Sample International Marketing Plan – Lululemon

Sample International Marketing Plan – Lululemon

The purpose of this report is to provide an update on the key findings that the research team has obtained in the process of preparing a marketing plan for Lululemon to enter the Singaporean market.

The Company: Lululemon Athletica

Founded in Canada more than 20 years ago, Lululemon Athletica is a high-end athletic apparel company that mainly gears its image towards yoga (Lululemon, 2020).

Some of the company’s main products are fitness pants, shorts, tops, and jackets for yoga, dance, running, and many other sporting gears for both women and men.

For the last few years, the company has grown noticeably and expanded its operations to many important markets such as the United States, Australia, or China. According to O’Connell (2020), the company has currently an approximate of 500 stores operating worldwide.

The country: Singapore

Singapore is a city-state country in South East Asia with a population of nearly 6 million people. Despite its small size, it is a wealthy country whose GDP per capita is among the top countries in the world.

Although Singapore has strict national laws, it offers attractive policies and the tax regime for domestic and international companies to operate in the country. For that reason, Singapore attracts various businesses from around the world, of which more than two-thirds are from service industries (Department of Statistics Singapore, 2020).

Moreover, Singapore is one of the most culturally diverse nations in the world with four official languages namely Malay, English, Mandarin, and Tamil (BBC (Ed.), 2018). On the same note, Singapore promotes a pre-requisite approach in business relationship building. As Singaporean businesspeople see trust as a key factor for a successful business, relationships should be prioritized before going straight to business terms and conditions.

Lastly, the country prides itself on a stable political environment, attractive and business-friendly regulatory framework, unique strategic location, and cosmopolitan ambiance.

The Market Segmentation

Lululemon targets consumers who are sport-inspired and in need of workout apparels for professional athletic use, casual workouts and fashionable sportswear (Lululemon, 2020).

On pricing strategy, the company focuses on serving middle-class consumers or above, who prioritize quality over price and willing to spend extra money on dependable and comfortable
product.

Currently, Lululemon’s strategic sales are divided into three main market segments: corporate-owned retail stores (74%) like pop-up shops in malls, direct-to-consumer sales (18%) such as e-commerce platform and small channels (8%) specifically wholesalers and franchisors (Quiroz, 2018).

The Consumer/Market Analysis

Initially, the main target consumers of Lululemon were women, ages between the ages of 16 to 35, especially those who seek balanced and healthy lifestyles. As the company grows and expands internationally, its products are currently available for women to men, kids to adults,
and everyone in between.

However, as the company targets mostly health-conscious consumers with high disposable incomes, it imposes a threat of having a small market size where not many people could fit the profile. For the same reason, it would be challenging for Lululemon to guarantee a stable stream of new customers as well as encouraging existing customers to come back and
rebuy frequently.

Geographically, North America remains the core market for Lululemon as it accounts for 95 per cent of its sales. However, as yoga steadily becomes a booming trend in countries such as China, Japan, or Singapore, it is promising that Asia would become another key market for
the company in a foreseeable future.

Nowadays, as digital experience plays an important role in modern marketing strategies, Lululemon also actively uses social media such as Twitter or Instagram to run marketing campaigns as a strategy to get its best market segment to actively contribute to the company’s
various activities.

Another big threat for the company to expand to Singapore is that sports apparel is a highly competitive industry that is crowed by giants such as Nike, Adidas or Under Amour. Those competitors have been in the market long before Lululemon with well-established brand images and cheaper prices. Hirschmann (2020) stated that the ageing population of Singapore can cause major economic and social repercussions for the company.

Annotated Bibliography

BBC (Ed.) (2018). Singapore country profile. BBC. Retrieved July 12, 2020, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-15961759

This page includes brief information on Singapore’s country profile. It provides insights into the country’s history pointing out certain key dates, along with the key facts about the country.

Department of Statistics Singapore (Ed.). (2020). Singapore Economy. Retrieved July 12, 2020, from https://www.singstat.gov.sg/modules/infographics/economy

This Singapore Government Agency page provides quantitative information regarding official statistics of the country. It presents the up-to-date value of the country’s GDP, unemployment rate, its biggest trading partners, import and export figures, and foreign direct investment came into the country.

Hirschmann, R. (2020, April 03). Statista: Population breakdown by age group Singapore. Retrieved July 10 from https://www.statista.com/statistics/624913/singaporepopulation-by-agegroup/#:~:text=In%202019%2C%20there%20were%20approximately,among%20its%20resident%20population%20then.

Statista is a global platform that provides information about a country’s statistics. It analyzes economic markets which includes consumer, mobility, and digital markets for more than 150 countries. This online platform gathers information from domestic and global statistical departments, organizational reports, as well as trade press. It provided a breakdown into the population of Singapore and stated that majority of the citizens are
above the age of 40.

Legault, M. J. (2016, February). Origin: Local vs. global marketing with lululemon. Retrieved from https://www.originoutside.com/insights/local-vs-global-marketing-with-lululemon

Origin as a digital platform brings people information about the outdoors and companies that get persons to be active. As Lululemon is a company that targets active individuals, this digital platform provided information about Lululemon methods for local and international marketing. It described the best way to position one’s business on the international market which is to match the marketing strategy with that of the international market.

Lululemon (2019, April 24). Lululemon: Lululemon Unveils “Power of Three” Strategic Plan to Accelerate Growth. Retrieved from https://investor.lululemon.com/news-releases/newsrelease details/lululemon-unveils-power-three-strategic-plan-accelerate-growth

The Investor online page provided detailed information about the company. They provided information on the plans that Lululemon will undertake to effectively improve its sales in the local and international market. They also provided information about the company’s financial plans and the vision that they aim to achieve by the year 2023. It stated that Lululemon can improve its overall revenue by increasing the sales amount from the men clothing line along and continues investment in innovation.

Lululemon (2020). History. Retrieved July 15, 2020, from https://info.lululemon.com/about/ourstory/
history

This is the official website of Lululemon Athletica. It contains all the public information provided by the company itself about their history, manifestos and business partners. Also, it provides details on how the company started as a design studio by day and yoga studio by night.

Lululemon (2020). Investors Relations. Retrieved July 15, 2020, from
https://investor.lululemon.com/investor-relations

This is an official website of Lululemon that includes relevant information for investor relations such as financial statements, SEC filings and corporate governance. It is public information that is accessible on the sales performance, operational strategies and product development of the company.

O’Connell, L. (2020, May 28). Lululemon athletica stores, by country worldwide 2011-2019. Retrieved July 15, 2020, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/291231/number-oflululemon-
stores-worldwide-by-country/

This is an official website of Statista Canada that contains statistical data of various companies and country. In this page, it provided Lululemon’s number of operated stores worldwide from 2011 to 2019. It showed a detailed number of stores per country and region.

Quiroz, M. A. (2018, December 31). A Growth Strategy for Lululemon 2018. Retrieved July 15, 2020, from https://medium.com/@michaelangelo_q/a-growth-strategy-for-lululemon-68819680e511

It is an article page that provided an in-depth analysis of Lululemon’s business growth strategy in 2018. It explained that there was a drastic increase in the company’s sales performance because of its differentiation, competitive advantages, and organizational structure. It also provided a SWOT analysis to further identify the company’s potential
strategies.

Saibil, J. (2020, February 02). The Motley Fool: 3 Reasons Why Lululemon Will Continue to Gain in 2020. Retrieved from https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/02/02/3-reasonslululemon-
will-continue-to-gain-in-2020.aspx

The Motley Fool is an online stock and investment service that mainly focuses on providing investment details about a company regarding the financial stability of the company. They have been offering financial advice and financial service for over 27 years. It provided information about the historical and current financial information about Lululemon along with sales received from their different market segmentation.

Team, T. (2019, November 07). Why Lululemon’s Direct-To-Consumer Segment Is Key To Its Growth. Retrieved July 16, 2020, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/11/07/why-lululemons-directto-consumer-segment-is-key-to-its-growth/#22f260083c90

Forbes is one of the largest global business media brands that highlight
entrepreneurialism. It covers mostly influential leaders and entrepreneurs who are making change and transforming the business to provide a significant impact on the world.

In this Forbes page, it tackles statistical data and critical analysis on how Lululemon’s direct-to-consumer segment is key to the company’s growth.

United State Securities and Exchange Commission (2010). Form 10-K Lululemon Athletica inc. Retrieved July 16, 2020, from https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1397187/000095012310028033/o60149e10vk.htm

This is an official website of United State Securities and Exchange Commission that shows Lululemon Athletica Inc.’s fiscal year financial statement for the year 2010. It also shows supplementary data such as company overview, management discussion and analysis of financial report or operations, disclosure about market risk and stockholder’s matter.

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