On Running Communication Strategy

Concept On, formerly widely known as On Running, is a Swiss activewear brand founded in 2010. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that while most sports brands build their language around effort — sweat, competition, discipline, victory — On takes a different approach. Its communication is more restrained, concise, and almost weightless. The brand does not shout about pushing the athlete to become stronger. Instead, it suggests that movement can feel effortless — as if the body is «on.» This is why On is interesting as a communication case. Its identity is built not only around a product, but around a physical promise: the feeling of running on clouds. The CloudTec sole, the white space, the short verbal messages, the Swiss precision, the soft futuristic imagery — all these elements work together to translate technology into emotion. In this project, we analyze On as a brand that turns performance into a sensory and cultural experience. Its communication persuades on two levels at once. On the rational level, it explains technology, engineering and product function. On the emotional level, it creates an image of movement as something clean, modern, premium and socially meaningful.

The central question of this research is: How does On transform running technology into a desirable lifestyle identity? Using the information processing likelihood model, we examine how On combines rational arguments with emotional cues. Using social identity theory, we examine how the brand transforms individual movement into a shared cultural identity—a community of runners, city dwellers, athletes, creatives, and those who want to feel active without appearing overly athletic. On’s communication is successful because it doesn’t just sell shoes. It sells a state of being: lightness, control, precision, mobility, and understated confidence.

On positions itself as a premium performance brand for people who see movement as both achievement and lifestyle. The brand does not separate function from feeling. Its products are presented as engineered objects, but also as companions for flow, clarity and everyday motion. This dual positioning allows On to speak to runners, athletes, commuters, design-conscious consumers and wellness-oriented audiences without changing its core language.

It addresses several overlapping audiences:

1. Performance runners need evidence: cushioning, responsiveness, durability, race credibility and clear product differentiation.
2. Urban active consumers need identity: a shoe that looks refined enough for everyday wear while still carrying the aura of sport.
3. Premium wellness consumers need emotional alignment: movement, health, clarity, nature, balance and self-improvement.
4. Fashion-aware consumers need cultural relevance: collaborations, cinematic campaigns, celebrities and a product language that fits into contemporary style. On’s communication works because it does not choose only one of these groups. It creates a language flexible enough to be decoded differently by each of them.

On’s public field is distributed across several types of channels:

1. the official website, where technology and product logic are explained
2. social media, where movement becomes atmosphere and identity
3. press releases, where the brand speaks to journalists, investors and industry observers; retail spaces, where the brand becomes a physical environment
4. community platforms and events, where running becomes participation rather than simple consumption. Together, these channels create a layered communication system. Each one speaks in a slightly different register, but all of them return to the same promise: movement as a source of energy, connection and self-definition.

The On website is the brand’s central persuasive platform. Here, the communication is more explicit. Product pages explain technologies, use cases, materials and performance benefits. The design remains clean, but the content gives audiences enough information to justify attention, trust and purchase. The website is where On’s emotional promise becomes rationally supported. It tells the audience not only that movement feels good, but why the product can make it feel that way. On’s product pages work like small arguments. The shoe is shown first as an object of desire: clean, isolated, precise. Then the page gives reasons: cushioning, materials, terrain, weight, support, use case and model comparison. The viewer is invited to feel first and justify second. This matters because premium sportswear needs both emotion and proof. A beautiful shoe may attract attention, but a technical explanation helps transform attraction into trust. On’s technology pages explain the brand’s core product logic. CloudTec is not presented only as a sole structure. It is described as something that shapes how the shoe moves and how the runner feels. This is important: the brand does not isolate technology from the body. It connects engineering to sensation. This makes the technology page a key communication channel. It supports rational evaluation, while still preserving the poetic promise of running on clouds.

On’s social media channels work differently from the website. They do not primarily explain. They make the brand feel. The images and videos create a visual rhythm of bodies, shoes, surfaces, tracks, streets, mountains and moments of motion. A viewer can understand the brand before reading a single technical description. This is where On becomes less like a product catalogue and more like a mood: light, precise, active and quietly aspirational. Short-form video changes the rhythm of brand communication.

On’s press communication makes the brand legible for journalists, investors and the wider industry. Press releases about partnerships, product innovation, retail openings and financial growth are not neutral announcements. They help frame the brand as expanding, culturally relevant and innovation-led. This PR layer is important because On is not only building consumer desire. It is also building institutional credibility. The partnership with Zendaya is one of On’s clearest examples of cultural expansion. The campaign Dream Together positions movement as something social and connective rather than purely competitive. Zendaya does not only function as a celebrity endorsement. She helps On enter a wider cultural conversation about movement, well-being and shared experience. This is a shift from «running shoes for runners» to «movement as a cultural language.»

On’s retail spaces can be read as physical media. A store is not only a place where products are sold. It is a controlled environment where the brand can stage its values: precision, lightness, testing, materiality, technology and community. When the visual restraint of the website becomes architecture, the brand identity turns into an experience. For On, retail is especially useful because the promise of the product is sensory. The brand says that the best engineering is felt. A store allows that statement to become literal. Community channels matter because running is not only represented online. It is performed. Platforms such as Strava, running events, local crews and community challenges allow people to turn movement into social identity. Routes, distances, pace and progress become public signs. When a brand enters this space, it is no longer only advertising. It becomes part of how people show who they are. For On, this supports the idea of movement as belonging.

Communication theory allows us to analyze On not as a collection of beautiful visuals, but as a system of encoded meanings. Every element of the brand can be read as a message: the hollow sole, the word «cloud», the quiet typography, the campaign casting, the store environment, the social media rhythm. Theory helps explain why these elements work and what kind of audience response they produce. This project uses two theories: the Elaboration Likelihood Model and Social Identity Theory.

Theory 1: Elaboration Likelihood Model The Elaboration Likelihood Model suggests that persuasion can happen through two routes. The central route is based on careful evaluation. Audiences pay attention to arguments, evidence, facts and technical explanations. The peripheral route is based on quicker cues. Audiences respond to aesthetics, emotion, authority, social status, atmosphere and familiarity. On uses both routes at the same time. This is one of the reasons its communication works across such different audiences. Central route in On communication: For highly involved consumers, especially runners, On provides rational reasons to believe the brand. CloudTec, Helion foam, product specifications, model categories, race credibility and material explanations all support central-route persuasion. They help the audience think: this is not just a beautiful shoe; there is a technical system behind it. This route is important because premium sportswear needs justification. The higher the price and the more specific the performance claim, the more the audience needs evidence. Peripheral route in On communication: For less involved or more lifestyle-oriented audiences, On communicates through peripheral cues. Minimalist Swiss design signals precision. White space signals confidence. Cinematic photography signals emotion. Zendaya signals cultural relevance. The CloudTec silhouette signals difference. The word «cloud» signals comfort before the technology is even understood. These cues do not require deep analysis. They work quickly, almost intuitively. The viewer feels that On is light, premium and intelligent before they can fully explain why.

Theory 2: Social Identity Theory Social Identity Theory explains how people define themselves through groups and communities. In branding, this means that products can become identity markers. A person does not only buy what a product does. They also buy what it says about them: what group they belong to, what values they share, what lifestyle they want to be associated with. On uses this mechanism carefully. It does not only invite people to buy running shoes. It invites them to see themselves as part of a movement culture.

On’s communication constructs several possible identities:

1. the runner who understands performance;
2. the urban mover who values function and style;
3. the athlete who wants precision;
4. the wellness-oriented person who treats movement as self-care;
5. the design-conscious consumer who prefers quiet premium objects; 6)the community participant who wants to move with others.

This is not accidental. The brand’s communication allows different audiences to recognize themselves inside the same system.

On also balances two psychological needs: the need to belong and the need to feel distinct. The brand offers belonging through running, movement, community and shared campaigns. At the same time, it offers distinction through its unusual sole construction, premium minimalism and Swiss design codes. This balance is powerful. On allows people to feel part of a wider active culture without looking like everyone else inside it.

The analysis reads On through two connected lenses: Elaboration Likelihood Model and Social Identity Theory. The Elaboration Likelihood Model helps us see how the brand moves between proof and atmosphere: between technical explanations that reward attention and visual cues that work almost instantly. Social Identity Theory helps us understand how On turns movement into belonging — not only a product benefit, but a way for people to recognize themselves inside a wider culture of motion. This section does not treat theory as a label attached to each image. Instead, the theories are woven into the reading of the brand. Each screen looks at a specific element of On’s communication and asks how it persuades, what kind of meaning it produces, and how the audience is invited to read itself through the brand. On’s most powerful communication starts before the audience reads a caption or watches a campaign. It starts with the object itself. The CloudTec sole makes the shoe recognizable from its structure. The repeated hollow forms create a visual signature that can be read even when the logo is small or absent. This is important because On does not rely only on graphic identity. Its product engineering becomes part of its visual identity. From a semiotic perspective, the sole works as a sign of lightness, cushioning and difference. Through the Elaboration Likelihood Model, it also works on two levels: it gives quick visual distinctiveness to low-involvement viewers, while suggesting to more involved runners that there is a technical logic behind the form.

The name «On» is unusually short. It sounds less like a noun and more like a state: switched on, turned on, ready to move. This makes the brand name behave almost like a command or a condition. It does not describe running directly. It suggests activation. The logo supports this impression: compact, soft, kinetic and easy to place across shoes, screens, packaging, stores and campaign materials. Here persuasion works mostly through immediate association. The viewer does not need to analyze the logo in detail to understand its energy. The brand feels quick, clean and already in motion.

On’s official technology communication presents CloudTec as something that shapes how the shoe moves. The phrase «the best engineering isn’t seen — it’s felt» is central to understanding the brand’s communication. This sentence turns technology into sensation. It tells the audience that the value of the product is not only measurable, but bodily. The shoe is not presented as a machine outside the runner, but as an experience that becomes meaningful through movement. Through the central route of persuasion, CloudTec gives runners arguments: engineering, materials, movement logic and performance claims. Through the peripheral route, it gives everyone else a simpler promise: running can feel lighter.

The word «cloud» does more than name a technology. It translates a complex engineering system into something immediately understandable. A consumer may not know how cushioning, compression, foam or geometry work. But the metaphor of clouds is easy to feel before it is fully understood. It suggests air, softness, suspension, ease and a reduced sense of impact. This is one of On’s strongest communication moves. The metaphor opens the message through feeling, while the product page later supports that feeling with proof. In ELM terms, On lets the peripheral route invite attention, and then gives the central route enough evidence to sustain belief.

On’s minimalism should not be read only as a style preference. It functions as a persuasive device. The brand uses white space, restrained typography, clean product photography and controlled layouts to produce an impression of precision. The communication rarely feels overloaded. It gives the product room to appear engineered, intentional and self-evident. The viewer may not consciously think about grids, spacing or hierarchy, but these visual cues shape perception. The restraint suggests that the brand is confident enough not to over-explain itself. Quietness becomes a form of credibility.

On’s product naming system creates continuity across the brand. Cloudmonster. Cloudsurfer. Cloudrunner. Cloudswift. Cloudboom. The repeated «Cloud» prefix turns individual models into parts of one sensory world. Each name suggests a slightly different movement experience: softness, energy, speed, stability, rhythm or impact. This naming system keeps technology memorable without making it feel cold. The products sound technical enough to belong to performance sportswear, but imaginative enough to be remembered emotionally.

The On website is where the brand’s emotional promise becomes structured evidence. A campaign image can make movement desirable, but the website explains why the product should be trusted. Product pages organize use case, cushioning, materials, fit, terrain, weight and performance logic. This helps more involved consumers compare models and justify the premium price. This is central-route persuasion in practice. The website slows the viewer down and rewards attention. It gives the audience reasons to believe that the visual promise is supported by actual product thinking — while the clean layout keeps the premium mood intact.

On rarely communicates the shoe as a completely static object. The product is often shown through bodies, surfaces and movement. This matters because the brand’s promise is not fully visible when the shoe is at rest. CloudTec becomes meaningful when the foot lands, compresses, rebounds and moves forward. The body activates the technology. The photography therefore does more than make the product look attractive. It demonstrates the condition under which the product becomes a brand experience: motion. The viewer is invited not only to look at the shoe, but to imagine what it would feel like to move inside it.

Zendaya functions as more than a celebrity face. She translates On into a wider cultural language. For audiences who may not follow running technology, Zendaya provides a quick set of associations: style, confidence, youth culture, creativity and emotional intelligence. These associations help On move beyond a narrow performance category and enter the space of fashion, wellness and cultural identity. Through ELM, this is mainly peripheral-route persuasion. The viewer does not need to evaluate cushioning or materials first. The cultural cue makes the brand feel relevant before the product is examined in detail.

On’s retail spaces extend the brand beyond images and screens. A store can stage the same values as the website — clarity, precision, technology and calm — but in physical form. Product displays, testing zones, clean surfaces and spatial rhythm allow the customer to move through the brand rather than only look at it. This is especially important for a brand built around sensation. If the value of the product is supposed to be felt, then retail becomes a medium for that feeling. The store supports rational trust through product explanation, but also works emotionally through atmosphere and physical experience.

As On expands into lifestyle and culture, athlete partnerships remain essential. They protect the brand from becoming only an aesthetic object. Serious runners and sports audiences need to see that On still belongs to performance contexts: races, training, competition, endurance and measurable results. Athletes therefore support the brand’s rational credibility. They make the performance claim more believable and keep the central route active: the audience is reminded that the product is not only visually desirable, but functionally serious.

On’s communication is built around a tension that could easily collapse, but mostly holds together. The brand wants to feel premium without becoming cold. It wants to be technical without becoming inaccessible. It wants to be fashionable without losing performance credibility. It wants to speak about community without looking generic. This tension is exactly what makes the brand interesting. On is not trying to solve it completely. It uses the tension as its identity: movement that is engineered, emotional, social and controlled at the same time.

On’s communication is effective because it speaks to several motivations at once.

1. For rational audiences, it offers product evidence.
2. For emotional audiences, it offers atmosphere.
3. For identity-oriented audiences, it offers belonging.
4. For fashion-aware audiences, it offers cultural relevance.
5. For athletes, it offers performance credibility.

The brand’s strength is not that it speaks loudly. Its strength is that it lets different audiences find their own reason to believe.

Recommendation 1: explain the sensation On should create more visual explainers that connect technology to bodily experience. The brand already has strong technological language, but it could make the relationship between structure and feeling even clearer. Instead of only saying that CloudTec shapes movement, it could show how pressure, landing, rebound and rhythm are experienced by different types of runners. This would strengthen central-route persuasion without damaging the emotional tone.

Recommendation 2: show more real communities On should make community communication more visible and less polished. The brand could highlight local running crews, everyday runners, small rituals, recovery moments, beginner experiences and imperfect movement. This would deepen Social Identity Theory in practice: audiences would not only admire the brand community, but recognize themselves inside it. Real belonging is often built through small repeated moments, not only cinematic campaigns.

Recommendation 3: balance celebrity with credibility Zendaya gives On cultural power, but the brand should continue balancing celebrity campaigns with athlete stories and product proof. This balance protects the brand from becoming only a fashion object. On’s strongest position is between performance and culture. It should not abandon either side of that tension.

Conclusion On’s strongest communication asset is its ability to make performance feel emotional. The brand does not shout about speed. It creates a quieter promise: movement can be light, intelligent, designed and shared. Through CloudTec, minimalist identity, cinematic campaigns and community-based storytelling, On transforms a running shoe into a sign of how a person wants to move through the world. On does not simply sell shoes for running. It sells the feeling of being on.