I have been taking a lot more notice of the advertising and marketing practices of our industry. For example, the other day one of the local health clubs in my area, a YMCA actually, ran a radio ad. I listened intently with my advertising and marketing “hat” on to see what they came up with… It was terrible… generic… no offer… no call to action… just blah, blah, blah, we have fitness stuff for everybody.
Money down the drain…
I saw a TV ad for a new club in the next town over… very professionally done… good branding… very modern and fresh looking… a lot of cut away action shots… a lot of shots of gym people in the club… but no offer… no call to action… just blah, blah, blah, check out our shiny new club.
Money down the drain…
TV and radio ads are expensive and most health clubs can’t afford to use them systematically over time as brand builders… so why no offer or call to action?
The problem with these two ads in particular is that they appeal almost exclusively to “health club people”. And guess where health club people are… in health clubs already stupid!
Sure they’ll see/hear the ads but their memberships are due to expire at some time in the future… they have solved their health club problem and so why should they listen to you?
So unless you are completely new and the only health club in the area (i.e. the health club people actually have a problem… no health clubs) or have something so compelling that health club people will leave their existing club… its just money down the drain.
If you are in a competitive environment you need to find a way to reach the “non-health club people” (beginner/new members) and convince them you can solve one of their problems.
Now they don’t necessarily have a health club “problem “ per se… but they do have a problem that a health club can help them with (lose weight to reduce blood pressue, de-stress after work, increase energy to play with the grandkids, tone up for a wedding, look better in a bikini for summer etc).
The problem is the kind of ads that I described above don’t really speak to the non-health club market… and in a competitive market place you are (with few exceptions) only ever speaking to the non-health club market.
Think of what Curves did… they created their own market completely separate from the traditional health club market.
In today’s hypercompetitive marketplace the challenge will increasingly be to “create” markets and not just market to the existing health club people with generic health club advertising.
This is exactly what we have done with the iPOS Advertising System… due for limited release August 1st 2011 (read the summary and download the Free Preview Chapter).
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