Keep: Commercializing China’s Mobile Fitness Unicorn

Recent years had witnessed the social phenomenon of the rise of Internet brands. Looking at Internet fitness unicorn brand Keep’s brand commercialization process, Keep demonstrated the path of creation, product adjustment and upgrade, and brand extension logic of Internet app brands. Keep started as a single-tool app providing exercise content and data records, and gradually developed into a one-stop fitness and exercise platform by actively adjusting its brand goal, surpassing similar products to become the largest social platform for exercise in China. Keep then went through a bottleneck period where it had huge traffic but could not monetize it. Finally, Keep pursued commercialization, transforming into a comprehensive ecological fitness chain. Now, in April 2021, how would Keep respond to the competition and continue its strategic vision of providing a fitness ecosystem? Should its strategic focus continue to shift from online to offline? What should Keep’s next steps be?

This case is suitable for undergraduate- and graduate-level courses on brand management and marketing management. The case will allow students to gain a deeper understanding of brand building, brand positioning, brand renewal, and brand extension among emerging mobile app brands. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following:<ul><li>Discuss how an Internet brand should choose its creation path and how to make full use of its Internet genes and mobile apps to achieve rapid brand growth.</li><li>Analyze how Internet brands can shape a deep-rooted brand image and deal with the relationship between mobile products and virtual brands.</li><li>Research how Internet brands can break free from the shackles of pure tool products, choose a reasonable extension and expansion for the brand business, and choose a suitable business model to monetize brand traffic.</li><li>Use Keep as an example to explore how Internet brands commercialize their brands and create, develop, preserve, and expand brand equity.</li><li>Analyze Keep as a successful Internet app brand and assess the implications of its development for other new brands in the context of the Internet.</li></ul>

• Internet brands