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How Lululemon’s Marketing Is Making You Their Next Ambassador

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Lululemon athletica is a global sportswear powerhouse that has had a meteoric rise to the top. Founded in 2000 by Chip Wilson in Vancouver, Canada, the brand has seemingly moved from an upstart in a crowded market to a global dominator, pulling in more than US$2.65 billion in revenue in 2017.

But how did it get there? How did Wilson take the brand from a single store in British Columbia to over 400 by the beginning of 2018? The answer – as it usually is – is smart marketing, a good product, and the right approach.

Join Impress!ve™ as we dive into what makes the lululemon athletica brand so special and what makes it a truly unique feature in the sportswear market in our latest article.

Inventing a new category in your wardrobe

INVENTING A NEW CATEGORY IN YOUR WARDROBE

 

The timing of lululemon athletica’s into the market is incredible. When Wilson founded it in 2000, the sportswear market had been dominated for decades by household names like Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour. There was no way a foundling business was going to be able to make a dent in that market.

The stroke of genius was deciding not to even go after it. Instead of launching into a crowded segment and floundering, lululemon athletica made their own market. Credited with helping to popularise the ‘athleisure’ fashion trend, lululemon athletica transformed both the clothing and sportswear industries, setting off a change that is still being felt today.

Positioning its clothing as lifestyle wear that performs excellently inside the gym but looks great outside of it, lululemon athletica was able to exploit the Law of Category, choosing to be first in the category of their own choosing rather than last in someone else’s.

 

COMMUNITY, NOT MARKET SEGMENTS

Underpinning the lululemon athletica marketing strategy is a recognition that when people buy sportswear, they’re potentially buying much more than just gym shorts or a running top. A new pair of shoes, a sports bag, a yoga mat – these could all signify anything from a new year’s resolution and a fresh start, to a return to exercise and athletics after an injury, or a new way to spend time with friends.

So many emotions and experiences are tied up in these events – the anxiety of not knowing whether you’ll be able to run like you used to, the excitement of starting a new exercise routine, the joy of finding something you’re good at. Most people don’t spend hundreds of dollars on state-of-the-art athletic clothing for no reason, but rarely are the specific implications of doing this examined.

By making the bet that they’re doing it for a reason and those reasons have powerful emotional motivators, lululemon athletica has been right more often than it’s been wrong.

Obviously, no two people’s goals and motivations will be the same, so how do you make customers feel like their individuality has been honored while still reaching a mass market? lululemon athletica has managed to strike a balance between the two approaches by addressing their audience as a community, rather than a market segment.

By treating their customers as a group of people brought together by the common purpose of a healthier life – rather than a block of anonymous and interchangeable buyers – they’re able to create deeper connections with customers without diminishing their reach.

This focus on community is core to the lululemon athletica marketing strategy, and it’s one they push across every channel – creating an all-inclusive and consistent experience across their promotional materials, social media, web presence, and brick-and-mortar stores. This focus on community can be seen in everything from the way athletic achievements of individual people are celebrated on social media and the manifesto composed of inspirational slogans plastered on their eco-friendly reusable shopping bags.

The lululemon athletica community – or ‘the Luluheads’ as they’re known by the company’s PR director – aren’t just an online fiction, they’re encouraged to come together in the real world. lululemon athletica takes care to foster a sense of local as well as a global community through in-store yoga classes and fitness camps, helping the fitness-oriented and health-minded people it attracts meet each other.

The potential value that these classes offer the company is significant – groups of people introduced to each other directly by lululemon athletica who then reinforce each other’s preference for the brand.

 

Leaving room for your customers

lululemon athletica is also doing something interesting at the individual level. The flipside of treating your customers as a community rather than a market segment is that while you’re able to unite them under certain elements, you also have to acknowledge their individual differences. While it can be challenging to develop this capability, lululemon athletica has managed to walk the tightrope, creating close enough relationships with customers that they feel like lululemon athletica is a part of their journey, while still leaving them room to define what that journey is.

By positioning themselves as your partner in athletic and lifestyle achievement, lululemon athletica can shape customer behavior while still creating room for customers to project their own narratives onto the brand. Just like how a good reading experience is a collaborative exercise between the writer’s pen and the reader’s imagination, the company can enhance the customer experience by allowing them to imagine how they’d make the lululemon athletica lifestyle their own. In this way, a casual jogger and a diehard Crossfit devotee can both equally feel a part of the lululemon athletica community.

The two arms of the strategy – personal success and group belonging – work together. It simultaneously encourages those interested in group activities to chase their own success, and those coming primarily to achieve their own goals to see if they couldn’t get a little bit more performance out through group training and support. The end result is that people are encouraged to stay within the lululemon athletica community however they’ve entered it.

Finding an audience

The two most vital questions in any marketing strategy are ‘what are you selling’ and ‘who’s buying’. We know what lululemon athletica is selling, and they have an extremely clear idea of who they’re aiming at.

Their slightly uncommon approach to targeting immediately sets their strategy apart from the norm. While lululemon athletica does use target personas, they made the inspired step to not simply describe their ideal customer but to create personas that people want to be. Referred to as Ocean and Duke, they are the epitome of cosmopolitan American success – both earning more than $100,000 per annum, owning their own condo in a major city, engaged, and in top physical condition. Defining these two as their target audience and building all messaging with them in mind accomplishes two things:

  1. It attracts a valuable demographic with a lot of disposable income and a reason to shop at lululemon athletica, and
  2. It encourages those who fall outside that demographic but are interested in lululemon athletica to aim to become part of that demographic.

The community nature of lululemon athletica reinforces this – if you’re looking to be part of the lululemon athletica community, you’re going to want to feel like you fit in, and achieving the Ocean/Duke lifestyle is one way to feel like it.

 

TAKE A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO MARKETING

lululemon athletica is an incredible success story that has transformed the way people around the world look at athletics wear. If you’re after a new way to capture your audience’s attention, speak to the team at Impress!ve™. Our expert team of techs, creatives, and marketers has what it takes to help you cut through the noise.

Set your business apart with a smart, omnichannel campaign from the team at Impress!ve™. Speak to our strategists today and take the next step.

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