Marketing in the News: Whoop, The Fitness Wearable Subscription

Introduction

     Fitness trackers are everywhere nowadays. Apple, FitBit, Garmin are all popular brands in the fitness wearables space. Whoop is a newly available fitness wearable for the hardcore fitness enthusiast. I was interested in reading and writing more about Whoop because I was recently gifted a Whoop strap as a birthday present. 

Article Takeaways

  https://kyma.com/videor/2021/03/26/whoop-fitness-band-gaining-popularity/ 

    Whoop is getting out in the news (see article above), sponsoring sporting events like CrossFit Games, and, generally, becoming more visible to potential customers. This is leading to increased popularity. (Takeaway #1) Will Ahmed, CEO and Founder of Whoop, says the product encompasses everything from hardware in the form of a wristband strap to software and analytics in the form of a dashboard and app. (Takeaway #2) Whoop uses heart rate monitoring and logs sleep, recovery, and strain. Strain is a measurement of cardiovascular load over the course of the day including training. (Takeaway #3) Consumers must sign up for a monthly subscription in order to maintain their Whoop app, data, etc. at a price of $18 to $30 per month. This re-occurring cost differs from the one-time purchase of most fitness wearables. 

Value Proposition of Whoop

    Whoop is a fitness wearable that tracks sleep, recovery, and strain and its mission is to to "unlock human performance". Whoop has a competitive advantage in that it is all-in-one. It tells you how much sleep you need, it measures your recovery through heart rate variability, and it tells you the optimal amount of cardiovascular load you should do. All you have to do is wear it. Other apps and devices require more input, maybe more than one app, or more wearables (like a chest strap). Whoop's one-sentence value proposition is Whoop unlocks human performance through a wristband fitness wearable that tracks and analyzes your daily sleep, recovery, and strain. 

Whoop now for everyday athlete

https://www.whoop.com/thelocker/podcast-74-story-of-whoop/ 

    Whoop was initially founded in 2011 and, immediately, went after top-level sports athletes with LeBron James and Michael Phelps using Whoop in the first 100 users. Since then, they have partnered with professional leagues like National Football League (NFL) and elite military organizations like US Navy SEALs. Over recent years, Whoop is now becoming more available to recreational athletes transitioning from a high-level athlete brand to a consumer brand. This change is highlighted in the article about Whoop gaining popularity. 

    Whoop has clout now in the professional athlete ranks and this definitely impacts the consumer. If LeBron James, the best basketball player in the world, is using Whoop then it must be great! That might be the consumer mindset. Whoop is definitely taking advantage of this because it charges a hefty fee for subscription. The options are $30/month for 6 months (no down payment), $24/month for 12 months (required down payment), and $18/month (required down payment). So, you are looking at $180, $288, or $324 totals. With these higher totals, Whoop is marketed towards hardcore fitness enthusiasts with the luxury of paying top dollar. 

Whoop's Challenges, Marketing Solutions and Approach, Critique of Marketing 

    Whoop's primary challenge is convincing potential customers that it is worthwhile. The way they counter this is by showing all the analytics, information, and ease of use. Their marketing position plays on the idea that "Look, top-level athletes use Whoop, CrossFitters use Whoop...if you want to look, feel, and perform like them then you need Whoop". That was my interpretation of their marketing and what they are going for. This is unique amongst their competitors like FitBit because FitBit advertisements are not showing off top athletes and saying this is the product they use. 

    A critique of their marketing approach is that people like me who are into fitness know about wearables and how they work. Guess what? Wristband straps are not reliable for heart rate monitoring. Hardcore fitness enthusiasts know this. If they are marketing towards that crowd, who is going to fork up a bunch of money over several months, they should address this with their advertisements. I would say they should say something like,"Best wristband strap accuracy in the entire world." Something like this would have hooked me in. Because of that sole reason, I personally didn't buy the product until my friend gave it to me. 

    I wanted to see if their FB advertisement came up after all my research and sure enough, here it is: 

Lessons Learned

    This assignment taught me that brand building takes time. I had no idea Whoop existed in 2011. I never heard of it at all and I thought I was up on the newest fitness gadgets. It's burst onto the fitness wearable scene the last few years and now I have one!  It's taking off with a big seed investment of $100 million in Series E funding. Their product and, now, marketing strategies are paying off. https://www.whoop.com/thelocker/100-million-series-e-funding/

Bonus material

Armand Morin (internet marketer) analyzing Whoop's marketing strategy. Separate topic on their purchasing options and how Armand was hooked into their $30/month for 6 months to try it out but, in fact, it was Whoop's most profitable option. Facebook Video (8 min) https://fb.watch/4NSF6OtEtJ/