On an international scale, Peloton has created and built a phenomenal brand with a cult-like following in just six years. The power of the brand lies in its ambition to be the ‘Apple’ of fitness, challenging the market and reacting to the changing nature of consumer behaviour towards fitness. So what is it? The Peloton bike is a premium indoor spin bike with a Wi-Fi-enabled, 55 cm (21.5 inch) touchscreen tablet that streams live and on-demand classes. Riders can vary their resistance and speed, compete and virtually interact with other riders on a live leader board, through video calls, virtual high fives and the ability to follow other members.
The brand has brought together technology and an acute understanding of how consumers are changing, to form ambitious plans to revolutionize home fitness. It has been rewarded with unparalleled growth of its purchase and monthly subscription model since its inception in 2014. The celebrity status of the instructors, in parallel with the message of community and empowerment, have contributed to building a fiercely loyal online community of brand advocates, challenging whether this is just a stationary bike or the creation of a brand community and lifestyle.
Exercise has been at the forefront of the focus on mental and physical well-being for a number of years, but the excuse is often that we don’t have enough time. People are busier than ever before, trying to balance family and work commitments with trying to stay fit and healthy. An alternative was clearly needed, but consumer experience around ‘at home exercise’ was that it wasn’t motivating, it was boring or they needed interaction with other people around them. Enter Peloton, the brand that allows boutique, individual or group exercise classes on demand or live with interactive features – the brand that breaks the potential barriers of going to the gym and recognizes that people want to exercise but in their own time and in their own way. Starting with the stationary spin bike in 2014, the brand began its war on conventional fitness venues, challenging the need to attend an external outlet for motivation when it can be done at home, saving time and money, making fitness goals that little bit easier to reach. The brand has succeeded in exploiting the gap in the market where consumer behaviour was shifting away from the standard gym experience.
People were demanding more personalized, customizable experiences, offering more flexibility, which would see fewer barriers to exercise.
Being the clear brand leader, Peloton bikes are a luxury high-value purchase at approximately £1750, with a monthly subscription, similar to the price of a gym membership. The choice criteria therefore could be argued to be led by conspicuous consumption. However, the closure of gyms and the stay-at-home economy caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have created a captive audience. The result of the brand anticipating the consumer need for the product, and being in the right place at the right time has meant exponential growth.
Peloton is a brand whose success has arguably been a beneficiary of the COVID-19 pandemic, with sales surging 66 per cent from 2019 to US$524.6 million.1 Consumers have two routes to using its content: connected fitness subscriptions accessed through a connected Peloton device, and digital subscriptions where users subscribe to content via smartphones or other devices. Both ways to access have experienced sizeable growth, with connected fitness subscriptions rising 134 per cent to 1.67 million and paid digital subscriptions growing 472 per cent to 625,000.2 The entry into the industry of leading technology companies like Apple, with its Apple fitness offering, presents a growing challenge for Peloton.
With the stay-at-home economy arguably being part of the new normal, it is feasible that the consumer attitudes and resulting behaviours around fitness outlets have changed for ever. This potential change would allow Peloton to continue with its consumer vision of the connected fitness community. As one Peloton instructor said, ‘we are in this together and together we go far’.

Questions

1. Consumers have been forced to take a magnifying glass to their fitness habits and consider whether they really need a conventional gym. But can it continue – will the success of the Peloton brand continue to revolutionize home fitness on a global scale?
2. Discuss the influences in buying a Peloton device using one of the two main consumer behaviour theories.
3. Identify how Peloton has used the power of eWOM to influence its consumer decision-making processes.