CUSTOMER INSIGHT
Consumers will increasingly turn to tools that allow them to refl ect on their personal digital archives
virtual badges awarded to customers who undertake fi nancial tutorials. If auto manufacturers and banks can apply this trend, then surely health clubs can too.
Time(line) travellers As the online space becomes increasingly intertwined with real-life experiences, consumers will seek to re-live and remember their lives, outsourcing memory to the digital sphere. For example, One Second Everyday prompts users to capture one second of their life each day. The app can then splice the clips together to create a short fi lm. In Japan, mobile app Reep syncs with and chronologically sorts the user’s social media photo libraries and sends photos that were taken exactly a year ago as daily reminders.
In 2014, with consumers turning to services and tools that allow them to build, explore and refl ect on these personal digital archives, how might health clubs apply this trend? Consider using digital memories to remind and motivate consumers, show how their fi tness has improved, or to aid performance reviews and set new targets.
Guilt-free consumption
In 2014, ethical and sustainable consumerism will remain high on the consumer agenda. One powerful dimension to focus on is consumer guilt. Experienced consumers are increasingly torn between their aspirations to be ‘good’, their consumerist impulses and an inability to fundamentally change their lifestyles. This will create huge opportunities for brands and services that allow them to enjoy consumption while reducing its negative impact (whether on oneself, society or the planet).
The health club industry is founded on
consumer desire to alleviate personal guilt (ie living unhealthily), but think about all the other forms of guilt that consumers
60 Wish Lit: How much
energy must you save to buy the item you want?
Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital
might experience after using your service – regarding the environmental impact, for example. Which brands will make as strong a commitment to social
and environmental production as Chipotle, the fast food chain that recently released an animated video addressing the fl aws in the agribusiness model? Or innovative smaller businesses such as Miya’s Sushi in Connecticut, US, which goes beyond simply not including endangered fi sh – it actually offers dishes made with non-native, invasive species that are damaging the local habitat, in which eating them makes customers part of the solution. How’s that for guilt-free?! Then there’s the Wish Lit app, which won an energy effi ciency hackathon in Singapore. It allows the user to enter the cost of a desired object and then calculates how much energy they need to save in order to purchase it. Or Peddler’s Creamery, an ice-cream shop in LA, that powers its churner by asking customers to peddle an in-store bicycle.
Conclusion
Remember, these are just a small selection of the trends that will influence and shape consumer behaviour during 2014. The most important thing is to keep looking beyond the boundaries of the fitness industry, and think expansively when it comes to innovation. Can you spot shifts in consumer expectations that are happening in parallel industries? Can you extract the ideas behind successful initiatives and apply them to your offering? Your customers won’t thank you if you can’t! ●
Henry Mason is global head of research and managing partner at
trendwatching.com. As one of the world’s leading trend fi rms,
trendwatching.com sends out its free, monthly Trend Briefi ngs in nine languages to more than 160,000 subscribers.
January 2014 © Cybertrek 2014
PHOTO:
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/VICTORSABOYA
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