This Brand Wants You To Join the Club
The most exclusive tennis club in the world has never hosted a single match. That's exactly the point.
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It feels like everyone is into tennis these days. Whether playing, watching or wearing, tennis has permeated culture and arrived on the scene in a meaningful way. With greater visibility of the sport, it’s also become more accessible than ever.
I teamed up with Racquet Racket earlier this week to dive into it.
We Need to Talk About Tennis
It's stylish, social and an excellent workout. If that's not enough, let's dig into why everyone's suddenly obsessed with this formerly exclusive sport.
The sport’s connection to luxury is still prevalent (and rising) as Daniel Yaw-Milller recently wrote about in his SportsVerse newsletter:
The same thing is happening to tennis that happened in Formula 1 and football (soccer) in recent years. All of these sports have long retained ties to high-end luxury watch and apparel brands due to the upper-class/exclusive nature of their fanbases and stakeholders. The difference is, these sports are all now reaching major audiences who appreciate the aesthetics and culture of the sports as much as they do what happens on the court, track or field. Brands now sense the opportunity to divert those new eyeballs to their shiny products. Tennis’ time is next up.
Instead of sole luxury brand sponsorships from the likes of Rolex, the players themselves have become the luxury ideal with their own partnerships. From Coco Gauff’s and Miu Miu to Jannik Sinner and Gucci, Jack Draper and Burberry and Lorenzo Musetti and Bottega Veneta. The allure of global luxury is alive and well on and off the court.
Yet tennis clothing is now basically available at every major clothing retailer and not just specialty tennis outfitters. (Though Wilson and Fila and Lacoste have majorly upped their game). Now Old Navy, Free People, Abercrombie and Lululemon have their own tennis lines. Selling the premium look that anyone can get. From anywhere. At all price points.
So here’s the big question: if tennis is more mainstream than ever, why are brands selling it like it's still exclusive?
And better yet, why are consumers buying in?
Simple. Brands have figured out how to monetize the aspiration of exclusivity while benefiting from mass accessibility. It’s a perfect combination. The more consumers see something “trending” the more they want in.
Tennis is highlighted with style, athleticism, and carries the cache of ‘iykyk’ energy. It’s not exactly a niche to be a tennis fan but it’s becoming very chic and cool to be one. - Racquet Racket
Plus, tennis has cultural credibility that newer sports (looking at you, pickleball) lack, which gives brands permission to sell premium.
We could just stop there. Or we can flip this entire playbook on its head and talk about a brand that has no actual tennis products. No skirts. No racquets. No balls.
Welcome to the Rochambeau Club
The Rochambeau Sports and Racquet Club is a prestigious but welcoming members-only institution located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of the French Riviera.
Except it’s not a real physical place. And what they sell won’t actually help you play tennis. (Or will it?)
Sure, they’ve got the “timeless tennis club” & vintage country club aesthetic going on.
Their branding looks expensive.
Their website poses as a legit tennis club with a thoroughly credible backstory.
They’ve named their facilities.
There’s a map of the grounds.
They “offer” services like “racquet re-stringing.”
They have a Club Shop.
A Members Only Area.
A Club Newsletter.
A Breakfast Menu.
So if you didn’t know any better, you’d bet that this is an honest-to-goodness exclusive tennis club located in the South of France.
Now layer in their Instagram presence. The classic retro tennis aesthetics, ‘iykyk’ asides, cheeky humor, meticulous attention to every detail and hyper-specific storytelling creates a vivid sensory experience.
They have a figurehead Chairman/ Club President Emeritus - Tony Creamer-Price - lording over all activities. The other cast of characters flit in and out of rich, highly produced, aesthetic scenes crafted for social consumption.
Leveraging a pure vibes-only economy, The Rochambeau Club is absolutely selling a Country Club lifestyle. Tennis culture without any actual tennis.
They want you to feel like a member of an exclusive (yet completely fake) club.
Any guesses on products that they actually sell?
They inverted the typical brand-building approach. Instead of creating a product and then building a world around it, they built an entire fictional world and then introduced a product.
Their real-world manifestation is their Racquet Rosé.
Started in 2021, they could’ve just teased out a “new Rosé from the South of France” but instead they built a visceral, exclusive, immersive world first. Wayyyy before they even had a product to sell.
They cultivated an audience of individuals who weren’t just interested in buying products. Nope, members of this exclusive club are buying into the stories, identities and intrigue of something they want to belong to.
Even though tennis is actually kinda mainstream now, members of this club are bought in anyway. Because they feel like they’re part of something “singular.” In fact, that’s exactly why it works.
The Rochambeau Club fiction has become more compelling than reality.
They've mastered the art of insider exclusivity. If you’re in on the joke, you’ll thoroughly enjoy yourself and feel special for “getting it.”
They’ve created something so believable that people wish it were real.
Tell me you don’t want to be a member of this club. To live the lifestyle they’re selling.
Oh right, and you’ll probably want to visit their Club Shop to buy their Rosé and Côte Citron beverages. As well as their timeless, classic merch. You’ll want to attend their exclusive events in London. Catch up on club gossip. Score an invite to their monthly dinner series. You want in.
I want to get my hands on Racquet Rosé like yesterday. “Ideal for mid-set refreshment or post-match commiseration, Racquet pairs perfectly with tailored shorts and dubious let calls.”
Maybe it will help with my tennis game after all…
But alas, it’s only “available for the first time outside of club grounds (Orders currently shipping to the UK and EU only).”
Brand Fodder Takeaway: Sell the dream while everyone lives the reality.
What beverage do you think epitomizes Country Club tennis vibes? 🎾🍸
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