No brand dare stand still. We understood from the beginning that we would never get There, wherever There is. Not be able to rest and take a breather. That building a brand was not a journey so much as an endless process.
A lot of brand owners get lazy, and then they get commoditized, and then they are gone. Consider the demise of the venerable Kodak, a brand with roots in the 19th century. At one time, you would have had a difficult time finding any home without Kodak cameras, film, or processed photographs in it. But then, Instagram. And something looming will be next. The difference between a commodity and an engaging experience that fascinates and keeps customers is innovation. The chief cause of commoditization is imitation, then proliferating imitation. The only practical answer is innovation.
We know we can’t rely on our brand—unless we keep people interested in it.
Let’s Give ’Em Something To Talk About
The latest research shows that people share more than 16,000 words per day and every hour there are more than 100 million conversations about brands. This has put word-of-mouth at the forefront of as much as 50% of all business transactions.
People hear this and immediately think, “Wow, technology has changed the entire game, because people are doing all of this word-of-mouth on the internet.”
WRONG.
More than 90% of word-of-mouth marketing actually occurs offline!
Iron Tribe has a social status to it. Member athletes feel like they just HAVE to talk about it, whether it’s because of their personal transformation, the different things they accomplish in their workouts that most people have never done before, or, of course, the exclusivity and status that come from the premium cost that those on the outside may question.
Each member athlete feels like an insider, as they should. They are working harder together than most on the outside could ever imagine. They are also part of a group that is much bigger than themselves. It creates an insider feeling of exclusivity that has a scarcity to it because there are only 300 member athlete spots per Iron Tribe gym.
These are all motivating factors for their word-of-mouth, and so is the gamification aspect that has each member athlete consistently competing with their own workout results, let alone those of their peers.
However, these are all aspects of our business model that Forrest so eloquently laid the groundwork for with his initial development of the Iron Tribe business model.
It’s been a blessing to join him in developing this model over time. And while he and I will continue to enhance all of the preceding aspects of the business model and the overall brand itself, our biggest innovation playground will always revolve around the direct-response marketing portion of our business.
The biggest innovation piece we are working on today is not in our technology or even our unit economics. Instead, it’s a business-to-business campaign to provide our gyms with the ability to sell groups of athlete memberships in one consultation to an entire business group of employees who are scared of health-care costs and need a program like Iron Tribe to keep them away from the doctor!
We continue to ask our selves, “How can we get our new gyms to 300 faster?”
The day we stop asking that question is the day we turn toward Kodak-like complacency and away from the innovative tests that have helped us grow to this point.
RESOURCES
From Jim Cavale and Forrest Walden of Iron Tribe
Please see page 262 for a free resources offer.
From Dan Kennedy
Please see page 261 for a free resources offer.
Hopefully, everything Forrest and I have shared here will inspire lots of varied innovation on your part.
Go to www.IronTribeFranchise.com/NoBS to watch Jim Cavale and Forrest Walden provide commentary on this chapter and see real Iron Tribe marketing samples as well as a video presentation of their new business-to-business direct-mail marketing innovation they’ve developed and tested since writing this book!