This entry was posted on Friday, March 21st, 2008 at 9:17 am and is filed under Gym Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
Gyms should broaden its business portfolio touching new gym services, offerings and markets to compete the shifting preference to aerobic exercise. Although such activities are offered in most gyms, apparently they still focus on heavy weight lifting.
It should show the market that the gym services are untied to the history, where Arnold Schwarzenegger works-out, and equipped with manpower and facilities to provide emerging customer needs. Gyms could change the outlook of their internal environment visible to the outside viewing by replacing the lay-out with an aerobics group of women. Gym services could also widen the scope of its business competencies by classifying anaerobic exercise from aerobic ones that can cater to men and women alike including young and old enthusiasts.
Diversification of gym services is needed by a gym which needs to increase profitability and maintain leadership in the industry. Since most gyms can be argued to reach their maturity stage along with their product life cycle, putting flavour to their current gym services can mean change but such is necessary to compete with emerging strong competitors.
In a different manner to upgrade gym services, gyms could acquire international fitness instructors all over the world and in different industries. Some of them can come from the martial arts sector, choreography and sports. This service-oriented approach suggests that the gym is risking its finances to pay relatively high compensation to these internationally-acclaimed instructors. The advantages of these moves are the continued upgrade of consultancy services to worldwide subscribers of it’s the fitness system. While other gyms do not prefer to risk the fruits of their innovation and keep it within themselves (as they use licensing for control), excellent gyms tap on several opportunities to offer new ways of performing fitness regimes that the risk of diminishing the value of its publicized routines are offset.
Gym services should also include the management of communication services by undergoing steps to develop effective communication. First, there is a need to identify the target audience and evaluate their familiarity with the gym services at one hand and favourability with its attributes. The second stage is to determine communication objectives that seek to transfer gym services information, change attitude and obtain action from the clients. Third, it is time to design the message by determining its content, structure, format and source. The next step is to select communication channels that can be face-to-face or utilize several forms of media. Fifth, there is a need to take a crucial step to establish communication’s budget wherein methods are available that could emphasize the cost, benefit and objectives of the design which only managers can decide. Lastly, the need to manage integrated communication process in the gym is stimulated by the proliferation of new types of media and growing sophistication of people.
Internet as part of gym services is one of the prominent media wherein gym communications are networked and data are integrated. However, security in critical network assets and services are hindrances to effectively harvest the fruits of information technology in gyms. Nevertheless, being a technology-based and –resourced gym, investments is needed to protect the online gym services from hackers that can adversely affect internal communications and loss revenues for the gym.