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Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues


Lululemon, a successful yoga and athletic apparel company, faced a number of controversies notably those surrounding comments made by the founder and regarding employee and public relations. Many of these controversies seem out of line with Lululemon's Manifesto, a one-page collection of sayings that guide the company's actions. These issues culminate with issues regarding one of their most popular products, resulting in a product recall in 2013. As Lululemon enters 2014, facing drops in their share price and a revenue growth below expectations, Lululemon's new CEO has to make some decisions about the best way forward for the company. The authors are affiliated with Simon Fraser University.

Authors :: Stefanie Beninger, Simon Pek, Karen Robson, Adam J Mills

Topics :: Sales & Marketing

Tags :: Ethics, Public relations, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues" written by Stefanie Beninger, Simon Pek, Karen Robson, Adam J Mills includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Lululemon Lululemon's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Ethics, Public relations and Sales & Marketing.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is backlash against globalization, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Lululemon Lululemon's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Lululemon Lululemon's operates in.

According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.




SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix


SWOT analysis of Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Lululemon Lululemon's
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Lululemon Lululemon's




Strengths Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Lululemon Lululemon's in Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues Harvard Business Review case study are -

Analytics focus

– Lululemon Lululemon's is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Stefanie Beninger, Simon Pek, Karen Robson, Adam J Mills can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.

Organizational Resilience of Lululemon Lululemon's

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Lululemon Lululemon's does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Lululemon Lululemon's has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Lululemon Lululemon's has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.

Learning organization

- Lululemon Lululemon's is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Lululemon Lululemon's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Lululemon Lululemon's has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Lululemon Lululemon's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Lululemon Lululemon's in the sector have low bargaining power. Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Lululemon Lululemon's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Lululemon Lululemon's digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Lululemon Lululemon's has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Lululemon Lululemon's are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.

Diverse revenue streams

– Lululemon Lululemon's is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Lululemon Lululemon's has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Innovation driven organization

– Lululemon Lululemon's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.






Weaknesses Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues are -

Lack of clear differentiation of Lululemon Lululemon's products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Lululemon Lululemon's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Lululemon Lululemon's has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Lululemon Lululemon's has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Lululemon Lululemon's even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues, it seems that the employees of Lululemon Lululemon's don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Lululemon Lululemon's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Lululemon Lululemon's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Lululemon Lululemon's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues, in the dynamic environment Lululemon Lululemon's has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Lululemon Lululemon's has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Need for greater diversity

– Lululemon Lululemon's has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Lululemon Lululemon's 's lucrative customers.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Lululemon Lululemon's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Lululemon Lululemon's has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.

High dependence on existing supply chain

– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Lululemon Lululemon's supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Lululemon Lululemon's vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.




Opportunities Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues are -

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Lululemon Lululemon's can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Lululemon Lululemon's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Buying journey improvements

– Lululemon Lululemon's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.

Manufacturing automation

– Lululemon Lululemon's can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Lululemon Lululemon's to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Lululemon Lululemon's has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Lululemon Lululemon's to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Lululemon Lululemon's can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Lululemon Lululemon's operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Lululemon Lululemon's in the consumer business. Now Lululemon Lululemon's can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Loyalty marketing

– Lululemon Lululemon's has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Lululemon Lululemon's can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Lululemon Lululemon's to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Lululemon Lululemon's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Lululemon Lululemon's can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Lululemon Lululemon's can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.

Reconfiguring business model

– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Lululemon Lululemon's to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.




Threats Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues are -

Aging population

– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.

Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc

– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.

Backlash against dominant players

– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Lululemon Lululemon's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Lululemon Lululemon's can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues .

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Lululemon Lululemon's in the Sales & Marketing industry. The Sales & Marketing industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.

Regulatory challenges

– Lululemon Lululemon's needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Sales & Marketing industry regulations.

Instability in the European markets

– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Lululemon Lululemon's will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Lululemon Lululemon's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Increasing wage structure of Lululemon Lululemon's

– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Lululemon Lululemon's.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Lululemon Lululemon's demand

– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.

Environmental challenges

– Lululemon Lululemon's needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Lululemon Lululemon's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.

Capital market disruption

– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Lululemon Lululemon's.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Lululemon Lululemon's is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues Template, Example


Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants. We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –

First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.

Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.

Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Lululemon Athletica's Product, Employee and Public Relations Issues is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Lululemon Lululemon's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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