In the era of commodity consumption, the items we buy, wear, and use have become a personal symbol.
When coffee fans ask you what coffee you usually drink, if you answer " Starbucks ", then in their hearts, "you ≈ people who don't know how to drink coffee", because people who know coffee do not drink matchmaking or Italian style, and if you want to drink, drink single-product hand-brewed.
When yoga enthusiasts communicate with you about yoga clothes, if you only mention Nike or adidas, you will be automatically classified as "sports novices". In their eyes, if you already have a certain understanding of yoga, you must have never heard of a brand called lululemon. Brands that can be used by consumers to "show off" are not simple.
This brand with a market value of nearly 18 billion US dollars on Nasdaq has risen to become a new generation of sports trend symbols with the precise positioning of "female yoga clothing". The Chinese name of
lululemon is "Lululemon". This brand that sounds a bit "counterfeit" is pairs of yoga pants for 750-1,000 yuan, which is about twice as expensive as Nike's tights (Nike's tights are 300-700 yuan), but does not prevent it from gaining fans around the world, making sports top brands such as Nike and adidas quite anxious.
What's more, lululemon does not shoot advertisements, invite spokespersons, and even has not set up a marketing department. It has made its debut by relying on "wild ways" and successfully gained a share of the sports market. How did it do it?
Cultivation Seed User
Founded in 1998, lululemon was originally just an inconspicuous store on the streets of Vancouver. Product sales, customers' yoga training, and product design are all under the same roof.
△ lululemon's first store
△ The renovated "lululemon's first store"
Although unknown, the advantage is that the founder Chip Wilson can communicate directly with sports enthusiasts, yoga coaches, professional athletes and other consumers here, collect opinions from them and improve the product.
brand allows users to participate in the product design process, and many brands are also doing it. For example, Xiaomi mobile phone 's history of success, I believe many people have heard of : the brand did not have a huge marketing budget in the early stage. Xiaomi mobile phone cultivated a group of loyal fans of the brand by allowing digital enthusiasts and mobile phone enthusiasts to participate in the product design process, and grew rapidly.
Xiaomi mobile phone brand voice can be spread, and this group of seed users make an indelible contribution.
The practice of letting users participate in product design actually hides a communication rule . In the book "Weak Communication - Philosophy of the World of Public Opinion", it is mentioned that
The strong group in life is the weak group in public opinion. Public opinion has a natural supplementary mechanism. In "scoring public opinion", the lower the score yourself, the higher the score you may give; on the contrary, if you give yourself a high score, public opinion often gives his score to the lower.
So, the brand allows consumers to participate in product design is actually to "give themselves low scores" and let users give their opinions. is putting the posture low enough, and users can easily build a good impression of the brand.
reflects from another perspective, why hard brand marketing often arouses users' disgust, because self-praising yourself is too "strong". What's more, the advantages of are all told by yourself. When it's someone else's turn to talk about, you can only talk about the shortcomings.
"Let others give suggestions" is a science, and it is the same for brands. Instead of giving the self-righteous "full answer" to users, it is better to "accept the imperfection of the product" and explore and solve problems with users, so that can develop a meaningful user relationship, but it has a more unique brand charm.
"Private Domain Traffic Thinking" lululemon has long used
. The common brand growth path is to first destroy popularity, then develop reputation, and finally maintain loyalty and attack the top from the bottom of the pyramid.
So we will see Luckin's overwhelming advertisements, but turn a blind eye to everyone's feedback on "coffee is not good"; the brainwashing advertisements shot by boss Zhipin and Platinum Travel are full of complaints, but they still can't stop the "slogan-style advertisements" coming in turn... because these brands need to solve the problem of popularity first.
lululemon As a niche brand that pioneered the sports segment, the growth path of brand is inverted pyramid, first of all loyalty, reputation, and finally popularity.
In order to achieve popularity, lululemon did two very critical things and successfully pushed the brand from a niche to the public:
One. For every time I enter a city, lululemon will find about 20 local yoga teachers to cooperate in the form of clothing sponsorship.
Compared with sports fashion brands that invest heavily in sponsoring athletes and celebrities, lululemon's marketing strategy seems much more down-to-earth.
Of course, compared with the coverage of artists and celebrities, the influence of these yoga teachers and fitness coaches is not worth mentioning, but for yoga novices and sports beginners, they are vertical KOLs. It can not only deepen the market awareness of "lululemon=yoga", but also immediately play a role in selling goods.
Secondly, lululemon will also carry out yoga classes in the community for free, gradually developing into a large-scale yoga group activity, ranging from a few hundred people to tens of thousands.
The great formation has shaped the "sense of ritual", and more and more people have joined in becoming "devoted believers".
"Free classes" tricks are not uncommon, such as: free courses held by Apple retail stores every week (covering photos and videos, music, programming, art and design, etc.), and Starbucks' "Coffee Classroom", which teaches you how to taste coffee, learn flower-pulling skills, etc.
In addition to letting you plant grass products, there is a bigger game of chess called "community culture".
Users will not only fully feel the brand philosophy when making friends and learning in class, but also have a strong sense of gain in their personal psychology. triggers the imagination of a better life and unknowingly makes the brand a kind of "faith".
The two things mentioned above have one thing in common, that is, lululemon is directly linked to the user. In today's words, lululemon is actually using "private domain traffic thinking" for marketing.
No advertisements or endorsements means that lululemon almost does not need to pay for public domain traffic repeatedly, but instead focuses on finding its target audience directly and generating connections. forms a "yoga community culture" and directly imports traffic into its territory.
When a brand becomes a belief, users will become the brand's tap water, constantly spreading and re-disseminating.
Conclusion
From niche to trend, lululemon took 11 years, and now it has its fans all over the world.
But it has also turned over. In 2013, lululemon recalled a batch of black yoga pants . The reason is that the fabric of this batch of goods is too thin, which causes the consumer's body parts to be exposed, and it is criticized as "transparent yoga pants" (the picture is not put on).
Lululemon lost $620 million for this, and this negative news also had an impact on the stock price, directly affecting the brand's reputation and sales.
After experiencing the impact of negative news and the replacement of management, lululemon finally grew again and again recalled in 2015.
But lululemon has been working steadily all the way and rebuilds consumer confidence. It still attracts countless fans today. is called "Hermes in sports brands" by customers and has become a "showing symbol".
When you are still discussing whether the advertisement is effective or invalid, when you are still gritting your teeth for the marketing budget, lululemon, which goes against the trend, has completed the counterattack of the "niche brand".
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