BUSINESS MODELS
taking control of the rest of their exercise routine themselves. “As personal budgets and incomes
have become tighter, consumers are reassessing their spending habits. They’re looking to protect their spending on the things that matter most to them, and as a result may even be willing to pay more for products and services that target specific health needs or passions rather than opting for more generic solutions,” says Radha Patel, associate director at The Futures Company. If this is the case, might
traditional clubs be forced to review their pricing structures to remain competitive, offering a range of ‘pay for what you use’ packages, for example? Might it once again be the budget clubs that do well, holding on to the ‘gym only’ segment while the microgyms take on ‘cycling only’ etc? In the long run, operators must
surely adapt or risk losing members as the microgym sector continues to grow. “Members want innovation and
convenience, not inflexibility, and they only want to pay for the services they use,” confirms Mark Botha, operations director at Fitness First Middle East.
“The industry should move fast on this, otherwise a lot of freelance concepts will spring up, fracturing the market.”
Applying the learnings But how might traditional full-service clubs adapt – what are the options open to them? Is the microgym offering something they can learn from, or indeed replicate – and would they even want to? “I struggle to see how the new
generation of group exercise-only venues will ever be more than a niche market,” says Michelle Bletso, group exercise development manager for Everyone Active. “Very few of our members do just one type of exercise, combining gym with classes, swimming with group cycling. “As an industry, we advocate a
variety of training for all-round fitness, and we should offer that variety in one place to allow people to cross- train effectively and time-efficiently. The future of fitness, I’d suggest, is full-service fitness done well: this will prevail over more niche offerings.” Nevertheless, even Bletso feels
there are learnings to be taken from the microgyms: “Multi-purpose operators can learn from the trend
40
classes – and they always sell out, so everyone books. Given that our studios hold 30–60 people, that soon adds up and allows us to pay for superstar instructors.” Meanwhile, in the UK, David
Lloyd Leisure has announced an exclusive deal with Orangetheory Fitness to roll out its HIT-based workout in its DL Studio personal training venues. And in Australia, Fitness First launched The Zone in Sydney this summer – a purpose- built club dedicated exclusively to group exercise, with anything up to 100+ classes a day across its six zones – proving that even multi- club operators can get in on the microgym trend. Operators might even consider
Fitness First Australia recently launched The Zone, a group exercise-only site in Sydney
by ensuring all aspects of their gyms and group/studio programmes remain innovative in their own right.” Doyle Armstrong, product specialist
at Indoor Cycling Group, agrees: “I think the microgym trend will make other operators look at how they provide group exercise and encourage them to invest in this area, especially in the education of their instructors. For many clubs, the current quality of class delivery needs to be addressed.” While it might not be feasible to raise
the entire offering of a full-service club to the high standards of a microgym, if operators can identify the activities that drive the highest levels of loyalty and passion among members, they could create a series of premium ‘club in club’ experiences around these. In doing so, Mills believes traditional operations can latch onto the microgym trend. However, he believes most clubs are
currently falling short of where they need to be to do this: “When it comes to team training, microgyms get it right – why can’t generalist gyms? You have to create boutique spaces within your clubs, and you have to do it just as well as the niche gyms. Then you can charge a premium.” For example, Les Mills clubs in New
Zealand incorporate in-house, boutique cycling studios that generate additional revenue for the club. “Team training strategies that work include the ‘free unless you want to reserve a space’ approach,” says Mills. “We charge NZ$5 per person to book a spot in our cycling
Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital
partnering with third-party specialists to deliver boutique offerings in their sites – in much the same way that space is already allocated to external businesses such as Costa Coffee – to ensure that any members who do want this
sort of offering don’t look elsewhere, and still see it as part of their club. “As more and more people use
microgyms, setting high expectations of fitness facilities, we will need to ensure we’re on top of the game when it comes to delivery,” says Hodgkin.
“We should be striving to offer ‘clubs in clubs’ whereby, for example, our bootcamp classes at least match BMF for creativity, our HIT sessions keep pace with Orangetheory, and our cycling studios are equipped with the technology to generate an excitement equal to that of Boom!Cycle. “Ultimately staffing, equipment, décor and hype are all within our control.”
Clubs in club Communication of the offering will become more important than ever as things become increasingly fragmented, ensuring members understand the options, the price implications, and crucially why they should pay for premium sessions on top of their monthly fees. Nevertheless – whether to counter
any threat microgyms might pose, or simply to capitalise revenue- and retention-wise on this trend – we could start to see the generalist club effectively becoming a series of smaller ‘clubs within club’ in the future, developing cutting-edge offerings to meet the wishes of the distinct tribes that exist among a full-service membership, and with it creating an offering worthy of members’ passion. ●
October 2013 © Cybertrek 2013
PHOTO: ANDREW HAURISSA
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92