Ep 21: GNC’s Chief Brand Officer Ryan Ostrom on emerging from Chapter 11 and How Brick-and-Mortar Stores Are Central to the Brand Strategy

The question of whether you should focus on digital or traditional marketing is a non-starter. Instead, you need to be wherever your consumers are — that’s the best channel to reach them. This key insight comes from today’s conversation with Ryan Ostrom, GNC’s Chief Brand Officer. We start our episode with Ryan by clearing the elephant in the room, as we ask him about what GNC did to overcome their Chapter 11 filing. Ryan opens up his playbook and talks about how he redirected customers from their recently-closed locations to new storefronts. We explore more of GNC’s marketing approach as Ryan shares their brand and customer-first marketing philosophy and how distribution channels influence their branding strategy. While the pandemic has damaged many companies, we then chat about how COVID has increased GNC’s relevance. After discussing the vital roles that loyalty programs, franchisees, and on-the-ground associates play in GNC’s branding, Ryan unpacks how he adapted their content to target the emerging ‘exercise at home’ market.