Fitness = Reebok. That is the mantra at Reebok India and it reflects in the company’s mission to be the go-to brand whenever any fitness query arises. As Reebok opened its first Reebok Fitness Studio in Mumbai, Somdeb Basu, Brand Director, Reebok India tells us how the brand’s focus on fitness, extra detailing and targeting women has helped reap rich dividends
By Simran Sabherwal
Q] What is the insight behind Reebok Fitness Studio?
Reebok Fitness Studio is the first of its kind in the world and is attached to a Reebok Fit Hub store. This is an Indian initiative which our team thought about and got approval from the global team. The idea is to inoculate the passion of fitness among all Indians and we thought to start our own series of Reebok studios where we will have yoga, aerobics and different forms of dance. It would be great if this is replicated on a global scale and I think it will.
Q] What are your future plans and expectations from this?
Our first studio is located in Mumbai and we are looking at 20 studios within a year, which would include the metros and maybe cities like Chandigarh or Pune. We are experimenting with one studio in Surat, which will come up in the first week of October, because we want to see how this market reacts to this initiative. The studio is physically manufactured and made by the franchisee of the store. We give them the expertise of how to build and run the studio and a Reebok senior trainer is linked to the franchisee. We don’t take any money, which comes from the revenue of the studio.
Q] What’s the mantra of Reebok’s marketing strategy?
Reebok’s marketing strategy is clearly brand marketing and fitness marketing. Brand marketing is what everyone does but fitness marketing is something we pursue in a very strong way. We do mammoth ground activations which directly touch the lives of consumers and make an impact on them. An example is Reebok Fitness Avenue at Raahgiri, which takes place in Delhi and Gurgaon. Every Sunday, a stretch of road is shut to traffic at Connaught Place. We get the best trainers for yoga, aerobics, dance and cross-fitness there and every week about 3,000 to 4,000 people attend these free classes.
Brand Reebok stands for fitness. Every product in our stores is linked to fitness. To keep fit, you either run, train or cross-fit and there is a product for each of them. When there is a product, there are a fixed number of people who will buy these products. But, there are probably a huge number of people waiting for some stimulus to come and start on fitness, so these activations happen. About 300 to 400 people visit an average-sized store daily and these are relevant consumers who are coming in to buy fitness products. So in-store plays an important part of our marketing. We are using Digital heavily. We also use our instructors and our other programmes, like Reebok Running Squad, which teaches people the art and science of running every weekend.
Q] How do you determine your media mix?
As the focus is on holistic fitness marketing, activations take away a huge chunk of money. Reebok Running Squad and Reebok Fitness Avenue are our flagships but we also do a lot of activations on a smaller scale, including mall activations. We also conduct fitness classes in corporates and in schools. Depending on the campaign, we use Television, newspapers or billboards and a good amount of magazines and digital.
Q] Digital is the mainstay in all your campaigns. Can you tell us about a Digital campaign which exceeded expectations?
Digital becomes important as the youth are mostly looking at their screens for the major part of the day. In addition, two-way engagement is catching up very fast instead of one-way engagement. That’s what we are banking on. We actually believe that it makes a lot of difference when people themselves are involved rather than seeing a monologue coming from somewhere Last year, we did a digital campaign called ‘An Ultimate Fitness Fan’ which was to find the fittest fan of John Abraham and got some amazing results.
Q] It’s been a little over a year since Reebok’s Fit Hub concept store was launched. How has this helped brand Reebok?
The response has been unbelievable and wherever we have converted to Fit Hub store, it has transformed the sales. We have seen mid-double digit growth over last year. The concept is that a store is not just a place to come and buy/sell products but it’s an experience zone which reminds you of a fitness gym. The moment you enter the store, it should inspire the fitness freak in you or should inspire someone to start thinking of fitness. The store design is inspired by the gym - the shoe wall is inspired by the locker room, the chair which the consumer sits on is what’s used to do box jumps in the gym.
Half the store is for men and the other half is dedicated to women. Reebok is the only brand which does that as women are the new target audience. Traditionally, in any sportswear store the women’s section is anywhere between 10-30%. We also got the best of international merchandise for women from last year. Looking at sales from a gender ratio of around 15% which was the industry norm, we are now touching mid-thirties in a year’s time nationally. In fact, in our top stores, it is anywhere between 45-50% which is massive additional sales.
We currently have 100 stores and have plans for another 100 stores in another year. Most of the current stores are present in Tier I towns, but the mix will change going forward. If I were to look at the 200 stores, then about 130-140 would be in Tier I towns and the rest in Tier II towns.
Q] You also recently launched an apparel range for women called Studio with Nargis Fakhri as brand ambassador...
We were searching for someone who believes in Yoga, aerobics and dance as a workout and we found the match in Nargis Fakhri and she is the face of both Studio as well as Studio merchandise. Studio has different products exclusively designed for women. The cut in the garment for aerobics is based on the moves that happen in aerobics, while we have an open back for dance which provides layering opportunity. It’s not just functional but also stylized and trendy. The segmentation is there even in the brassiere tops. A lot of movements in yoga involve the shoulder blade so this has a narrow middle path versus a thick middle path, which is perforated with two dots for running. That’s because you sweat while running plus if you are running in the dark it reflects. There is a whole lot of detailing in every garment. Similarly even in footwear, we have different shoes for dance, training, aerobics and running.
Q] With increased competition, what sets Reebok apart?
What sets us apart is our focus on fitness and defining things with such detail which no other brand in this country offers. While creating a product (or marketing it), the first question asked is how will the consumer react to this? How much does this feature benefit the consumer versus the extra price charged because of the additional feature? Our products have a lot of detailing - for example when Delhi gets chilly from October, we have a face cover you put on during running, which has got holes for the nostrils. The cloth doesn’t let you sweat too much and also discards the sweat. We have headbands which cover the ear, bottle holders to hold keys while running.
Q] How has the fitness trend evolved in India?
There are lot of myths about fitness in India – like people are conservative and don’t like to work out in public spaces. However, one by one all the myths are crumbling, people are getting fitness conscious.
About The Brand
Reebok has a pan-India presence with 400 exclusive franchise stores and a 1,000 member strong instructor alliance. The brand has products in the running, training and studio category – which covers dance, aerobics and yoga, and innovative footwear technologies like JetFuse Run, Reebok one, ZQuick, Zigtech and Realflex. Committed to making India a fitter nation, Reebok has launched a whole new retail environment ‘Fit Hub’ where consumers get experiential fulfilment of their fitness needs. Presently there are 103 ‘Fit Hub’ concept stores across the country. Reebok also has an impressive array of fitness ambassadors including John Abraham, Nargis Fakhri, MS Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir and Irfan Pathan.
Marketing Tip
The crux is to try to make the consumers experience better. Consumer first sounds a little clichéd, but once you start working on things, it does not sound so clichéd.
Facts
Creative Agency – McCann Erickson
Media Agency – Carat
PR Agency – Edelman
Social & Digital - Isobar
CMO File
As Brand Director of Reebok India, Somdeb Basu is responsible for leading the India-based Merchandising, Brand Marketing, Sports and Fitness & Marketing Operations teams with an integrated Go-To-Market focus. He collaborates closely with Sales, Retail, Finance, Product Creation and Operations, and serves as the key conduit between the Indian markets and Global Reebok team. Basu joined the brand nine years back as the Head of Key Account- Sales and moved on to become the Head of Footwear. Later, he was appointed as the Head of all Product Categories (Footwear, Apparel and Accessories). An alumnus of IBS Calcutta, Basu started his career with Bata. He is an Economics graduate from Calcutta University and has a Master’s degree in Econometrics.
Feedback: simran.sabherwal@exchange4media.com
