Gabi Khowploum, Director of Marketing at StretchLab, believes that putting people first is more than a way to do good. It also results in good marketing.
Khowploum started working at StetchLab in 2019, only about six months before the pandemic started. At that point, the company, which had been franchising for two years, had about 40 studios. A global need for people to isolate and distance themselves could have signaled the end for a business where hands-on contact is essential.
But six years later, more than 500 StretchLab studios are thriving on consistent, effective marketing strategies that start with a one-on-one connection. Growth was bolstered through paid — primarily Meta and Google — and organic digital media, with a heavy focus on grassroots marketing locally and nationally.
Before customers walk through the door, they have to understand what StretchLab does. Explaining assisted stretching requires public education in new markets “every single time,” according to Khowploum.
With that in mind, our conversation started with the question that future customers ask.
What is StretchLab?
Essentially, you are working with a professional to aid you in a stretch, and typically the professional is the one who's guiding you and performing the stretch, so that the person who's being stretched is completely passive… We do these things from an assisted stretch level because you're able to get a deeper, more concentrated stretch when you work with a professional versus when you work by yourself. And because of this, you're able to reap those benefits a little bit more.
StretchLab’s professionals assist clients in achieving deeper, more concentrated stretches, helping them reap more of the benefits.
One of the big challenges with StretchLab is that assisted stretching is unfamiliar to so many. What are some of the ways that you’ve overcome the need to educate the public when a new franchise opens?
The biggest piece, I would say, is actually grassroots marketing. Each of our studios goes out into their communities. Even before they open, they go out and they are stretching people where they are. They'll go to a local fitness studio, they'll go to a farmer's market, and they get out right in front of the public, showing them exactly what an assisted stretch is. They're able to educate them and meet people where they are — usually in a space where they would need that type of service — and are able to build the education that way.
While larger partnerships that can be scaled at the national level will be initiated and planned by HQ, all studios regularly do local or regional grassroot activations — often offering assisted stretches — with a variety of partnerships. It’s an opportunity to showcase our service directly to the community in their own spaces.
"Even before they open, reps from each new studio go out and they are stretching people where they are -- fitness studios, farmers' markets, races, etc."
An on-site stretching at a golf course
What are some of the mindsets that you have to adopt at a national level?
We have a saying at StretchLab that it's for everybody and every “body.” We have such a wide range of demographics, I have to be able to understand why someone who is 60-plus would benefit from the service versus someone who is in their 20s.
There’s a lot of understanding of what those potential different needs are. In terms of overcoming that, I think it's a lot of research — seeing why different people would need the service. Thankfully, we have a training and experience team who are very knowledgeable. And to provide a lot of that insight, doing my own passive research, looking into what those benefits could potentially be, and then getting insight from our local studios as well.
“Who are the people going into your studios? What are you noticing that their needs are and how they're benefiting from the service?” Then we can put all those pieces together.
How does that research, especially passive research, manifest?
In a variety of ways — intentionally and unintentionally, sometimes it’s putting myself directly into spaces where our demographics would be, such as a workout class or traveling through an airport and trying to identify the possibilities of why people in these spaces would need our service, reading articles and journals, consumer surveys, talking to people with more experience or knowledge than myself in these demographics and learning from them, getting to know our members.
Any time I have an opportunity to meet our real members, I try to get to know them, learn what brought them to our studios, and see what keeps them coming. I’ve heard some amazing stories and have met equally amazing people because of this, and their experiences are one of the best ways to build perspective.
What do you think it takes to do franchise marketing well? What are the tools that you use to ensure that you keep that growth mindset, but that you still balance it with brand consistency across local studios?
While I can always make suggestions and provide guidance to our franchisees, I have to be able to put myself in their shoes and be able to understand their potential struggles or different things that they may be navigating, so that I can ensure that whatever strategies we're putting in place, it still makes sense for them, because ultimately I need them to trust me as well.
One example that stands out to me was when I first started at StretchLab. I came in swinging with social media best practice suggestions and reached out to studios that weren’t active or maintaining the standards we would have preferred to see from social media accounts.
To me, the suggestions weren’t ambitious. These were pretty standard for anyone who regularly used social media. I was immediately met with (valid) pushback and feedback on some of my suggestions due to staffing and time constraints or general unfamiliarity with social media — things I wouldn’t have realized if they hadn’t brought it to my attention.
So, I listened and adjusted my approach to coaching and general suggestions in a way that still prioritized maintaining brand expectations, but took their feedback into consideration.
You probably have franchisees who are extremely enthusiastic, good at what they do, and really embrace the wellness and fitness space, but marketing might be new to them. How do you come alongside them and help bridge that gap?
We have trainings for franchisees and our general managers, and then we do a lot of one-on-one. Trainings have historically been done in person and virtual, with attendance from multiple studios.
I had some franchisees who didn't know what the plus sign was on Instagram, and that's OK. There's absolutely no shame in that. That's not something that you're familiar with, so let me walk you through that and help you understand why this is important for you to do in your studios.
We support studios almost weekly with digital media questions, such as how and what to post on social media. But we also help studios with feeling confident with grassroots. There was one owner who knew the value of doing grassroots but wasn’t sure where to get started. We met on a weekly basis and I helped him identify opportunities around him and maximize the partnerships he was securing, such as giving him guidance on how to drive more leads and brand awareness or take pictures so he could promote on his studio’s social media accounts.
Within a few weeks, he was regularly hosting grassroot activations and securing partnership opportunities for future activations, as well as seeing month over month increase in grassroot leads. It was amazing, and you could see how happy he was in being able to accomplish this. This was all him though! The ability, drive, and ideas were all him. I just gave him a space where he could feel confident in vocalizing his ideas and concerns and provided guidance towards his goal.
"The ability, drive, and ideas were all [from a franchisee, not corporate]. I just gave him a space where he could feel confident in vocalizing his ideas and concerns and provided guidance towards his goal."
When it comes to marketing, what is tried and true for you, and how do you keep yourself and your team and your franchisees, from running to the next big thing that comes up, especially if it’s different from what you know works for this brand?
Authenticity. There's such a big gear towards that, which is why influencer marketing — in general, not specific to StretchLab — skyrocketed. Right now, we're seeing a lot of brands shift their strategy, or at least their content strategy, towards getting “real people” to provide their own testimonials and experiences.
Because as a consumer, we don't always want to be sold to by a brand. Personally, if I don't have to do the research into looking into a new brand, if my friend tells me that they found a skincare routine that works for them, I'm more likely going to do that, and that's what a lot of brands are trying to build right now.
Now, in regard to how we're ensuring how everyone stays aligned, I think a big piece of that is that we as a brand always need to ensure that on the corporate side or on our national side, we're aligned with each other. They're looking to us for example, so there needs to be that connection between us, and there needs to be that stance of how we feel confident in what we're doing. We have a plan, we have a strategy, and we're following this, so that we can then carry it on. SOPs and regular webinars are a big part of our overall structure. We release SOPs for every month and go over campaigns or promotions on webinars…to try to provide as much information and support as possible.
I think it's kind of like a domino effect of: we set our standards, we set our pace, and what our strategy is, and then go from there in terms of helping keep the franchisees happy and keeping them aligned with the brand as well.
