Lululemon Athletica is an athletic apparel company that has become more popular in recent years with its core products for women and men, and its additional accessories that help in the popularity of the brand. The article read explains the pivotal strategic junctures in their journey as they achieved strong success in the competitive industry of athletic apparel. As with any company or organization, they face issues to make sure they stay in the market and sustain growth, different factors like innovation can play a big role in many companies and the strategy the company takes will determine the success. There are three major priorities that Lululemon Athletica must take into consideration in order to improve the financial performance and …show more content…
There is importance in evaluating the external environment and examining the market as this helps to identify unexplored prospects in areas where Lululemon has the potential to increase market share. Things like analyzing the competitors have to be emphasized in order to see what a threat or an advantage could be, and this will only be accomplished by looking at the competitor’s strategies in their current and even future markets. It is recommended that the company has a comprehensive market analysis in order to find new opportunities and the risks associated with geographic areas, and for this a thorough market analysis is necessary, issues of competitiveness, cultural, economic, and demographic landscape should be part of the analysis. The market expansion strategy has to initiate an accurate and well-defined plan sketching the company’s objectives for entering into new markets as well as growing within current markets. To accomplish and accelerate its expansion, the company has to take into account if an alliance is possible, mergers, or even …show more content…
Evaluating competitive advantages is a must and some tools can help with this as Lululemon can assess their USPs thoroughly and stay alert for any dangers. Also, there is a necessity in strategic planning for Lululemon as this will help to create a long-term plan in which they can adjust to the continuously changing market dynamics. It is recommended that there is always a recurring competitive analysis done to monitor the competitive environment all the time in order to identify possible threats, risks, and opportunities. To remain ahead of the competition, market research and competitive intelligence are also necessary. Innovation and product development can assist in keeping the products as appealing as possible and unique, investing in those areas can help the company be a trendsetter rather than an imitator, and this would also help to keep ahead in the athletic wear
Founded in Vancouver BC in 1998, the first Lululemon shared its retail space with a yoga studio. Lululemon Athletica inc. is a Canadian designer and vertical retailer of athletic apparel, which operates predominately in North America (“Lululemon Athletica Inc (LULU.O),” 2014). The Company’s garments are marketed under the brand name “Lululemon Athletica” (“Lululemon Athletica Inc (LULU.O),” 2014). Lululemon decided to go public in 2007, 7 years after opening their first store in 2000, raising $327.6 million (Urstadt, 2009).
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.
day. lululemon athletica uses fabrics for their apparel that are most suitable for athletic pursuits. The main fabric that they use is called “luon”, which is a mixture of spandex and nylon. The sizes that lululemon athletica offers range from US sizes 2-12 in their tops, bottoms, sports bras, and outerwear. Since lululemon athletica caters to men and women, their product mixes for each gender vary a bit.
Lululemon geographics have expanded into Asia, Africa, Europe, and have densified in North America with new openings of stores. The companies’ demographics have also expanded. Previously only focused on yogi’s, Lululemon is now focused on any one who sweats and is interested in athletic wear and the lifestyle it promotes. Lululemon also offers the same quality leggings to men and young females; one of Lululemon’s biggest market segmentation moments was when they opened their sister store Ivivva to market the same product to a younger female audience. However, they are still fixed on offering their products at a higher cost, meaning only customers who have money for discretionary products can purchase them; the high exclusiveness and quality has created a loyal fan base. The organization also continues to segment themselves as a leader in the health conscious market, promoting the better lifestyle with yoga ambassadors. With the rise of people being aware of their bodies, Lululemon fits perfectly into the new
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...
Problem: Lululemon Athletica wants to convert consumers of rival workout clothing companies to become loyal customers of Lululemon.
Lululemon Athletica Inc., also referred to as Lululemon, is an athletic apparel retailer from Canada. You can find them on Nasdaq with the ticker code LULU, as they are a publicly traded company. Lululemon was founded by Chip Wilson in Vancouver, in 1998. It didn’t take long time for Lululemon to become a wide-spread sensation throughout the United States. As of October 2015, Lululemon had over 354 stores worldwide. With growing popularity of the brand, it is not a surprise how successful the company itself has become. According to many, their products still maintain to be unique within the massive athletic-wear industry. Today, Lululemon produces outfits and gear for many different types of sports
Lululemon Athletica, Inc. (Lululemon) is renowned for its technical, high-quality yoga-inspired apparel for women. However, the company is growing beyond this niche market and is therefore altering its competitive strategy. Lululemon utilizes a broad differentiation strategy because its target market is broad and its product line is varied, it stresses product innovation, and its community-based marketing and retail experience sustain its differentiation from competitors.
Offering special products is marked under strengths and opportunity; however, long term sustainability must ease the weaknesses and threats posed by competitors and external markets forces. However, they are several other strengths of this company that outweigh the weaknesses but can easily be threatened. Lululemon has a great brand equity and knowledge in the market which has helped them development a customer loyalty. While Lululemon’s strengths is challenging, limiting their products to a special market, with higher than normal prices opens the markets for competitors. Lululemon has several weaknesses, they only offer a specialty product and it mostly aimed to attract woman. The company’s profitability has decreased over the recent years, showing the necessity for Lululemon to sustain its economic growth through product diversification and geographical expansion. Many of their competitors have grown, mostly likely due to their global growth and divarication. If Lululemon would expand their market growth this would open up so much more opportunity for this company to grow. One of their weaknesses is there is the dependence on suppliers. This opens a great opportunity for Lululemon, right now they are heavily relying on suppliers around the world and they do not have their own manufacturing facilities. This is causing the company to spend more money of vendors to
The corporation should invest more money in research and innovation since this is what has helped them to make a product that rivals their competitors. At the same time, it is imperative for them to improve their machinery for cheap labor costs which will help the company increase its production allowing it to meet the demand in the market. By improving production leading to lower costs of making shoes, apparel, and equipment, Nike will achieve higher demand assuming a quality product is maintained in that process. They will stand a better chance of competing in the industry (Hill, 2009). The organization is already in a better position for meeting the demand, customer taste, and needs. The company should improve quality by focusing on developing lightweight products that are more durable compared to those offered by the competitors. Also, Nike can keep up their success by continuing to reinvent and improve their items and continue to meet the current demand by using new technology. It can also use the Internet to communicate with consumers (Hill, 2009). By developing new technology, Nike will allow the customers to suggest and design their shoes online. To achieve this goal, it is fundamental to enhance areas such as their website to make it more user-friendly. Finally, the company should pay attention to small startup organizations that enter the
Under Armour is a leading athletic clothing line directed towards the overall athlete who is looking for the most comfort during extracurricular activities. The mission of the company is, "to provide the world with technically advanced products engineered with exclusive fabric construction, supreme moisture management, and proven innovation. In short, every Under Armour product is doing something for you; it's making you better."
This company has seen major expansions in outlets throughout the world over the years. Adidas on its part has managed to build a powerful brand through its technological innovations and aggressive marketing where they spend up to thirteen per cent of their revenue besides offering high quality services. These scenarios seem to present Under Armour with a massive competitive disadvantage. Through an inside-out perspective, Under Armour has been able to concentrate on the growth mission. Its mission is about building ... ...
Many global companies like Nike, Inc. are seen as role models both in the market place as well as in society in large. That is why they are expected to act responsibly in their dealings with humanity and the natural world. Nike benefits from the global sourcing opportunities, therefore areas such as production and logistics have been outsourced to partner companies in low-wage countries like China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand. As a result the company is limited nowadays to its core competencies of Design and Marketing.
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
Nike’s positioning in the market has more of a mass appeal compared to their main competitor Adidas who strive to make products for elite athletes. The positioning strategy for Nike is currently working at a satisfactory level as Nikes global annual sales between 2013-2014 was reported as 27.8 billion (Statista, 2014) compared to Adidas’ 19.95 billion (Statista, 2014). The global market for sports apparel is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4% between 2012-2019, Nikes compound annual growth rate during 2010-2012 was 12.3% which is an excellent result as the brand’s growth was larger than the market as well as outgrowing Nike’s closest competitors Adidas, Puma and Asics (Forbes,