Ben Francis started Gymshark in 2012 while in college because he couldn’t find fitness apparel that he liked.  The brand has since exploded into a $1.3 Billion company.  This growth was only possible because Ben Francis was able to find an underserved target market and effectively meet their needs.  Gymshark target 18-25 year old’s who are into fitness and does not go outside of this group.  This allows them to really focus on this one narrow audience of people and meet their needs better than nearly every other company in the industry and build strong brand loyalty.  The brand cares a lot about their target audience and this was shown when the website crashed one year during Black Friday, causing many customers to miss out on discounts.  In response, Ben Francis personally hand wrote 2,500 apology letters to customers that offered them the discounts they missed out on.  Also, during the pandemic lockdown, Gymshark hired personal trainers who were not otherwise able to work to produce videos for the Gymshark fitness app.  Gymshark has also used social media influencers for marketing.  This strategy may not work for many companies, but it did for Gymshark because they were able to accurately reach their target audience.  Customers in Gymshark’s target audience take notice of things like this and want to support the business because it meets their needs and represents their values.  The fast growth of Gymshark would not have been possible without Ben Francis’ innovation and ability to empathize with and connect with his target audience to create strong brand loyalty.