The CEO of Lululemon Athletica, Christine Day, spoke to NRF Convention attendees this morning about their sweet spot. In Lululemon’s case, I think their sweet spot is unique branding and customer base.
Christine, who worked for Starbucks for about 20 years, began work at Lululemon about a year ago. The publicly-listed company out of Vancouver, BC, Canada operates more than 100 stores. She boasts that Lululemon offers a premium product, a unique culture, an iconic brand of health, fitness and yoga. Also, it’s company owned and exclusive.
Lululemon appears to be more than just a clothing line, but also a way of life. They pay their store staff to attend yoga sessions 2-3 times a week and the Lululemon website even offers a goal organizing program.
The operational process is to empower store managers whom they call interpreneurs. Christine said they put their best people in the stores because they work with customers and are the face of the brand. They also have the responsibility of ordering for the store. In addition to employees being the face, Lululemon has reached out to members of the communities where their stores are located. The “ambassadors” try out the clothing and report back to Lululemon. They have avoided using celebrities like Venus Williams to wear the clothing and promote the brand. Lululemon has found t
hat their customer relates more closely and looks up to their yoga instructor and others in the community before any celebrity face.
Many times throughout her speech, Christine mentioned chakra along with another word like success, “chakra success.” Chakra, a Sanskrit word meaning wheel or disk, is a concept said to be whorls of energy permeating from a point on the physical body. The idea of energy spreading through any being is a concept true to yoga and true to the brand of Lululemon.
After listening to Christine speak today, I am even more convinced that the brand Lululemon embodies the lifestyle I want to live.