Lululemon’s market value has surpassed Adidas by selling yoga clothes. What is the advantage of its private domain?

Luluemon's yoga clothes are very popular, but its advertisements are rarely seen. How did it do this? Private domain. What is the advantage of its private domain? This article explains it from many aspects such as background, channels, IP, and community. Let's take a look.

In recent years, with the improvement of women's income and social status, as well as the influence of a healthy lifestyle, yoga has developed rapidly in China and has become the second most popular sport for women after running. Against this background, the yoga industry has ushered in rapid growth, with an annual growth rate of 37.8% in the past five years. In 2021, the scale of China's yoga clothing market reached 32.21 billion yuan , and it is expected to exceed 50 billion yuan by 2025.

Lululemon, a brand that started out selling yoga clothes, successfully went public less than 10 years after its debut. Only 24 years after its establishment, it has surpassed Adidas with a market value of $37.4 billion, second only to Nike, becoming the world's second largest sports brand. Lululemon, which is in its heyday, rarely advertises, and its marketing matrix is ​​entirely composed of private domains. So how does lululemon do private domains? Today, we will explain it in detail.

The contents of this article are as follows:

1. Case Background
2. Traffic channel analysis
3. Private IP Disassembly
4. Community Operation Analysis
5. Marketing activity breakdown

1. Case Background

1. Brand Introduction

Lululemon was founded in Vancouver, Canada in 1998. It is a technical sportswear company that focuses on yoga wear products and adheres to the original intention of conveying the "hot sweat lifestyle philosophy". Through yoga, running, training and various forms of hot sweat needs and daily wear needs, it is known as the "Hermes of yoga wear" for its close-fitting and comfortable features.

2. Market size

In recent years, with the improvement of women's income and social status, as well as the influence of a healthy lifestyle, yoga has developed rapidly in China, becoming the second most popular sport for women after running. Against this background, the yoga industry has ushered in rapid growth, with an annual growth rate of 37.8% in the past five years.

According to data from iMedia Consulting, the size of China's yoga apparel market reached 32.21 billion yuan in 2021, and is expected to exceed 50 billion yuan by 2025, making it a tens-billion-yuan market.

3. User portrait

According to data from multiple sources, Lululemon's core user profile is "women between 24 and 36 years old, with an annual income of more than $80,000, who are highly educated, own their own house, have an hour and a half of exercise time every day, and have a positive attitude towards life."

2. Traffic Channel Analysis

Lululemon has established a private domain matrix with channels such as "official account + mini program + corporate WeChat + community" as the core, and has made use of popular public domain platforms such as Douyin, Xiaohongshu, Weibo, etc. to achieve public and private domain traffic conversion and help the brand expand its voice.

1. Private Domain Platform

(1) Official Account

After following the "lululemon" official account, the brand characteristics are introduced in the welcome message, and a jump link is attached to guide users to jump to the mini program to place an order.

After the user clicks the link, the system will recommend the nearest store welfare officer based on the user’s real-time location.

Path 1: Automatic welcome message [Find a store] - Select a store - Scan the QR code to add WeChat account

Path 2: [Rehan Life] in the WeChat Official Account menu bar - Nearby stores - Scan the QR code to add WeChat account

(2) Mini Programs

In the mini program [ lululemon hot sweat life ], private domain traffic diversion touchpoints are also set up. Specific path: My - More - Find a store - Scan the code to join the group

2. Public Domain Platform

(1) Video Account

Lululemon's video account is mainly focused on brand promotion and creative advertising. The homepage has touchpoints for the official account and mini-program. Click [Explore] to enter the mini-program and add the WeChat account of the company's welfare officer. In addition, lululemon's video account will also broadcast live from time to time to promote products and brands.

(2) Tik Tok

Lululemon’s account on Douyin has 161,000 followers and has published 196 works in total. The content is mainly product promotion and creative advertising, and the homepage also sets up touchpoints of the official website and stores.

(3) Weibo

Lululemon has 62,000 followers on Weibo, and 379,000 likes and comments. The Weibo account mainly features rewarded interactions, event promotions, product introductions, etc. The homepage has a touchpoint for the fan group, and users can apply to enter after following the account and becoming a loyal fan of the account.

(4) Xiaohongshu

Lululemon's Xiaohongshu account has 124,000 followers and 115,000 likes and favorites. The content is mainly event promotion and product introduction. It also guides users to bind topics, post notes, and promote brand products through marketing activities from time to time.

3. Disassembly of Private Domain IP

Lululemon has refined its customer service WeChat, and the role of the corporate IP is mainly the welfare officer. It is mainly responsible for promoting new products and sending welfare. The following is an example of the corporate IP I added.

1. Personal positioning

Nickname : Lululemon Hangzhou Chengxi Yintai Store 1 (Lululemon+city+store name)

Avatar : Brand LOGO

Role positioning : Brand welfare officer

2. Automatic welcome message

After users add corporate WeChat, the corporate WeChat will automatically reply with a welcome message, introduce community-exclusive benefits, and provide a community link to guide users to join the community.

3. Moments content

Release frequency : 3 posts per day

Release time : one each in the morning, afternoon and evening

Moments content : mainly new product promotions, outfit recommendations, etc.

4. Analysis of Community Operation

As a new sports brand, Lululemon currently has 672 stores worldwide, including 126 stores in China. The community is also mainly based on store groups, which are broken down below.

1. Community Positioning

Group nickname: Lululemon+region+hot sweat life, such as: Lululemon Chengxi Yintai hot sweat life

Group positioning : Hot sweat life enthusiasts exchange group

Community value: sports communication, product promotion, etc.

2. Community Group Announcement

Perhaps to reduce user disturbance, Lululemon did not set a welcome message for joining the group. It introduced group benefits and store locations in the group rules, which made it easy for users to quickly understand the benefits and find offline stores. In addition, Lululemon clearly defined violations in the group announcement to facilitate the establishment of group order.

3. Community Content

Currently, Lululemon does not have a fixed schedule for the content it releases on the social network. It usually releases some product promotion content, such as new product launches, KOC outfits, etc.

It mainly focuses on promoting products and guiding users to consume.

5. Marketing Activities Disassembly

Promoting activity is the core work in the entire user operation process. If you only attract users but fail to promote their activity, then there is no way to achieve good sales conversion. Lululemon chose a simple and crude way - marketing activities. Through marketing activities with different themes and forms, users are attracted to participate and user stickiness is enhanced. The following are examples of the three platforms of WeChat official accounts, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu.

1. Weibo

Lululemon's official Xiaohongshu account regularly organizes welfare activities, usually without setting participation thresholds, to maximize user participation. Take this event on September 1 as an example:

Participation period: September 1st - September 21st

How to participate: Sign up to become an experience officer

Winning rules: Random draw

Number of winners: 4

Event Prize: ABC™ Men's Pants

2. Official Account

Compared with Weibo, Lululemon's marketing activities on official accounts are more frequent. In the official official account, welfare activities are often launched, and users can participate by leaving a message. Take a recent event as an example:

How to participate: Leave a message at the end of the tweet

Winning rules: Random draw

Number of winners: 10

Activity prize: Li Songwei's pocket book "100 Exercises of Love"

3. Xiaohongshu

LemonBox officials will hold lucky draws on Xiaohongshu from time to time to increase brand exposure and fan stickiness.

Participation method: bring topic notes Winning rules: 4 outstanding sharers will be selected

Number of winners: 4

Event Prize: Frisbee signed by Zhou Guanyu

VI. Summary

Finally, let’s summarize the highlights and shortcomings of Lululemon in private domain operations:

(1) Rich IP image: Lululemon has established a SOP for WeChat Moments, with regular posting times, one each in the morning, noon and evening. The content is mainly about product recommendations and matching effects. This setting can not only avoid excessive disturbance to users caused by screen swiping, but also ensure that the products are fully exposed.

(2) Omni-channel private domain traffic diversion: Lululemon operates private domains through omni-channels and sets up a variety of touchpoints to facilitate fans to enter the private domain from the public domain and divert traffic to channels such as social groups and corporate WeChat. Lululemon's social group does not have a welcome message, and the overall gameplay is relatively simple, and is only used as an advertising group for distributing new products.

Author: Yan Tao

WeChat public account: Yan Tao Sanshou (ID: yantao-219)