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 For yoga pants maker Lululemon Athletica, the past few weeks have exposed serious cracks in brand management that threaten its bottomline.
 The company revealed that its Luon fabric, a combination of Nylon and Lycra, was essentially see-through. This led to a product recall, a drop in stock price and sheer glee for competitors like Nike and Gap. Lululemon's yoga pants range in price from $72 to $98. Pretty cheeky, but loyal customers have been only too willing to oblige for a brand that is hot. The problem for Lululemon may be that their growth has overwhelmed their quality controls. They have had similar problems before and last summer they had bleeding problems with the colors in their swim line. A pattern of breakdowns like these threatens premium pricing and leaves an opening for competitors. Brand loyalty can only stretch so far. To its credit, Lululemon took action quickly, offered full refunds and pulled the pants down from the shelves. But whether that will be enough to turn lemon into lemonade, only time will tell. Meanwhile, for those of us who strive to maintain our brands' integrity, we take away three lessons: - Build your brand to stand for something you believe in passionately;
- Deliver on your brand promise in every way, every day;
- Take immediate action if your brand stumbles, acknowledge the problem and show what you're doing to fix it. Transparency is the best thing, unless you're talking about yoga pants.
Bill Carlos President | 
