Week 3 – 26th Jan
One of the industry's foremost marketing and branding experts worldwide, Derek Barton is the former Senior VP of Marketing for Gold's Gym International. Based in Los Angeles, Derek currently operates his own marketing, consulting and entertainment production company. He will be speaking at the FIA Conference on July 14th in Cheltenham.Following on from Tim's comments, I wanted to talk about trust. In the US, consumers don't trust health clubs.
One day they're open and the next they've closed. There's so much price slashing that the consumer inevitably gets the message that the fitness product can't be of any great value.
Maybe if they just wait, someone will charge $10 a month. And then, right on cue, Planet Fitness shows up.
Low priced clubs are capitalising on the failures of the average health club today, and good for them. But bad for the health club industry, because if Planet Fitness continues to grow - and other gyms continue to copy them - Planet Earth i.e. the masses, will believe that getting yourself in good physical shape is only worth $9.99 a month.
I wish my satellite TV bill was $9.99 a month. I wish my cell phone, my electric, gas and water, my gardener, house keeper, groceries, golf fees, car payment, gasoline, mortgage, and my wife's Starbuck's tab were all $9.99 a month. They aren't.
Look at what we're willing to pay every month to live our comfortable lives, but the most important item, our health, has been devalued down to $9.99 a month.
Will this happen in the UK? Only if you let it. Looking forward to catching up with you all in July.
Derek Barton
Owner
Barton Productions
Dear Derek,
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutly right, we are shooting our own foot, and "giving away" the best thing any one wants: Health. I believe the real problem is that ourselves the fitness business owners and professionals instead of understanding that we are extremely underpriced, we believe that we are overpriced.... and obviously the customers always agree on that.
Pedro Ruiz
www.vivafit.eu