Reebok Re-Play!

Despite being rocked by a scandal in 2012, Reebok has made a strong comeback, steadily rebuilding its brand equity. Over the last two years, it has sharpened its focus on fitness and women consumers, and is building on its brand salience. Having recently assigned its creative mandate to J. Walter Thompson, Silvia Tallon, Senior Marketing Director, Reebok India talks about the brand’s renewed marketing strategy and more

- Dipali Banka

Q] Since April 2016, Reebok has shifted its focus to fitness and women consumers. Subsequently, its brand ambassadors, MS Dhoni and John Abraham were replaced by Kangana Ranaut. How has this strategy worked for the brand?

Fitness is core to Reebok and our aim is to continue to evolve in that space. In the last few years, we have witnessed a spike in the women fitness category, with an increasing number of women becoming fitness-oriented. Reebok wanted to inspire more women to adopt fitness as an integral part of their lifestyle and this was the reason behind the #FitToFight campaign with Kangana Ranaut as the face of the initiative. As our choice of brand ambassador, Kangana resonates with the Reebok ethos of being fearless, strong and powerful. She has defied challenges and triumphed over obstacles to achieve success today. Her role as a mentor and the inner voice of #FitToFight has encouraged many women to share their personal stories of trials and tribulations, creating an unprecedented movement among the women in India. We are always mapping the effectiveness of our campaigns with matrices such as NPS and QCS, and the women-first strategy has shown a strong positive impact on these matrices in the country.

Q] What is the key learning from the #FittoFight campaigns over the last couple of years? 

In our first phase of #FitToFight, we had witnessed over 100 entries from women, inspiring each of us to continue fighting and winning. With the launch of #GirlsDontFight last year, Reebok extended #FitToFight to dealing with societal evils like eve-teasing and inequality in pay, demonstrating that women can strike back hard. This campaign has been an enriching experience, helping us connect with so many real women fighters who scale higher each day and succeed in their personal journey.