Marketing Fitness for a Healthy Life

Introduction

Fitness industry has been considered as a popular sector with greater importance. The business holders need to show the significance of joining fitness clubs to their target customers. It is required to invest with the concern of healthy lifestyle by regular workout and healthy diet maintenance (Pinto and Yagnik, 2017). The awareness of using fitness products with the offered services and positive effects of taking guidance can be useful, as branding of a startup plan through different media platforms and holdings or leaflets.

The paper has been provided with a proposed marketing mix as well as segmentation, positioning and target market analysis that has been presented with justification. Moreover the recommendation for the welfare of the start-up has been supported in respect of the business.

Brief description of the start-up

The start-up idea is to open a fitness centre with the best affordable services. From an online source Statista (2020), it has been found that there are around 6700 fitness centers in the UK among these 14 to 15 best gyms are found to serve in London. Around 15% of the total UK population has gym membership and in London people mainly get membership of such fitness studios either for leisure or any medical concern. The concerned fitness venture intends to provide the people of London with desirable fitness facilities alongside medical aids.

The fitness studio would focus on attracting more members compared to the existing ones and thus would include various services starting from yoga sessions, weight training, aerobics and Zumba classes according to individual needs. This intends to offer best training from certified trainers, innovative and modern equipment and most importantly a great relaxing environment so that individuals from every generation can look forward to avail satisfactory services (Chekhovska, 2017). Such a start-up idea would be great both from a social and business perspective.

The 7Ps of Marketing Mix for the fitness centre

The above table stated the 7P marketing mix for a business venture in the fitness and wellbeing sector in London through detailed explanation of the role of each aspect for the concerned start-up.

STP analysis for the chosen start-up

STP analysis is carried out for its usefulness in marketing. French, (2017) opined that in order to make an appropriate action plan for a small start-up it is necessary to have an idea about the target market especially the customers and the factors that could influence them.

Importance of Market Research for the business

The importance of the 7P factors are the key factors that mostly influences on a business development execution. The detailed review for the chosen approaches has the power to point out the drawbacks observed in the plan. For the selected fitness start-up, the organization needs to make sure about the demand of their product in the competitive market and its uniqueness. According to Hong et al (2017), the strategic inspection of a market research can be beneficial in terms of acknowledgement of various hindrances that may occur in the business. It determines that it can recognize prior proceeding further on the service costs with distinct packages that are also studied compared with the market trends and affordability of the target consumers.

On the other hand, as influenced by Wright (2017), the physical positions and the availability of the services provided by the company can be determined through its brand marketing compared to its competitors. Being a start-up, though it is not expected to get a large scale of facilities from the gym, however; the limited attempts as well as effective one can be appropriate enough to catch the market. For example, an effective media platform can be selected consciously as start –ups, as the budget is affordable in all platforms (Mulford, 2020).

Similarly an assessment of the stakeholders and partner brands should be conducted, as per trends in the market to increase brand value as well. With an efficient business partners and sponsoring brands any company can reach the top of the success by competing with the rivals (French, 2017). The business may need to take care of its budget and limitations while discussing the strategies with key partners and stakeholders.

Importance of understanding key factors affecting on the business

With the help of market research, the key strengths and weakness as well as threats and opportunities can be analyzed in respect to the start-up plan (Suwono and Sihombing, 2018). It encounters both internal and external factors that have its deeper impact on the market. The identification of the future issues can be determined with this approach. On a contradiction, it gives a long term accessible research evaluation that declares whether it will match up with the business environment or not (Morais, 2019). Threads can harm the business and its income, so it is important to analyze the risk involved in managing the organization. This also helps the business to eliminate its weaknesses by studying the internal factors and renovating those factors with any better idea. Any loss or negative impression among customers can drown the business. Therefore it can be said that the opportunities should be used consciously that would not have any negative effect on the business.

Importance STP analysis

Segmentation of customers has been another way of doing market research that is appropriate for understanding the variations of consumer perceptions (Sutanti et al. 2018). It is basically known as a customer-centered approach, which is a modification and replacement of the traditional product-centered approach. This is about segmenting the market based on customers and their behaviors, targeting every segmented category in proportion to their favors and propensities and positioning acculturations under branding and marketing policy of the business to indulge their requirements, demands and conjecture in the concern of erecting brand identity (Phadermrod et al. 2019).

Moreover, it can be said that the STP analysis classifies the frontiers of the market into compact divisions. It leads to an uncomplicated process to grow particular approaches in terms of reaching and appealing prospective customers rather than using an inclusive and ineffective strategy for marketing (Ishak, 2018). It has an intention to exploit a company's definable assets through customer-centered marketing. All the risk factors get reduced, as the analysis gives estimation for the marketing of products. The determination of the appropriate place, time, person and method has been settled in terms of trading. Further, the competence of marketing has been increased by conducting endeavors, especially towards the delegated segment according to the reliable mannerisms of the segment (Wang, 2016). It is impactful in the confinement and gratification of the customers. Besides, the cost of the firm can be reduced for not trading their products unnecessarily.

In this context of a start-up fitness industry gym, it is important to research the market and the audience on that basis. The audience or the gym users and their intention have to be studied for further action. The market segmentations on the basis of customers, is important to perform at the very beginning (Ishak, 2020). Their demands for fitness equipment, diet matters, and free hand exercises have to be researched properly. On the other hand, the purpose of joining the fitness industry can be studied, such as, some of the people want to build body shape, and some want to maintain their shape and some people only want a fit body. The customers can be segmented according to these categorizations (Phadermrod et al. 2019). Each of these categories can be targeted in terms of fulfilling their requirements and demands. In this regard, the successful marketing strategy can be positioned by providing satisfactory service to the audience in the concern of creating brand value.

Recommendations

Based on the above market research, marketing mix and STP, it can be recommended to the business to have serious note on the following facts.

Knowledge about Business Environment:

Decision-making process should be performed on the basis of knowledge as well as critical understanding of the business environment to identify the strengths and weaknesses of that area (BBC, 2020). This needs to be studied to discover the possible opportunities and threats.

Understanding about Core Elements of Marketing the Brand:

Besides, the 7p analysis should be implemented to grow the marketing features by prioritizing the seven core components of this business (Ishak, 2018). This approach must be employed to understand the appropriate strategy for this start-up through the determination of the most valuable domains that are also associated with the fitness industry. The revenue and promotion can be influenced by the right decision.

Customer Relationship Building:

Moreover, this can be recommended to the start-up of fitness so that they can be able to build resilience in business through customer communication channels (León-Quismondo et al. 2020). The marketing and branding have to be done following this method. In this respect, growing a successful start-up, should maintain all-round aspects of a Gym such as, trainer, Dietitian, proper equipment and environment.

Conclusion

From the overview, it has been analyzed that the vision and mission of the business have to be clarified in order to achieve success. Additionally, all the situations have to be studied before proceeding in the next step. In this concern, surviving in the environment of high level of competition, the strategic approaches can protect the company from dropping its position. The strategic analysis can help to determine all the perspectives that are associated with the business. Both the internal and external factors have to be prioritized in terms of avoiding uncertainties and reaching goals.

Moreover, customers’ needs to be targeted on relying upon these core elements of a successful continuation of gaining revenue, as well as stability in the UK-based market. In other words, it has been acknowledged that the right customers with classified demand groups have been so far easier to serve people with growing demands of fitness centers. Branding and marketing are two important features for a business that can be attained by quality customer service. This start-up gym may not achieve an easy way to success. Hence, the brand value and marketing approaches that have been suggested can be promising for the business withstand on the competitive market as well.

References

Abdul-Hamid, I.K., Hinson, R.E., Mahmoud, M.A. and Yaw, E., 2017, June. Sustainability Marketing: The 7ps Perspectives. In 5 th International Conference on Contemporary Marketing Issues ICCMI June 21-23, 2017 Thessaloniki, Greece (p. 595).

Beauchemin, J.D., Gabana, N., Ketelsen, K. and McGrath, C., 2019. Multidimensional wellness promotion in the health and fitness industry. International Journal of Health Promotion and Education, 57(3), pp.148-160.

Chekhovska, L., 2017. Fitness industry: state and prospects of development in the countries of the world. Slobozhanskyi herald of science and sport, (2 (58)), pp.19-24.

French, J., 2017. The importance of segmentation in social marketing strategy. In Segmentation in social marketing (pp. 25-40). Springer, Singapore

Hong, Y., Tran, A.N. and Yang, H.P.S., 2017. SERVICES AND RELATIONSHIP MARKETING. Young consumer behaviour: A research companion, p.170.

Ishak, I.D., 2018, September. STP Strategy on Guidance and Counseling Services Students in Elementary School. In 1st International Conference on Early Childhood and Primary Education (ECPE 2018). Atlantis Press.

León-Quismondo, J., García-Unanue, J. and Burillo, P., 2020. Best Practices for Fitness Center Business Sustainability: A Qualitative Vision. Sustainability, 12(12), p.5067.

Morais, R., 2019. ANALYSIS OF FACTORS SUPPORTING SWOT IN ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGIC PLANNING. STRATEGII MANAGERIALE, p.66.

Mulford, A., 2020. Repurposing the 7Ps. British Dental Journal, 228(11), pp.810-811.

Phadermrod, B., Crowder, R.M. and Wills, G.B., 2019. Importance-performance analysis based SWOT analysis. International Journal of Information Management, 44, pp.194-203.

Pinto, M.B. and Yagnik, A., 2017. Fit for life: A content analysis of fitness tracker brands use of Facebook in social media marketing. Journal of Brand Management, 24(1), pp.49-67.

Sutanti, S., Syah, T.Y.R., Darmansyah, H.S. and Pusaka, S., 2018. Application of Segmenting, Targeting And Positioning (STP) and Networking, Interaction, Common Interest and Experience (NICE) Model On Startup Company of Service Provider in Indonesia. Scientific Journal of PPI-UKM, 5(1), pp.12-17.

Suwono, L.V. and Sihombing, S.O., 2018. Factors affecting customer loyalty of fitness centers: an empirical study. Jurnal Dinamika Manajemen, 7(1), pp.45-55.

Wang, C.H., 2016. A novel approach to conduct the importance-satisfaction analysis for acquiring typical user groups in business-intelligence systems. Computers in Human Behavior, 54, pp.673-681.

Wright, B.K., Williams, A.S. and Byon, K.K., 2017. BRAND MARKETING VIA FACEBOOK: AN INVESTIGATION OF THE MARKETING MIX, CONSUMER-BASED BRAND EQUITY, AND PURCHASE INTENTION IN THE FITNESS INDUSTRY. Marketing Management Journal, 27(2).