Gymshark’s Success: Digital Marketing Strategy Case Study

About Gymshark

Two school friends, Ben Francis and Lewis Morgan, both aged nineteen, founded Gymshark in 2012. It initially started as an e-commerce company offering fitness supplements. But in the very next year, in 2013, Gymshark shifted its complete focus on the fitness apparel division.

Since then, Gymshark has grown from a doing printing operation from a garage into one of the fastest-growing and most recognizable brands in the fitness industry. Being innovative and producing effective performance wear was its goal along with building an ever-expanding digital presence. 

Based out in Solihull, England, Gymshark is an online retailer as well as the manufacturer of fitness apparel. It sells almost all kinds of sports and fitness apparel, worldwide.

Now that you have an idea of what Gymshark as a company is, let us understand it further by going through its target audience.

Target Audience of Gymshark

Gymshark is considered to be one of the most popular brands in the world. The brand is highly appreciated by fitness freaks and fashion-conscious individuals. The success behind this high-flying fitness brand can be credited to a well-defined customer base.

The company knows its target audience by heart as it is always open to hearing their opinions and preferences, and provides them with all that they demand.

It initially started as a brand targeting Men’s fitness category but was also quick to realise the enormous potential of the women’s division. Talking about the present, as of 2020, more than two-thirds of its sales are from the women segment.

Now that we have an understanding of its target audience. Let’s take a look at how Gymshark made a huge success through its exemplary marketing strategy. 

Marketing Strategy of Gymshark

Gymshark is a company that has always prioritized marketing digitally than marketing using offline methods. Over the years, it has built a very active and engaged audience on various social media platforms, especially YouTube. 

They also have a couple of very popular niche websites where they sell their products and publish articles. It uses content marketing, it is also one of the earliest adopters of influencer marketing.

Gymshark primarily uses all the major social networks like Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook, and Tik Tok. Along with this, It also effectively uses all other forms of digital channels to build its brand awareness and customer retention in the fitness industry. 

Now all this being said, let us take deep dive into its marketing strategies in the coming sections.

Influencer Marketing Strategy of Gymshark

Gymshark is one of the many e-commerce brands and companies that have adopted Instagram as a way of getting their products out to consumers. Like many others, even you would’ve most probably come across Gymshark through Instagram. Influencer marketing has turned up to be a game-changer for Gymshark. 

Being personal fans of  Lex Griffin and Chris Lavado, the very popular YouTubers and fitness freaks, Ben Francis sent them sample clothing of Gymshark in 2013. Since youtube was gaining popularity from the early 2010s, it worked out as a great marketing source for Gymshark. 

Gradually, they began collaborating with various Instagrammers and bloggers for more reach. Gymshark looked for people who promoted fitness and later went on to collaborate with Influencers like Whitney Simmons and Nikki Blackketter. 

Gymshark follows the practice of selected influencers to enhance the experience of its clients. It has collaborated with many famous athletes and influencers in order to take its product sales up. These influencers promote Gymshark and also give out references regarding Gymshark in their captions and bios so that people can check out the website and buy Gymshark apparel for themselves.

Marketing Campaign of Gymshark – 66 Days|Change Your Life

Gymshark announced its “66 Days | Change Your Life” challenge on its website and other social media platforms. Followers were asked to take up the challenge in which a before and after photo of 66 days transformation was to be uploaded post 66 days.

This marketing campaign of Gymshark turned out to be very triumphant. Just in few weeks, the hashtag #Gymshark66 flooded all social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, etc., and resulted in Gymshark getting wider reach.

Use of Social Media Channels 

Gymshark has been leveraging the power of social media channels like Instagram, Twitter, Youtube and Pinterest to reach out to the Public at large and create awareness about the brand.

Let’s analyze what type of content is shared in each of these channels – 

Instagram: Fitness influencers, motivation posts

Twitter: Memes, Relatable tweets

For example, here’s their latest tweet – 

Youtube: How to videos, Challenges and workouts.

Pinterest: Workout videos, apparels.

Social Media Engagement of Gymshark

Gymshark, as previously said, is actively engaged with its audience on all social media platforms. It has 3, very populated Instagram handles with over a million followers which shows how well they are accepted by the audience.

Tiktok, the most downloaded social media app in the US in Sep 2018, with over 500 million global monthly active users, is also used by Gymshark to reach an audience. It collaborated with Wilking Sisters (1.2M fans), Rybka Twins (5.7M fans), Laurie Elle (2.8M fans), Twin Melody (6.3M fans), Lesotwins (1.5M fans), and Antonie Lokhorst (4M fans). These influencers posted videos related to fitness, health, and lifestyle.

• Use of Hashtags

Hashtags have become a very significant part of every social media campaign today. Companies use hashtags in a witty and appealing manner and are easy to remember by the audience. In no time, these hashtags go viral, working well for the company. 

Gymshark was one of the early adopters of hashtags. The company creates a great buzz with a new hashtag every month. The #TheGymshark66 campaign went viral in no time due to this hashtag. Many pop-up events in different cities were also promoted through hashtags. 

Content Marketing Strategy of Gymshark

Gymshark has its content marketing strategy down to a fine art. This includes blog, newsletters and Spotify playlists. Everything pushes one to open up to their world, whether it be fitness or fashion.

Blogs and Newsletters of Gymshark

Through informative and insightful blogs and newsletters, Gymshark creates awareness among people regarding various diverse topics related to fitness. Health conditions, different supplements, and healthy recipes are some of the topics about which they keep posting regularly on their website by the name  Gymshark Central blog. 

Collaboration Strategy of Gymshark – Spotify Playlists

Gymshark has tapped every popular platform where it can engage with a wide audience in less time. On Spotify, it shares playlists of popular fitness celebrities so that its audience can listen to them and work harder at the Gym. 

“Customer First Approach” – Strategy of Gymshark

Gymshark is a fast-growing e-commerce fitness apparel brand that has doubled in size each year for the last three years. Their success is a direct result of their customer-centric approach to business and this is something that permeates everything they do.

It has managed to master the art of creating valuable and engaging content. Moreover, it goes beyond just simply telling you about the features of its products. Thus, allowing potential and existing customers to gain a better understanding of what they should be looking for when shopping on its website, what it should be doing concerning its fitness regime, which makes the customer feel that this is a trustworthy company.

Gymshark values its customers and regularly asks for feedback from them which also brings a sense of belongingness and ‘being valued’ feeling in the minds of customers. 

Tie-ups with fitness celebrities, bringing out self-development campaigns, being grateful to its customers, and constantly working on improving negative feedback has helped Gymshark compound its growth tremendously given that they have always tried to keep their customers happy.

With this our case study on Gymshark comes to an end, let us summarize it with a quick conclusion in the coming section.

Conclusion

Going through the website, customer feedbacks, central blog, newsletter, Instagram pages, etc, of Gymshark, one realizes that although they charge exorbitant rates for their gym wear, and other products, people are still happy and satisfied as they feel valued. Another takeaway from Gymshark’s marketing strategy is that they post different content on all social media platforms instead of posting the same content on each.

They have also bridged the gap between online and offline presence through pop-up events in a number of cities. All in all, Gymshark has left no stone unturned to achieve success. 

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