Regular readers of this Blog will know that I am not entirely happy with the state of our industry… I think it’s broken.
If you listen to what many of the other industry experts out there are saying they think it’s broken too… in a variety of ways.
I know Thom Plummer is all for training clubs… I know others have been all for the low-price model… I know others have been all for the micro-club model… I know others are all for “fixing” the existing health club model…
I think they are all right… and they are all wrong.
The question is how broken is broken?
We live in a throw-away society… everything is disposable when it’s cheaper, or easier, to throw it away than to fix it.
I believe that there is room for the “big boxes”, the training clubs, the micro-clubs, and the low pricers… in much the same way there is room for McDonalds, Outback Steakhouse, and fine French Cuisine in the restaurant business.
They each appeal to different markets… a fine dining French restaurant won’t drop their prices because a McDonalds opens up down the street, it just doesn’t make sense because while they are both selling food that’s about all they have in common.
The problem is that so many players in our industry who don’t really understand what their consumers are actually buying (or aren’t buying) believe that initial successes by the latest “big thing” inevitably means the entire industry will follow that direction.
It’s kind of like all the vampire and werewolf movies and TV shows we’ve got at the moment… initial success results in an overrepresentation of “fast follower imitators” trying to leverage off someone else’s competitive advantage while the window of opportunity is open.
Of course, it’s understandable because everyone wants to improve their opportunities for success… but trying to follow the trend du jour is a bad strategy. Even worse is trying to cram every trend du jour into your existing business model… in a misguided attempt to be everything to everyone.
Just because our industry started off as one thing (physique and strength enthusiasts) it is spurious to reason that we will, or should, continue on as one thing, so as I see it there is plenty of room for all of the existing business models… and more.
As for fixing what is broken… it won’t be achieved with the old solutions (process improvements, systemization, customer service initiatives or sales training tactics).
Sure they will continue to produce incremental improvements but the old solutions have extracted almost all of the competitive advantage they will…more of the same will only achieve diminishing returns.
Fixing what is broken, really fixing it, will require new thinking that puts the customer experience front and center… something the industry hasn’t be very good at so far.
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