Zach de Botton from fitness company Fitbag on marketing the brand

How building awareness and branding for new start-up lifestyle company Fitbag all comes back to customer service

Social Media Portal (SMP): What is your name and what do you do there at Fitbag?

Zach de Botton (ZDB): My name is Zach de Botton and I am the co founder of Fitbag. As we are a new company and there are currently two of us, my job description is very broad. I am in charge of finding new business, maintaining our website, social media platforms, marketing, promotion and customer service.

SMP: Briefly, tell us about Fitbag (for those that don?t know), what is it and what does the company do?

ZDB: Fitbag is a newly found fitness company. We specialise in unique home fitness packages that are designed to give the user a full body workout. We also run fitness classes in several London locations.

SMP: Briefly, tell us about your products and services

ZDB: The concept behind Fitbag was to create an easy to use home fitness package that was designed to give the user a full body workout and could be used by anyone. Using this as our concept we were able to create the Fitbag package which consists of six different products, a workout plan to compliment each piece of equipment and it all comes in our custom designed tote bag. The newest part to our business is ?Fitbag Live?. This is where existing or new customers can attend classes led by one of our professional trainers and get taken through an hour-long exercise routine using their Fitbag products.

Fitbag Live currently runs in L.A Fitness Isleworth and MG fit in fitness Angel, London and we will be soon expanding into various other locations. We are also in the middle of updating our website, as we want to provide our customers with as much useful information on health, fitness and diet as possible. We are working with experts in each field and have weekly articles for everyone to enjoy and the idea is to turn the website into more of a community feel.

SMP: When did you start the company and why?

ZDB: We started the company almost a year ago. My business partner and myself are both very keen on fitness and were looking for a new venture.  Having done extensive market research it soon became clear to us that there was not a product based package on the market which was designed to give the user a full body workout from the comfort of their own home. With this knowledge in mind and a spark to genius the Fitbag package concept was born!

SMP: Who are your target audience and why (where is the company based and where are your markets)?

ZDB: Our target audience is mainly women aged between 20 to 40. We have a lot of new and stay at home mothers, as well as young working professionals who buy and enjoy our products and services. Our packages are perfect for people who are either time poor or gym shy. The company is based in London, and our Fitbag Live market is currently London based. We do however ship our products all over the country and have even had people in the Shetland Islands buying from us! On the whole London and the north such as Liverpool and Manchester are our current biggest markets.

SMP: How did you initially attract users to your site and how do you do it now?

ZDB: Social media has always been a massive tool for us! We started off and still do use Facebook and Twitter a lot. Both are great ways to target potential customers and find businesses in your industry to work with. We also work with and run quite a few competitions with bloggers, mainly fitness and mummy bloggers and have attracted a lot of attention this way. Recently we have been working with some very well respected journalists and have had articles in Health & Fitness magazine, Tesco online and will appear in several other big publications in the run up to Christmas. This has definitely given us some great exposure and attracted more and more people to our site.


SMP: What are the main marketing and PR channels approaches that you used to launch the brand and what are you using now?

ZDB: When we launched the business we did a press release where we contacted hundreds of journalists and bloggers. Eventually we got people on board and started to get known in the industry. At the moment we are in constant contact with journalists and have lined up to appear in several magazines and catalogues in the run up to Christmas. We have also started online advertising and have banners on some big fitness websites.

SMP: What are the low moments of what you have been doing so far (and in regards to Fitbag)?

ZDB: There were definitely some low moments in the past that?s for sure! Without a big marketing budget we really struggled to get known in the fitness industry at the beginning. It took a lot of time and hard work to build up relationships with influential journalists and bloggers before they would promote and talk about Fitbag. Getting published in magazines and online articles was something that also took a while to come to fruition. It was selling our brand vision and getting people to believe in us as a company that really became quite tedious, but we got there in the end!

SMP: What are the high moments of what you have been doing so far (and in regards to Fitbag)?

ZDB: There are a lot more highs now than in the initial stages of the business! Seeing our first article published in a magazine felt like an amazing achievement.  We now get people tweeting or sending e-mails telling us how much they enjoy their Fitbag, which is always nice. It?s always great to see bloggers or journalists writing nice articles online about your business, that?s when all the time and hard work spent on marketing and promotion really seems worth it.

SMP: What are the main social channels are you using, why and which are the most effective for Fitbag?

ZDB: Twitter has always been a huge tool for us.
When we first launched the business we found most of the companies and people we work with today through twitter. We have always found it a great way to target companies and customers specific to our industry. We use Facebook on a daily basis too, but our main source of followers is definitely on Twitter. We also run competition giveaways with bloggers and more recently with the Active TV channel and they are always promoted through twitter and Facebook. You can check out our Twitter page @FitbagUK
And Facebook.

SMP: How long have you been using these channels and how much time do you spend using them weekly?

ZDB: We try to post interesting articles and communicate with our followers as much as we can.
I would say on average we spend about an hour a day on social media. We would love to spend more time, but simply put there just aren?t enough hours in the day!

SMP: What sort of activity / engagement are you receiving across the social channels that you use and how to create / sustain this?

ZDB: It?s been quite unbelievable the amount of good feedback we?ve had. Since the recent competitions we?ve been running our follower count and overall feedback has grown massively. We are always trying to have at least one competition on the go, it?s a great way to engage with new potential clients and to be honest it?s quite fun for everyone involved.

SMP: What do you see as your biggest challenges and opportunities (in terms of marketing and PR)?

ZDB: I think going forward our biggest challenges will be getting major retailers to market our products. As a new brand that doesn?t have a huge marketing budget, big retailers are reluctant to advertise your products in shop windows and home pages of their websites. Although given time I?m sure we can change this! I think some great opportunities will arise just before Christmas and during January. Our products will appear in some well-known catalogues and magazines and I really think we will be able to capitalise on the January market of people wanting to get fit after Christmas.

SMP: What is the most challenging part of building upon the Fitbag brand presence in digital environments (including social media)?

ZDB: The most challenging part of building our brand in digital environments is to try and get people to see that what we are doing is not the same as everyone else. Trying to get across your company ethos and brand image using a limited amount of words can be tricky. Well known bloggers, tweeters, and journalists can be reluctant to take notice of your brand if you do not encapsulate them. We have always found that providing people with interesting and relevant articles is a good way to get people to notice you.

You cannot simply set out to just promote your products via social media; you have to offer people more for them to trust your brand. This can take a while to get right, but like everything with the right plan in practice if your patient it will pay off.

SMP: How do you think social media and related technologies can assist you make Fitbag more successful?

ZDB: For Fitbag and many other new businesses social media is a great way to gain a following. We are getting more and more followers and likes via social media and this can only help to grow brand awareness.

Going forward I think social media will help us to find more interesting and talented people to work with, as well as other businesses to potentially collaborate with. Social media is also key to us helping to promote new aspects of our business such as new locations for our Fitbag live classes.

SMP: As Fitbag grows, how to you envisage you will maintain brand identity across various regions, especially using digital / social media?

ZDB: We have very strong views about making sure our brand identity does not get lost as we continue to grow. We will make sure that no matter how busy we might be we always have time to reply to customers, whether it be via Twitter, Facebook or e-mail. I know that one thing we would never do is use our social media channels to simply promote our products. People don?t want to be bombarded with offers like ?Buy this now? and that is simply put not what we are about!

SMP: Is there anything else we should know, or is there anything that you?d like to share?

ZDB: We are currently in the process of adding vast amounts of content to our website, in order to provide our customers with some great information and tips.

SMP: Best way to contact you and Fitbag?

ZDB: The best way to contact us is by e-mail at, info @ fitbaguk.com


SMP: What did you have for breakfast / lunch?

ZDB: I had a pain au chocolat and made a smoothie with bananas, strawberries and blueberries.

SMP: What?s the last good thing that you did for someone?

ZDB: I lent a friend my car for the weekend.

SMP: Given you run Fitbag, how much exercise do you get through a week on average?

ZDB: I workout with Fitbag equipment usually three times a week and go for a run twice a week.

SMP: What are your favourite sports and why?

ZDB: I love watching football, even though my team Fulham are not doing too well at the moment. I like the passion and fast pace of the game.

SMP: If you weren?t working on Fitbag what would you be doing?

ZDB: Hopefully running a billion pound company that was changing the world for the better.

SMP: When and where did you go on your last holiday?

ZDB:  I went to America last October. A few days in New York, a wedding in South Carolina and over to Portland for a couple days to see family.

SMP: What?s the first thing you do when you get into the office of a morning?

ZDB: Smile!

SMP: If you had a superpower what would it be and why?
 
ZDB: I would be able to fly! That way I would never get stuck in London traffic, or have to take public transport.

If you're interested in doing a Social Media Portal (SMP) interview, get in touch.