After reading one of my classmates blog post on Lululemon and the luon issue, I began to look more into the outcome. Ashley Anderson commented on the fact that she believed Lululemon’s brand loyalty would decrease after Chip Wilson, the creator of Lululemon, said that the reason the luon pant was see-through was due to the fact that women were not buying the right size. This created a lot of backlash from consumer who were offended by the comments. The result of these comments led the company to recall the pants. Many wondered how this would affect Lululemon’s brand and consumer brand loyalty.
It would be easy to assume that consumers would be unhappy with the company and for their loyalty to decrease. When I first heard of the issue, I thought consumers would be reluctant to buy the pants once they were re-released. Personally, I would question the quality and also feel hesitant to support Wilson’s comments. However, an article published in The Huffington Post, disproves such beliefs. As soon as the pants were re-released, Lululemon’s shares went up 18%. Consumers were much happier with the new, thicker pants.
I was surprised by these results due to the fact that Lululemon had a large amount of upset and offended consumers. This goes to show that the company really has created strong brand loyalty. Wilson made comments that offended a good chunk of their consumers, yet they still come back to the store to spend $98 on a pair of stretchy pants. Lululemon is definitely a company to learn from.