Gap Inc. Lululemon is also opening retail locations at a time retailers are closing. It plans to open 30 to 35 stores globally in , with a goal of appealing more to men. It recently acquired Mirror, a home exercise brand, to help achieve this goal.
Lululemon has a goal called the " Power of Three " plan: quadrupling international revenue, doubling menswear sales, and doubling digital sales by Athleta sells clothing and accessories for woman and girls.
Its branding and marketing message is about women's empowerment with the hashtag, "powerofshe. Companies that are Certified B Corporations are to use business as " a force for good. Lululemon is widely considered a women's-only yoga brand, but it sells men's clothing too, which potentially gives it an edge. But while Athleta is seen as a force for good by consumers, Lululemon has received lots of bad press over the years, mainly regarding how the company treats its workers and whether it's really doing its part to improve the environment.
The brand claims to be sustainable, but people question whether Lululemon is mostly talk with little action. Lululemon might be bigger than Athleta now, but which is better positioned for future growth is the question investors want answered. Lululemon has a higher valuation today, but its messaging isn't as strong as Athleta's, and messaging counts for a lot these days.
Both brands are in a position to do well over the next few years. The company is entirely separate from Athleta but is an odd mirror image. The market for apparel is changing more rapidly than ever. Influencers and their personal brands have far more power now than when Athleta started. Celebrities like Kate Hudson, Carrie Underwood, and Gwyneth Paltrow have started lifestyle brands of their own with great success. Athleta pursues a grassroots strategy that is in keeping with their roots as a movement.
They have a brand ambassador program with advocates all over the country. They run an affiliate program which incentivizes fashion and active lifestyle vloggers to talk about their merchandise. However, if celebrity and top influencers continue to see success with their lines of private label and co-branded products, then Athleta might regret their grassroots strategy.
Since the Gap acquisition, Athleta has had brand extensions that have pushed them into categories and business activities unfathomable to the founding team. Time and again we observe large public companies that purchase smaller brands that have meaning to people and pressure these smaller brands to expand their offerings rather than doubling down on the products that not only created their meaning in the first place, but created their success es.
We see the effects of this pressure to expand the lines when design errors get produced at scale. Athleta was forced to stop selling a pair of yoga pants that had a nearly identical pattern and coloring to the product offered by K-Deer , a smaller New Jersey company.
Another lifestyle brand enabling people to participate in the active lifestyle they want, and was purchased by a big company. Athleta is now even making jeans, applying their Sculptec fabric to denim. Jeans are the furthest thing from active wear, and the basic blue of denim are a far cry from the fun patterns that gave Athleta their early success. Dilution is the brand killer. I worry that no one will know what it means to be a part of the Athleta brand if their aggressive line extensions continue.
Colin Finkle is a brand marketer and designer with 14 years of experience helping Fortune companies, and now passionately helps Canadian entrepreneurs and public figures at the brand marketing agency, Nordeau. You can see his work at ColinFinkle. Very insightful article.
Thanks for sharing this! Thanks Jasmine. And I am happy to hear that people around the world that are looking for brands that value sustainability like Athleta and Lululemon.
Edited for profanity. Sorry to hear you had a bad experience working for athleta. I worked there years ago and it was absolutely the best place to work for. It also depends on what location and state you work in. My location was ver y enthusiastic in getting people involved in in store classes.
Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox. He named it Athleta , targeting the female athlete, and launched as an online and catalog business. Developing a small in-house label for running, hiking, tennis, cycling, golf, yoga, and swimming, as well as stocking product from brands like Patagonia and Adidas, Athleta grew rapidly. Bean and understood the outdoor sporting world as well.
By , after Kerslake sold a majority stake of the company to Blue Highways Holdings, Athleta was circulating 13 million catalogs across the country. Gap and Banana Republic , legacy brands within the Gap Inc. Green is decked out in head-to-toe Athleta, much like the rest of the employees bustling around the sprawling office just under the Bay Bridge, who all wear leggings or technical capri pants with performance tees and hoodies and look like they are ready for a Zumba class or a good hike.
Apr 22, , am EDT. Apr 19, , am EDT. Apr 17, , pm EDT. Apr 14, , pm EDT. Apr 12, , am EDT. Mar 29, , am EDT. Edit Story. Sep 4, , am EDT. Pamela N. I study the world's most powerful consumers -- The American Affluent. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn.
0コメント