strategy
Gymshark has a customer intimacy like strategy. It is essential to know everything about your target group and to create the right value proposition by responding smartly. Service is also a very important part of Gymshark’s business strategy. In 2015, for example, the Gymshark webshop was not available on Black Friday. A small drama on the biggest sale day of the year for Gymshark, but Ben Francis decided to write a handwritten, personal letter of apology and a discount coupon to all 2,500 customers who couldn’t place their order that day. In this way, confidence and sales were immediately restored. After the website crash in 2015, even more investments were made in the website and the technology around it so that every touchpoint within the customer journey is experienced as excellent by the customer. Happy customers are essential to Gymshark. The customer journey and an excellent customer experience are central to this. That is why Gymshark has consciously chosen to keep the sales and distribution completely in their own hands where competitors such as Nike and adidas do business with ‘third-partyretailers such as ASOS and Amazon.
Gymshark is also socially involved. At the beginning of the lockdown, a fundraising was organized together with personal trainers who were unemployed at home for the National Health Service (the United Kingdom’s public health system). With the help of the Gymshark workout app, the #NHSsweatyselfie campaign raised more than €200,000.
Social media is one of the most important parts of Gymshark’s strategy. A lot of content is shared via Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and TikTok, about the growth and development that Gymshark is going through. A unique insight is given into the business operations and the steps that are taken. The unique and transparent way of communicating makes it feel for the customers as if they are part of Gymshark themselves. The content is of high quality, which is essential for community building among the target group and for building the strong brand. As founder, Ben Francis leads by example by telling his unique story and taking followers into what his days are like through his own YouTube channel, which has 221,000 followers. He interacts with the target group by regularly holding Q&A sessions. He also uses his YouTube channel to share news and share his own ‘journey’.
Gymshark is not only active online. The company also works on community building offline by organizing successful meet-ups, expos and pop-up stores where fans can meet their favorite influencers and enjoy the traditional way of shopping. Each event is announced via social media weeks before it takes place.
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