The Fitness Industry's Digital Divide - Leadership Should Embrace The Future
Thursday, November 4, 2010 
I visited with a well respected health club owner and fitness industry leader recently. During our meeting the person commented that IHRSA "wants to remain a bricks and mortar association"; this in response to my many calls for the extant fitness industry to open its eyes to the opportunity new business models and technologies will offer, enabling it to reach its promise.
In this person's defense, the facility orientation of the industry is not uncommon; I speak with many health club owners and leaders who share this view. Change is hard and I know of many good people with good intentions who work hard at IHRSA and in the fitness business in general to forward the cause of prevention and wellness. However, this "bricks and mortar" emphasis is the same view many leaders in other industries had, before the future happened to them - think clothing and entertainment to name a few. It is the reason, I worry, that some existing business models in fitness are going to have increasing difficulty surviving.
To illustrate my point, think of the retail industry by comparison. From 2000 until 2007, online retail sales grew at an annual 20% clip. From now until 2014 sales will grow at a slower 10% rate, still well exceeding the "bricks and mortar" counter part. However the important thing to note is that by 2014 53% OF ALL "RETAIL" SALES WILL BE DELIVERED VIA THE INTERNET according to Forrester Research. You see it isn't about bricks and mortar; its about delivering things customers need the way they want them and doing it in a sustainable fashion.
Reading the WSJ article today, on my IPad none the less, I came across Eileen Gunn's article titled, "A Personal Trainer in the Palm Of Your Hand." By my estimation, now over 3 million people in the U.S. alone are using mobile technologies to guide them as personal trainers could or used to. Similarly, consider the explosion of wellness platforms and devices that provide low cost means of enabling people to improve their health. Point is: there is a lot changing and the customer is at the center of it - not bricks and mortar.
As with all businesses, leaders need to open their eyes to what is happening and prepare by driving innovation and evangelizing the benefits of an unavoidable future. The fitness industry is no exception - less we fail to reach the promise of making a real impact on health via prevention.
What are your thoughts on the fitness industry ? Contact me, Bryan O'Rourke, or share your views here and tell me what you believe about the bricks and mortar, IHRSA and the orientation of the fitness industry.
Reader Comments (8)
Hi Bryan,
I completely see your point and agree. The world has changed, The industry is lagging behind. We continue to do the same thing over and over. Unfortunately, as Einstein taught us long time ago: "there is nothing more than a sign of insanity than to do the same think over and over and expect the results to be different".
The crisis of the fitness industry is not just the result of the economic and financial crisis that affected any other industry. It is first of all a crisis of the values and the related business models.
The Cardio-Strength-Class paradigm is lagging behind. The "New consumer" wants to buy online, doesn't have a lot of time, is not willing to pay for long and heavy memberships, needs to move 30 minutes a day 5 days a week and is not necessarily looking to performance, loves technology & design, takes advantage of self service process and is looking for value added services just if they are really valuable, needs personal coaching (indoor/outdoor supervision, behavioural change, nutrition, lifestyle guidance) and not just personal training, want a personalized approach, want to interact with staff and not just have a training schedule or somebody hard selling pt sessions, doesn't necessarily understand but for sure want to be understood, loves easy things, hates the omplex ones ones, etc.
If we understood the new Consumer we would immediately recognize that the whole industry is a blue ocean of new opportunities to catch and we would probably find a way to change.
Either operators find a way to lead this change and take the ownership of health and wellbeing or the New Consumer will find new and direct channel to satisfy this need or (worst case) will not satisfy the need. The risk is that we are trying to have healthier people living in a healthier planet and we come up with unhealthy people living in a very unhealthy planet.
Francesco
No doubt technology will futher the cause of promoting prevention and wellness, and those fitness businesses that provide physical activity programs for those that seek wellness and integrate the use of technology will be the big winners.
The new Consumer for exercise does not really like to exercise, they will do it because it is part of their personal health prescription.
Great points Alfresco. Thanks for sharing them.
On point as usual Bryan. Check this out - Singapore Health Promotion Board (HPB) released a diet/nutrition tracker probably a week or two ago. Over 28,000 downloads already. I think the people have spoken don't you? Compare the size of Singapore and surrounding countries to the US, certainly seems like something that should be a taken seriously in and out of the US by all working in consumer/corporate health/fitness in and out of B&Ms.
Bryan,
I agree. Taking advantage of delivering wellness to people via moble devices, game consoles and the internet is the only way our industry will get beyond the 10 - 15% membership penetration rate.
Membership dues of $10 a month at clubs with no services are not the answer. What value do we as an industry provide if most of the memberships sold are never used?
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Hi Bryan,
Great post, as always. A key point to me is that adoption of technology in the industry should be across the board. Sure, leaders need to drive and evangelise, but PTs and instructors also need to engage with their customers better through technology. I don’t believe that tech will ever replace a good instructor, but it can make a good instructor into a great instructor from the member’s point of view.
On the other hand, the budget clubs that I work with rely heavily on technology through the entire member journey, and I think that the rest of the industry has a lot to learn from these guys.
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