The Success Story of Bliss Club Activewear

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With a rising wave of enthusiasm for fitness since the pandemic, India has seen a surge in supply and demand for fitness products. One of the early players in the market who grabbed the opportunity is Bliss Club. While most of the mainstream activewear brands focused on products for regular gym goers and fitness-freaks who live in activewear- people who were already super fit and confident, Bliss Club shifted its focus.

Before we get into the model breakdown of Bliss Club, i want to recommend a newsletter packed with insights and play-books which you might find very relevant.

The White Space

Usually, the idea of athleisure is equated to fit women and men. But, in reality, people who are plus size and women who cannot squeeze gyms into their tight schedules needed them were excluded from this market. Bliss Club identified this white space and decided to garner it.

Started as a small WhatsApp community, it soon spread its wings, grew to 198k followers on Instagram and found itself selling leggings, sports bras, shorts, tees and tracks. Their highlight was to make products for the Indian bodies and not for the Western standardised charts.

Their Key Selling Points

They did their research well and identified aspects that could make their brand stand out and make it big.

For Women

They changed the men-first approach by activewear brands and made a woman-centric product, that catered to women’s needs, that were so far very easily ignored by the mainstream brands before.

By Women

Their signature product, ‘the ultimate leggings’, came out with four pockets that could carry essentials like phones, headphones or keys. Something often conveniently forgotten in women’s clothes.  This is just a single example of how they branded themselves as product understood by women. Tags like camel toe-proof and squat-proof made them even more lovable.

Inclusivity

Their ad campaigns were inclusive and celebrated women and body positivity. “We want authenticity. We want customers to come to our website and think, hey, she looks like me!” This motto led them to the destination.

Revenue Game

Master Strokes

They played well in their brand positioning and trusted their communities rather than usually paid collaborations and advertisements for their initial success. Here are some strategic moves that made them sustain in a competitive apparel sector.

Community Building

They didn’t build a following, but a community.

Bliss Club is not just a clothing brand but a wellness community, given their next big aspiration to create a wellness app. The brand has a safe community built on over 13+ WhatsApp groups that act as platforms for women to have open conversations, discover trainers, accountability partners to work out with and more. This builds loyalty towards the firm.

They also constantly organised social media polls before launching a product and hence included women in their production process as well, like design specifications and colours.

Focus on Content Rather Than Product

When they began marketing, content was their focus. They focused on YouTube video series like ‘Moving it with Bliss Club’ and ‘Asanas with Aditi’, where you find asanas and workouts that you can get done with the everyday chores of a woman.  They followed the same in their ad campaigns as well and weaved beautiful stories while promoting their products, that kept consumers hooked.

Social Media Influencers

The next step in their journey was to focus on social media influencers. Their collaborations with social media influencers went well, but the one that rocketed to fame was the collab with Kusha Kapila, which did wonders for their brand.

Digital First Approach

Being a D2C brand, they initially focused completely on digital space. Sneha Subramanian, Brand Director, mentioned, “Up until December last year, when we opened our first offline leg, 100% of our budgets went to digital-only.”

Conclusion

Bliss Club cleverly identified the white space in the Indian activewear market. Initially, with their competitive prices, it looked impossible to go mainstream, but their focus on building a trusting, loyal community has paid them global success. Their target audience is progressive women, and that has led to their progress.

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