Company Profile

Overview:

Strava is a B2C company, was founded back in 2009 and has been the market leader for helping users to track their daily activities from over 30 + activities possible including hiking, cycling and sports like soccer(football) and swimming. It not only acts on giving the user the right details and information regarding his physical activity but also helps the user stay motivated by allowing him/her to set activity goals which he/she can truly track.

​
What Stage is the company now?
Strava is world's if not first, in the top 3 companies which are allowing more than 30 activities tracking. It has a successful user base of more than 100 Million people worldwide. Its revenue clocked at 225 Million USD in 2023.

I see strava in Early Scaling for Indian Market for this project analysis due to 2 reasons.

1. Their customer base is not growing as it has throughout the world
2. Indian content and market is very diverse and they haven't captured it and can be done so much more.

User Journey
Current User Journey Looks like this

1. Downloads Strava
2. Goes through app overview
3. Works on the first activity of his choice
4. Sees his results
5. Now he shares results or AHA moments to other users, on Whatsapp Statuses
6. They see and feel the urge to download strava
7. And new users come onboard and repeat it again.

​

Users

This section shares different types of users which Strava caters and what makes their Ideal Customer Profiles

​

1. Casual Tracker -
2. 1. Workout is a part of the routine and the user is using the app to keep a track of the progress.
   2. Usage is about 3/4 times a week since this is more like a casual app to the mobile device
   3. Majority he/she is a free user since his only goal is to keep a track of what all he has done in physical workout world in a week or a month.
3. Athlete/Professional Tracker
4. 1. This involves the hardcore professional fitness enthusiasts who use the data reported and captured by the app to plan their next routines or fitness goals. They heavily rely on the app's integration with their fitness trackers.
   2. Almost these users use the app twice a day and they also work on their recovery plans as per the data provided by the app
   3. These set of users are happily ready to pay for the premium which is 2500 INR per year or 350 INR Rs per month depending on the plan basis.
5. Social Enthusiast Tracker
6. 1. These people enjoy tracking their activities on a competitive level among their peers, friends and colleagues. They actively participate in the community events, check the leaderboards and typically use it like a social media
   2. They are also frequent users of the app in a day where they enjoy liking and sharing events with their friends or connections on the app. They use it as a motivation to show off the next time they do their activity
   3. Paid user predominantly where they love exploring the features of the app and bragging about those to their peers and network.

ICP1 : Mr Blade Runner

​ICP2 : Mr. Fede Valverde

​

​​ICP3 : Ms. Braganza

​

​​ICP4 : Mr. Chris Froome 🚴

​​ICP4 : Mrs. Angelina Jolie

​

​

Ranking ICPs

ICPs are ranked or chosen based on the following criteria:

1. Adoption Curve - How quickly they are to use a product?
2. Frequency of Use - How frequently is the product used by the user?
3. Appetite to Pay - Do they even have the money in pockets to pay for the service?
4. Total Addressable Market - TAM should be size able to be targeted
5. Distribution Potential - How quickly and sustainably can we reach to these set of group?

​

Summary of User Insights

1. Every user is a daily meat for the Social Media especially for two big ones Instagram and Whatsapp
2. Here are few reasons for which strava is still their go to app
3. 1. No one does it better
   2. Apt tracking
   3. Comfortable seamless UI
   4. Integration with most of physical trackers
   5. Analysis provided with very crux
   6. Split lap data sets are really helpful when coming back to the deep analysis.
   7. Community is a great way to keep the activity going
   8. Nearby events gets nicely flashed with location access.
   9. Leaderboard availability for frequently taken routes across the city/cities.
4. Now Few concerns
5. 1. Location map sharing with people
   2. Abrupt app glitches once in like 100 times , but ruins experience
   3. Not having Step counting mechanism which can be turned on through the day
   4. Not keeping up with competition new age apps like Relive, which allows user to mark coordinates of every picture clicked through that activity
   5. GPX file load is not an option as of now
6. Some numbers
7. 1. Average around 25 % of tier 1 individuals in age 20-40 have joined a fitness regime and paid for it sometime around in their lives
   2. And about 70 % of them have failed completing the full schedule and end up dropping
   3. About 60% of users said that they would love to explore strava premium and become a paid customer but just need proper education on the perks and lowered pricing
8. Instagram and YouTube are first choices for the users to research or follow their role models in the physical activity they wanna start. Thereby they follow their starting journey's footsteps
9. Strava is 65% of the times from the user calls introduced by a fellow user to the current new user , but they never have been able to be rewarded by this cold axed referral program.

​

​

FEW MARKET PLAYERS & KEY COMPETITION

1. Google Fit
2. 1. Strong Point -
   2. • Backed by Google, thereby pops up first in every search query
      • It allows tracking for most of the common modes of activities such as running, cycling, walking, bike rides, playing soccer and many more. And thus coming for free it gets the userbase very easily as compared to other apps in the same market.
      • Nowadays people want to capture their steps while they walk throughout the day. Google Fit allows them to do that tracking at their Mobile device for free and without the need of turning on the GPS. Thereby is easier on the battery draining of the mobile device. It also helps in the tracking and setting of user goals and reminds user of them throughout their day when they tend to miss it.
      • Users are also using this app to Track their heart rates with or without the plug in of a fitness tracker device every now and then thereby making it a key feature. Works in even the lower ended Android phones which are readily available in the indian market.
   3. Weak Points
   4. • GoogleFit is very inaccurate. Majority of the recent reviews on its own play store show that how the app is inconsistent in tracking, gives random datas of tracking. A user did a 20 min walk but the app shows only 66 steps recorded which is core mistake any fitness tracking enthusiast would get angry upon.
      • Has sync issues with few of the devices. Thereby people are not happy with it's usage and want a reliable tracker so as to not loose track of an event which is very difficult to repeat or bear the emotional loss of having the activity face a break due to abrupt stoppage in tracking
3. MAPMYRUN - By UnderArmour
4. 1. Strong Points
   2. • Very Similar to Strava in its use case and benefits. The accuracy is very on point and provides user with the insights on small segmented performance of his activity which helps him deep dive more on the solution towards that performance loss.
      • Provides close integration with fitness trackers , thereby making a seamless integration for the data sets to be accumulated and compared.
   3. Weak Points
   4. • Limited customization for pre selected workouts. It has presetted configuration and the workout needs to happen in that pre-requisites to be tracked efficiently.
      • Custom Route defining not a option till yet in the app. This is an important feature and an important use case for people where they want to follow someone on the route they created or vice a versa.
      • Community is not that active here where people post about activities and track them with their friends.

Market

In This Section we will obtain the Total Serviceable Market, along with Serviceable Addressable and Obtainable Market Sizing for Strava.

​

TAM - Total Addressable Market

All users looking to track their daily activities irrespective of location, type of activity etc.

1. India's total population is about 1.4 billion
2. Strava is looking to target users in India which are between ages 20-40 years as primary customers.
3. This population is about 35 -40% of India's population
4. Thereby TAM is approximately 450 Million Users.

​

​

SAM - Serviceable Addressable Market

A more cut through % of the TAM which actually is based on apetite to pay, location , etc.

1. Total population of Tier1 and Tier 2 cities is around 200 Million people
2. Again the population coming under 20 to 40 year old bracket is about 40 % of this population number.
3. Thus the target audience comes down to 80 Million People
4. Assuming around 40% people can afford to track their daily routines and may turn into a potential paid customer.
5. Thus this number comes to around ~ 30 Million Users.
6. Source

​

SOM - Serviceable Obtainable Market

A portion of the SAM calculated above for which the company can thrive to achieve.

1. The fitness tracking industry has enough measurable competitors along with new brands of trackers launching every now and then.
2. According to this survey , there are about ~ 650 odd apps which are working in the health space be it fitness, supplements , routines and others in India
3. Let's assume that out of these 650, approx 50 apps work in the space which Strava is working on i.e. the personal tracking via different workout modes.
4. Given the accuracy and the feedback of the ICPs Let's assume that strava can plan to capture just 5% of this market .
5. Assuming the Average ticket size is Rs 1000 (12$ approx) per user as some will buy the plan some will not buy any plans,
6. The total market in USD would come to 30 * 12 = 360 Million $

​

​

Few Competitive Apps

​

And at Last STRAVA comes with 50M+ downloads and 4.7★ Rating.....

​

Core Value for Strava

The core value for Strava is to allow users to track any form of physical activity, and provide the users with in depth analysis of their performance (viz track their progress from previous events to the current one)

Core Marketing Pitch

Here's what makes strava stand out from every other players and platforms available in this space.

1. Apt Tracking: Justifying to our core value principle, strava tracks to immense details from your elevation to your performance for a segment.
2. Keeping Safe: Beacon Service which comes for Free for mobile devices, ensures that safety is at immense importance for us. We can let your chosen one's know incase of any discomfort about your coordinates.
3. Personalized Heat map: Strava allows the user to get insights on their heatmap along with time stamps with the event of activity.
   
   
   
4. Route Customization: We are the pioneers in doing the same, and these routes can be shared across friends and community as well as there can be a leaderboard maintained if multiple people follow that route.
5. Set Goal & Train : Users can set Goals and the app provides insights whether they were achieved or fallen short by what amount for the duration set.

​

Acquisition Channel Framwork

Current Acquisition Channels

1. Pure WoM - Strava's biggest acquisition channel is Word of Mouth from fellow current users. These include users who are using it for competitive spirits and want to track their progress with the training agency or sharing with peers.
2. • Pain Point - There is no damn benefit for the referring person, in short no Referral Program
3. Community Events - People having FOMO via community events.
4. • Pain Point - The current user should have an Aha moment via a community event to have a peer onboarded.
5. Partnerships - Via different brands like Nike, holding fitness podcasts etc.
6. • Pain Point - Reach is limited to that particular brand partnership or the following of the podcast celebrity.

Now comes the real question!!
Is Strava ready for acquisition?

And here's why its obvious :) Here are the points for the Litmus test

1. Do you have enough user?
   Yes. Around 10 Million Users, Let's assume around 5 % are in tier1 cities making it still 500 Thousand users. Good enough to be acquired :)
2. AHA Moment ?
   A user completes a activity recording, feels satisfied that where he needs to improve and what he did was super amazing, Feels contented and special. Almost every user I spoke to does feel that their analysis super amazing.
3. Bragging?
   Shares on his social media like Whatsapp and even on the community amongst their friends and Brag them to join them or beat them. One person said that he leads a community where people cherish all the rides and activity he shares and inspires a lot of people to join him.
4. Is it doing its job?
   To an extent fair yes, there are some shortcomings which every product needs fit according to their market and user share:)

Experiments on for Early Scaling !!

1. Instagram Ads - This is the place where majorly my ICPs spend competitive time.
2. 1. We should target content based hooks based on searches and feeds, where users can be hooked and can land onto strava's official Instagram for India specifically
   2. This Insta handle should kept upto date with couple of posts daily and 6-8 story uploads.
3. Search Engine Ads - Users do search in sector of health and wellness at some point or other.
4. 1. Hit users with keywords based search results at Google and corresponding ad running platforms
5. Referral Program - Strava is all about community experience
6. 1. Give very clear referral bonuses to the referring person and try to give them a clear "WHY" to keep referring and getting their community onboarded.
7. Get users make content - More content, means more users to get into distribution flow and keep them hooked.
8. Partnership with physical tracker companies, this will lead to better and seamless customer experience towards the core value prop.

FRAMEWORK FOR CHANNEL SELECTION -

Now here's skimming milk and fat :D

​

Among the winners above , currently strava is only using Google Search ads for its core user acquisition. Let's try to breakdown them in the order with examples as to what each framework can look like.

​

Google/Youtube Ads

Currently Strava is not running active high, and engaging ad base to specifically target the set of ICPs

Just a reminder, we are solving for folks under bracket of 20 -40 years in Tier1 and Tier2 cities as a problem.

​

🎯Target-1 : People looking to Fitness topics

• This includes people searching tracking food calories, exercising right, measuring their workouts, activity tracking , how to start an activity routine
• Demographics - Between 21-35 years, urban towers, Having/Pursuing College or Masters , Working Professionals
• Search terms - Fitness activities, Measure my workout, calorie counter, best apps to track my acitivity
• Goals - Lead Generation, Act fast

Sample Ad -

Tagline - Every Step Matters

Content - Showing a user who is jogging in the morning with dog barking in the background, walking during his working hrs(somebody spills coffee off the cup), cycles back to home after work , and takes a swim before bed(splash sound of water). But during every activity he keeps strava app on his phone and every activity is tracked. Before going to the bed the app shows insights of what were his goals and were they met or not? And he gets to share them on social media making himself feels contented and users liking his fitness regimes.

Call to Action : Whatever be your type of activity, we can so very track it to best of the best :)

​

Instagram Ads

Instagram is a very key place where strava is being missed as an Indianized version. First and foremost Strava will build Presence in India via its official Indian Channel of Instagram. This helps in 2 things, customizing content for Indian audience as well as allowing them a chance to showcase for a community that is amongst themselves.

🎯Target Audience 1: People following Certain #

Example Tags - #running #fitness #workout #swimming #cycling #hiking #walks (more activites) and then some feeling based #feelingfit #dailyprogress #onestepcloser #burntcalories

Demographics - Aged between 20 to 30, Living in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities, College Students and HENRY community
Goal - Lead Generation

Sample Ad -

Still image - Map of completed activity with 5-6 parameters about the activity listed

Upon scroll - Bunch of people around 2 people doing the same activity in different splits of screen, one person uses strava and elevates his performance by altering his routine according to the data sets and progress he measures from the app's data. And 2nd is the one following with some bookish knowledge and ultimately wearing down as he loaded himself with more difficulty than he could take for his activity.

Call to action - Track and Act , don't mislead your body 🤠

🎯Target Audience 2 : People looking out for Community

Example Tags - #funtogether #workoutbuddies #cyclerace #walktogether

Demographics - Aged between 28 to 40 , High earners (following elite brands or tags) ,

Goal - Trial experience provision

Sample Ad -

A snippet of how community looks in strava

Upon playing - the ad demonstrates how one can explore all the interesting events around his location and geography based on his event category, and now what activity he found difficult to do alone , he can do with like minded folks and even make a bunch of new buddies where leaderboards, and small challenges occur

Call to Action - Nothing Stronger than a Like Minded Community

​

​

User Generated Content Looooops

Content Loops is a very efficient way to create an engaging atmosphere for a user starting from the point where he spends most of his/her time, to making a content which the user can share and then people can reshare or read out from that content.

A basic content Loop is a 3 step framework. Let's break it down for Strava

1. Where user Spends Time ?
   ICPs in this case spend most of their time on Social handles like Instagram, Whatsapp , Slack etc.
   
2. What user speaks about?
3. 1. Hook - The creation
   2. • This would be created by the user once there is a successful activity tracking.
      • For example - The user completes a cycling route of about 20kms , and after the ride he gets insights on the route he traversed, the split timings per Km along with the elevation gained in that stretch.
   3. Generator - Who is creating?
   4. • In Strava's case this will also be user.
      • Continuing on the previous above example, the user can now share a cool photo badge which says "Experience my ride" and he can now share this small url link on whatsapp/Instagram with the route as a still image and upon the link opening details are shared upon.
   5. Distributor - Who is distributing?
   6. • Again it will be the user
      • When the user shares it with his close peers or friends and family, they can see what were the ride challenges and then there can be a prompt for them to Join the User1 on Strava and experience this with him on his next ride, along with exploring multiple other activity options.
4. Building content
   Here in this framework, the content is built by the user, shared by the user amongst his peers and these all will form a loop where the new user will now again share his first ride experience and get another set of people onboarded on the app to experience the same.

Referral Design

First step in referral design is to ensure that there is a successful validation moment happening before seeking out for referral from the user.

​

Scenario -1

1. User gets onboarded by either WOM, Ads or another referral in place.
2. User signs up fills basic few information about his lifestyle
3. User is given a brief walkthrough of how to use the app, as well as permissions are asked for.
4. Now the person decides to go for his activity, let's take running for simplicity.
5. During the ride he gets in-ear/speaker walkthrough how his last 500m split was, whether he slowed down from previous or paced up. giving him real time feedback
6. Upon Ride completion, he stops tracking and app shows the insights, which includes split 500m minute detials, time, elevation gained and also if it is a common route how people in his group are doing on those routes.
7. User feels contended and satisfied
8. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating achieved (Validation Done ✅)

Scenario -2

1. User comes via again similar channels
2. Signs up and provides all information needed ,does basic setup
3. Completes 1-2 activities in same space but hasn't clicked any rating after the workout
4. Now upon his next acitivity completion, we can share a screen prompt as "Ready to compare it with your previous Runs?"
5. If clicked yes, definitely he is happy customer
6. Validation achieved ✅, since he is seeking and using it on daily basis.

Referral Flow :

Referral starts with 5 step flow

1. Who to ask ? - Achieved above in the validation points
   
2. How will users discover? - These are post validation
3. 1. A way can be when the activity is synced .
   2. 1. And when the user sees it with all the insights.
      2. There is a prompt to share his updates with his friends/colleagues. And a tagline "Refer and gain Access to Elevation" .
   3. Another is they can see at community space
   4. 1. This is again a validation post setup where is looking to reach out to folks
      2. By referring he can build his own community
         
4. Why and How do the users share?
5. 1. WHY part -
   2. 1. Strava would provide them the access for something which is either achieved by paid customers, or something which is elite invite only event happening in his or her city with a looked up influencer/celebrity.
      2. We can target the user's insight for access and Fame and a little of dopamine with this method
      3. 1. Access - by providing him a free detailed premium analysis upon his next ride.
         2. Fame - Giving him the access to an invite only event upon reaching say 20 successful referrals
         3. Dopamine - If he reaches a certain set of referrals and completed a certain challenge (leads a leaderboard) , they can get a chance to feature in the most active user list for the strava India's official page.
   3. HOW Part-
   4. 1. Strava is a mobile first platform since it requires most hardware present in a mobile device
      2. Since One can share in 2 possible ways
      3. 1. 1:1 method where he sends to couple of close bunch of people to join him on this fun journey which has transformed his experience. In this case we can prioritize whatsapp as a channel
         2. 1:many method - where he selects multiple users again from his contacts and sends them whatsapp messages, here again it will be less personalized then above but on similar grounds , trying to be as classic as possible.
            
6. Tracking of the referrals?
7. 1. In their user journey tab
   2. Clear demarkation of where is the user whom he has sent his personal invite link to join.
   3. 1. If not singed up - A push notification reminder message layout to ask him to sign up without forgetting
      2. If not done his first activity - Send him a follow request or share him with his latest's ride details
      3. If done his activity - Sending invite to his community preferences to engage more
   4. This enables clear trust and user can track his referral journey
      
8. How to keep him motivated?
9. 1. Keeping Exponential rewards
   2. 1. Upon 5 successful referrals , access to 1 day of premium strava experience.
      2. 10 successful referrals, access to elite community experience for a day
      3. 20 Successful referrals, a discount on the premium version and hook him to more revenue
      4. 50 Successful referrals, a limited access pass to an invite only event with a celebrity in his/her activity space. For example - Milind Soman hosting an event for running community , Or Jamling Tenzing Norgay for hiking community

Organic Traffic/ Lead Generation

Strava India can generate enormous amount of traffic given the right direction.

1. Hiring Freelancers to create content around health and importance of keeping tabs at it in our daily lifestyle
2. Each different content should give a moral as why strava is doing that at its best
3. Compilation videos will be created with user's happy insights on the activity responses and when they share with their peers.
4. Small gifts can be shared with users, like strava branded tshirts if they share their happy moments via video formats and the team can utilize them for the branding purpose and also give them a featuring credit on the official channels.
5. Also few other merch like coffee mugs for office desks , or thumbnails for office /home white board setup can help boost strava's presence among the peers unknowingly.

​

​

​

Last but not the Least........

Execution is all these is a key to perpetual success.

1. Overall the competition will be increasing tough with increase of approx 20-30 platforms every year in the similar space
2. The performance should never be compromised irrespective of a free/paid user , since that is the core value for the product's usage
3. As Strava continues forward there is much need for strava to integrate the pedometer counting without GPS, as many users want that feature due to their sitting desk jobs and Google FIt and Apple Healths doing for their OS's free of cost. By adding this feature strava can become a one stop solution with enormous accuracy feature
4. Maps will be always a key partner for Strava, If some route is wrongly defined on Google Maps their user experience can degrade, so a dedicated team needs to ensure the integration between the two is upto the mark and top notch always.
5. Hire a SEO. expert to dive into all the means of search optimization and also a content writer to ensure they need the crisp masala for every possible situation for posts and media.
6. Forward down the line, double down on what works in these and ensure crossing the revenue targets are met with satisfactory results.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​