Express Gyms Plus Believe it or not the fledgling 30-minute circuit training industry is maturing. It is subject to opposing product life cycle forces; there is specific action that must be taken now to assure its survival. By: Al Valente

Table of Contents: Natural Market Forces A Genesis of Bigness in Health Clubs All New Products Begin With Supply Side Marketing The Learning Curve, and Competition, Fosters Innovation Progression Through The Levels The Dreaded Exercise Plateau Needed: A Killer Differentiator Now Is The Time For Express Gyms Plus Requirements for Candidate Feature Sets Table of Amenities   Wake up Call The standard Spartan 30-minute express gym with just hydraulic machines and jogging squares is about to become a dinosaur. This column is meant to be a snapshot what express gyms have evolved to this point in time ( Fall 2006). Express gyms, in earnest, are about 11 years old and consequently that maturing sub-industry is facing some market forces which I'll talk about. Also, I won a ring a "wakeup call" that the express gym industry has to tweak the formula if it is to have any sustainability at all, otherwise it could end up like the racquetball's quick trajectory of the early 80s. Natural Market Forces Remember from college marketing 101 the four Ps of marketing? It was also known as the "marketing mix" popularized by Neil H. Borden, way back in 1964. Anyway, they are: Product Place Price Promotion In this piece I want to drive home the fact that express gyms are indeed a "product" and are therefore subject to all the marketing and societal forces of being a product. Consequently we can look at similar products and their life cycles to determine where express gyms are today and try to prognosticate where they're going. Also, we have to think in terms of the whole product, and express gyms are evolving to be more than just a set of hydraulic machines with jogging squares in between. It is now high time to add feature sets that makes sense at this stage of the industry's product life cycle A Genesis of Bigness in Health Clubs The health club industry started with a confluence of indoor tennis clubs, racquetball clubs, and gyms. That was around 25 years ago. The original layout was huge, tens of thousands of square feet, perhaps over 100,000 ft.² under one roof. Since then, standard health clubs were migrating to get bigger and bigger and adding the latest equipment. The model created a monster, where a return on capital investment became more and more difficult. Club owners started to violate the 10 minute rule of the drive radius defining their local market. They now needed to be huge and have access to denser populations to survive. Then in 1995, Diane and Gary Heavin created Curves and gave birth to the 7/11 retail model of express gyms to offset a superstore model. This model found an open niche, the deconditioned middle-aged woman who would never frequent a Gold's style co-ed gym for the then buff bods. All New Products Begin With Supply Side Marketing All products follow an evolutionary process. The first release of anything, be it a Wright Brothers airplane, a personal computer, or a gym, takes the form of the visionary inventor. Consequently, in the beginning inventors dictate features. Because consumers never experienced a newly invented product before, they cannot possibly comment on a desired feature sets, they need experience with the product to begin giving that vital feedback. Henry Ford is famous for his quotation when he was mass-producing the model T automobile that "Customers can have any color they wanted as long as it was black". This is emblematic of supply side, marketing driven by the inventor's vision. Henry Ford was the quintessential supply side marketer. "Any color they want, as long as it's black'. The Learning Curve, and Competition, Fosters Innovation As products become widely adopted, what happens next is that consumers begin to understand the new invention, and how it affects them, and how it could be better. Concurrently, competition arrives after observing the growth of the new invention. And, competitors realize they need to offer a "better mousetrap". “The Greatest challenge facing the independent express gym owner-operators will be having the right differentiators in their product configuration, and being able to properly communicate such.” Then the feature set wars set in, some features catch on with the consumers, many do not and drop-off. And in Henry Ford's case, competition started giving the customers what they wanted and cut into his market share. I would submit that the same thing is happening at the express gym industry right now. If all a gym owner is doing is offering a carbon copy of Curves, she will never win out over such a strong brand. She needs to create a new amenities mix that makes sense and will be a killer differentiator. Therefore, the greatest challenge facing the independent express gym owner-operators will be having the right differentiators in their product configuration, and being able to properly communicate such. The Health Club Spectrum - Different Clubs Cater to Different Demographics I would submit that you could take a population, at minimum, the US population, and create a spectrum. From a health and fitness perspective, people would fall into different categories along that spectrum. Health club models line up according to demographics, psychographics, investment risk, and fitness philosophy. Another major factor is that of an attitude. As one moves further and further to the right. There is more and more prejudice toward fat people. And this is why the deconditioned market has refused to go with the standard health clubs, even though they need exercise more than any other group. Finally there's the merger of two components. The deconditioned crowd doesn't really want to spend any more time than they have to in the gym, just do the bare essentials. Is it any wonder why 30-minute fitness took off? At the other end of the spectrum, the fit crowd not only will invest the time, but they want all the latest gadgets. Home   > al valente   /   1   /   2   /   3   /   next