Lululemon Monitoring

Social Media Monitoring : Lululemon

I have been monitoring the company Lululemon for my social media monitoring project. Lululemon  has done an excellent job of using social media in it's marketing strategy. The brand employs many of the strategies that Li and Bernoff speak about in their book: Groundswell. 

Firstly, they understand the groundswell. Li and Bernoff state that "The groundswell has changed the balance of power". This is true, and lululemon has done an excellent job of recognizing and using this to their advantage. For example, they respond to tweets about their clothing, both good and bad, almost instantaneously. In the past, companies did not have to be as responsive to customer complaints or their bad experiences, both because there was no forum for them and because it was very difficult to follow up.  Now, individuals have the power to share their experiences, good and bad in a very public way, leading to a far greater incentive for the company to keep their standards high. 

Lululemon also engages in both listening to and talking to the groundswell. Their various social media sites are full of responses to comments and tweets made by the customers. This leads to the consumers feeling valued by the company, as well as becoming engaged in what the company stands for and is doing. As an international company trying to build a local presence, lululemon has done an excellent job. Each store has its own unique facebook page, and these pages let community members know about events happening in and around their community. 

There are tons of classes held in all of the stores. These classes are all free and taught by both community yoga ambassadors as well as store employees with an interest in yoga.In this way, lululemon is able to engage with the groundswell in their own communities, and also to have the benefits of being a large multinational corporation.

The company keeps standards high and customers happy by efficiently responding to tweets. The following are some examples that I feel demonstrate lululemon's excellent strategy in terms of twitter.

 This one encourages a dialogue about a costumer's experience of buying a new shirt and it's effects on her athletic endeavors. There are countless tweets and responses similar to this one on the twitter. I believe that they are essential to lululemon's marketing because they are far more than a clothing company. Their marketing strategy presents their clothes as a gateway to an active and fit lifestyle, and following up with how their clothing made this possible for individuals is an excellent way of mobilizing the groundswell, as well as finding new ideas for future marketing.

This tweet and it's response show lululemon's commitment to all customers, even temporarily dis-satisfied ones. It is important for a company to respond to all sorts of feedback, and their response shows this writer that her troubles are faced by many more out there, but that there is a way to get the new colors. This doubly benefits lululemon marketing, because not only is the customer a bit more satisfied and feels heard, they will now be on the website even more, increasing the probability of future sales. Additionally, if this individual feels so motivated by the product that they have tweeted the absence of a product, they will likely tweet when the product becomes available, leading to even more sales. 

The brand also engages the groundswell, in their local advocate campaigns. By engaging local athletes to become advocates and advertisers, they create a mutually beneficial message. The athletes get publicity in the form of the posters displayed around lululemon, as well as discounted clothing. The brand gains publicity through the athlete's endorsement of them to local communities. This is how I heard of lululemon myself. It is very engaging for communities to see their own members featured in stores, and provides a greater incentive to shop there. In this way, lululemon has very effectively engaged the groundswell to become a part of their brand. 

As previously mentioned, lululemon tends to have a fairly high rating on social mention.com. Here are some screen shots of lululemon on social mention. The first is from March 14, the second from March 20, and the third from March 27.
 

The strength is a little low, but seems to fluctuate a bit. I would recommend that lululemon increase their customer base to aid this problem. The sentiment remains consistently high, with few bad things being said about lululemon overall. Passion is fairly high, indicating that individuals who purchase lululemon clothing and are involved in the community tend to be very involved.

Additionally, as this graph by google of interest in lululemon as measured by searches on the web, they have a fairly steady web presence. 

Twitalyzer graph:

Lululemon's web presence is very solid, but I do have a few recommendations. They have tapped very well into the athlete community, but could benefit from tapping into other communities that would enjoy their clothing, but are not necessarily pursuing athletics at this moment. The in store classes are wonderful, but may be intimidating for those who are not practicing yoga or Pilates at the moment. 

I would advise a few things in terms of their Facebook pages. Their Facebook presence seems to be much lower compared to their Twitter presence. Although they seem to be doing a fair amount of posting on each page, these posts are viewed relativly infrequently. I would advise locating Twitter followers on Facebook to gain a larger following.

Additionally, as I have stated above, lululemon is far less known among non athletes than athletes, but additionally is not very well known among college athletes. Colleges and Universities, as  well as high schools have to outfit their athletes with warm ups. Lululemon could expand to this market and create an enormous amount of new business for themselves. 

In short, I think lululemon is doing an excellent job of marketing themselves. They combine local business mentality of engaging the groundswell by community with their power as a large company to provide an excellent product to many people.