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In an audit conducted with the global athletic apparel brand, Lululemon, it was found that multiple public relations theories could be applied to its communications with both internal and external publics. Two prominent theories found through analysis of the crises dealt with by the company were the agenda setting theory and the semiotics theory. As Lululemon has faced crisis in the media on multiple occasions, these theories suggest which public relations techniques worked, and alternatively which didn’t.
According to Mackay (2009, p. 466), Agenda setting theory suggests that the media has the ability to influence the public’s way of thinking through the topics that are covered. If a news item is more prominently covered, it is thought that
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“Chai” coffee and “Apple Pies” are both words associated with unhealthier food options, and when accompanied by Wilson’s phrase “Rubbing thighs”, larger women whose thighs may “rub” together are essentially negatively shamed for both their body type and choice of food. This was a poor choice of semiotics on behalf of the company, as Lululemon generally prefers to use body positive and encouraging language to communicate messages about their brand. For example on the Lululemon Facebook page, their mission states that their brand is “creating components for people to live long, healthy and fun lives.” The semiotic approach taken in the store window could have been majorly improved if the brand had used language promoting positive body image, such as that on it’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages, which all tackled the negative comments made by Wilson in a more professional and appealing manner. Through using a direct quote from the interview that was used to shame women who Wilson believes “bodies just don 't actually work for it [Lululemon’s yoga pants]”, the store has alienated a large portion of the female population and communicated the message that these women are not welcome in their stores. As found in the Lululemon audit report, a major weakness of the company lies in the lack of communication between store level staff and higher managers. If there was continuous communication between these two publics, such as emails or regular meetings, then public relations crises such as this could have been
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).
398).It is also stated that news divisions reduced their costs, and raised the entertainment factor of the broadcasts put on air. (p. 400). Secondly, the media determines its sources for stories by putting the best journalists on the case and assign them to areas where news worthy stories just emanates. (p.400). Third, the media decides how to present the news by taking the most controversial or relevant events and compressing them into 30 second sound-bites. (p.402). finally, the authors also explain how the media affects the general public. The authors’ state “The effect of one news story on public opinion may be trivial but the cumulative effect of dozens of news stories may be important. This shows a direct correlation between public opinions and what the media may find “relevant”. (Edwards, Wattenberg, Lineberry, 2015, p.
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.
lululemon athletica’s target market is niched down to people who can afford expensive workout gear but also targets the “yoga mom” and “college girl” stereotype. lululemon athletica tends to have that “yoga mom” look to it because of the style of their clothing and the women who tend to shop at lululemon athletica since it’s a higher end brand of workout gear. At the same time, they target the “college girl” because many girls in college like to stay up with the latest trends and like being able to dress comfortable to class. Men who like working out, meditating by doing yoga, or like lounging in comfortable clothing are also a part of their target market. lululemon athletica also does not have many items with crazy colors and sayings written on their apparel, which would most likely appeal to tweens and teens, because those are not the people they are trying
Lululemon was founded in Vancouver, Canada in 1998; as of October 2015 they have 354 stores worldwide, making them on of the biggest retailors to solely focus on athletic wear clothing. Their most popular product are their leggings. Created for health conscious yogis, Lululemon prides themselves in creating high-quality products for men and women who live a health focused lifestyle. Lululemon is famous for giving environmentally friendly red and white reusable bags after a purchase and providing the highest quality for their clientele. They also practice social responsibility when they screen their vendors to make sure they have the same environmental and social standards as them ().By examining the main social forces, consumer behavior, and
Market Analysis Summary The global sports and fitness clothing market is expected to soon reach over $125 billion dollars (PR Newswire, 2015, June 26) and individuals across the U.S. are becoming more active (Institute for Health Metric and Evaluation, 2013, Jul 10). The breadth of the overall market covers many subsets of products and consumer groups. Target segment. There are two primary segments in the market; sports apparel and fitness clothing.
After reading the article, “Why 62,000 Abercrombie & Fitch Employees Are Suing The Company,” there were two different problems that were brought to attention regarding Abercrombie & Fitch’s business ethics. The two problems were the mistreatment of their employees, and how their business marketing strategy is not well developed throughout their company. Abercrombie & Fitch is a company that has always been concerned about their image, which leads us to their, “look policy.” A “look policy” is a policy that relates to a certain look every employee has to follow to be eligible to work there. The company is facing a high-profile lawsuit over its, “look policy” (Greenhouse, 2015). Each employee is forced to purchase the company’s clothes to wear to work, each time a new sales guide comes out (Greenhouse, 2015). This is known as compelled purchases, which is a violation of the state’s labor codes (Greenhouse, 2015). They force the “look policy,” way too strong upon their employees, which developed into a huge problem. The company is facing a high-profile lawsuit
To expand brand awareness, brand loyalty, and the appeal of its products the company implements a grassroots community-based marketing strategy. The company selects ambassadors that are local fitness professionals to proliferate word-of-mouth marketing among their students (Thompson, 2014, p.C86). Lululemon additionally engages social media, sponsors local athletic, fitness, and philanthropic events, and positions a community events bulletin board and chalkboards in its stores. The bulletin board displays announcements of future activities, presents fitness education and brochures, and promotes neighboring ambassadors’ yoga studios and fitness centers, while the dressing room chalkboards provide an outlet for customers to rely their comments (Thompson, 2014, p.C86). Lululemon’s yoga ambassadors lead a class every four to six weeks; whereas local professional yoga instructors conduct weekly classes at their local Lululemon location as the retail stores allocate the rearrangement of merchandising displays to provide ample floor space. These retail stores reflect the appearance of a simple, neighborhood boutique as they are situated in street locations, shopping centers, lifestyle centers, and malls as a means of integrating into the community (Thompson, 2014, p.C82). This is enhanced
Public relations are the practice of distributing the information between an organisation or individual and the public. The aim of PR practitioners by the client is often is to persuade stakeholders, partners, employees, investors and most importantly, the public. The practitioner’s communication stance is reaching the individuals or organisation ultimate goal. However many can examine and scrutinize public relations ethics to assert a PR problem within the industry. All PR organisations and individuals have a code of ethics of which the professionals are expected to follow. Regardless of these guidelines, ethics in individual practices seem to prove continuous and consistent violation worldwide. The James Hardie Industry, a company that is known for knowingly using products that caused thousands of people throughout Australia to grow to become sick and even resulting in death, from its products that produced massive profits is a prime example of the PR problem. However ethical communication and critically reflective practices are procedures that benefit both the public and the organisation when use correctly, opposite to the James Hardie case.
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.
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
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.
The discipline of public relations is a modern profession which has been in existence for only close to a century; however, it has already taken an important role in the fields of business, government, entertainment and non-profit organizations including educational institutions and healthcare organizations. Public relations professionals are required to have excellent organizational, interpersonal and communication skills and have the ability to persuade the public. It is imperative for PR professionals to effectively communicate with its public in order to establish and maintain a positive relationship. Furthermore, public relations professionals must have the ability to work under pressure and effectively manage crisis which may have detrimental effect on the company and the public it serves. State purpose of paper and an overview of what will be covered in the introduction
“Through the ongoing interaction of theorizing and empirical research consistent with the scientific method, agenda-setting theory has evolved from a tightly focused perspective to a broad theory. Initially, the focus was on the way media affect the public’s view of which issues are important. Later the theory broadened to encompass five distinct aspects of public life: basic and attribute agenda-setting effects, the psychology of these processes, and the consequences of these effects for opinions and behavior. The participation of scholars worldwide has been central to the continuing productivity of the theory” (Maxwell McCombs).
Public relations is everywhere today. It is a practice that has become an important aspect of any business venture. Whether an organization is not for profit, for profit, or governmental, they still need and desire to communicate their purpose within the community and public relations allows this to happen. There are several publics in which the PR practitioner must correspond with and each requires a different means of communication. Internal publics are inside the organizations such as clerks, managers, and stockholders. "External publics are those not directly connected to the organization: the press, government, educators, customers, suppliers, and the community" (Seitel, 2004). Each public plays a key role in the PR of the organization. The many functions of PR can also be categorized based on what purpose they serve the organization.