Lululemon The Decent, The Bad, The Ugly

     For my blog post this week I chose the athleisure brand Lululemon which has become very popular, as well as controversial. The reasoning behind this choice was because of my own consumerism of their products, whether that’s getting things for myself or gifts for others. I overall find this company interesting especially after finding out how their CEO has been fat shaming people publicly for years now, all while the brand preaches a message of body positivity and overall health whether be mental or physical. There are many mixed emotions around  the company as of late due to these controversial things said. 

Lululemon uses their social media platforms to promote their products, their top products are their leggings, work out tops, and lately their fanny packs- or as they call them belt bags. They also sell a variety of other products like yoga mats, headbands, shoes, and mens wear as well as women. They used to make commercials and other things for live tv but now that cable isn't as popular due to streaming services they have directed their marketing focus to social media platforms like Instagram and Tik Tok while also utilizing their website and app to be both user friendly and widely known. 

The three specific things that stuck out to me the most in the comments are either people are upset about the quality of something they purchased, they're upset about lack of representation whether that be about race, gender, or ethnicity. And finally they’re upset about the fatphobic comments that have been made, you'd think as an athleisure brand they would be encouraging people to get in shape and be healthy not making them feel bad for how they look. 

       When looking into the companies marketing efforts as of recent they have shied away from flooding the networks with television ads and dumping hundreds of millions there, and shifted their focus to social media and pop ups on websites, definitely a cheaper alternative while being just as effective. While they have been effective thus far in marketing I can see the one challenge this brand will continue to face is the backlash they get  for the failure to include everyone as a customer. In this day and age brands need to include everyone in their customer base from all different backgrounds regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and so many different subcategories of things. 

    The responses from customers on social media and in specific Instagram were not great. Lots of them describe poor customer service, bad response times from customer service, but also a very large number of people just saying how the brand is unethical. From people giving opinions on the CEO’s take on the current war in the middle east and much more, but Lululemon does a great job of keeping it professional, only responding to the comments that are asking specifically about product quality or complaints about certain products. Of course then the company was quick to reply. If I was in the brand manager's shoes, the one thing I would do differently is issue public statements about what the former CEO said instead of just ignoring it and hoping it goes away. For years now they have just been able to sweep  it under the rug and try to forget about it. If they made an effort to try and acknowledge it and make things better, I'm sure their social media comment section would be a little bit more kind.

    The main takeaway from this assignment that I gathered is that brands need to be careful about what they say regardless of if you're just a sales person or the CEO, when people are spending as much money as they do at Lululemon they want to feel seen and appreciated they don't want to feel marginalized or like they aren't welcome to shop due to something as dumb as how much they weigh. I think Lululemon has the opportunity to continue to be a very successful athleisure brand who leads in quality but they need to focus on things other than product like how they talk to people and how they portray themselves to be, because in business opinions and relationships matter if you want success.