How Gymshark captured millennials

Figure 1: Gymshark Athletes

Gymshark is an athleisure brand, founded by University student Ben Francis in 2012, that creates innovative, sculpting gym wear for the 18-25 demographic. The brand has heavily invested in social media marketing and strategically utilized several different channels, coordinated alongside PR events to have maximum impact. This has given them a strong presence among the fitness community.

Figure 2: Nikki Backletter

Purpose

In order to effectively capture their target market and raise brand awareness, Gymshark sponsored fitness influencers; notably body builders Lex Griffin and Nikki Blackletter, who became known as “Gymshark Athletes”. Influencer marketing is defined as using the “influence of key individuals or opinion leaders to drive consumers, brand awareness and/or purchasing decisions” (Lou and Yuan, 2019, p.59). This was an efficient way for the brand to build content that was relevant to their target audience, enabling them to manage a working spend, which is typically 2.6 times less expensive than traditional advertising (Luton and Solomon, 2018, p.87).

Message & Theory

Gymshark utilised the influencer’s original style and voice to efficiently churn out organic content that conveyed the athlete’s natural advocacy and affinity for the products (Gilliland, 2019). This prompted fitness fanatics to follow suit (Tayla, 2019). Using the communications model (Easey, 1995, p.168), the encoder communicates that athletes use Gymshark clothing, because it is attractive and aids performance. This message provides a reason to buy Gymshark over other brands because they feel a personal connection to the company (Bearne, 2018). This is communicated through the channel of a fitness influencer, via the medium of social media. The audience then decodes this message and if they perceive it the way the marketer intended; they take an action to purchase. The feedback loop ensures the message is decoded successfully, which was monitored by increased sales figures, reaching £100 million (Bearne, 2018) and popularity of the brand evidenced by their Instagram account accumulating over 3.7 million followers (Gymshark Instagram, 2019). Using social media marketing places, risks uncontrollable negative feedback. In fact, it is far more likely to produce impressions, interactive engagements and content that can be repurposed in Gymshark’s social media activities.

Figure 3: Communications model

Other Promotional Activities

As part their IMC framework, Gymshark introduced pop-up stores, which offered an opportunity for the brand to communicate their message face-to-face and interact physically with customers (Cope and Maloney, 2016, p.152). These events added an element of exclusivity and inclusivity for their online fitness community. Additionally, it gave the media an angle to create a PR buzz and sharable content through vlogging the event (Francis, 2017). Their IMC framework was consistent and maximised communications impact (McGoldrick, 1990).

(Figures 4-6: Gymshark pop-up stores)

Brand values

The brand's use of social media activity heavily links to their three values of family, progression and vision (Gymshark, 2019). The inclusivity of social media means that they can bring Gymshark customers across the globe together, to progress rapidly and fulfil their vision of being the future of activewear.

Competitors

When Gymshark began using influencer marketing, it was seen as controversial. However, today it is considered one of the fastest growing strategies for marketers. For example, TALA, a recent entry to the market, founded by influencer and ex Gymshark athlete Grace Beverley, have capitalised on this. TALA, create a buzz from their regular social media posts, diverse fitness models and sustainable brand messages.

Figure 7: Grace Beverley TALA

Evaluation

Influencer marketing has been an effective way for Gymshark to tap into their millennial target market, as Generation Y’s use of social media has become ubiquitous (Bolton et al, 2018). The success of this strategy resulted in Gymshark acquiring a combined Instagram following of over twenty million across the U.S (Gilliland, 2019). The influencer’s chosen to communicate the strategy are innovators, absorbing much of the risk of trying new products for millennials, so reducing perceived uncertainty. They have self-branded to appear authentic and relevant to the audience (Tuton and Solomon, 2018, p.85), which has been a powerful way to embody the trust and popularity of the activewear brand.

References

Books:

Easey, M. ed., 2009. Fashion marketing. John Wiley & Sons.

McGoldrick, P.J., 1990. Retail Marketing. Publisher: McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.

Tuten. T. L & Solomon. M. R., 2018. Social Media Marketing

Online

Bearne, S. 2018. BBC. The 26-year-old with a £100m sportswear brand. [Online]. Available from:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45246999 [accessed 10/11/2019].

Bolton et al. 2013. Understanding Generation Y and their use of social media: a review and research agenda [online], available from: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/09564231311326987/full/html[accessed 03/12/2019]

Cope, J., Maloney, D. 2016. Fashion Promotion in Practice. Bloomsbury. Chap 7, pages 152-155.

Francis. B, YouTube [online], available from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RSgw42y_Kw[accessed 29/11/2019]

Gilliland, N. 2019. Econsultancy. Five Marketing Lessons from the success of GymShark. [Online]. Available from: https://econsultancy.com/five-retail-lessons-sportswear-brand-gymshark/[accessed 10/11/2019]

Gymshark, About US. 2019. Available from: https://uk.gymshark.com/pages/about-us[accessed 29/11/2019]

McGoldrick (1990)

Pretro, G. Forbes. 2015. Lululemon, Nike and The Rise of ‘Athleisure’ [online] available from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/gregpetro/2015/09/16/lululemon-nike-and-the-rise-of-athleisure/#9b8e40437c82[accessed 08/11/2019]

Real Insight, 2018. [Online]. Available from: https://www.retail-insight-network.com/comment/gymshark-prime-example-millennial-marketing-done-right/[accessed 10/11/2019]

List of Figures

Figure 1: Gymshark Athletes. Fashion Beauty Monitor, 2017. Available from: https://www.fashionmonitor.com/free-blog/How-Gymshark-are-nailing-influencer-marketing/LQ[accessed 15/12/2019]

Figure 2: Nikki Backletter. Instagram, 2019. Available from: https://www.instagram.com/nikkiblackketter/[accessed 15/12/2019]

Figure 3: Communications model. LumenLearning, 2019. Available from: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-organizationalbehavior/chapter/the-process-of-communication/[accessed 15/12/2019]

Figure 4-6: Gymshark pop-up events. Gymshark, 2019. Available from: https://www.gymshark.com/blogs/news/gymshark-birmingham-all-you-need-to-know[accessed 15/12/2019

Figure 7: Grace Beverley TALA. Euronews, 2019. Available from: https://www.euronews.com/living/2019/07/08/exclusive-grace-beverley-game-changing-sustainable-activewear-tala[accessed 15/12/2019]