Bodybuilding.com Rebrands a Key Piece
For the first 18 years of Bodybuilding.com’s existence, its (now massive) content library of articles and videos focused on nutrition, training, and supplementation were 100% free. Through that extensive content library, Bodybuilding.com has been able to impact millions of lives by educating them throughout their health and fitness journeys.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Bodybuilding.com did something different. In November 2017, they launched a paid content section that was called Bodybuilding.com All Access. All good things eventually come to an end, right? Bodybuilding.com All Access essentially offered almost the exact same content library of their most “media rich” comprehensive programs, but now it cost you around $10/month to gain access. This business decision infuriated two stakeholders;
- Site Visitors and Customers = these consumers were midstream into workout and nutrition programs that were now behind a paywall
- Bodybuilding.com Vendors = many of those “media rich” comprehensive workout and nutrition programs were created and paid for by Bodybuilding.com vendors. Supplement brands (vendors) were given the opportunity to increase exposure on the website through leveraging a menu of yearly marketing programs and media assets with Bodybuilding.com. By selecting this media asset from the menu, these vendors paid for the elements of these programs to be created, marketed, and made available for consumers on the Bodybuilding.com website.
To be completely honest, I fully understand how both of those stakeholders could feel upset, but what else could Bodybuilding.com do in 2017?
Bodybuilding.com’s Current Situation
While I’d much rather share positive stories about rainbows and unicorns, life isn’t always that magical and business for Bodybuilding.com has been really tough. The supplement internet retail is facing the reality that their top-line revenue was (and still is) in a free fall. The aggressive promotional and pricing activity had done little to nothing with neutralizing the encroaching competitors. Additionally, they were faced with a hard decision surrounding the fact that their long-term strategy of using free content to create organic search traffic wasn’t as effective anymore. With website traffic down, it brought total conversions down and Bodybuilding.com had to build walls around their valuable assets to save the business.
The fact is, Bodybuilding was (and still is) struggling to create a stickiness to their business model. After assessing the business landscape, they knew things needed to change if they hoped to compete against more (and larger) retailers offering similar merchandise and websites, apps, and social media disseminating similar content.
Bodybuilding.com needed a reset…
Bodybuilding.com’s Reset Button
Over these last two years, you have seen Bodybuilding.com painstakingly press the public reset button. This can be seen with their merchandising and content strategies.
Merchandising
Bodybuilding.com has ended relationships with about 2/3 of wholesale customers. This purge was needed to clean out slow moving brands and products that were tying up large amounts of the internet retailer’s cash. That being said, Bodybuilding.com has recently began to expand its merchandising into mainstream fitness-related product categories that are ancillary to sports nutrition. Additionally, they have started to advance new partnerships with emerging brands. While this might seem like the “tale of two cities”, there is a distinct difference in this merchandising reset. Bodybuilding.com is now using a curated marketplace strategy that runs on consignment tests to limit risk to using cash for untested partners and also dusting off the old exclusive agreements contracts to create differentiation.
Content
This area of the business has been kept almost unchanged since the announcement of Bodybuilding.com All Access. The majority of the articles and videos on the website has stayed free (Note: these articles and videos were the easiest to copy and thus is less valuable). To validate Bodybuilding.com’s hard decision to monetize some content, 2019Q1 financials mentioned that content was turning a small profit.
All was calm in Boise, ID until last week…
Bodybuilding.com Rebrands All Access to BodyFit
During the first week of 2020, Bodybuilding.com rebranded its All Access paid content program into BodyFit. Along with the name change, it came some changes, including an additional paywall.
As you can see from the chart, Elite is essentially the same All Access program, but there is another paywall for customers and visitors to gain access to:
- 2500+ expert workouts
- 3500+ how-to exercise videos
Bodybuilding.com is now further monetizing its content directly, forcing visitors and customers to either pay up for that content or find it through other disseminated sources.
It begs the question, why did Bodybuilding.com do this now?
Why Did Bodybuilding.com Add a 2nd Paywall Now?
I believe the reasoning Bodybuilding.com felt confident to create a second paywall was surrounding market timing and technology improvements. It wasn’t that Bodybuilding.com didn’t think their entire content library was valuable, but it came down enhancing, repackaging, and repositioning “less valuable” content within 2020 trends.
- Convenience = while almost all information is disseminated across the internet, Bodybuilding.com realized the totality of those assets, through tagging and organizing in a new rebuilt database would be hard to replicate (even for the most advanced self-directed consumer)
- Personalization = within the new database, Bodybuilding.com added elements of AI or machine learning to personalize the content experience based on known customer and purchasing data.
Fact is, these value propositions could now be sold as an entry-level content product that would help consumers cut down on noise to help them find the best probably path to achieving their goals. The lower price also creates an opportunity for Bodybuilding.com to have a bigger initial pool of customers. As these customers trial the product and receive value that exceeds their expectations, Bodybuilding.com will have a stronger chance to convert them into the Elite BodyFit product.
With this move, Bodybuilding.com has taken one step further towards creating a stickier experience with its content, but have they connected it with physical product sales? This is key because content revenue alone is not going to rebuild Bodybuilding.com in the short-term, unless they really go all-in on it (Note: I will explore that below).
Bodybuilding.com Stickiness
To stop the massive bleeding with its top-line revenue, Bodybuilding.com needs to connect content and commerce into an extremely sticky customer experience that leaves them with high switching costs. While there are millions of individual ways to achieve this, I wanted to highlight two;
- Private Label (easiest) = Bodybuilding.com has a growing private label business, but there is still a ton of runway left to really make this a large percentage of their business. Reality is, they have the purchasing and customer data that will lead them direct to making great products that their customers want.
- Personalized Shopping Experience (harder) = having a larger, but more curated merchandise selection is great and customers love low prices, but can Bodybuilding.com help each individual customer in a personalized way that gives them access to affordable products that are right for them and their current goals? Can they also do it in the most connected frictionless way possible?
Bodybuilding.com’s Attractive Assets?
You might be thinking, why are you trying to give insights to a struggling retailer that doesn’t have any value in the market today? There is a lot of reasons, but it’s mostly around that I don’t believe the chatter that their isn’t value left in Bodybuilding.com. I believe there are attractive assets left that could create a flywheel strategy and transform itself long-term…
Domestic Brand Equity — Bodybuilding.com has impacted millions and lives and that brand name still has positive brand equity
Customer Data — Bodybuilding.com has tons of valuable customer and purchasing data that feeds the flywheel towards constantly improving personalization on content and commerce, but also in creating private label offerings
Private Label — Bodybuilding.com has two decades of knowledge in the industry and should still know what supplement shoppers want. They also have the supplier and manufacturer relationships to make any product development map become a reality.
Media Division (BodyFit) — Bodybuilding.com has access to the every important relationship with fitness personalities and brands to create a truly unique media division, but they will need to rebuild them through whatever means necessary. To rebuild these relationships, they will need to get the flywheel started, so brands know they can make money and enhance brand value by selling on Bodybuilding.com. Also, fitness personalities need to know it brings them increased influence and also revenue opportunities that far exceed their current alternative streams.
BodySpace —Bodybuilding.com’s often forgotten social media network is perfect to build community with like-minded people. Community is still a cornerstone of fitness and I think a social media platform based on a goal-oriented subject like health and fitness is powerful, especially when you pair it with everything mentioned above within a larger flywheel strategy.
Bodybuilding.com Needs To Run (Not Walk)
I believe Bodybuilding.com has the pieces to transform themselves, but it is highly likely it needs resources and cash from its parent company Expedia Group (or from Barry Diller himself). Bodybuilding.com is past the place where they can do this alone and they need speed to jump back into the game.
As mentioned above, what would going “all-in on content,” to the level of making a material revenue difference, mean for Bodybuilding.com?
Here is how I view the Bodybuilding.com BodyFit product:
Current = though there is dozens of large “media rich” content pieces, they are static. While I think the total library is good, it’s not great compared to disseminated options and similar fitness paid content competitors. Additionally, I do not believe that there is enough new content launching daily to limit churn. Finally, the content is too general and has one singular note.
Future = starting point would be to create tons more niche on-demand “media rich” content that helps a variety of niche customer sets reach their health and fitness goals. I would be creating the “non-branded” search engine for fitness programs. Additionally, I would introduce live content similar to Peloton. Finally, I would turn the library from good to great by personalizing it.
Bodybuilding.com’s Hail Mary?
While this is extremely over-simplified, here is my playbook (for essentially Barry Diller) to take Bodybuilding.com up 100X:
- I would have Expedia Group sell Bodybuilding.com to my other company Interactive Corp. (IAC)
- I would have IAC pair Bodybuilding.com with Daily Burn (fitness media company) and Verywell (health and wellness content websites) into a fitness “group” that is similar to IAC-owned The Match Group
- I would start to create strategic partnerships (outside of rebuilding the ones mentioned above) with gym chains and equipment manufacturers to act as their connected fitness partner
- I would create partnerships with personalized nutrition, health, and fitness software and hardware to be a link in a much larger optimized life experience
