Serve the Sport's Middle, Not Its Podium
Separate the soul of a category from its business and position where the money and the meaning actually are
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 88%
The framework separates two different things that sit inside one category. The soul of running is the sport itself, track and field, cross country, road racing, the Olympics, trail and ultra. The business of running is people investing in themselves through fitness, health, and wellness. Once those are separated you can position deliberately in the middle of the second one. The incumbent's name literally means victory, and one person breaks the tape at a forty thousand person marathon, so a promise built on personal investment regardless of finish is one the incumbent structurally cannot make. The positioning has to be carried through into product: every shoe starts from the individual runner's biomechanics and habitual joint motion rather than from the elite racing use case, and the brand deliberately stays approachable so beginners do not feel unworthy of the sport.
Origin
Jim Weber inherited the seed of the positioning when he arrived at Brooks and sharpened it over twenty years into a promise about the runner rather than the podium. Extracted from Acquired.
Core principles
- 01The soul of a category and the business of a category are usually different things
- 02A leader built on winning cannot credibly claim self-investment
- 03Position where the largest committed cohort is, not where the cameras are
- 04Approachability removes the 'I am not a real one' barrier that keeps buyers out
- 05The positioning only holds if product development starts from the same premise
How to run it
- 1
Separate the category's soul from its business
List the visible, elite, aspirational version of the category, then separately list who actually buys and why. In running the sport is the soul, and people investing in their own health are the business.
Pro tip Follow the money and the units to find the business; follow the media to find the soul.
Watch out Confusing the two leads you to spend on the audience that generates attention rather than revenue.
- 2
Write down what the leader owns
Reduce the dominant competitor's promise to a single idea and be honest that you cannot outspend or out-signal them on it. Their strength is the constraint you position against.
Pro tip Name the promise in one word; if it takes a sentence, you have not found it.
Watch out Attacking the leader on their own ground burns budget you do not have.
- 3
Claim what the leader cannot say
State a promise that would contradict the leader's identity if they tried to copy it. A brand whose name means victory cannot authentically celebrate the thirty nine thousand nine hundred people who will not win.
Pro tip Test the claim by imagining the leader's ad running with your line in it; it should ring false.
Watch out A differentiator the leader could adopt tomorrow is a feature, not a position.
- 4
Make the brand approachable on purpose
Strip pretension out of the category so newcomers stop disqualifying themselves. The unseriousness is a deliberate device to remove the feeling that you are not a real participant.
Pro tip Use retail partners and local events to make the welcome concrete rather than only saying it in ads.
Watch out Approachable is not the same as low performance; the product still has to be serious.
- 5
Start product development from the individual
Anchor R and D in the individual user's mechanics rather than the elite use case, so the product is evidence for the positioning rather than a contradiction of it.
Pro tip Invest R and D narrowly in the one motion your category is about so focused spending beats bigger budgets.
Watch out Positioning that marketing owns and product ignores collapses the first time a customer tests it.
- 6
Spend only where the target actually decides
Concentrate media on the moment the target customer is actively evaluating rather than on the events that reach the elite audience.
Pro tip Track share of voice among active-evaluation buyers, not overall category awareness.
Watch out Sponsorship of the sport's showcase can be an expensive way to reach people who are not your business.
In the wild
Forty thousand people run the New York marathon and one person breaks the tape. Weber's position is that Brooks takes the thirty nine thousand nine hundred who want to have their best day and are investing in themselves. The brand is about you and your run, not about the podium or the tape. That is why Brooks does not sponsor college programs and is content that college athletes who race in the big brands train in Brooks. The insight extends to product: the runners who most need the best footwear and the best run bra are the beginners, because their injury potential is highest.
→ A positioning the category leader cannot copy, and the number one performance running shoe brand in the United States at roughly 21.5 percent share.
Ben Gilbert described reading the Brooks book and realising the brand is about performance but is deliberately not serious. He takes his own running seriously and chose a specific motion control Brooks shoe for it, but never expects to win a marathon. Weber's answer was that the unseriousness exists to take the pretension and the 'I am not a runner' feeling out of the sport, which is also why the brand leaned into women, who have driven the sport since the mid nineties.
→ An inclusive brand that supports premium pricing without requiring elite credibility.
Common mistakes
Marketing to the soul, selling to the business
Spending against the elite, televised version of a category while the revenue comes from ordinary committed users produces expensive campaigns that never reach buyers in evaluation mode.
Copying the leader's promise at lower volume
Adopting a victory-oriented position against a competitor who owns it means fighting with a smaller budget on their chosen ground and losing quietly.
Letting product contradict the position
If the range is still built around the elite use case, the approachable, individual-first promise reads as marketing language and the brand loses the frequent user who can tell the difference.
Is it for you?
Best for
Challenger consumer brands in categories where a dominant player owns the aspirational, elite, victory-oriented narrative.
Not ideal for
Categories where the elite outcome genuinely drives mainstream demand and credibility flows only from professional endorsement.
From the transcript
“but the business is people that are investing in themselves fitness and health and wellness”
“we're basically about you and your run we're not about the podium we're not about the tape”
“forty thousand people run new york marathon we'll take the thirty nine thousand nine hundred people that wanna have their best day”
From the episode
Arena Show Part II: Brooks Running (with CEO Jim Weber)