GO WHERE YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE IS: MARKET SMARTER NOT HARDER

I was recently in a (virtual) Peloton class where Alex Toussaint was instructing a room full of in-person cyclists. Something in the class caught my eye. It had nothing to do with cycling, or bikes, or fitness of any kind, but one of the in-person cyclists was wearing head-to-toe matching Athletic Brewing Company (a new nonalcoholic beer company) apparel.

Please excuse the poor image quality and my slow cadence - I was multitasking here!

If you’ve ever taken one of Alex’s classes (or are friends with someone who owns a Peloton) you might know his vibe is work hard, don’t quit, earn your workout, but also have fun, enjoy it, and be grateful that you can work out. This is all to say he has a very specific clientele of people who have a certain mindset. These people want to work hard and be in shape, but also have fun and enjoy themselves! You might even say this is the exact target audience for a nonalcoholic beer company. Hmmm…

Whether this cyclist was paid, an employee, owner, brand ambassador, or whatever, I’m not sure and I can’t say, but either way, it was brilliant! In half of every camera angle was this gentleman repping their logo all over. Now, to reach 25 - 50,000 of your core demographic target audience members can be tough and/or costly. Especially to do it in a way that doesn’t feel like it’s “selling” like an Instagram ad for example. But Athletic Brewing Company marketed smarter not harder: they went to where their target audience already was! And they showed up in a way that felt organic and honest. There was no pitch, no CTA, just a guy working out like the rest of us.

This is slightly off of my usual branding topics that discuss visuals and brand identity design, but this a great example of brand strategy, something that should go hand-in-hand with great brand identity. So if you took anything away from this short post, it should be that you don’t have to throw thousands of dollars at an ad campaign to reach your target audience, just show up in the places they are already and do it in an open and meaningful way. Now, excuse me while I go continue “Dry January” with a nice cold Athletic Brewing Co hazy IPA!

Do you have any good examples of this type of marketing? Let me know! I found this so interesting!

Cheers,
Shawn