Run Away with Lululemon

Social Media Monitoring - Lululemon Athletica

     It has been two weeks since my last social monitoring on athletic clothing brand Lululemon Athletica. For the purpose for better analysis and a deeper focus in trends, I have chosen to narrow my scope of research to Lululemon’s Run campaign. It is unlike other traditional campaigns because it does not stick to one theme of running. It is on-going, ever-changing and not limited to a single brand ambassador or one large theme. The campaign evolves from the love for running. Although Lululemon is very much a yoga brand, it endorses running as the next most important activity. The Run ambassadors are launched along with their new running gear. This second attempt at monitoring Lululemon’s Run campaign documents the brand’s social media activity from September 19^th to November 6^th 2012. 
     Lululemon has dedicated this fall season to focusing on the love for running through their online presence on their homepage, blog, facebook, twitter, pinterest and youtube channel. In the past two weeks, Lululemon has changed the color of their logo on social media sites from Black to Hot Pink. As I had commented on my last social monitoring post, their twitter page was not aligned with their current campaign on their website. However, that has changed as well in a positive way because since the, it has changed its backdrop to match the website's campaign, linking all its social platform sites together. What I have also noticed is that local Lululemon stores are encouraged to have their own Facebook and Twitter account so actually make customer engagement more intimate and relatable. This is the missing puzzle piece from my first Lululemon analysis. Local Lululemon facebook pages post about local charity runs, marathons and running groups. 

     Three Lululemon Run ambassadors featured in October: Tom, Jill and Jessica. This campaign heightens with the launch of fall/winter running gear. A lot of posts and events about running campaigns are consistently circulated through Lululemon’s online platforms. Not until this past week in November, did we finally see a campaign specifically for winter running “Let’sbundle up and run!”, which features their newest winter running apparel and gear.

     Looking at the snap audience analysis for Lululemon using the Alexa tool, the Internet averages show that Lululemon.com is visited more frequently by females between the ages of 25-34, have no children, and are college educated. I compared this to female runnersstatistics, which says the average age of female runners are 38.6 years, 61.9% are married, and 78.7% college educated. Lululemon needs to expand their target audience to reach those above the age of 34. 

• Consistent increase in followers and fans

     Lululemon’s Facebook and Twitter pages have a positive and steady growth in followers. Facebook went from 729,134 fans on October 4, 2012 to 741,439 fans on November 4, 2012, which is an increase of 12,305 fans in a month! [socialbakers] 

• Interest over time

     Compared to its competitor GapAthleta (red), Lululemon Athletica (blue) draws significantly more interest over time, from September to the end of October. However, it is evident that the interest in Lululemon is not steady and constantly rises and drops. Gap Athleta is more consistent. Gap Athleta created a link on their main website to encourage people to donate money to the Red Cross to help victims of Hurricane, which shows their community and charitable outreach. Lululemon did not address this issue online. This could be a reflection of the lack of deeper penetration and innovative social media marketing. October 31^st, marked the lowest point in interest with 64/100. It rose slightly with the introduction of the Winter Running gear.  [Google Insights]

• Blog trends

     Almost little to no activity on the blogs – very few ‘retweets’, very few ‘likes’ and very few ‘pins’. There are outliers for the two posts on October 12, which could be explained because it was very much emphasized online unlike the other posts. This is the brand’s weakest social media platform even though it holds the most information.

Blog Post	Date	Tweet	‘Like’	‘Pin It’
Catching up with Jessica	October 22, 2012	0	40	2
Run Pant Rundown	October 20, 2012	3	18	0
Run Into Fall Playlist	October 12, 2012	6	127	43
Catching up with Jill	October 12, 2012	8	100	7
Catching up with Tom	October 8, 2012	4	32	2
A Glimpse at New Gear	October 7, 2012	3	28	0
In the Face of Injury	September 21, 2012	0	17	4

• Twitter trends

     There is an absence of any ‘Run’ campaigns being tweeted and no ‘Run’ ambassadors are actually represented or linked through tweets. I have been cautiously following their tweets and have not seen any activity in relation to ‘run’ ambassadors. Very rarely will there be tweets on running gear. This is certainly surprising to me because I see that Twitter can be used more to promote cohesiveness of their ‘run’ category in their brand. Their Twitter page seems to lack transparency as only @lululemon tweets are visible and conversations can be viewed if clicked on only. However, it is evident that although the @lululemon Twitter followers are increasing, the number of tweets per day by @lululemon is decreasing (look at monthly tweet colored graph). It is a severe drop in statistics! [tweetstats]

• Qualitatively, a few things have changed both positively and a few negative things remain unchanged

     After two weeks, there are still no replies on how Lululemon only goes till size 13 when advertising Run ambassador and their Run Swiftly gear, Lululemon ignores their comments (even though they aren’t rude) and responds only to specifically ‘product related questions’. The comment on the left is very positive and attempts to help the brand expand its reach and its market, yet Lululemon's customer representative refuses to even acknowledge the customer's friendly suggestion. 

     On the other hand, Lululemon handled a very angered customer online in a very professional manner. They thought of the customer and did not just ignore the size issue. The post received 197 ‘likes’ and over 70 comments of other angry customers. Lululemon responded within the hour and was the first comment. The response from Lululemon was very positive and understanding, which eventually won the support back from customer ‘Nicole Valle-Garay’. Lululemon was smart in knowing that if this case was left unattended, it would lead the groundswell to fight back. At that time, this comment had already received 197 ‘likes’ and over 30 comments. 






     The focus on a Run campaign this fall has dramatically changed conversations online. Although Lululemon is most prominently know for their yoga apparel, the run ambassadors and the launch of the run campaigns have successfully marketed a different side of Lululemon online. A significantly more amount of posts from customers online ask about running related products than yoga related products. This is a sign that the run campaign over the past two months have been successful.

     Online followers seem to love the run campaign posts a lot more than the posts about yoga, meditation, etc. It is because the ‘likes’ for ‘run’ posts outnumber the posts about other physical activities. The image below is a comparative example of two recent posts, one for running and the other for barre exercise. 

     Over the past few weeks, there has been a very distinctive trend in the company’s posts. Their posts are often very product-oriented or do not really engage the customers beyond social media. Lululemon does a good job of posting regularly but the content itself is a little dry in my opinion. Lululemon is an international company but they have not even reached 1 million ‘likes’ on Facebook. The brand needs change their approach to attract more social media followers.

• Final analysis and goals to improve Lululemon's social media marketing

     Lululemon Athletica is a very successful sports apparel company that has fully integrated social technology as a part of how the company runs its marketing. The challenge for Lululemon is not in creating those ideas but in the selection and management of their current platforms to effectively and efficiently exploit them. Therefore it is not what should be changed in Lululemon’s online presence but what they can improve on. These improvements are best explained through the objectives of thegroundswell: 

Listening: Lululemon is very informal yet professional in their tone when engaging with customers online. I have observed that Lululemon listens to customer product enquiries and questions concerning already purchased products. Lululemon’s customer representatives are very prompt with these responses. The ‘listening’ is reserved for specifically product orientation and sales. They think in terms of ‘how do we help them buy?’ instead of ‘how do we reach out to more customers?' It might be good for Lululemon to expand their ‘listening’ to other areas of their company, not just to sales.

Talking: There is an obvious neglect of responding to criticisms of their products, specifically comments that address how Lululemon does not offer larger sizes in their clothing. It is always ignored and easily so, because the Lululemon community online do not acknowledge these outliers either. This doesn’t mean that Lululemon as a brand should not respond and listen. Listening to those who criticize the brand is the first step towards building a greater online community and deepening the relationship between brand and buyers. It will also broaden the company’s audience reach and grow its customer trust and loyalty. The response time is important but it is even more important to simply acknowledge criticisms appropriately. 

Energizing: Another aspect of marketing Lululemon can improve on, is by developing innovative ways to energize their customers, followers and fans. After monitoring the Lululemon community, I’ve found that they the most effective energizing methods are the blogs dedicated to Lululemon products. Lululemon Addict for example, is a blog created by a Lulu fan and posts pictures of new products almost daily. It is very visual and incorporates different people wearing the products. This is free marketing for Lululemon, but unfortunately, there are only less than twenty comments each post. It may be an alternative and free marketing strategy for Lululemon, but it may have little to no effect. Lululemon’s Facebook posts don’t have a very high number of ‘shares’ either. Energizing the groundswell is so much more than that. The need to develop a customer engagement section on their website that is truly dedicated to customer testimonials. They are the most credible source of product and brand review. Like other companies that I’ve researched for my past blogs, experience is the key to success. How does Lululemon make their products an experience that transcends beyond the online realm? One way is by developing a creative campaign that involves customers and their products. They could create a competition where customers create a 30-second video featuring what they love to do in their Lululemon gear. These videos would be put up on their website where other customers can vote. It could be a charity themed competition or an inspirational themed competition. The winner would win a shopping spree at their closest Lululemon store! This campaign idea is both energizing and engaging. It will also bring the Lululemon community together and strengthen the company’s mission statement.

Supporting: The openness and community Lululemon created through its various social media platforms have really encourage the groundswell to support each other. The company itself is not the only respondent to customer concerns and questions. On their website especially, Lululemon rarely responds to actual customer product reviews, most responses are from fellow shoppers. Many Lululemon customers help to answer questions if they have experienced the same problems or concerns. A suggestion is for Lululemon to reach out to their most active customers and ask if they’d be interested in joining a support community. Encourage Lululemon community ambassadors to actively participate in conversations online. Ask Lululemon bloggers to use their blogs as a forum for conversation and product review sharing in line with the current campaign. Lululemon must create a stronger community of support.

Embracing: Lululemon, as mentioned earlier, has fully integrated popular social media sites in their marketing. Their marketing serves to drive community development, the importance of health and the benefits of fitness. With such a widespread reach of followers, Lululemon should optimize their platforms by crowdsourcing: asking the groundswell to provide ideas. It is the most effective and affordable way to engage their customers and show them that you listen. It could be as simple as putting aside one product a month for a customer design contest. It can be a gear as small as a neck warmer but it will be big and attention grabbing. 

     According to the positive trends and analysis, Lululemon has successfully launched their Run campaign. However, I do believe that Lululemon can always improve by understanding what their marketing objectives are in the groundswell. It is evident that certain social media platforms are much stronger than others. With the social media tracking tools, Lululemon should understand what marketing plans work better than others for the business. Marketing should extend offline as well, such as organizing a Hurricane Sandy charity drive attract press. Although it may seem as though I have put forth a plethora of online marketing improvements, I understand that not everything will be practical or easily adoptable by the company. Their mission of health and wellness does come through their Run campaign and certainly impacts their fans and followers. It is more than an athletic apparel company; it is the whole experience of receiving the product and wearing it while doing what you love. They must show the groundswell that they are a lifestyle. Ultimately, Lululemon must deepen their customer engagement and discover that the groundswell has so much more to offer. Their exercise of the groundswell is only at the surface.