Fitness First

Putting muscle into their rebrand

Market analysis was used to identify which clubs in the Fitness First estate could grow their membership through a marketing-led price promotion strategy.

The fitness industry is an extremely crowded, yet dynamic one.

As such, the new owners of Fitness First were keen to know whether rebranding its global network of 350 clubs and transforming the member experience would help them stand out.

The Challenge

Fitness First needed to increase membership volume, while still protecting the business’s core price point. Consumer research was blended with club level finance data to determine which clubs would respond best to this approach.

Our approach

Market analysis was used to identify which clubs in the Fitness First estate could grow their membership through a marketing-led price promotion strategy. Consumer research was blended with club level finance data to determine which clubs would respond best to this approach.

The price reductions were then modelled to drive 10% new member growth, perception data was analysed to define which messages would best support price premiums, and then a targeted campaign strategy was developed and tailored to five different regions.

The outcome

To safeguard ROI, Savanta worked with Fitness First to create a global brand and customer experience tracker. This means every individual club manager knows how their club is performing and what decisions they need to make to deliver the strategy.

Savanta’s analysis produced a clear understanding of how best to invest the £250 million set aside for refurbishing the clubs, developing new brand communications and digital product innovation.

The impact of this project can be seen across the business, with digital leads increasing by 50%, a 12 point increase in NPS from negative to positive and an increase in core membership from 54% to 67% of the member base.

Any business needs to outpace its competitors and accelerate delivery of insights which can be used to grow performance and value. Virtually all customer-facing initiatives have been formed using this unique approach to customer tracking and subsequent performance analysis. The member trackers have given us an invaluable tool for assessing what our customers actually want, not what we think they want.”

CMO, Fitness First