Is community based marketing the most effective method in the present day situation?

Lululemon, a vancouver based multinational sportswear brand correctly followed community based marketing strategy for building customer loyalty. Lululemon follows a grassroot startegy and relies heavily on word of mouth advertisement. Its interesting that it does not even have a marketing division, instead it only has a ‘Community Relations’ department. They generally target the local community as they only advertise in ‘Yoga Journal’ and ‘Runner’s World Magazine’.

I personally believe that they focus on creating an inviting and educational store environment that encourages product trial and repeated visits. Even when you are shopping at a lululemon store the salesperson would be interested in talking about yoga rather than just focusing on selling the product. I think this is an innovative and a unique way of developing long term customer relations.Moreover, they also hold free yoga classes in schools or in their stores to market the brand using the word of mouth strategy. One of the driving forces for lululemon has been the changes in the cultural environment with more people practicing yoga and becoming health concerned.

I  think the biggest thing Lululemon has done right is choosing its target market consisting of people that have money and also want to be trendy. Otherwise, there is no point in buying a yoga pant for over $100 which you can get for $30 any regular apparel store. Not to ignore the fact that they have the best quality yoga pants that gives highest level of comfort to its loyal customers.