Beachbody

The Beachbody Company

The Beachbody Company

American multi-level marketing company

The Beachbody Company is a publicly traded American fitness and health company based in El Segundo, California. It operates the brands Beachbody On Demand, Team Beachbody, MYXfitness and Openfit. The company also sells dietary supplements such as Shakeology and Beachbar[1] through direct response infomercials[2] and multi-level marketing via independent Team Beachbody "coaches" who serve as sales consultants.[3] In 2023, the company changed its name to BODi.[4]

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History

Beachbody was founded in 1998 by Carl Daikeler and Jon Congdon in Santa Monica, California.[5] Daikeler was previously in informercials for Lifeline Gym and :08 Min Abs in the 1990s. The founders received $500,000 in angel investing, developed a series of workout videos and bought the website Beachbody.com.[2][6]

In 2005, P90X, or Power 90 Extreme, was created by Tony Horton as a commercial home exercise regimen and developed as a successor to the program called "Power 90". It consists of a training program that uses cross-training and periodization, combined with a nutrition and dietary supplement plan.[7] It was heavily marketed through infomercials and celebrity endorsements.[8][verification needed]

In 2007, customers began selling workout DVDs.[2] The company announced that it was developing an OTT streaming platform in 2015 that would function similar to Netflix containing all of its exercise workouts previously available on DVD. The platform gained popularity early in the COVID-19 pandemic with more than half a million new subscribers at that time.[9][10]

Between June and November 2017, advertising watchdog organization Truth in Advertising found that Beachbody distributors were making false and unsubstantiated income claims to promote the company's business opportunity.[11]

In 2017, Beachbody agreed to pay $3.6 million to settle a lawsuit from the city of Santa Monica over automatic credit card renewals. It was alleged that Beachbody was charging its customers’ credit cards on an automatic, recurring basis without the required written consent of those customers.[12]

In 2018, Congdon co-founded a personalized nutrition programming and tracking app with "FaceTime for fitness" live group classes called Openfit.[13] The company acquired LeBron James and Arnold Schwarzenegger's Ladder, which develops nutritional products to help athletes with severe cramping after James had issues in the 2014 NBA Finals. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, James and Schwarzenegger remained minority stakeholders.[14]

A three-way merger between Forest Road Acquisition Corp, Myx Fitness Holdings and Beachbody was entered into in February 2021, which valued the new business combination at $2.9 billion. It was known as The Beachbody Company.[15]

In March 2023, the company changed its name to BODi.[4][16] The company was subject to a class-action lawsuit in California regarding its classification of independent contractors. The case seeks to require Beachbody to pay its independent distributors ("coaches") up to four years’ worth of unpaid wages and business expenses if they are deemed employees.[17] Later that year, BODi announced a partnership with high-performance coach, Brendon Burchard and a change to its compensation plan for 2024.[18]

Divisions

Beachbody On Demand

Quick Facts Type, Launch date ...

The company introduced a video on demand streaming subscription service known as Beachbody On Demand in 2015 with a library of at-home workouts from programs such as Insanity and P90X.[19] According to the CEO, the company's board was hesitant to offer all of its workout DVDs for a single subscription rate.[2]

Its programs include Morning Meltdown 100, 80 Day Obsession, LIIFT4, 21 Day Fix and Insanity.[20][5]

Due to lockdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, Beachbody On Demand experienced growth of more than 300 percent in new subscribers, passing 2 million overall by April 2020.[21] The company announced that it would stream free classes for children on Vimeo during the pandemic.[22]

Team Beachbody

Team Beachbody encourages members of the general public to enroll as "coaches". These customers-turned-salespeople register online as a "coach" and sell fitness packages using Beachbody products and programs including workout DVDs, food supplements and meal plans and in turn earning up to 25% commission[23] for each sale.[24] Carl Daikeler, a co-founder described coaches as serving as "walking billboards and salespeople who want to help their family and friends..."[3] and that the "average lifespan" of a coach is three months. In 2013, CNN reported that within two years of Team Beachbody's launch, sales of the parent company's products rose more than 60%.[25]

In 2015, news outlets claimed the division was a "scheme" as anyone could register as a coach.[24]

It was later reported that Team Beachbody coaches earned an average of $2,600 per year and more than half of its coaches earned nothing.[23][26]

Shakeology is a dietary supplement that is sold by Team Beachbody. It was formulated by Darin Olien, who also co-created the company's plant-based Ultimate Reset 21-day detox programme.[27]

MYXfitness

The Beachbody Company acquired MYXfitness, an exercise bike manufacturer, upon going public in June 2021. MYX remained in Greenwich, Connecticut and released an updated indoor cycle that July. It integrated Beachbody On Demand and Openfit within an existing library of workout content.[28][29]

References

  1. [1]
    Day, Hannah; Jones, as told to Alexis (November 5, 2019). "At 237 Lbs., I Was Embarrassed To Go To The Gym. So I Did An At-Home BeachBody Program—And Lost 117 Lbs". Women's Health. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  2. [2]
    Debter, Lauren (April 10, 2018). "Inside Beachbody's Billion-Dollar Fat Burning Empire". Forbes.
  3. [3]
    Rovell, Darren (January 31, 2011). "Beachbody Grows Exponentially Thanks To Network Marketing". CNBC. Archived from the original on October 13, 2012. Retrieved April 1, 2012.
  4. [4]
    Anne Stych (March 10, 2023). "The Beachbody Co. rebrands with a name that promotes 'health esteem'".
  5. [5]
    Diana Olick, CNBC. "Get really fit by hitting the basement." May 27, 2016. Retrieved Sep 5, 2018.
  6. [6]
    Noto, Anthony (May 5, 2017). "BeachBody CEO discusses journey from '8-Minute Abs' to creating the 'Netflix for fitness'". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
  7. [7]
    "What is the P90X workout? Rep. Paul Ryan credits Tony Horton fitness routine for keeping in shape". NY Daily News. August 15, 2012. Retrieved August 15, 2014.
  8. [8]
    Townsend, Matt (September 7, 2012). "Ripple Effect: Beachbody LLC flexing its muscles following success of P90X program". Chicago Tribune.
  9. [9]
    "Fitness streaming businesses surge amid the pandemic". The News with Shepard Smith. CNBC. February 5, 2021.
  10. [10]
    Rob Smith (June 21, 2017). "Beachbody CEO: file sharing and piracy 'costs us millions'". Yahoo! Finance.
  11. [11]
    TINA (December 18, 2017). "TEAM BEACHBODY INCOME CLAIMS DATABASE". Truth in Advertising. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  12. [12]
    Howard Fine (August 29, 2017). "Beachbody Agrees to Pay $3.6 Million to Settle Case Over Automatic Credit Card Renewals". Los Angeles Business Journal. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  13. [13]
    Ellingson, Annlee (November 7, 2019). "Openfit launches 'FaceTime for fitness' with live workout coaching". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
  14. [14]
    Young, Jabari (December 2, 2020). "LeBron James, Arnold Schwarzenegger's Sports Nutrition Company Sells to Fitness Platform Openfit". NBC Los Angeles. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
  15. [15]
    Goldsmith, Jill. "Forest Road SPAC With Former Disney Execs Kevin Mayer, Tom Staggs Buying Digital Fitness Group Beachbody". deadline.com. Deadline. Retrieved October 8, 2021.
  16. [16]
    "Beachbody Changes Name to BODi on its Mission to Build the Health Esteem Category". Businesswire. March 9, 2023.
  17. [17]
    Ding, Jaimie (May 22, 2023). "Multibillion-dollar Santa Monica fitness company faces allegations of exploiting exercise coaches". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times.
  18. [18]
    "Introducing BODi's Growth Game Plan: BODi's Network Business Transformation" (Press release). benzinga.com. October 5, 2023.
  19. [19]
    Smith, Rob. "Beachbody CEO: file sharing and piracy 'costs us millions'". finance.yahoo.com. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  20. [20]
    Malik, Naureen S (March 24, 2020). "Almost Overnight, the $100 Billion Fitness Industry Goes Virtual". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  21. [21]
    Haithman, Diane (May 18, 2020). "Beachbody Sees Gains". labusinessjournal.com. Los Angeles Business Journal. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
  22. [22]
    "Coronavirus quarantines causing home fitness programs to skyrocket". Fox Business. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
  23. [23]
    Orso, Anna (May 21, 2018). "Behind those before-and-after Instagram photos: Money, marketing and meal replacements". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
  24. [24]
    Michelle Ruiz (July 22, 2015). "This Cultish Workout Is All Over Your Social Media Feeds — But Is It Legit?". cosmopolitan.com.
  25. [25]
    Hicken, Melanie (January 9, 2013). "The money behind Herbalife, Mary Kay and others". CNNMoney.
  26. [26]
    "Statement of Independent Coach Earnings December 29, 2016 – December 27, 2017 1" (PDF). Beachbody.com. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
  27. [27]
    Rainbow, Sophie (July 14, 2020). "Who is Darin Olien? Meet the author and Zac Efron's pal". www.standard.co.uk. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
  28. [28]
    I-Chun Chen (June 29, 2021). "Beachbody acquires Myx Fitness, goes public in SPAC merger". New York Business Journal.
  29. [29]
    Tyler Lacoma (July 20, 2021). "MYXfitness joins Beachbody Company, releases updated indoor cycle MYX II". Digital Trends.
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