Lululemon

[snopes]

Comment: Just wondering if there is any truth to the rumor that the CEO of
athleticwear brand Lululemon purposely gave his brand a name that would be
difficult for Asians to say. I've heard this one floating around for a
while, and it doesn't seem plausible to me that a retailer would shoot
themself in the foot that way, especially not one whose business
originated in an area with a large Asian population. Can't remember where
I heard it first, just that it's cropped up often enough so that I know
people who avoid the brand, though they can't verify whether or not the
rumor is true.

[Avril]

The company itself gives a very strange explanation for the origin of the name:

The lululemon name was chosen in a survey of 100 people from a list of 20 brand names and 20 logos. The logo is actually a stylized "A" that was made for the first letter in the name "athletically hip", a name which failed to make the grade.

But the Huffington Post seems to support the rumor:

The seeds of the company's problems were planted early, with its initial founding in Vancouver in 1998. Former CEO Chip Wilson, an avid snowboarder, said he came up with "Lululemon" because he delighted in the idea that trying to pronounce the name -- with its three syllables beginning with "l'" -- would pose a special challenge for the Japanese, whom he enjoyed making fun of.

ETA: Also, this 2009 article from the New York Times reveals that at one time the Lulelemon website gave a different explanation, one much closer to the OP:

Lululemon was founded in 1998 by Chip Wilson, a surfer and snowboarder who discovered yoga, became a fanatic and subsequently opened a storefront in Vancouver, British Columbia. Its Web site explains how Mr. Wilson was looking for a name that would sound authentically North American to appeal to Japanese customers: “In essence, the name ‘lululemon’ has no roots and means nothing other than it has 3 ‘L’s’ in it. Nothing more and nothing less.”

There is something fishy about it, at least.

[going slightly mad]

Very weird considering that it sounds like a Pokemon.

[ganzfeld]

Exactly. Lululemon is easy. (If they wanted to make it hard it should have been Rururemon.) Not that I see any evidence for the rumour but the Ayn Rand stuff should be embarrassing enough.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Well, by Avril's HuffPo link, it seems there was a conscious effort to make something that is hard for Japanese. Therefore the OP assertion is fault - Japanese account for, what, maybe 5% of all Asians (within Asia - not counting migrants), and many Asian languages, including the most common, use the ell sound.

ETA: The population of Japan is almost exactly 3% of the Asian population. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._by_population

[ganzfeld]

Well, as I was trying to point out, Japanese uses a sound very close to the L sound, not the R sound. The Pokemon Ruriri has three Rs but it's pronounced with three Ls. (My resident Pokemon expert, ds, gave me three or four names that have lots of L sounds.) The R sound is difficult for speakers of lots of languages, not only in Asia. (Sometimes overcompensation can make L difficult but that's a different issue.)

[Avril]

He may have intended it even if he got the stereotypical pronunciation problem wrong. He sounds like something of a real-life troll; also, what really gets me is the vagueness of the website alongside it being changed.