I am definitely fascinated by the fitness industry. The one industry which makes you feel extremely miserable about yourself for eating that extra slice of pizza or drinking beer – basically it makes you feel bad for everything that is fun. However if you are successful in building a brand in this industry then you have certainly hit jackpot. The Fitness industry sells on emotion.
I recently went for a 28 day boot camp at one of the gyms here in Albany where at the end of the boot camp I loved their workout routine (was a mix of cross fit and core conditioning); However, I did not choose to continue since it was too costly on a monthly basis ($150 /month – no thank you) compared to the boot camp itself ($50 for 28 days). Now I am bombarded with emails about why my life sucks and how unfit I am and why I should consider joining that gym on a monthly basis. I
Fitness centers follow a push strategy and all their training programs promise to take you to the next level. If you notice most gyms don’t target the extremely fit, super muscular people- their programs are always catered to the average ones (aka me). As a matter of fact the best customer a gym can have is the one who pays typically in January after a new (yet again) resolution to get a six pack by summer but does not turn out after a week.
Take planet fitness for example – with all their no gymtimidation and lunk alarm ads, their target market is certainly not the person with a six pack of abs but the one with a six pack of beers. $10 per month- and you sign a yearly contract. The purpose of the contract is supposed to make you feel compelled to go since you have signed the contract for a year. In many cases it turns out to be – It’s just $10-I don’t lose anything in $10. Planet fitness is the Walmart of fitness centers- they make their profits by volume. A quick google search tells you that average planet fitness has 6000 members. Can you imagine what would happen if even half that number start going regularly.
I also found it strange that they would have pizza nights and bagel breakfast once a month. This defeats the purpose of a gym however this is brilliant. This is definitely saying I don’t care if you work out or not but if you sign up you get free pizza once a month.
It’s also not surprising that in 2011, Entrepreneur Magazine ranked Planet Fitness #81 in their Franchise 500 list, #34 among the Fastest Growing Franchises, and #68 among America’s Top Global Franchises. –
Go grab your “free” pizza
References:
WMBA Marketing Blog 
As a fitness professional, I can not stand Planet Fitness, Between feeding their customers pizza and bagels or discouraging heavy lifting or complex lifts with their lunk alarm and lack of free weights; not to mention the unlimited tanning. NOTHING about this company promotes health or fitness.
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Brilliant, As someone that needs the gym more than you know. I have debated joining Planet Fitness as there is one by my house and one by school. It’s way cheaper than my recently cancelled NYSC @ $90/month. At the end of the day, why do we need any of them? Hit the floor and do some push ups, hit the local park for pull ups. Ride your bike to work.
I digress, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, sell food and not sure about the gym part. But this industry is huge. And it’s a shame that the prey on our emotions to meet their Quarterly numbers.
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Agreed. The perfect example of a company using the sensitivity and emotions of consumers regarding fitness to their advantage. The 6,000 average member amount is astonishing.
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Planet Fitness is the perfect example of a company who wants your membership and counts on you using the product. Its cheap enough where the guilt doesn’t set in if you don’t go. Sam nailed it, nothing about that company has anything to do with fitness but they sure do make a lot of money.
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I think Pete could make a fortune selling his “fat bits” at Planet Fitness. He could go hang out on the nights they have the pizza and the mornings they offer bagels. Just a thought….I agree with Sam, nothing about the company makes me think health and fitness. You pay for what you get and $10.00 a month says it all. I find the commercials amusing, but they never made me feel motivated to want to join their gym. I’m not their target market. I feel as though their gyms are borderline creepy.
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The most successful gyms are the ones with a lot of inactive members. It allows them to leverage to leverage their asset base. They just keep collecting the paycheck without having to invest in more equipment. If you look at their strategy from a profit standpoint their strategy makes sense. Cater to the people that are least likely to go consistently (those that would be judged). However, as Sam and everyone already said their true strategy has nothing to do with wanting to make people more healthy and fit.
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