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Peloton ad

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Replies

  • LAT1963
    LAT1963 Posts: 1,375 Member
    cwolfman--if you are not already bulked up, cycling will usually bulk your quads a bit. I know this from doing triathlons in college.
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    edited December 2019
    Aaron_K123 wrote: »
    The point of advertisement isn't to be in tune with the culture and blandly polite, the point of advertisment is to get people to talk about the product and repeatedly drop the brand name all over the place both in conversation and online post so people who have never heard of the company then hear about the company. The more eyes they get on their product the more likely they are to make sales which is what they care about.

    I'd say that this is a pretty fabulous advertisement because two days ago I'd never heard of this company and now I hear about them a lot and I know that they make an exercise bike. Question is did they just stumble on it or was this actually crafted to elicit this response intentionally.

    Considering their stock lost something like 1.5 billion dollars in three days it probably wasn’t intentional. It’s not true that all publicity is good publicity.
  • pence429
    pence429 Posts: 28 Member
    Never really noticed this commercial until the "controversy" hit the news; even then it only caught my attention because I had just told my spouse that a new squat rack was on my xmas wish list.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,879 Member
    Aaron_K123 wrote: »
    Aaron_K123 wrote: »
    The point of advertisement isn't to be in tune with the culture and blandly polite, the point of advertisment is to get people to talk about the product and repeatedly drop the brand name all over the place both in conversation and online post so people who have never heard of the company then hear about the company. The more eyes they get on their product the more likely they are to make sales which is what they care about.

    I'd say that this is a pretty fabulous advertisement because two days ago I'd never heard of this company and now I hear about them a lot and I know that they make an exercise bike. Question is did they just stumble on it or was this actually crafted to elicit this response intentionally.

    Considering their stock lost something like 1.5 billion dollars in three days it probably wasn’t intentional. It’s not true that all publicity is good publicity.

    <shrug> stock prices are reactionary and ephemeral, what matters is their sales and quarterly reports. If their sales increase their stock will increase over time. This sort of reactionary negativity tends to have a short burn time but the company brand will stick in people's heads. The long game might see them benefiting from this to be honest.

    EDIT: Also yfdtxnfkgvbf.png
    what dip?

    Exactly...
  • daltontf
    daltontf Posts: 63 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    ** Yes, that's a horrifying thought. Do you think that certain segments of the alcohol industry are not marketing intentionally to the consumer who drinks too much (possibly short of fully dyfunctional alcoholism, because their ideal consumer preferably has ongoing disposable income)?

    I believe that words like "goes down smooth" and "less filling" targets that segment of the beer drinking population. It means the product is suitable for binge drinking.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    Aaron_K123 wrote: »
    Aaron_K123 wrote: »
    The point of advertisement isn't to be in tune with the culture and blandly polite, the point of advertisment is to get people to talk about the product and repeatedly drop the brand name all over the place both in conversation and online post so people who have never heard of the company then hear about the company. The more eyes they get on their product the more likely they are to make sales which is what they care about.

    I'd say that this is a pretty fabulous advertisement because two days ago I'd never heard of this company and now I hear about them a lot and I know that they make an exercise bike. Question is did they just stumble on it or was this actually crafted to elicit this response intentionally.

    Considering their stock lost something like 1.5 billion dollars in three days it probably wasn’t intentional. It’s not true that all publicity is good publicity.

    <shrug> stock prices are reactionary and ephemeral, what matters is their sales and quarterly reports. If their sales increase their stock will increase over time. This sort of reactionary negativity tends to have a short burn time but the company brand will stick in people's heads. The long game might see them benefiting from this to be honest.

    EDIT: Also yfdtxnfkgvbf.png
    what dip?

    Agree that the immediate reactive price dip means little

    I don’t know that it will hurt long term, but I don’t think it will help either. To me there are two things that made this different: one, there was an element of ridicule to the negative reactions that is going to linger; two, the audience they are targeting was supposed to see this as a status symbol—oh, you got that cool new Peloton?—instead the first question will be—oh is that the one in the commercial?

    I think it could break either way.

    The article below cites a bigger challenge than the commercial: (although I also think the guy quoted is exaggerating fit his own publicity).

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/peloton-tumbles-over-6-short-191722815.html

    This is what happens in the fitness business. Peloton is already cutting some fees and planning cheaper models.

    And IMO,that is why they made that type of commercial in the first place. They needed to promote this as some unique, life-changing experience—otherwise it’s just another exercise bike.

    I think the challenge will be for them to keep introducing new and better features to stay at a premium level. It will be fun to watch.


  • magnusthenerd
    magnusthenerd Posts: 1,207 Member
    Aaron_K123 wrote: »
    The point of advertisement isn't to be in tune with the culture and blandly polite, the point of advertisment is to get people to talk about the product and repeatedly drop the brand name all over the place both in conversation and online post so people who have never heard of the company then hear about the company. The more eyes they get on their product the more likely they are to make sales which is what they care about.

    I'd say that this is a pretty fabulous advertisement because two days ago I'd never heard of this company and now I hear about them a lot and I know that they make an exercise bike. Question is did they just stumble on it or was this actually crafted to elicit this response intentionally.

    No. That's specifically brand awareness, and it is a type of ad campaign, but it is not the purpose of all advertising. Everybody knows what Coca-Cola and McDonald's are - they're actually both dangerously close at any moment to being too well known, used as generic nouns for a type of product instead of as brands - and guess how much advertising they both do, not just in raw dollars, but even relative to their revenue.
    I would actually be surprised if Peloton is particularly concerned with brand awareness as a strategy. They are a luxury product. Now, they do have the interesting position that they could look into turning this around if they stay on people's minds long enough for them to develop a more entry level product, possibly with a little campaign that gives the appearance of integrating the feedback from the last set of ads. It sounds like they might even be trying to force the process by emphasizing their new financing options for their products. More likely though that companies that already have the products in line will try to eat their lunch.

    Azdak wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Here's a thought experiment, maybe two.

    As background: Some types of markets segment into high-likelihood or frequent consumers, and routine lower-level/occasional consumers. A common strategy is to go after that first group, the high-likelihood/frequent group. This is sometimes talked about as going after the 20% of consumers that account for 80% of the consumption, though the percentages aren't necessarily that dramatic.

    So:

    If you were creating an advertising campaign designed to go after the market segment that disproportionately consumes new kinds of exercise equipment, how would you structure the ads? Think about who these people are, who they aspire to be, etc. (The marketing organizations will have researched questions like this.)

    More pointedly, assume you were going to structure an advertising campaign to hook people who either are, or are on the slippery slope to being, exercise bulimic (defined as people who feel compelled to exercise, to an excessive/unhealthy degree: Purging food is not inherently involved)**, or who are otherwise a little obsessive in their pursuit of the newest and most transformative exercise modality. How would you structure that advertising campaign?

    Rhetorical questions: Thought experiment, like I said.

    Bonus thought experiment: If you were going after a premium-price consumer (as we assume Peloton is), vs. a more mainstream consumer (maybe the Beachbody on Demand consumer, or something like that), vs. a frugal-budget consumer (advertising-supported fitness channels, say), how would your strategies differ?

    Once again, talking about how advertising/marketing is targeted or could be targeted is not intended as disrespect to anyone who uses any of these products. People do what they do for their own reasons, which is a separate issue from how marketers try to target new consumers (or try to increase consumption by existing ones). If you have a Peloton and enjoy it, or love BOD, or find your Youtube exercise channel fun and effective, I think that's great. I do what I do for reasons that have little to do with how my activity is commonly marketed.

    ** Yes, that's a horrifying thought. Do you think that certain segments of the alcohol industry are not marketing intentionally to the consumer who drinks too much (possibly short of fully dyfunctional alcoholism, because their ideal consumer preferably has ongoing disposable income)?

    I have another post coming as to why I find this so amusing, but, just for fun (because I really don’t care), to me the issue is not they they are going after the market segment that they did. It is an expensive product. What struck me about it (and, again, we are watching tons of bad commercials this time of year, so this one is not particularly egregious), was positioning the Peloton as a product that is essential for happiness and a good life for people whose life is already pretty bleeping good.

    I find this interesting. 20% of Peloton's sales are to those under 75K in household income, so 80% is above that, which coincidentally is the household income associated with increasing income no longer changing happiness. Granted, Peloton is selling to people that have it pretty good, but they don't have to bank on selling to people that feel pretty good. I actually have no numbers what-so-ever on it, but I would not be surprised at all if exercise bulimia is disproportionate in those upper incomes.

    Now I'm even wondering if Peloton accidentally mixed messages too much. They might have been trying to look more middle class, but perhaps the people writing the ad copy were also still trying to - or just too stuck in the mindset of - selling to executive wives. It certainly would be the profile of the woman who's nervous about her position in life based on 4 vanity pounds.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    edited December 2019
    75K in household income...which coincidentally is the household income associated with increasing income no longer changing happiness.

    Really? Is that statistic for the United States or the world as a whole? Because assuming a two adult household where both adults work that would be only 32.5k a year per adult which is not even a dollar about minimum wage (at least where I am). Now I realize the national average minimum wage is lower but still, that statistic seems really low to me. If my household income was 75k a year I would definitely feel less stressed and therefore happier if I had more than that.

    Are you sure that statistic was household income and not just income period? I would believe that once an individual hits 75k a year that more than that wouldn't have a huge impact on happiness...but a household? Raise a family on 75k a year and pretty sure you'd appreciate more money.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,899 Member
    Median household income, also showing variation between states and metro areas.

    https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/09/us-median-household-income-up-in-2018-from-2017.html

    Remember there are lots of single-worker households.
  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,427 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    Median household income, also showing variation between states and metro areas.

    https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/09/us-median-household-income-up-in-2018-from-2017.html

    Remember there are lots of single-worker households.

    These are most likely the ones with under $75k income that are buying the product.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,843 Member
    Aaron_K123 wrote: »
    Aaron_K123 wrote: »
    The point of advertisement isn't to be in tune with the culture and blandly polite, the point of advertisment is to get people to talk about the product and repeatedly drop the brand name all over the place both in conversation and online post so people who have never heard of the company then hear about the company. The more eyes they get on their product the more likely they are to make sales which is what they care about.

    I'd say that this is a pretty fabulous advertisement because two days ago I'd never heard of this company and now I hear about them a lot and I know that they make an exercise bike. Question is did they just stumble on it or was this actually crafted to elicit this response intentionally.

    Considering their stock lost something like 1.5 billion dollars in three days it probably wasn’t intentional. It’s not true that all publicity is good publicity.

    <shrug> stock prices are reactionary and ephemeral, what matters is their sales and quarterly reports. If their sales increase their stock will increase over time. This sort of reactionary negativity tends to have a short burn time but the company brand will stick in people's heads. The long game might see them benefiting from this to be honest.

    EDIT: Also yfdtxnfkgvbf.png
    what dip?

    Presumably the initial dip Dec 2 - Dec 5. I don't think a comparison to its all time high is valid, however.

    4922af182cc107e14b0d17a232582b60.png
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,717 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Aaron_K123 wrote: »
    Aaron_K123 wrote: »
    The point of advertisement isn't to be in tune with the culture and blandly polite, the point of advertisment is to get people to talk about the product and repeatedly drop the brand name all over the place both in conversation and online post so people who have never heard of the company then hear about the company. The more eyes they get on their product the more likely they are to make sales which is what they care about.

    I'd say that this is a pretty fabulous advertisement because two days ago I'd never heard of this company and now I hear about them a lot and I know that they make an exercise bike. Question is did they just stumble on it or was this actually crafted to elicit this response intentionally.

    Considering their stock lost something like 1.5 billion dollars in three days it probably wasn’t intentional. It’s not true that all publicity is good publicity.

    <shrug> stock prices are reactionary and ephemeral, what matters is their sales and quarterly reports. If their sales increase their stock will increase over time. This sort of reactionary negativity tends to have a short burn time but the company brand will stick in people's heads. The long game might see them benefiting from this to be honest.

    EDIT: Also yfdtxnfkgvbf.png
    what dip?

    Presumably the initial dip Dec 2 - Dec 5. I don't think a comparison to its all time high is valid, however.

    4922af182cc107e14b0d17a232582b60.png

    Especially when it's a company in a relatively new market, a company that has been growing very fast, and one whose first public offering (target price $29) was in September 2019. Jeesh.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    Median household income, also showing variation between states and metro areas.

    https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/09/us-median-household-income-up-in-2018-from-2017.html

    Remember there are lots of single-worker households.

    Yeah but I'm pretty sure the median would be happier if they made a bit more money.