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Often, annual member surveys (followed by specific mini-surveys) may highlight the real needs of current members, rather than relying on the guesswork and poor feedback from frontline staff. Too often, fitness center operators invest in physical plant and equipment items that have no effect on the overall membership and its satisfaction level.

In fact, maybe the dollars should have been deployed for better staff, new programs or services, increased grassroots marketing or promotional events.

It is common for owners to imitate what other facility owners are doing, and to try to compete with “bricks and mortar.”

This leads to a “me-too” club, not obviously distinguishable from its local rivals. Positioning implies that facility operators target one or more market segments and de-emphasize others.

This means that investment in two studios (yoga with the right climatic conditions and a Pilates studio with reformers and other such equipment) may be the ideal way to be unique, reach new prospects efficiently and be a leader in the local mind/body movement. This may also mean that that same facility is no longer quite as “equivalent” for the 21- to 30-year-old bodybuilders focusing mainly on the free weight experience.

Health bodybuilders, grassroots, pills