Athleta: How To Be Inclusive
April 14th, 2024
While conducting research for my international marketing class, I came across Athleta and their efforts to foster an inclusive brand. Intrigued by what I discovered, I felt compelled to share it with you here.
Athleta is known as one of the most size-inclusive athleisure brands on the market. Considered a competitor to Lululemon, Athleta stands for more than just a healthy body and a healthy mind. The brand's goal is “to empower women and girls to build strength, confidence, and wellbeing through movement” (Gap Inc., n.d.)
In a time where body positivity is essential for any clothing brand, Athleta prides itself on being size-inclusive. Since 2021, more than 70% of all clothing has ranged from XXS to 3X (Athleta, 2021). The brand decided to introduce more sizes after listening to customer feedback, who wanted more styles and sizes to fit their ever-changing needs (Athleta, 2021). These policies come in stark contrast to their main competitor, Lululemon.
Over the years, Lululemon has generated heavy controversy by refusing to stock above a size 12 (Le Tellier, 2013). Some employees have even said that the brand encourages its employees to hide size 12s in the back to disincentivize women of that size from purchasing from the brand (Lutz, 2013).
However, despite Lululemon’s controversies, they still made over $6 billion in annual revenue in 2022 (Parisi, 2023).
Conversely, Athleta made over $1.4 billion in 2022 and has a modest growth rate of 6% (Parisi, 2023). But does inclusivity and brand trust lend themselves to higher sales?
Because Athleta hopes to overtake Lululemon at some point, the brand has branched outside of just activewear and is trying new marketing strategies (Parisi, 2023). To compete more closely with Lululemon, Athleta has had to branch out of its core demographic of women aged 30 - 50 (Bhasin, 2023). To do this, Athleta has started utilizing brand ambassadors more heavily. Brand ambassadors aren’t necessarily new for Athleta, but they are now reaching out to bigger celebrities who they hope will draw in more young customers (Parisi, 2023).
To improve their yoga line, Athleta partnered with Taryn Toomey, founder of the workout studio The Class (Parisi, 2023, paragraph 6). With Mrs. Toomey, Athleta hosted yoga events in NYC and invited customers and other brand ambassadors to join (Parisi, 2023). The hope was that these events would promote the new yoga mat the brand was launching.
More recently, Athleta partnered with Simone Biles and gave her clothing to promote on her Instagram (Parisi, 2023). Athleta also helps Simone Biles host in-person events where she can promote her positive message about Mental Health to her young fans (Parisi, 2023).
Athleta believes that its marketing differs from that of Lululemon because it tailors their messaging to make each customer feel special and hopes to inspire customer loyalty (Parisi, 2023).
Athleta released AthletaWell 2022, a community platform, in order to improve two-way dialogue with its consumers (McCoy, 2022). Athleta views itself as a consumer-driven company, so actively engaging with its consumers' wants and needs is vital to its success (McCoy, 2022).
Another big change Athleta has made is investing more in digital marketing (McCoy, 2022). The goal was to improve brand awareness and increase the number of customers, which has been a success (McCoy, 2022). Athleta was able to double its customer file and triple the number of app downloads between 2022 and 2023 (McCoy, 2022). And 78% of Athleta customers consider themselves loyal, which has steadily increased over the years (Pollak, n.d.).
While they may still be behind Lululemon in sales, Athleta has steady growth and a loyal clientele that loves how the brand empowers women.
Always busy,
Sam
Works Cited:
Athleta (2021, January 21). Athleta Adds Extended Sizing to 350 Styles in Its 200 Stores and Online. Gap Inc. https://www.gapinc.com/fr-ca/articles/2021/01/athleta-adds-extended-sizing-to-350-styles-in-its-#:~:text=Athleta%20Adds%20Extended%20Sizing%20to%20350%20Styles%20in%20its%20200%20Stores%20and%20Online,-Par%20Athleta&text=Athleta%20announced%20today%20the%20expansion,available%20in%20sizes%201X%2D3X.
Bhasin, H. (2023, July 7). Athleta Marketing Mix and Strategy (4Ps). Marketing91. https://www.marketing91.com/athleta-marketing-mix/
Gap Inc. (n.d.). Athleta: The Power of She. Gap Inc. https://www.gapinc.com/en-us/about/athleta
Le Tellier, A. (2013, August 6). Does Lululemon Hate Plus Size Shoppers? Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-xpm-2013-aug-06-la-ol-lululemon-plus-size-customers-20130806-story.html#:~:text=According%20to%20some%20former%20employees,be%20considered%20plus%2Dsize.
Lutz, A. (2013, August 2). Lululemon Explains Why It Doesn’t Carry Larger Sizes For Women. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/lululemon-defends-not-carrying-plus-size-2013-8
McCoy, K. (2022, February 14). ‘Building a direct relationship with the customer’: How Athleta is leveraging its online community to build brand awareness. Digiday. https://digiday.com/marketing/building-a-direct-relationship-with-the-customer-how-athleta-is-leveraging-its-online-community-to-build-brand-awareness/
Parisi, D. (2023, January 25). As Activewear Sales Slow, Athleta Turns Attention to New Categories. Glossy. https://www.glossy.co/fashion/as-activewear-sales-slow-athleta-turns-attention-to-new-categories/#:~:text=Athleta%20made%20%241.43%20billion%20last,%246%20billion%20in%20annual%20revenue.
Pollack, S. (n.d.). Athleta is ranked #48 in Fashion and Beauty Brands. Comparably. https://www.comparably.com/brands/athleta
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