Description: Rivals Peleton and Lululemon are now friends of sorts. Following a long legal “copy cat” dispute, Lululemon will begin manufacturing Peleton’s branded clothing, while at the same time it will stop producing its Mirror exercise platform and related on-line fitness classes. Retail analyst Neil Saunders, offered that both companies eventually realized that “dabbling in areas outside of their core competencies was not yielding results.”
Date: September 29, 2023
Source: cbc.ca
Discussion points:
1) How many of your classmates have used product from either Lululemon or Peleton?
2) Do you think this strategy of cooperation was a good decision for both companies?
3) Chapter Six of Wiley’s Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision-Making opens with a vignette about lululemon athletica that discusses the Covid-19 crisis’s impact on the business. How did the company do during Covid times?
Jagger Russell, Lauren Reid, Gerrit sierink, Rachid Nait-Aiss
1. Three of our classmates have used their products.
2. We believe it was a good decision because now they’re not competing against each other and now because they’re working together they can potentially make more profit.
3. Lululemon overall did better during the pandemic because of their stockpiling of inventory they were able to increase sales by 11%.
Emily Lake, Sage Jull, Maalik Boukouiss, Kenna Van der Pluijm
1. Every member of our group has purchased or owns some item of clothing from Lululemon, however no one in the group has been exposed to the Peloton brand or knows anything about it.
2.We think that this strategy is a good strategy because both companies are sticking to what they are most known for. This will help them spend less expenses and time producing merchandise that they will not get much revenue from. Lululemon is known for clothes and Peloton is known for equipment so that is where they will get most of their revenue from.
3.Lululemon’s sales peaked during Covid times due to people being bored at home during quarantine and looking to productively use their time for working out or people wanting to spend their money on new comfortable clothes because they were not using their money elsewhere.
Isabelle Rafter, Mary Goudy, Keeve Chantack , Riyan Mittal
1.) In our group of 4, half own Lululemon apparel. As for Peloton, only 1/4 has ever used one.
2.) We think that the strategy is beneficial for both companies, as they are both the most successful in their respective product markets. while this is compromising to the expansion of each company, the partnership is likely to build a stronger interest/connection with the young, trendy, and athletic target market that is already hooked.
3.) During the covid 19 pandemic the Lululemon brand increased its inventory. due to the individual being trapped indoors. This sparked a fitness movement worldwide which ultimately led to the purchase of workout equipment. increasing the sales and company revenue.
Zanna Hathaway, Dylan Kurtz, In Hye Yang, Andrianna Scott
1) Half of our group has worn and own lululemon. None of us have used peloton before.
2) We think this strategy is good because they are both huge companies that could help each other. Now that lululemon is sticking to clothing and Peloton is just make equipment they will not be taking about each other sales. Both companies are in the fitness area therefore they can promote themselves and the other company.
3)During covid the company increased their stocks so they did not have a problem with getting material’s from other companies. Also during covid most people started to focus more on their fitness which increased their sales.
Andrew Leslie, Jessie Kpai, Samuel Johnson, Presley Warren-Daigle
1) Members of our group have bought Lululemon and have used/owned Peleton equipment.
2) We feel that this is a good strategy for both companies, as they are no longer directly competing with each other on certain products. They now are working together to produce the products that they each specialize in, rather than overextending their product lines. It compliments the strengths of both companies.
3) Lululemon’s business remained steady over the pandemic and increased by 11% in 2021.
Aidan Hazen, Josh Gonsalves, Connor Briand, Leah May
1. In our group all four of us have purchased or used a lululemon product. None of us have used a Peloton product before. Some of us have seen the peloton advertisements online about their fitness bike. One group member knew that Peloton is one of the leading companies in indoor exercise bikes. They have a family friend that owns one of their bikes.
2. We believe that the cooperation is good for both companies because they are now both sticking to what they know and have proven to be good at instead of venturing out into an unknown market.
3. During Covid times Lululemon sales were soaring, indicating that the company was not only surviving, but also thriving under conditions where other companies struggled to turn a profit. Due to such demand, the company experienced a brief shortage of supply in stores across the country as factories in Vietnam were forced to shut down due to covid related reasons.
Andrew Little, Lauren Hatheway, John Christodoulou, Shristhi Kedia
1. Members of our group are consumers of lululemon’s product, and while none of us have a peloton product, we are all aware of the product and its marketing. Seeing that Lululemon and peloton have had a historic product rivalry, it is very interesting to see these two brands working together, as we’ve all seen their products commercially.
2. We think that the marketing strategies that this partnership is doing is very much similar to lululemons previous brand marketing, including the draw of celebrity and lifestyle influences, along with loyalty and exclusive customer reach like the use of their new lululemon studio app subscribers feature. We think peloton is really lucky to work with lululemon because of how well known and successful they are and how much popularity and recognition they get publicly, so peloton can almost treat a partnership with a prestigious brand like lululemon as an influencer almost as itself.
3. During COVID-19, lululemon had seen a decrease in international shipments making it harder to obtain materials internationally, but an increase in online orders as the in-store market was basically shut down, so that lululemon turned very much to online advertising and marketing and trying to maintain their sales and increase the company’s inventory.