CrossFit has a polarizing effect. This is directly related to how they want to react and have built
their brand and awareness because of it.
After seeing somewhat tactless posts that the company has made on their
social media platforms, it has led to more media coverage and more publicity. Join us after the jump to see how CrossFit keeps grabbing headlines.
Every
successful company and business builds a strong sense of branding. For
example, think of Coca-Cola. The Yankees. CrossFit.
Apple. You have a very polarized fan base for each of those entities.
This isn't brought about by chance, they all have a strong sense of a brand and
people love it or hate it. Recently I have been seeing posts about why
CrossFit has been putting out sometimes tactless posts on their social media
platforms and why are they are portraying images in a certain light.
We're going to use CrossFit as a case study as a great example of branding and
taking over the world.Over the next few
weeks, we’ll go over the six pillars of building a brand: Vision, Mission, Values,
Positioning, Voice/Tone and Look&Feel.
Voice- How to
Get Your Tribe Defending You
Definition:
Voice/Tone- An organic tone to speak to your
audience with consistency. Speaking to the Tribe.
The voice or
tone of the message is huge. In an earlier article, I mentioned that there
has never been a time in history that a brand has been given such a specific
personality. CrossFit would aptly be called as bold and empowering.
During their time of the endless scrolling of their slightly outdated main
site, they provided pictures from around the world of people doing CrossFit and
empowering people to try a workout and talk to the community. Each day,
at its peak, thousands of people would report their score and comment to one
another. Once in a while they would have a semi risqué picture of a topless
female CrossFitter demonstrating some type of squat. But after switching platforms,
that is where there have really shown discrepancy in their voice. Two examples to consider:
Twitter
On Twitter,
they put a picture up mocking the Coca-Cola logo that said “Open Diabetes,” with
the caption, “Pour some out for your dead homies.” This isn’t to just make a statement about
diabetes but get people to talk about it.
The staff at CrossFit HQ know very well that there are two types of
diabetes and it’s not always true that people can control getting something
such as diabetes type I. But in order to
reach an emotional nerve, they made a brash statement. Critics jump on CrossFit for their actions,
while avid fans defend their actions, thus giving them more coverage. If they tweeted a normal message about the
importance in health and diabetes prevention, would anyone bat an eye at
it? Now they even had Nick Jonas weigh
in with 140 carefully constructed characters.
Well played, CrossFit. Well
played.
Facebook
We’ll switch
platforms to the mothership that connects a wide number of people:
Facebook. Love it or hate it, most
people link their other social media profiles to this platform. When CrossFit puts out images that are
provocative, they are just baiting people to start talking about them in order
to have more shares, comments and likes.
And in the process they are making sure they are staying top of
mind. Remember, they aren’t just making
wild comments, they are making constructed opinions for people to pick
sides. What’s noted also is that their
brash nature is not always in laser-like focus.
Several accounts on their social media accounts show a history of even
trying to make well established Games athletes targets if they don’t agree with
CrossFit HQ doctrine. Agree or disagree about it, they have built their brand to be abrasive in order to cause people to
react, think and discuss.
The voice has changed
drastically when they switched platforms, their mood changing from clever and
noteworthy to blunt and unapologetic.
The voice
should feel like it matches up with the value.
Has CrossFit lost it’s way in this facet?
Read more about
Branding in Sports and Business in our new blog series coming out next week.
