as it constitutes a significant portion of the market share worth 10.5% in the industry (Magner, 2017). This was a result of continuous online marketing and garnering of extensive distribution channels and communication channels to expand nationwide and internationally (Traffika, n.d.). The brand has grown significantly over the years ever since it was founded in 1989, in fact it has successfully expanded to the Australia nationwide and United States (Horton, Ferrero-Regis and Payne, 2016). As it specializes in mainly women’s gym and yoga sportswear, the target audience of Lorna Jane is women in their 20s to 30s who aspire to live an active & healthy lifestyle. This is justified as target audiences in their 20s to 30s are very likely to have the ability to make a living so that they have disposable income to spend on fashionable purchases such as high quality active wears provided by Lorna Jane.
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
In reviewing the case of New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc. it is clear that there are a few major problems that the company is facing. First of all, New Balance falls behind its other major competitors, Nike, Adidas and Reebok, in the area of marketing. Unlike its competitors, New Balance does not undertake celebrity endorsements. This puts them at a disadvantage when it comes to brand building. This also causes the company to lose out somewhat on gaining awareness on a global scale as it lacks endorsements in major sporting events. Most global brand names generate strong brand recognition through celebrity endorsements in sporting events that would give them the needed momentum to carry their brand name further into the global market.
Nike’s focus for fashion forward women is the following: lead the athleisure trend, increase advertising, and the introduce the #BetterForIt social media campaign. We need to focus on the athleisure trend by increasing our portfolio for the women target market. Athleisure is already 20% of the firm’s revenue and we need to recognize that women are leading this fashion movement. Under Armor and Lululemon are already making headways in this fashion focused market. We need to emphasize our athletic technologies, promoting lighter fabrics and better performance, while still maintaining a level of comfort and fashionability. Increasing the portfolio means nothing if women don’t know we’ve done just that. Nike will need to increase advertising specifically with this target market in mind. The #BetterForIt campaign is one important aspect of these advertising efforts. Similar campaigns should promote and help “normalize” athletic wear in everyday