If you know the brand Lululemon, you probably know that they are notorious for being expensive.
Even if you didn’t, you’re here because now you’re curious with a thought running through your mind:
“Why is lululemon so expensive?”
A bunch of things contribute to their prices but often are related to their marketing.
Let’s explore these reasons in this article.
First of all, how much do leggings from Lululemon cost?
To those unaware, the most popular leggings at Lululemon cost between $98 and $128.
Expensive, right?
Here are some of the reasons why they cost so much:
Marketing
The materials and production process are definitely two crucial factors.
But the third reason that affects a successful brand and its prices is excellent marketing.
Lifestyle marketing has always been a big part of the company’s business.
Lululemon has come up with an impossible marketing plan to copy.
From the positive slogans around their stores to the yoga events they’ve held in person to the positive images they’ve built around their brand.
When put together with a product that is just as unique, it’s easy to see why the company has had such unmatched success, growing from nothing to $48 billion in just over 20 years.
It’s also possible that keeping their prices on the higher side is part of their successful marketing strategy.
Aside from this, the brand got much media attention early on, though for questionable reasons.
This is related to Chip Wilson’s (Lululemon brand founder) public opinion on women’s bodies and child labor, among other controversies.
The supposedly planned media scandals helped Lululemon get a lot of attention from the media quickly when it started out.
Opportunistic considering they didn’t have any budget yet for marketing and advertising.
As expected, the “scandals” led to free discussions about the brands on global TV channels, online forums, etc., which led to a worldwide recognition of the brand.
A testament to the saying, “any scandal is good, as long as it creates publicity.”
Related Reading: Is Zyia Active As Good As Lululemon – Find Out Here.
Lululemon’s Partnerships with Celebrities
The fact that people perceive Lululemon as desirable is another “key ingredient” that makes it so expensive. Even though it’s expensive, Lululemon is one of the most popular “cult-like” athleisure brands.
Here’s how Lululemon built its strong cult-like image and fan base.
Lululemon used its early profits to work with celebrities and global influencers.
They did this instead of spending money on official advertisements and publicity since it was already done for free by the media.
By making collections with world-famous stars, Lululemon built up its brand even more.
More and more celebrities were wearing Lululemon leggings, jackets, and yoga mats, which made people want to follow the brand and buy its products.
Lululemon has everything from comfortable yoga tops for meditators to squat-proof leggings for teens, all endorsed by celebrities.
Lululemon got celebrities interested in the brand by having them work with the company on limited-edition products like those made by Supreme.
These limited-edition lines were made with and for celebrities, letting the wearer show off their taste and social status.
Lululemon is now one of the world’s most popular and expensive athletic wear brands.
This shows that the strategy worked.
Exclusive Retail
Lululemon sells almost all its products in its stores or through its official online store.
Having exclusive stores is good for the brand in many ways.
It makes sure that the product is genuine.
So, customers can be sure that the items they buy from Lululemon’s sites are authentic.
This also gets rid of the effect of competition.
When people go to these sites and stores looking for a particular item, they can only buy Lululemon products because they don’t carry any other brands.
It also keeps its products from going on sale at department stores, which means the brand can keep charging high prices.
Exclusive stores make it harder for consumers to get products, which creates competition to get the products and raises their demand and value.
This means that you have to pay for staff, branding, advertising, and security when you set up and run these physical and online stores.
We also need to think about the fact that the business is a massive empire with services all over the world.
Keeping track of such an extensive network of stores is not easy and definitely costs a lot of money.
Related Reading: Zyia Active Vs. Fabletics – Which One Is Better?
Model of Scarcity
Most of the time, Lululemon only makes a small number of a certain item.
This means that when the products hit the market, there will be more competition among customers to get them.
Since you can only manufacture a limited number of items, the demand is always higher than the supply.
This means prices should go up because the items are now scarce and therefore more valuable.
People often tend to put more value on things that are hard to get than on things that are easy to get.
A number of the most expensive brands in the world use scarcity as a way to raise prices.
This is an artificial way to make people think there isn’t enough of something.
Brand Identity
Lululemon keeps its prices high to maintain its image as a luxury brand.
This is on top of the high production costs, higher quality, and all the other things that can make products cost more overall.
People are more than willing to pay more for luxury brands because they also pay for the brand name.
This exclusivity is also how people show off a higher socioeconomic status.
This makes people feel good about themselves and as if they’ve accomplished something.
Branding also costs a lot, especially since brands don’t appear out of thin air.
Publicity and advertising cost a lot of money for businesses.
Quality also needs to be kept up with Lululemon’s customer’s expectations.
Fewer Discounts
The reputation of a brand may suffer from frequent discounting.
Lululemon works hard to keep its prices high and make sure that people want to buy its products.
It accomplishes this by placing limits on how many discounts people can get.
But they still offer discounts on a few less popular items in a section of their website called “We made too much.”
Here, they have many deals on their products during shopping events like Black Friday.
Having less frequent discounts, customers will have to buy things at their full prices more often.
Related Reading: Story Of Zyia Active Wear – Read It Here.
Final Thoughts
Though the brand started off with questionable publicity, you cannot deny its marketing prowess and success.
The quality of their products is also unquestionable.
Due to their prices possibly being a form of strategy in itself, I doubt they won’t be dropping anytime soon.