As part of the Future Of Marketing series, I took a closer look at Peloton and how they built and developed much more than a product or a series of products, they recreate the brand, the luxury fitness at home category.
Here are the slides from the broader presentation:
Connected High End Fitness Trend
Fitness has always had connotations to more affluent communities, fitness is expensive, gyms membership, personal trainers, work at home equipment are all expensive options.
Peloton – Leader of the Pack
Peloton has been clear from the moment they launched they were for the high-end fitness fan.
So, here are the learnings you can apply from connected fitness and more specifically.
Community Member Living, Breathing, Touching & Sweating Peloton
I created Jess as a persona you can connect with:
- Jess Loves connecting with people safely and as an introvert, she can work out from her comfort area
- Jess loves her Peloton, in her space
- Working out in groups and working out realtime feels like something that keeps her going
- Jess loves her instructors and connects with them on personal levels not just as her instructor – affinity is key
- Jess is powered by beating her personal bests and sharing these achievements on her social media
- Jess was convinced by her friends in their friend’s group chat to buy her bike and subscription – Peloton best growth tactic is friend gets friend, this is a considerable benefit Peloton gains from their business and performance model. Joining an active network or growing one makes a product experience far more
- Jess is a huge advocate and convinced her friends to invest in Peloton, this is herding her friends not just referring them.
Instructors Are Celebrities
- Peloton was deliberate with their instructors and turned them from instructors to influencers and celebrities.
- Emma Lovewell is the original instructor and was part of the original Kickstarter campaign.
- Instructors connect with millions of Peloton community by training them regularly, engaging with them in real-time (& on-demand) and working out in their homes, seeing their home, seeing them sweat with you are all levels of connection you wouldn’t get with other products.
- Emma is also attempting to grow her own audience on YouTube, offering insights into her life away from fitness.
Addictive Peloton
- The Peloton community were looking for Pelotons in hotels to book and continue their fitness ritual their streak their status their Instagram update finding their place on the road.
- When something is engineered to keep you as active and engaged as Peloton, Peloton lovers will do everything they can to continue their workouts (streaks) to stay involved and connected to the brand. Many search and seek out the physical Peloton product vs use the app.
This is very smart and engineered. - Peloton also has app options so you can work out if you don’t have access to your equipment or are looking to work out and cannot afford their specific equipment.
Peloton & Connected Fitness
- Peloton might not be the first or last but combining with the connected fitness space there are many more reasons to work out and expand the Peloton model
- Boxing and combat-based fitness has grown exponentially and will continue to do so, Hykso and Fight Camp are just a few in this space that is doing well and connecting equipment tracking fitness
- With the recent expansion from Zoom with onzoom their marketplace offering for PTs etc and Apple’s move with Fitness+ we will see an unbundling of fitness and see masterclasses from huge pro athletes and ex-pro’s who will love to connect and train with their audiences with inspirational brands.
The Future Of Fitness Is Shaping Hotels
Hotels will be the first to think about how to become more connected to their customers.
Prediction to leverage becoming:
- Low-cost gyms
- Flexible Gyms
- Pop up venues
- Flexible offices
- Room-based restaurants
- Hybrid conference venues etc
Inconvenient Truth
The truth be told the gym 🏋️♂️ was inconvenient like many other offline activities.
We have however just moved our exercise & sharing habits online too.
Peloton, Mirror etc are just the tip of the iceberg for offline moving online & having a celebrity instructor train you will be almost normal but only accessible for those who invest.
Peloton have grown tribes and moved tribal habits into herding, herds of people bring others along with them on their fitness drive.
Why? Price, increased status, feels bigger & more important than a product
Apple fitness+ will be biggest & best athletes training you. Do not discount Apple coming into the space more aggressively and making their brand presence felt, especially with the first non apple produced product that aligns so well with Apple quality and branding.
Lessons To Learn From Peloton & Connected Fitness
1️⃣ Question to answer every year but essential in today’s market?
- Am I part of a habit
- Can we be part of a ritual
- Can we make it onto their lists
Tribes & Herding
2️⃣ Tribes…
How people think of Tribes: The bond over common enemies.
But Tribe typically means:
- Empathy
- Meaning
- Connection
- Safety
- Friendship
Tribal Nature
- Do I belong? – Yes and with the instructor, we get to know
- How can I belong to this? – With exercise & in their groups & leaderboard, it’s being a better you
- Where do I go for this feeling? – And how do I continue with this feeling?
Why is this the future of marketing?
- Affluent community = high spend, high renewal, will make their money work for the high priced fitness equipment
- This is your equipment, it is worth over £3000 – it will take prime real estate in your house. Potentially the only item that will challenge the television for prime real estate in your house
- The quality product works – a quality product is your best marketing and cheapest marketing campaign
- The rider gets rider loop = referral loop of friend convinces friend to invest in to the Peloton ecosystem.
- Social Gold – every ride is posted online and maximises the reach of the brand and leverages vanity as the sharing mechanism
- Social media groups have really connected members and created a deeper community layer
- The different option of classes makes it flexible and connective.
Live classes – connection to the instructor and the other riders
On-demand – makes the class flexible for you and enables you to connect to the instructor when you cannot be live - The instructors form connections with the riders, their backgrounds
- The leaderboards feature is not unique but allows you to compete or compare yourself on your latest ride. It can be something you choose to review or choose to ignore.
- Tribal communities connect at a deeper level, herding also happens with friends bringing friends to the product and then friends of friends joining and being able to compete
- In the future when we return to travelling or having to visit other offices, Peloton and connected fitness members will seek out these devices to continue their streaks and fitness workouts.
Despite the recent issues with stock levels and keeping up with demand, Peloton have built a model many brands can replicate moving forward. Marketing, Growth and Product leads should use Peloton as a guide to affluent communities and addictive products and services.
Learn from their ads and the spoof ads
Original Ad
The Peloton Partnership with Beyoncé is genius
Brilliant Spoof Ad