The wellness community is booming, and breaking into the fitness space — and staying there — is no easy feat. Venelize de Lange from media update spoke with Mannee De Wet from Planet Fitness about exactly how brands new to this industry can set out to succeed.
Everyone and their mother has jumped on the wellness trend, with weightloss tips around every corner and, "How much protein is in this?" on everyone's lips. But, as is the rule with supply and demand, this also means the industry is being flooded with wellness services and products, making it exceptionally difficult for brands to stand out.
One such service is physical spaces designed for people to be active in, like gyms. Mannee De Wet, the Co-Founder and Managing Director of one of South Africa’s most recognisable gym brands, Planet Fitness, has, with the help of his team, grown this brand into a billion-rand-a-year fitness empire.
In this Q&A, De Wet brings a unique perspective to what it takes to build and sustain a successful fitness brand in this competitive industry. He shares insights into where the biggest opportunities lie for those entering the market and explains what separates fitness brands that retain loyal members from those that struggle with a high turnover.
For entrepreneurs looking to enter the fitness or wellness space, where do you see the biggest gaps or opportunities in the market right now?
So, if I was an entrepreneur looking to get into the wellness space, the question would be: do I want to compete against your mainstream brands or not? For me, the easiest way into the market right now would be to either specialize or to hyper personalise.
That means look at what the commercial clubs are doing, look at aspects within that offering that you can really focus on and specialise in, and offer a service that your commercial club cannot compete in.
Good examples of that would be a Pilates studio. You're going to have your normal weekend warrior, your average gym goer attending a Reformer clock — but there's a specific portion of that market that's going to be looking for very specialised one-on-one Pilates that is not necessarily Reformer based, it's Cadillac. It's a combination of things.
And, your normal commercial club is not going to offer that kind of service. We're looking at dealing with bigger community group classes.
So, in any one of those facets, if you can find high personalisation, if you can specialise, I think there is an opportunity and that can expand from Reformer that we've spoken about now to Hyrox, personal training studios, Crossfit studios, and Stretch and mobility.
There's so many elements within the wellness market that I believe that if you specialise it, if you create a brand around it or concept around it that you can compete against the big guys — that would answer question number one.
What differentiates a fitness brand that builds long-term member loyalty from one that sees a decline in membership over time?
Big one is does your brand actually live up to the promise at the end of the day? For me, brands that are consistent in what they stand for in the experience that they deliver — everything from front desk cleanliness to working equipment. That for me is a basic expectation. If members don't get that basic service, I don't think you're even out of the starting blocks.
Once that is in place then are you getting your members to a point where they are seeing results? Are you getting to your members to a point where they belong to a community where they feel they are welcome within that community?
If you can create that type of glue, I think your members will stay and they will support your brand over time. If your philosophy is a revolving door and just let's get the sale and focus on the next sale, then yes, you're going to effectively have members coming in through the front and leaving through the back — and that's always going to be a challenge for clubs.
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