New report: Key consumer insights

• Melissa Rodriguez • Senior research manager • IHRSA

Conducted in partnership with the Leisure Trends Group, the quarterly IHRSA Trend Report analyses health club consumer behaviour among Americans aged 16 years and older. The latest edition focuses on attitudes and perceptions surrounding health clubs by gender and generational groups.

More than one quarter of women (27 per cent) cite access to group exercise classes as a reason for continuing to use their health club. While more than one in five men belong to a health club, fewer than 20 per cent of men select group exercise as an incentive for remaining health and fitness club members.

In comparison to men, women more frequently identify group exercise classes, the variety of equipment, and the need to get their workouts in as motivators for continued club attendance.

The report also provides data on why people join health clubs, along with barriers to becoming members. The top five reasons men and women give for joining clubs are:
Men
To stay healthy
To stay in shape
To feel better about myself
To maintain strength
To build muscle
Women
To stay healthy
To feel better about myself
To look better
To lose weight
To maintain strength

Cost is the number one barrier to joining for both genders. However, women are more likely than men to select this reason.

Distinctions between genders and across generations provide operators with potential programming alternatives. For example, those aged 66 and over are more likely than any other generation to cite “variety of equipment” and “convenience” as reasons for continued club use. To attract this group, operators can offer user-friendly equipment and ensure club locations are accessible.

The women surveyed were more sensitive than men regarding the price of health club membership / photo: www.shutterstock.com/ Andrew Bassett

Ask the experts: Marketing a club that’s come under new ownership

How can an operator aggressively market a club that’s under new ownership, to let consumers know changes are being made at a previously mismanaged facility?
What type of advertising is recommended? Joe Cirulli, president and owner of the Gainesville Health & Fitness Center in Florida, US, offers his insight on this topic:

“The strongest marketing you can do is creating the right environment inside your centre. First, it means changes to the physical plant (cleaning every part of the centre and making sure all equipment is in perfect working condition). This means nothing is broken down. If something is out of order, remove it from the floor.

“A second priority is the re-training of staff. In order to do this, you have to make sure your vision, mission, core values, culture and core purpose are perfectly defined. If the current staff don’t buy into it, you have to find people who do.

“As you do these things, regularly update your members with signage inside the centre and via email.

“When everything is going at full force, have a large, grand re-opening party for your members, their friends, and Chamber of Commerce members. That’s the point at which I would do advertising on TV, in the local paper and via email. But word of mouth will become your most powerful advertising tool.”

Read more answers to this question at www.ihrsa.org/industryleader

Joe Cirulli

Keep updating members on any changes via email / photo: www.shutterstock.com/ wavebreak media

Lindkvist to headline European Congress

Author Magnus Lindkvist will be the keynote speaker at the 13th Annual IHRSA European Congress, in a session entitled ‘When the Future Begins: Trendspotting, Opportunities, Future-Thinking & the Attack of the Unexpected’.

Lindkvist is a trendspotter and futurologist who weaves together the most important and exciting current trends to forecast what life, society and business might look like in the future. With a uniquely energetic speaking style, his talks are a multimedia-infused boost of intellectual inspiration, about topics ranging from trendspotting and innovation to future-living and the business world of tomorrow.

He is a graduate of Stockholm School of Economics and UCLA School of Film, Television and Theatre, and has made a career out of fusing the measurability and tangibility of the business world with the imaginative storytelling of Hollywood.

With a background as a management consultant and brand strategist, he founded his company Pattern Recognition in 2005 to help companies make sense (and money) out of the future. He has also built a reputation as one of Europe’s most sought-after speakers on trends, trendspotting and futurology.

In 2008, he created the world’s first academically accredited course in Trendspotting and Future Thinking at the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship. Lindkvist is also a member of renowned conference TED (technology, entertainment and design).

The European Congress will be held at Meliá Castilla in Madrid, Spain, from 17–20 October 2013. Visit www.ihrsa.org/congress for details and to register.

The ‘futurologist’ has an energetic speaking style