Seth Godin recently wrote a Blog post that, I think, is really important for our industry… you can read it here. When you have read it, re-read it, and when you have re-read it print it out and stick it to your wall where you can read it every day.
What is important about this advice is that almost all industry advertising and marketing is designed to sell health, fitness, or wellness to people who aren’t really interested in health, fitness, or wellness (at least in the way that we offer it) with advertising/marketing tactics that appeals to people who are already interested in health, fitness, and wellness.
Here’s the point… showing images of “health, fitness, and wellness” people in the club or, even worse, endless rows of empty equipment (that you are so proud of), or even your totally buff staff members in your advertising/marketing is OK for your already committed “health, fitness, and wellness” prospective members (because it is consistent with their worldview) but it does little for the uncommitted masses.
In fact, these images (and the kind of copy that goes with them) are probably doing more harm than good when it comes to the uncommitted masses because it confirms their worldview that health clubs are only for fit people who are already in shape, that health clubs are cold and sterile, that health clubs are complicated and confusing, that health club staff members only care about other “health, fitness, and wellness” people...
And remember the uncommitted masses is where the growth for your business, and our industry, will ultimately come from.
Sure the “health, fitness, and wellness” people might appreciate that more aspirational/inspirational advertising/marketing but they are going to have more definite/defined needs, expectations, and values and so are far less likely to be influenced by your advertising/marketing anyway. For example, the fact that Planet Fitness is offering $10/month memberships with no contract and no joining fee will never persuade a powerlifter who needs 180 pound dumbbells to leave his current club.
Marketing is all about getting the right message, to the right people, at the right time (via the right channel)… if you can’t you are almost certainly wasting your marketing dollars trying to change someone’s worldview.
Don’t forget about the iPOS Challenge… you could win a Free Advanced Hard Copy version of my latest report The Lead Box is Dead… Long Live iPOS: The Humble Lead Box Concept Reinvented for the Twenty-First Century.
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