digitisation retains customers

 

There are multiple aspects of the industry and the community that have benefited from digitisation. As covered in the recent blogs, digitisation has been an extremely important factor when increasing the fitness industry revenue and customers. With the increased footfall towards gyms, the facilities and equipment can keep on improving. Therefore, due to a domino affect,  the customer experience will also be improved, and this may make them want to return. This is pushing the concept that gyms are promising: the idea of customers feeling and looking good; not the promise of a membership. Essentially, gyms have to take care of the customer and the customer will help take care of the gyms.

Digitisation in the recent years and after covid has massively helped with the fitness industry gaining and retaining customers: from increased sales for home equipment and a steady increase in the revenue (UK) since the pandemic. With more gym brands now, than ever before, there is a huge market for people to explore and discover. As mentioned in earlier blogs, gyms use influencers to gain an external market and new potential customers. These influencers are similar to a watered down version of celebrity endorsement. However, they have the added bonus of having their own tight knit community/ fanbase which allows for a more personal advertisement.

Mental health is a huge factor for people wanting to exercise. Whether it be to feel healthier, have a distraction or just want to stay fit, fitness helps with peoples overall health. Exercise does not have to be an individual activity, lots of people love going with a friend or a partner to the gym. This is a great way to stay motivated and improve performance if there is someone else working along side you. Having a friend to go with can also boost mental health as you are sharing an experience with someone. Again, enjoying this exercise is another reason to stay fit and this helps the gyms retains customers - this has led to group workout programmes that the gyms put on for people to improve and become more confident in the gym. 

Social Media marketing gains

Since the pandemic, the online fitness community has grown exponentially. Since most industries now have an online presence, it is only right for the fitness industry to follow. Now, there is an abundant amount of influencers within the community. The majority of these Influencers help people feel accepted, recognised and relatable, and there are lots of influencers who gain popularity by sharing experiences.

Fitness company's may also recognise these influencers and reach out to them for some advertising and marketing campaigns. This actively increases awareness of both the gym and influencers followers, therefore, the influencers potential 'fanbase' also increases due to the gyms impact on the community.

Technological forces improve advertising and if integrated correctly then the marketing will allow gyms to become more popular. The recent advances in technology allow for new product development opportunities which the fitness industry can use for its advantages. By introducing new ways to access target markets through marketing integration, there will be an even greater surge in customers toward gyms.

The fitness industry needs to be using multiple marketing strategies to increase awareness and maybe reach other markets to grow potential customers. One of the key aspects about fitness culture is the positivity in the community, making sure each individual is respected and motivated. Integrating the values of the fitness community into marketing allows customers to know exactly what said company is about as well as their beliefs.

An example of using marketing strategies to get people into fitness are charities. For example multiple charities produce challenges during various months of the year for a good cause. Because people can see and respect what the challenge is for, they are more likely to want to register and participate in the challenge. These activities can start out as a challenge but can also grow into people really liking exercise/ fitness. Of course, gyms and charities are different but gyms can still use the premise of 'exercise for something good' and people will hopefully see the reasoning behind joining.

Mental Health at the gym

Not only are gyms/ fitness centres a strong medicine for common mental health challenges, regular exercise also helps with energy, sleep, memory and relaxation. It has been proven that exercise can have a positive impact on depression, anxiety and even ADHD. Many gym influencer's have shared personal experiences of how the gym and exercise has helped them through really challenging times in their lives (Robinson, Segal and Smith, 2023). One popular gym influencer in the community, known as Joey Swoll, helps a lot of people build up their confidence to go into the gym and has coined the name "CEO of Gym Positivity". Joey Swoll has shared some of his personal experiences of the gym helping with his mental health and is using what he learned to help countless others in the fitness community. With a combined Instagram and TikTok following of 10.3 million Joey Swoll recognises how much impact his posts have and accepts anyone into his fitness community. Looking through his videos and comments sections a myriad of people thank him for aiding in building their confidence and helping with their mental health through his influence.  He belives that no matter your age or fitness level, you can learn to use exercise as a powerful tool to deal with mental health problems. 

World Health Organisation 2023

Another way of helping people become more confident at the gym is to bring a friend. As Fricker (2017) mentions, this is a positive suggestion as group activities are more appealing than individual tasks. When customers find something they enjoy, such as going with a friend or participating in group exercises, they will stick with it and most likely go again. Therefore, gyms should focus and advertise more about mental health and making customers feel good; rather than just trying to get customers to look good. 

Digitisation's effect on gyms

Today at the gym: attention will be on the digitisation of gyms.

During the COVID 19 pandemic a number of people struggled with mental health due to not being able to leave their house. To help customers, gyms and fitness centres implemented new and improved aesthetics to motivate customers and display benefits of continued exercise. A favourable example is PureGym: the company introduced encouraging stickers around their gyms. By including said stickers, it gives customers a reminder as to why they are exercising. Furthermore, the posters are motivational, as well as a brilliant use of inclusive marketing.                                            

Examples of motivational stickers in PureGyms.

Digital technology is used in every industry; the gym is no different. Although the task of implementing technology into everything can be difficult, the exercise industry has found multiple breakthroughs. Referring back to PureGym, their app has an option for "training": showing "a range of focused workouts which target your individual body parts". This use of digitisation allows customers to simply click on whatever workout programme they want, which also saves time and convenience for the PT (personal trainer) as they will not need to make separate workout plans for each new customer (EGYM). As most gyms now have these apps which allow for personalisation, customers confidence can be built up as gym goers have a simple guide on how to exercise. Every person can access these plans, which is very inclusive. 

Another use of digitisation throughout the exercise industry is fitness watches. As you can imagine, this is a watch that tracks your fitness: can be used to monitor distance, speed and heartbeat while running or track calories and overall progress over time. Because the wide range of capabilities these watches have, they have become increasingly popular over the past few years, especially as they encourage and motivate a healthy lifestyle (Dcosta, W.L. 2022).

Gym popularity

 Welcome to the Gym (pronounced Jim)!

This Blog page will focus on certain aspects of the gym industry in the UK, specifically the digitisation, gym development and how gym companies use marketing strategies to keep customers interested. For the duration of these blogs the term "gym" will describe a commercial training space with appropriate workout equipment, allowing users to engage in physical activity (Polyakova, O. 2020). Another point to include is that when referring to people who go to the gym, it literally refers to any individual that uses the gym, regardless of how often. These blogs do not want to imply that only people who are avid gym lovers are included; therefore, these online journals are written with the intention to encourage more individuals to the gym.

2021 Revenue Gyms & Fitness Centres UK. (Stalker, F. 2023)

It is important to grasp the current gym/ fitness industry situation in the UK. Since 2011, the annual revenue for this industry had been steadily increasing, up until it was stumped by the Covid 19 virus in 2020. The pandemic unfortunately forced gyms to close and the revenue dropped by just over a billion pounds - from £2.5 billion (2021) down to £1.4 billion (2022) (Stalker, F. 2023). The forced closures allowed for an implementation of stay at home directives which caused a steep increase of sales for at home workout and fitness equipment. Total gym equipment sales increased by an astonishing 1000% and even more impressive, exercise bikes saw an astounding 2000% increase to sales (Stalker, F. 2023). Gough believes this rise to be the result of individuals seeking a way to maintain and improve their physical and mental health while being stuck at home.

2022 Revenue Gyms & Fitness centres UK. (Stalker, F. 2023.)

Even though there was an extraordinary increase in at home equipment sales, the gym industry has bounced back. Since re-opening to the public, gyms have maintained and improved a strong client base across the UK. With IBISWorld predicting an annual revenue of £2.5 billion by 2029.

2029 Revenue Gyms & Fitness Centres UK. (Stalker, F. 2023.)

References

Statista & Gough, C. (2021). Increase in sales of home gym equipment in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2020, by category.

Stalker, F. (2023) Gyms & Fitness Centres in the UK. London: IBISWorld. Available at: https://my.ibisworld.com/uk/en/industry/r93.130/at-a-glance (Accessed: 02/10/23).

Polyakova, O & Ramchandani, G (2020). Perceived service quality among regular users of gyms in public sports centres in the UK. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/23750472.2020.1853594 (Accessed: 02/10/23).