Can a piece of underwear save a marriage? lululemon's "Marriage Saving BRA" sold out.
This underwear, called Everlux, has a front opening design with a cut-out design that enhances the visual impact.
Some people on social platforms commented that wearing this underwear can have the effect of "leveling the ground and raising a tall building".
On the overseas official website, some consumers specially wrote a long comment for this underwear, "My life has changed because of buying this underwear!" My husband could no longer take his eyes and hands off me, and it completely turned our marriage around and we didn't even need a divorce lawyer anymore. It is recommended for all friends or family members who have marital problems to buy it. ”
However, some people question the use of this underwear and feel that the function of "saving marriage bra" is really a bit chicken.
If it is used as a sports underwear, it will be ** after a little exercise, and some consumers on social platforms say that "the chest pad is as thin as a cicada's wings"; But if it is worn as ordinary underwear, wearing it not only presses the chest, but also blinds the design.
The "marriage saving bra" with low comfort seems to be only used for "flattering men".
Chip Wilson, the founder of lululemon, has said that lululemon's audience is "super girls" with high incomes and high educational qualifications. Compared with the original "oath", lululemon's popular products this time seem to have the meaning of "catering to the wife", deviating from its former target audience.
From an independent feminine casual design to a "marriage saving bra" sought after by "coquettish wives", yes, lululemon has changed, but its changes are far more than that.
Penetrate the sinking market, focusing on the middle class of the county
If you want to say that the biggest change in lululemon is probably not the "saving marriage BRA".
In the past year or two, lululemon, which once focused on the new middle class and white-collar groups in first-tier cities, began to focus on the sinking market.
In 2023, lululemon's offline stores in Guiyang, Jinan, Wuxi, Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Qingdao, Foshan and other second- and third-tier cities will open one after another. On January 12, 2024, lululemon Douyin official *** was also officially launched.
In November last year, Lululemon CEO Calvin McDonald revealed at the earnings conference that the performance of Chinese stores continued to exceed expectations, and lululemon will continue to look for opportunities in first- to third-tier cities.
According to the company's previously announced growth plan, the number of lululemon stores in China will increase from the current 148 to 220 by 2026.
How to achieve the growth of stores in China? The answer given by lululemon is to penetrate the sinking market, focusing on the middle class in China's third- and fourth-tier cities.
It is not so much that lululemon is aimed at the sinking market, but that it is better to start hunting for "county ladies". After all, a sports shirt worth thousands of yuan and yoga pants worth more than 800 yuan are too expensive for ordinary people in third- and fourth-tier cities with a monthly income of more than 3,000 yuan.
However, at the moment when the economic environment is uncertain, the county economy has shown considerable resilience, attracting more and more brands. Economist Guan Qingyou pointed out in an exclusive interview that the county's middle class has a stronger ability to resist risks than the middle class in first-tier cities.
In the view of Cheng Weixiong, an independent analyst in the footwear and apparel industry, lululemon's channel strategy of sinking layout is correct. Cheng Weixiong believes that "China's real market with huge consumption capacity and consumption scale is there.
In second- and third-tier cities, lululemon's positioning of 1,000 yuan** is not high compared to women's daily beauty spending. ”
In addition to sinking stores in second- and third-tier cities, Douyin has also become lululemon's "pioneer" in exploring the sinking market.
On January 12, 3 months after Douyin "tested the waters", lululemon Douyin officially opened. From the first live broadcast on October 9, 2023 to the official opening, lululemon has broadcast a total of 91 live broadcasts, but the average splash is not large.
With the official opening of the official *** in January, lululemon began to make efforts on the Douyin live broadcast channel.
According to the statistics of salt financial reporters, in terms of live broadcast duration, lululemon has increased from an average of two and a half hours each time in December last year to an average of five hours each time in February this year; In terms of the frequency of live broadcasts, since the Lunar New Year, it has maintained a live broadcast almost every day, which cannot be described as dedication.
In addition to increasing the duration and frequency of live broadcasts, the frequency of new updates is also higher than that of Tmall***lululemon Douyin***.
Taking February 2024 as an example, lululemon will list 88 new products on Douyin's official ***, ranging from underwear, vests, shorts, short sleeves to long sleeves, long pants, blazers, and even hats, headwear, wristbags and other categories. The number of new products on Tmall's official *** shelves is much lower than that of Douyin***
From 2015, 2018 to 2022, lululemon has successively landed on Tmall, Xiaohongshu and JD.com.
Why lululemon did not choose to officially open Douyin until 2024***There is only one answer - lululemon wants to find new growth points in the sinking market.
According to the "2023 Douyin E-commerce Semi-Annual Report" jointly produced by Cicada Mother and Cicada Rubik's CubeIn the first half of 2023, 68% of Douyin's e-commerce interest groups are distributed in second-tier cities and below, and third-tier cities and below account for nearly half of all people.
In order for brands to maintain growth, Mouyin has become an important channel for them to connect with consumers in lower-tier cities.
The layout of the sinking market is inseparable from online e-commerce. China's complex urban hierarchy makes it impossible for brands to penetrate every city and region like a capillary. However, China's efficient and complete e-commerce channels include all cities and even towns.
According to Euromobitor, from 2016 to 2021, the average growth rate of offline retail business was less than 5%, while the online retail business maintained annual growth of 15%-35%.
E-commerce has also become one of the factors for lululemon to continue to make money.
In lululemon's new increment, the contribution of e-commerce has increased year by year. Growth Black Box data shows that the contribution of e-commerce to lululemon's growth has increased from 17% in 2011 to 50% in 2022. In other words, half of the money lululemon makes every year more than last year is contributed by e-commerce.
lululemon betrays Supergirl?
According to the founder Wilson himself, lululemon's target audience in the early years was very clear:32-year-old "super girls" with an annual income of 10-150,000 US dollars, unmarried, and highly educated.
It's not hard to see why. Before Wilson founded lululemon in 1998, the percentage of women with an undergraduate education in North America had risen from 20 percent to 60 percent. As women's education levels increase and incomes rise, a new demographic landscape emerges.
With the rise of yoga in Europe and the United States at the beginning of this century, "Super Girls" also brought popularity to lululemon, which became popular with yoga pants. This made Wilson, who once sold surf shorts and ski clothes but did not succeed, become a billionaire in one fell swoop, sitting on a net worth of $7 billion.
The same story is playing out in China 17 years later. In 2015, lululemon entered China, which was the time when the number of "super girls" in China began to rise significantly.
White-collar women with a bachelor's degree or above and a good income working in first-tier cities have become lululemon's core consumers in China. Wearing lululemon, they don't care about marriage or childbirth, but care more about improving themselves.
Lululemon, which is a thousand-dollar entry, not only takes into account fashion, but also meets social needs. For the "Lu family", they are not wearing a yoga dress, but pursuing a quality and healthy lifestyle.
However, under the high price, complaints about the quality problems related to lululemon are also emerging on social platforms. Some consumers said on Xiaohongshu that the clothes they wore only once pilled, the color faded as soon as they were washed, and there were problems such as snagging and threading on the clothes that had just been put on the body.
For example, Linda, a girl who used to be a "die-hard fan" of lululemon, bought lululemon products through overseas shopping or asked relatives and friends to return to China when lululemon had not yet entered the Chinese market. As a member of the Lu family who has been "showing his age" for 7 years, the reason why Linda abandoned the pit is very simple - the ** of lululemon clothes has become more expensive and the quality has deteriorated.
In Linda's view, in recent years, some clothes pill after washing once or twice, and quality control has become unstable. "I can't afford to buy clothes. ”
lululemon has also had shoddy quality problems.
Tianyancha shows that lululemon was fined 8 by the Beijing Xicheng District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau for violating Article 50 of the Product Quality Law of the People's Republic of China (adulteration and adulteration in products, passing off fake products as genuine, shoddy, or substandard products as qualified products) and other regulationsMore than 10,000 yuan. Confiscation of illegal gains2More than 30,000 yuan.
A n**igation men's down vest with a price of 1380 yuan, but the filling amount does not meet the national standard, which really makes people feel unfair for consumers.
It can also be known through the details in the administrative penalty letterThis unqualified thousand-yuan down vest has a profit margin of nearly 35%. We can even roughly calculate that for every n**igation down vest sold, lululemon can earn nearly 500 yuan.
The quality problem that does not match the ** has dissuaded some former loyal users. In addition, while the speed of new product categories is increasing, the problem of product "homogenization" has also emerged.
Hanna, a "post-95" girl studying for a PhD in Hong Kong, was keen to buy all kinds of lululemon clothes. According to Hanna, when she was on the job, she would actively buy the same quick-drying garment even if it came out of different colors.
From "planting grass" to "pulling weeds", it is because Hanna found that lululemon's products are seriously homogeneous.
In her opinion, functional clothing such as yoga pants and quick-drying clothes are not like fashion clothing that needs to be replaced by multiple pieces. Many of the new styles are also very similar, and after a long time, they are similar in the wardrobe. In addition, with the "consumption downgrade" brought about by the economic downturn, Hanna is more willing to put money in her pocket.
While lululemon continues to expand its category, yoga pants are no longer its "dominant" field.
In addition to the entry of established sports brands such as Nike and Adi, new stars such as Maia Active, a local yoga pants brand acquired by Anta last year, are also squeezing lululemon's original market.
At the same time, ** has become lululemon's new power point.
In November 2023, lululemon opened China's first ** pop-up space in Shanghai; In January 2024, it will open the first ** independent store in the Asia-Pacific region at INDIGO, Beijing.
Obviously, lululemon, which once started with women's yoga pants, has begun to increase its "male content". In addition to men's jackets, shirts, T-shirts, sports vests, pants and other conventional categories, there are also men's bags, headwear, drinking glasses, sports socks and other accessories.
At the beginning of this year, lululemon launched its men's shoe series for the first time, increasing its weight in the field of men's footwear and clothing, which also confirmed its ambition in the ** field.
However, for the current Chinese market, which pursues personalized consumption, it is easy for more vertical and segmented brands to stand out. It is not easy for all categories of clothing to reflect personalization and differentiation.
Lululemon, which deviated from the founder's "original intention" and began to take the route of sinking the market, can it still be favored by Super Girls?