Many lament comparisons between the nonprofit and commercial sector.  I’m of the view the two are more similar than different but don’t take my word for it, just ask Peloton.  This is from a WSJ article on the company with my headline takeaways.

One size fits all is bad.  Matching message to different needs is key.

• The CMO said “We believe that we were hitting some diminishing return in our previous strategy, because we’ve been talking to the same people with very similar messages,”
• The fitness company’s marketing chief plans to get growth back on track by appealing to specific groups of customers.

Continuous, always-on ads are inefficient.  Pulse instead, on/off periods.

• TV commercials that previously aired year-round will now be rationed

If your experience/product sucks, acquisition is wasted spend.

• An industry analyst says, “They’ll be better off focusing more on churn and retention, and that could allow them to drive growth.”

Resources are always scarce. 

• Weinberg (the CMO) had less money and fewer staff to help her allocate it than her predecessors.

Price promotions (matching gift) and giveaways merely shift dollars forward and worse, undermine intrinsic reasons for giving/buying.  Short-term, direct response drives Current Demand, doing very little for Future Demand, which only comes from brand building.

• Peloton spent the past few years trying to win over new users with discounted hardware and other promotions.
• Teams’ targets were tied to short-term sales metrics, leaving little budget available for longer-term brand building marketing, Weinberg said. The short-term mindset also left Peloton targeting the same amorphous group of customers over and over again—fitness enthusiasts.

You must do deep, insights based research to unearth needs for growth.

• “And we’re really shifting to ask, what are the other audiences for which we have excellent product market fit?”

The why of giving/buying is never about the “bike” (issue, program).

• Speaking about new, upcoming brand ads, “It was,” Weinberg said, “the first time we did something and didn’t talk about the bike.”

Kevin