By Will Novosedlik
One of marketing’s fundamental truths is that it is a lot harder to change an established brand than it is to create a new one.
Just ask the people at Peloton. After a series of incidents – accusations of sexism in its advertising after a “dystopian” Christmas ad, the death of a child on one of its treadmills, product recalls, having to pull ads starring Chris Noth after allegations of sexual assault and the ignominious exit of CEO John Foley in 2022 – the fitness company is trying to do just that. This month, it launched its rebranded image.
And while most brands find it hard enough to reposition themselves for the usual reasons – changes in the competitive landscape, demographic shifts, mergers and acquisitions – Peloton’s additional challenge is that it is so strongly associated with its iconic stationary bike. Even though, as CMO Leslie Berland points out, Peloton basically invented the connected fitness category we still think of the brand as a bike. So, job one is to shift perceptions from Peloton as a piece of fitness hardware you use at home to an app you can use anywhere. Whereas previous advertising centred on images of people furiously spinning in their home gym, the new spot shows us people working out at home, in the street, at the park, in the gym, all guided by the mobile app – all part of the “Peloton anywhere” repositioning.
Among Berland’s classic rebrand challenges is that she must retain existing customers while attracting new ones. Current members, she shares, have responded positively to the rebrand, saying that the new creative is resonating with them. Now that the focus has begun shifting away from the bike and towards the app, Berland is anxious to sign up a much younger demographic. With this in mind, we can expect to see the brand lean into social channels and rely more heavily on influencers to appeal to that younger cohort.
One of the centrepieces of the relaunch initiative is a visual identity refresh. Says Berland, “That’s everything starting with a new colour palette – from red, white and black to lime green, lilac and ultramarine – to a new approach to photography and model selection – all real people – to new video assets and typography. If you look at our retail stores, website, email marketing and performance marketing, you’ll start seeing a significant shift.”
The move from a primary to a secondary colour palette creates a whole new energy, and sends a strong signal that Peloton wants us to forget the old scandal-ridden hardware brand and embrace the new mobile-first digital one.
It’s a common misperception that to be a Peloton member meant you had to buy the bike. “Going from a bike at home to Peloton in your pocket is a big mental leap,” explains Berland. “But the fact is, 62% of our active members participate in non-cycling activities – strength, training, yoga, meditation and other modalities. Cycling has moved to second place.”
The shift means that Peloton is now competing in the much broader arena of fitness apps, which exposes it to more competition and makes differentiation tougher. Berland responds that in the content arena “I don’t think we really have a competitor.” She is confident that what sets Peloton apart is the quality of its content and instruction.
The only way to test that is to try it, and that’s why Peloton now has Peloton App Free, a new cost-free app subscription option offering 50 classes across 12 exercise disciplines. Next level up is Peloton App One, with unlimited access to thousands of classes across 9 exercise types including yoga, strength, outdoor walking and meditation. The highest tier, Peloton App+, is “designed for the user who wants frictionless, unlimited access to Peloton’s vast library.” It offers thousands of equipment-based classes and exclusive content.
The brand is also launching Peloton Gym, which includes video demos and text-based content for strength training exercises designed to be completed in a gym. The brand hopes this will challenge the claim that the gym is a competitor.
To support the change, Peloton has launched a 360-degree campaign which provides ample footage for 60s, 30s, 15s and 6s cutdowns that can be deployed across social. “It’s not a pivot away from where we have been so much as a re-introduction of the company overall,” says Berland. She sees Peloton App Free as an opportunity to learn from new customers and use that learning to adapt in a more agile way to their needs and preferences.
Making the leap is not going to be easy, but it can be done. IBM did it in the early 90s, and Blackberry did it in the 2010s. “This is who we really are,” claims Berland. “We’re not trying to be something we’re not.”
