Community appears to be the theme of the summer. I’m sorry to anyone that enjoyed my blog variation prior to developing a strong emphasis in community, but this topic hasn’t received enough attention.
I’d say I first started thinking about community about four and a half years ago when I started to understand trends in the industry. I grew up in fitness, but that doesn’t mean I grew up understanding the business aspects of fitness like many of our readers that had parents in the industry.
I had to engulf myself in the business of fitness when I took the editor role at Club Solutions. It was vital to my success. One of the first aspects I realized that made the fitness industry successful was community, not results.
In my eyes, results came secondary to community in the gym setting. If you go back and watch Pumping Iron you’ll notice results. However, what you’ll also notice is the community that had been established at Gold’s Gym. Fitness enthusiasts and bodybuilders were traveling from around the world to be part of the community at Gold’s Gym Venice.
Were people going to this location because they could achieve results, or because they could be surrounded by like-minded individuals that had established a fitness community?
In athletic clubs in the late 70s and 80s, we saw racquet sports emerge. People came to the clubs because of racquet sport offerings, but they stayed because of community. The same continued with aerobics, Group X and small group training.
People by nature are social creatures. There have been a multitude of books written on aspects of social structure and how humans thrive on community.
So, how do you establish community within your facility? Well, in my mind that’s really all up to you. In the past 10 months I frequented a small gym that had a focus on bodybuilding. I don’t fit into this community because it’s never been a huge interest for me. However, for the bodybuilders that attend this gym, they have a community and the gym embraced that. They have competition pictures and trophies throughout the lobby, as well as flyers for upcoming events.
Some clubs have great Group X offerings. They realize that people that go to Group X classes regularly build a connection with those people.
When members establish a community inside your club, they are more likely to return for as long as possible. If you are just a location where they can go in and sweat for a minute, they will look for better prices, equipment or offerings that suit them. The people that come to your club for the community will come back as long as the community exists.
Tyler Montgomery is the editor of Club Solutions Magazine. Contact him at tyler@clubsolutionsmagazine.com.
