My transformation from the servant of customers to promote a community has not taken place overnight. It started with a crisis. Gymhark’s infamous black Friday 2015 took place in my first week: Our website crashed on one of the most busy shopping days of the year.
Orders failed. Customer care illuminated. Social media exploded. We were in trend – but not for the reasons someone hoped for. I started the digital war. To round off the whole thing, the BBC appeared bright and early the next morning to document the chaos. Cameras, questions and crew – while the team still recovered from a sleepless night.
And yet something wild happened: our customers didn’t work. They leaned forward. The Gymshark audience remained strong, showed her loyalty to the brand and the feeling that it had felt us in the situation with us. Why? They felt part of a community.
Gymshark offered customers a feeling of belonging. The guest and the business went on a fitness trip together. In the following I will discuss how Community can change your business track. Then I will give tips on building community from my time in Gymshark.
What is the community and why is it important?
A community is not just a group that happens to use the same product or the same service – it is a lively ecosystem in which humans feel a real sense of belonging. Here transactions are transformed into relationships, and occasional buyers become passionate supporters.
In today’s hyper-competitive business landscape, the community is more important than any marketing tactics or sales strategy because it creates the only thing that cannot buy money: real emotional connection. Community is a competitive advantage that cannot be copied.
How I discovered the power of the community
The importance of the community extended over my first week in the Gymhark. The second challenge later appeared when I tried to polish the brand. I wanted to imitate larger companies such as Nike, Adidas and Puma. The attempt failed.
The audience was gradually less committed. Aspirational was cool, but they wanted to stay connected to the brand. This has not only affected the commitment. The sales were also gradually dropped.
I started listening to our audience more, studying the feedback from our comment area to study and monitor competitors, which was received in their contributions with the help of. The pattern confirmed what our brand was built on from the start: Our audience was not looking for any striking ads or a poetic language – they wanted to feel like a real participant in our brand.
Frustrated over our messaging approach, I turned to the early customers and simply asked: “What is missing?”
Your feedback strengthened our founding vision. The product itself was good, but our communication did not emphasize the aspect of the community enough. They searched for more than just one transaction. They longed for this sense of belonging, which we always wanted to intend. They wanted to share experiences with others that use our products – exactly what the brand should promote from day one.
This revelation did not do”T change the purpose of our brand, but rather reminded us of returning to our roots. We had to communicate better what we always had: building a community, not just selling a product.
The findings that I gained by hearing our community helped me to expand the social presence of Gymshark from 1.5 million followers to 20 million between 2015 and 2022. This trip contributed to the fact that the brand achieved an amazing rating of £ 1.4 billion ($ 1.8 billion).
Tips for the ongoing community – insights from my time at Gymhark
For something: give people a flag to get around
The Gymhark mission focused on standing against the toxic fitness culture and at the same time showing the power of consistency. Regardless of whether you are a soccer player, basketball player or boxer, the core principles of engagement, the right nutrition and recovery remain the same, while the sport -specific skills and movements make up these different 20%.
This perspective has combined our community via various fitness disciplines. Instead of separating athletes through their sport, we have highlighted the universal elements that combine all training trips.
This approach made our news more integrative and assignable and made it possible for people for various sporting backgrounds to feel part of the same community. People who believed in fitness became our community.
Tactical approach
At Gymhark we not only sold fitness clothing. We have campaigned for a certain belief system about fitness, community and self -improvement. We have relentlessly focused on what the brand stood beyond products.
Great communities are not just about what they sell. It’s about what you and your customers believe in. Lululemon not only sells yoga leggings – they catch themselves up for a mindful life. Liquid death is not only sell water; They celebrate a certain rebellious attitude.
These companies don’t just sell things. They offer people a way to show the world who they are.
Action that you can take today: Define your “3%” or the core conviction, which could alienate 97% of people, but get deeply going with their true community. What is what you don’t stand for others? Write it down in one sentence.
Talk to, not at: transform buyers into employees
Instead of only delivering finished products, we started the creation process with the inclusion of our community. We have introduced GymShark insiders in which customers exchanged ideas, challenges and feedback. We have also been involved directly on comments, Instagram story surveys and personal events.
At first I was worried that nobody would take part. But soon it became the most valuable resource for our product development. People not only bought from us; You created together with us.
This is based on the simple realization that it is incredibly powerful to listen to your customers and deliver communication in a way. It ensures that you never differ from what is really important to your audience.
Tactical approach
Traditional companies talk about you. Community-First companies speak to them. Today’s most successful companies don’t just have customers. You have employees. You respond to comments, present customer creations and search for opinions before making decisions.
Consider Glossier’s approach to product development: You asked your community: “What did you wish, exist?” Then they made it. Glossier transformed make -up sold in a conversation about what beauty products should be.
When developing our next feature in the Gymhark, we did not estimate what people needed – we asked. Through surveys, roundtable discussions and prototypes, we not only share a better product, but also a community with real ownership of our common creation.
Nothing goes through an announcement “You asked, we listened”. Trust me.
Action that you can take today: Ask your audience what it wants. Create a simple survey, host an AMA meeting (ask me) or invite user-generated content. Find at least one way this week so that your employees belong and feel involved in your process.
Partnership: Find the right creators
After we knew that we wanted to build up community, my team stopped watching celebrity fitness models and started working with everyday athletes. That means Connection. We looked for Creator with long attention-Youtubers who held the time and trust of their community.
More than metrics, we looked at the meaning. Could this person change the perspective? Could you move hearts – not just products?
Tactical approach
As soon as we found it, we invested. We asked for their opinion on products and let them meet. We have created a connection behind The brand because we were not interested in transaction relationships. We wanted partnerships.
I will never forget that a creator told me for the first time: “It feels like I was part of the company.” That was the goal. If you feel your employees like insiders, you will become your loudest supporters.
Action that you can take today: Create a list of influencers with a really committed audience that match their niche. From there you can design custom options to work with you.
Give people the feeling of being something special: creating the velvet rope effect
One of the most powerful layers came when Gymshark created graded access to different parts of our community. All gained value, but our most committed members received special advantages – early access to new products, direct access to our team and invitations to events and our headquarters.
This was not about artificial scarcity. Our goal was to reward and create the commitment in which deeper connections could form. The Fomo was real, and many spectators longed to get the same treatment, which caused an engagement swing wheel that promoted the commitment and mention of the brand.
Tactical approach
We all want to feel as part of something exclusive. Therefore, there are VIP areas and why “Limited Edition” articles fly from the shelves.
The Snkrs app from Nike turns new shoe publications into events that people are happy about. The Beauty Insider program from Sephora gives you the feeling that you have backstage access. Even small brands create private groups, early access and only membership experiences with which people feel like they are a secret.
Action that you can take today: Build an element of exclusivity into your brand. Regardless of whether it is an early access to content, special advantages for your most committed followers or a private common room, you create something that makes people feel about being part of an inner circle.
Irl disrupt URL and vice versa
The pandemic had forced everything online, but when the restrictions were lifted, Gymshark took a risk and organized a small personal retreat for our most active community members. Although they were completely built up by screens, the chemistry was electrically when people met with face.
This single weekend led to more ideas, cooperations and word of mouth as a month of online interaction. It intensified what I suspected: digital communities are powerful, but they are even stronger if they are supplemented with real experiences.
When referring to Gymshark, it is important to talk about how we used IRL to disturb URL (which I will call the digital space) and vice versa. The strongest and most influential communities are not only online. They exist in a mixed reality world in which they use the strengths of a sector to reinforce the other.
If you create a personal experience that can only be felt by the physical people, you have missed an opportunity. Likewise, if you only rely on digital interaction, you can reach the range, but it remains passive. You don’t know how committed your audience is or how deep the connection really runs.
Tactical approach
Real connections do not only occur through screens. The strongest communities find ways to mix the online interaction with real experiences.
Think of Peloton. You may be driving alone in your bedroom, but the best lists, live instructors and friendly competitions give you the feeling of being part of something bigger.
Gymshark went even further by organizing training events in which their online supporters could meet face and transform digital friendships into real ones. These events were significantly involved in their growth from 1.5 million to 20 million followers.
What I discovered is that even small personal meetings create so-called “temperature review moments”-and the define of experiences that strengthen bonds in a way that only cannot digital connections.
Place customers in the spotlight
Perhaps the most transformative change was to change the headlight of our company and the amazing things that carried out our community members.
Instead of case studies that have highlighted our product, we have created stories that celebrated our members’ trips. Our content strategy drove from “Look at us” to “look at it”. The more we made our community the heroes of our history, the more they have campaigned for our brand.
Tactical approach
Companies such as Airbnb, Term and Figma not only show their functions – they show which amazing things their users have created. The more a company celebrates its users, the more these users become passionate supporters.
When I implemented this strategy with customers, I found that user-generated content was consistently exceeded by three to five times in terms of commitment. Peer stories trust people far more than brand claims.
The results spoke for themselves: our costs for the customer’s acquisition dropped because word of mouth became our primary growth channel. Our retention rates rose. The people were”T only buy products. They were part of something they didn’t want to leave.
Action that you can take today: Move the spotlight. At least one customer story this week, celebrate a user output or mark something astonishing that your community has created. Make your people – not your products – the heroes of your story.
Be a community builder
When I left Gymshark, 95% of our content was managed by Community. But the greatest growth that they could not measure in metrics. The message stated: “This brand made me believe me again.” It was in the tattoos. The murals in the gym. The suggestions in Marken -Hoodies.
We not only built an audience. We built identity. And if you create this correctly, you don’t just scale a brand. They change culture.
You don’t have to chase relevance. You become It.