Marketing Plan

SWOT Analysis – Lululemon

Pearl Chen

Strengths

• Product Quality: Lululemon Athletica has a variety of high-quality products, such as

yoga pants along with other sportswear and fitness apparel with innovative features and

styles. The most popular Nulu fabric became the go-to yoga pant for every woman when

shopping at Lululemon.

• Holistic Health and Fitness Brand Image: Unlike other companies that sponsor celebrities

to promote their brands, Lululemon works with local yoga and fitness professionals to

represent their brands. Lululemon uses its storefront to host yoga classes, meditations and

other related activities. Therefore, Lululemon created a healthy brand image was created.

• Loyal Customer Base: Lululemon provides great customer service by building

relationships with their customers, and their product quality matches customer demand,

which makes them one of the popular retailers.

• Growing revenue: While most of the apparel companies were struggling to stay afloat

during the COVID-19 pandemic, increased demand for comfortable work-from-home

athletic clothing allowed Lululemon’s revenues to grow 3.5% year-over-year in 2020

(Forbes, 2021).

Weaknesses

• High Price Structure: Lululemon’s products are relatively expensive. Although

Lululemon products are innovative, their products' price is higher than its competitor

brands like Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour. The brand’s Yoga accessories have a

limited target audience and prevent them from reaching the mass.

• Lack of international presence: The brand has a limited international presence, which is a

drawback that it is holding Lululemon behind, while its other competitors like Nike,

Adidas, and Under Armour have an extensive reach.

Opportunity

• Global Markets: There are an increasing growth health and fitness market in Asia. Like

Lululemon's competitors Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour, Lululemon is expanding its

operations into global markets and increase its revenue. There is currently a total of 57

stores in China, however, the Asia market has a great growth potential according to the

majority of the sales are still depending on North America.

• Product Innovation: To increase its business, Lululemon should consider having some

less-expensive products. Lululemon already has its unique fabric and technology product

made in high-quality, on the other hand, if they can offer products with cheaper prices

without losing their quality, it will enable Lululemon to compete and beat the competitors

at all levels.

• E-commerce: Due to COVID-19, Lululemon continued to strengthen its e-commerce

service by having online experts give customer recommendations through video chat.

They found a dramatic shift in revenue generation from stores to e-commerce, as its

direct-to-consumer segment increased by 94% y-o-y to account for 43% of total sales

compared to 27% last year (Forbes, 2021).

Trends

• Similar Brands: The sportswear market is highly competitive. Lululemon is already

competing with other fitness brands like Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour, and most of

these companies have a broader global presence, lower prices, and huger operating

budgets.

Reference

Team, T. (2021, January 20). What's happening with lululemon's stock? Retrieved February 25,

2021, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2021/01/20/whats-happening-with-

lululemons-stock/?sh=6144d2063095