Plunge partners with SWTHZ, Ketone-IQ's adult film marketing stunt, and Alo unveils their first ever running shoe...
Here’s what we got this week in the business world of health, fitness, & wellness:
🗞️ The Story - Plunge inks partnership with SWTHZ nationwide.
📈 The Strategy - KetoneIQ channels adult entertainment for marketing.
🛍️ The Product - Alo unveils their first ever running shoe.
Plunge and SweatHouz ink deal for nationwide partnership.
It’s a beneficial partnership for both parties.
As Plunge gets to be the exclusive cold plunge partner of SweatHouz.
And SweatHouz gets to be the official contrast therapy studio of Plunge.
My quick thoughts:
I’ve never been to a SweatHouz location.
But I’ve been to plenty of gyms and studios that have cold plunges from Plunge.
And now they ink this deal, bringing even more Plunges nationwide.
Which made me kinda step back and look at Plunge’s strategy to scale.
Looking at the space, boutique fitness studios and recovery clubs are all the rage.
And at face value, you’d think Plunge is in prime position to just create create their own boutique recovery studios with their Plunge product.
Making their brand the face and capturing all consumer recognition, rather than sharing that with other studios.
But what they’ve done instead, is just partner with as many physical locations as they can and insert their product.
And it’s actually a great strategy.
Building out their own physical locations would require a large amount of capital, physical spaces, hiring teams for each location, and all the logistics that go with that.
Which is a massive undertaking and a relatively slow expansion process.
The route they’ve decided to go has allowed them to reach far more consumers and studios all over the world.
Without having to worry about the items I mentioned above.
It’s just a great lesson that there are many ways a company can scale and the traditional way is not always the best route.
KetoneIQ taps into the adult entertainment space for their newest marketing campaign.
So Ketone-IQ posted a video earlier this week for a new ad campaign.
Which features their energy shot drink and Riley Reid.
Riley is in the adult film industry, I’ll just leave it at that.
But if you missed the video, here is the link to it.
My reaction to this:
Ketone-IQ has not been shy with using marketing stunts to grow their brand.
From their founder dressing up in an inflatable costume at the Tour de France.
To letting customers steal their product at convenience stores.
And this new campaign is maybe the most out there of them all.
It’s provocative. It’s controversial. It’s funny.
I subscribe to the belief that any press is good press.
And whether you agree or disagree with that, or are not a fan of this marketing stunt, you can’t deny the results.
This video got 1.4 millions views in a week.
Their highest performing video in over a month.
Well done Ketone-IQ 🤝.
Alo unveils their first ever running shoe.
An all white running shoe that is available via early access now.
My thoughts:
Alo’s bread and butter is Yoga and Loungewear.
But they’ve probably seen the growth of running and run clubs throughout the nation, and decided they want in on the fun.
And while the shoe looks stylish and they are expanding products for consumers.
I don’t think this will be that meaningful of a move for them.
And for all we know, they might not care and it’s simply a fun side launch they’re doing.
My reason for this is when you look at most apparel brands, their best selling products that drive most sales are usually the basics and staples.
And Alo’s basics and staples are not in the running category.
So again, while it’s cool, I don’t see this launch as revolutionary for their brand.
