Successful companies are ones that understand the needs of their current and desired customers and position their products and services to respond to and fulfill those needs. Given our country’s physiological demographics, today, perhaps as never before, quality club owners and/or operators in the Health and Fitness Industry have a large window of opportunity to capitalize on and respond to what is a tremendous un-met need. And, while there are a number of specific services that can logically be offered in response to client needs and market opportunities, I would suggest that none can do more than a properly designed, highly personalized and professionally administered weight management program.
I believe I could suggest and support more than a dozen sound reasons why I have concluded that, particularly now, weight management programs can and should be a (if not the) leading marketing focus for your business. However, I will mention just four: market size and demand; meeting and satisfying client needs; misdirected program focus; and direct and follow-on revenue potential.
Market size and demand.
When it comes to statistics with respect to weight management (gaining, maintaining or losing), the numbers are staggering. For example, perhaps the two most staggering statistics that are often quoted is that it is estimated that 300,000 American deaths each year can be attributed to obesity, and the total annual economic cost of obesity in the U.S is now in excess of $117 billion dollars. However, another alarming statistic, and one that has a more direct application to our industry, is that on any given day 70 million adults in the US are trying to alter their weight (most attempting to lose) through changes in their diet and, to a much lesser extent, increasing their physical activity. Unfortunately, most of these individuals are embarking on weight management programs with limited knowledge of the nutritional and physiological principles that underlie a safe and prudent approach to what they are attempting to accomplish. As a result, the very large majority either fails to lose weight at all or, of those that do, 95 percent eventually regain what weight they may have lost.
It has been estimated that less that 20 million adults are actively involved in a structured, facility based exercise program. To be sure, many of those individuals are, at least in part, closely and actively monitoring their weight.
However, simple math tells us that there is still an everyday market of about 50 million adults who are seeking help in dealing with their personal weight management challenges. In the business world of today, there are very few market opportunities of this magnitude, and there is not a business industry that is better positioned to respond with a positive solution to this market demand than yours.
Meeting and satisfying client needs.
One of the essential keys to continued business success is having satisfied customers. Certainly, when dealing with a membership fee-based enterprise, this factor is particularly critical. And obviously, with respect to weight management, there are a number of exemplary clubs that are providing sound and safe solutions to address that need and with that, some wonderful success stories. However, the Health and Fitness industry as a whole has often fallen short in providing a truly professional and, in some unfortunate cases, even ethical response to meeting a client’s weight management needs.
One reason for this is simply the lack of recognition on the part of club owners, managers and/or program directors as to how important the satisfaction of this need is to their members. Even though we have known for years that either the first or second reason a person gives for joining a health and fitness facility is “I want to lose weight,” we have not channeled that stated need directly into a safe and proven weight management program. Rather, we direct and encourage our clients to embrace the “total” facility, and we set them up in “complete” fitness workout programs. On the surface and from a health and fitness standpoint, such an introductory programming approach is not harmful, but often this approach will fail in satisfying the expressly stated need of the client. This often “misinterpreted” and/or “misdirected” response to the specific requests and needs of clients can have a very negative impact on membership sales and for sure, membership retention.
Misdirected program focus.
Another factor that often interferes with our attempt to successfully satisfy our client’s weight management needs is what I would refer to as the revenue push. Or stated differently, there is often a gross imbalance on the amount of emphasis placed on the “bottom line” instead of the “waist line.” While there are a few reputable weight management programs that satisfy both of these “lines,” there are far too many that require clubs to push unproven, and, in too many cases, even unsafe, weight loss programs, fads, gimmicks and/or products (pills, powders, drinks, etc.) on to their members. The very large percentage of these approaches does exactly what you do not want your members to do – they come for a short period of time and then they are gone. And, as is far too often the case, a part of the club’s credibility is gone as well. Stated differently, given one’s ability to access quality health and lifestyle information and in particular, the extensive coverage (print media, TV and Internet) of the many health issues associated with sound and/or unsafe approaches to weight management, today’s “average consumer” (i.e. prospective new member) is far better informed than ever before. And further, just as there is little documentation as to the efficacy of these fad or “supplement” based approaches to weight management, there is even less clear evidence that such approaches, for the most part, provide long-term bottom line financial benefits to a club or healthy waist line benefits to members.
Direct and follow-on revenue potential.
The use of a “Loss Leader” or “Bait and Switch” approach for the marketing and sales of products and services is as old as business itself. Moreover, these promotional systems are not at all foreign to business people in the health and fitness industry who strive to drive revenue. However, if clubs were to offer a well-documented, proven and safe weight management program, it is possible to re-approach these systems with a far more positive outlook and a much more desirable outcome. More specifically, given the current demand for quality weight management programs, it is possible to position such offerings as “Winning Leaders” or, better yet, as “Bait and Serve” offerings. Further, if done properly, such an approach can not only lead to initial direct revenue but also, and perhaps even more importantly, to substantial recurring revenues. For example, it is clear that people are willing to pay large sums of money for health enhancing programs. And, this is particularly true when it comes to weight management/loss programs.
By offering a weight management program that is truly responsive to the interests, desires and needs of those people seeking such programs, clubs can enjoy very respectable, as well as, profitable direct outcomes. Often, as emphasized early in this article, these direct outcomes can best be realized at a new members initial point of entry. Further, if you can truly meet one of, if not all, the primary needs of a new member, you will have established a level of trust and credibility with that member that, with a high degree of probability, will not only cause them to remain a member for a longer period of time, but also dramatically increase the likelihood that they will avail themselves to other services that you may offer. In many quality clubs, this approach has lead to substantial follow-on revenues. For example, this is particularly true with growth in personal training revenue following weight management programs.
While each of the four areas that were discussed in the article are important, they all center around offering a quality weight management program that truly meets the needs and desired outcomes of members (both new and established). And, as consumers in today’s health and fitness marketplace become increasingly better informed as to facts associated with quality weight management programs, progressive clubs are responding by offering successful solutions that are both safe and profitable.
Robert C. Karch, Ed.D. is the Chairman of Biometrics Nutrition & Fitness. He can be contacted at 866.BIO.1922, or by email atBob@BiometricsHealth.com.
