Communication Analysis of Mental Athletic

Four Key Positioning Themes of the Brand

Based on analysis of the manifesto and Instagram content, four recurring themes can be identified that shape the brand’s positioning.

First — anti-performance: running is not about winning. This theme is expressed directly in the brand’s manifesto: «You can not win. We’re the new time in running». For Mental Athletic, rejecting competitive logic becomes a key differentiator from brands built on a cult of winners.

Second — aesthetic rebellion: a new visual language for sportswear and culture. The brand declares: «We want to set down a new frontier in aesthetics». This manifests in the dark, grainy, cinematic aesthetic of the Instagram account, which contrasts with the bright, high-contrast visual code of traditional sports brands.

Third — mental health: combating «contemporary neurosis» through movement. The brand’s descriptions regularly reference calm, creativity, and self-awareness in opposition to fast paces and long distances. Here, running functions not as training but as a practice of self-care.

Fourth — community: rebuilding social connections. The manifesto states: «For us, dynamism is elevation, self-awareness, rebuilding the connective tissue between social groups». Mental Athletic builds around itself not a customer base but a community of people who share a common philosophy.

The Manifesto as the Foundation of Brand Identity

Key quote from the manifesto: «Everything is precious, even pain, even mistakes». This phrase illustrates the brand’s fundamental principle: the value of experience is not measured by outcome. The entire manifesto contains no mention of products—only values, aesthetics, and identity. The manifesto does not describe clothing; it invites the reader to adopt the brand’s philosophy before any purchase. Thus, the brand’s identity is built not on the functional characteristics of the product but on shared meanings.

Target Audience of the Brand

From analysis of the brand’s content and visual aesthetic, a portrait of the target audience emerges. These are people aged 20–35, urban residents belonging to the creative class. Psychographically, they value authenticity, care about mental health, and oppose achievement culture. Behaviorally, they read indie magazines and follow niche brands on Instagram. For them, running is meditation or philosophy, not competition. This audience rejects traditional sports advertising with its emphasis on winning and overcoming, which makes Mental Athletic’s positioning strategically precise.

Instagram

The brand’s Instagram account is @mental.athletic. It is designed as a visual magazine. The aesthetic is contrast-rich, grainy, cinematic. The focus is on mood, environment, and solitude. The feed contains almost no direct product posts, no demonstration of clothing technical characteristics, no race results. Instead — atmospheric photos of runners in urban environments, close-ups of textures, poetic captions. Here, Instagram serves not as a storefront but as a tool for daily maintenance of the brand’s narrative coherence.

Magazines

Magazines represent a mass communication channel: one source transmits a message to many receivers with minimal feedback. For Mental Athletic, publications in outlets such as Hypebeast, Kinfolk, and Like the Wind serve three functions. First, they ensure narrative coherence: the brand’s story is retold using the same words and images as on Instagram. Second, credibility transfer occurs: the authority of the magazine is transferred to the brand. Third, reach expands beyond the existing Instagram subscriber base.

Marathons

A marathon as a communication event can function simultaneously as several types of communication channels. The brand uses this multi-layeredness fully.

First, mass communication: the brand’s banners are placed at the start and finish, reaching thousands of participants and spectators. Second, group communication: the shared experience of covering the distance creates symbolic convergence — participants begin to feel themselves part of a single «we» around the brand. Third, interpersonal communication: brand ambassadors speak directly with participants, creating personal connections. Fourth, digital amplification: content filmed at the marathon is then published on Instagram, closing the loop. The quote from the manifesto — «We want to go into cities and change them without asking permission» — directly references this strategy of the brand’s physical presence in urban space.

PR Strategies of the Brand

The brand uses several PR strategies. Co-branding (with Salomon, SLS & Friends) represents media partnerships that extend reach through the partner’s audience. Sponsoring and organizing runs represent experiential PR activity: the brand becomes not a sponsor of an event but its co-creator. The manifesto on the website represents owned media: the brand controls the narrative completely. Publications in magazines represent work with traditional mass communication for legitimation.

One Brand Narrative, Three Amplifiers

Each channel amplifies the same brand narrative, but in different ways. Instagram does this daily and visually. Magazines do this authoritatively and at scale. Marathons do this through bodily experience. No channel introduces contradictory elements. This is multi-channel integration as a systemic property of the brand’s communication.

Walter Fisher’s Narrative Paradigm

Walter Fisher’s narrative paradigm has been selected for analyzing Mental Athletic. Within this theory, humans are understood as homo narrans — storytelling animals: people perceive and make sense of life as a series of ongoing narratives. Applied to brands, this means that successful communication is built not on listing product characteristics but on creating a compelling story that the audience can enter.

This theory was selected for Mental Athletic because the brand’s communication lacks product specifications, technical arguments about fabric or soles, and direct calls to purchase. Instead, the brand uses poetry, manifesto, aesthetics, and values. Mental Athletic does not prove that its clothing is better. It tells a story in which this clothing becomes a natural attribute of a particular lifestyle and way of thinking.

Narrative Coherence and Narrative Fidelity

Fisher identifies two criteria for evaluating stories. The first is narrative coherence: do characters and events make sense within the story’s world? Applied to a brand, this means: do different elements of communication contradict each other? The second is narrative fidelity: does the story ring true as humane and truthful? For a brand, this means: does the story resonate with the audience’s values and life experience?

These two criteria form the basis for analyzing Mental Athletic. The brand will be assessed as strong from the perspective of the narrative paradigm if its communication is simultaneously coherent (all elements correspond to each other) and faithful (the audience recognizes its values in the story).

Narrative Paradigm versus Rational Paradigm

To understand the choice of theory, it is useful to compare the narrative paradigm with the alternative — the rational paradigm. In the rational paradigm, people are conceived as rational actors, persuasion is built on strong arguments, priority is given to accuracy, and only experts have the right to argue. In the narrative paradigm, by contrast, people are viewed as storytellers, persuasion occurs through values and life experience, and the ability to tell stories does not require special expertise.

Mental Athletic is closer to the narrative paradigm. The brand does not provide expert evidence of its clothing’s superiority. Instead, it creates a story that the audience finds truthful and humane. The quote from the manifesto «Everything is precious, even pain, even mistakes» functions not as an argument but as an invitation to share values.

Justification of the Theory’s Applicability to this Brand

The brand’s communication lacks product specifications on Instagram, no technical arguments about fabric or soles, no direct calls to purchase based on discounts. Instead, the brand uses poetry, manifesto, aesthetics, and transmits values.

Application of the Narrative Paradigm to Mental Athletic

The brand’s core narrative can be formulated as follows: running as a heroic, solitary journey toward creative truth. The brand sells not clothing but transformation. Clothing becomes a tool within this story.

Let us test this narrative against Fisher’s two criteria.

Narrative coherence. All elements of Mental Athletic’s communication fit into a single system of imagery. The grainy, dark, cinematic aesthetic of Instagram corresponds to the poetic language of the manifesto. Atmospheric photos of runners in urban spaces correspond to the quote «We want to go into cities and change them without asking permission». The marathons that the brand organizes or sponsors have the same aesthetic and the same tone of communication. Coherence is assessed as strong.

Narrative fidelity. Mental Athletic’s story rings true for its target audience. It resonates with values that this audience already shares: authenticity, rejection of achievement culture, attention to mental health. When the brand says «You can not win» , this phrase does not provoke rejection but receives recognition. Fidelity is assessed as strong.

Functions of Channels in Supporting the Narrative

Analysis shows that each channel performs a specific function within the brand’s narrative strategy.

Instagram ensures daily maintenance of coherence through the brand’s visual integrity. Publications in magazines legitimize the brand’s narrative through credibility transfer. Marathons transform the brand’s narrative from something read into something experienced bodily.

Empirical Observation 1: Instagram Aesthetic

Posts by the brand on Instagram systematically reject performance (fast paces and long distances) in favor of calm and creativity. This is a direct manifestation of narrative fidelity: the transmitted story corresponds to the values that the audience shares.

Empirical Observation 2: The Manifesto

The manifesto on the brand’s website establishes the core narrative. It contains no information about products — only values, aesthetic orientations, and identity. This is an example of pure narrative persuasion as the foundation of the brand.

Operational recommendations (0–3 months)

Recommendation 1. Change the balance between negation and affirmation in communication

In current communication, the brand frequently uses formulations built on negation: «not about winning,» «not about speed,» «not about distance.» Negation is effective at the initial stage of acquaintance with the brand but quickly exhausts its potential. The audience has already understood what the brand opposes. Now it needs to understand what the brand stands for.

Action: revise the tone of Instagram posts. Instead of formulations like «we are not about…», use formulations like «we are about…». Instead of «running is not a competition,» write «running is a dialogue with the city.» Target indicator: increase the share of affirmative posts to 80% of total communication volume.

Expected result: reduction of the feeling that the brand exists only in opposition to something; increased clarity of identity.

Recommendation 2. Introduce a system of visual markers for content structuring

In the current Instagram feed, all posts are visually equal, which makes it difficult to perceive key messages. Visual hierarchy is needed.

Action: introduce three types of visual markers. First — an accent using the brand’s signature color (red) only in key posts: collaboration announcements, new product releases, publication of manifesto quotes. Second — a textual layer: one post per week with a large quote overlaid on an image. Third — posts without people, only textures (asphalt, concrete, fabric), creating pauses in the visual flow.

Expected result: increased feed readability; more effective delivery of key messages; preservation of aesthetic integrity while adding structural hierarchy.

Tactical recommendations (3–9 months)

Recommendation 3. Create a multi-level system of communication with the audience

In current practice, all Instagram subscribers receive the same content. However, the audience is heterogeneous and includes different types: casual subscribers (liked a post), sympathizers (share values but do not purchase), core (purchase, participate in marathons, create content).