Hoka's Community Focus Drives $1.4B in Sales

How building an engaged, loyal community fueled growth

Hey, thanks for tuning into another edition!

I never thought about trying them myself, but after seeing them all over social media and checking out their running shoes, it's clear why they've blown up over the past decade. Plus, with their newer, more minimal designs, I'm definitely grabbing a pair soon 😂.

Today’s case study breakdown is about Hoka. An underdog athletic brand that is now generating upwards of $1.4B in sales, marking a major shift in the athletic footwear market that is typically dominated by the likes of Nike, Adidas and Reebok. Hoka’s growth has been slow and driven by a super-engaged community. I’ll unpack the key takeaways of how they built a community around their brand.

Enjoy 🙂 🙏

- Dev

In today’s edition, this is what I’m covering:

  • Hoka’s origin story

  • Strategy - Fostering a sense of community

  • Using online events to provide value

  • Nurturing through educational and emotive content

  • Inspiring & motivating the community

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ORIGIN STORY
Hoka leads with function and was designed for the modern trail runner

The name "Hoka One One" comes from the Maori language of New Zealand, loosely translating to "fly over the earth," which perfectly captures the brand's goal of helping runners move faster with less fatigue.

Founded in 2009 in Annecy, France, by Nicholas Mermoud and Jean-Luc Diard, Hoka was born with a vision to create modern trail running shoes for tackling steep mountains in the Alps, Pyrenees, and Dolomites.

Hoka made a splash with its bold design. Instead of going head-to-head with established athletic footwear giants, they carved out a new niche with their maximalist design and ultra-cushioned midsoles.

THE STRATEGY
Fostering a sense of community around the brand

As psychologist Abraham Maslow outlined in his Hierarchy of Needs, a sense of belonging is a powerful psychological necessity. By creating communities, brands tap into this fundamental human drive.

A 2014 study on Apple's brand community found that a stronger sense of belonging was a major factor driving loyalty decisions and behaviours toward Apple products. Simply put, when customers feel like they're part of a brand's community, they're more likely to stick with it.

Hoka has taken a similar stance. Their community-centric marketing fosters a strong focus on getting like-minded people together who grow with the brand. In turn, this has led to increased loyalty, engagement and sales in the last decade. They’ve been a perfect match-up for people who have felt alienated and lost in the cultural norms of more popular shoe brands that we all wear and love.

VIRTUAL EVENTS
Bringing 96,000 people together

Hoka have had success in bringing their community together virtually. They have leveraged online events to drive engagement, by hosting virtual run clubs, valuable webinars and virtual yoga sessions.

Online events: Virtual runs on Strava let participants track and share their progress. People worldwide join in, posting their experiences with event-specific hashtags. This organic buzz gets more folks involved. Hoka adds to the fun with certificates, merch, medals, and digital badges, gamifying the experience to keep the community hooked and coming back for more.

Webinars: A free event that brings together expert speakers like professional athletes, coaches, and health experts who provide insights and tips related to running, general health and fitness. They take an educational approach, which has helped them to position themselves as a brand authority in the running and fitness industry.

CONTENT MARKETING
Nurturing with relatable content

Hoka’s content marketing engages customers through emotive storytelling and online education.

Emotive storytelling: Building an emotional connection helps Hoka become more relatable and trustworthy amongst its core audience. They rely on storytelling to create a deeper connection, make messages more memorable and encourage sharing. ‘Fly Human Fly’ campaign is a good example of this where the video was designed to have people experience the joy and limitless possibilities of running. And it landed! It crossed over 2 million views in less than a year, organically.

Educational content: Uses educational content to engage its community by positioning itself as a knowledgeable authority in athletic footwear and running.

  • Helps build trust and authority → tailoring its messages to specific use cases, and benefits and emphasising the practical nature of their shoes. Plus, they gather and showcase success stories.

  • Fosters a community and loyalty → by allowing people to share, learn and grow together through challenges through their blogs and online group challenges.

  • Serves as an acquisition driver → introducing new people organically. Their website generates over 14.9 million organic monthly traffic from these pieces of content.

Each content theme has a different purpose. This is how they approach & distribute each pillar:

Running tips and training advice: Provide practical running techniques, training plans, injury prevention and recovery strategies.

  • Blog Posts: Articles on topics such as "How to Improve Your Running Form" or "Training Plans for Your First Marathon" provide detailed, actionable advice.

  • Social Media: Short tips and infographics shared engage the audience and provide quick, digestible information.

  • Videos: Tutorials and interviews with professional athletes and coaches offer in-depth insights and visual demonstrations of techniques.

Footwear education: Talk about the features and it’s benefits of different Hoka models.

  • Product Pages: Each shoe model on the HOKA website includes comprehensive descriptions, highlighting key features and benefits.

  • Videos: Product walkthroughs and reviews showcase the shoes in action, explaining how the technology benefits runners.

Success stories and testimonials: Sharing their products' real user and professional use cases.

  • Social Media: User-generated content and testimonials. They created a series called ‘Humans of Hoka’ where they share a day in the life videos’ and everyday stories of real humans who use Hoka.

  • Videos: Documentaries and short films that highlight inspiring stories of runners who have benefited from HOKA footwear.

Health and wellness information: share content on nutrition, mental health and regular exercise benefits.

  • Blog Posts: Articles like "The Importance of Nutrition for Runners" or "Mental Health Benefits of Running" provide valuable insights and tips.

  • Social Media: Infographics and short posts that highlight key points and encourage healthy habits.

  • Videos: Interviews with experts in nutrition, psychology, and sports medicine offer professional advice and tips.

INFLUENCER MARKETING
Inspire and motivate the community

Hoka combines partnerships with both elite athletes and novice runners with an audience online. A dual approach that attracts high-quality people who share the brand’s values. In the long run, it helps convert them into loyal advocates, who are willing to speak up for Hoka. A good strategy that outruns one-off transactions.

Here’s how they partner with world-class athletes and micro-influencers:

World-class athletes → aim to inspire the community: Hoka partners with more established athletes by leveraging their stories, achievements and values into their marketing campaigns. In return, ultra-athletes like Jim Walmsley get remunerated through endorsement deals, access to collaborate on Hoka’s product design, and make appearances in their global campaigns.

Micro-influencers → aim to build trust: Creators like Kate typically have highly engaged audiences. By working with her, Hoka can reach a niche audience that is more likely to trust and act on her recommendations. These are some ways Hoka & Kate work together:

  • Sent her to key events like UTMB to create content and showcase Hoka’s community involvement.

  • Exclusive access to new product

  • She makes TikTok and Instagram content featuring Hoka products, shared with her engaged audience.

  • Ongoing promotion through her consistent endorsements.

@hoka

Humans of HOKA: Athlete Ambassador Kate Glavan (@kateglavan)Learn more about how movement liberates Kate, how she finds fun and joy throug... See more

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