As my fellow classmate Jeremy Xu stated in his blog, the founder of Lululemon, Chip Wilson, recently made some comments, which may have hurt the company image. Wilson defended his products by blaming women with larger thighs for having problems with the highly priced yoga pants. Surprisingly, Wilson’s wife, Shannon, supported her husband by saying “women shouldn’t sit on hard surfaces such as concrete if they’re concerned about wearing down the fabric”. As one can predict, both past, current and future customers are not impressed.
Although I agree with my classmate that it is the natural instinct for a CEO to defend their company, Wilson made a huge mistake of offending pretty much his whole target market. I believe this action taken by Wilson will result in consequences such as a decrease in customer base. Especially people like me, someone who has never bought anything from Lululemon, will definitely not be going to Lululemon now. Business wise, Wilson severely damaged the image of his company and now must find a way to redeem both himself and the message that his company sends out to his consumers.