You gotta admit – Planet Fitness is pretty genius.
But wait a minute – that makes no sense. Gyms are for those fitness freaks - you know, those chiseled, buff overachievers we all aspire to be like. Who’s going to eat pizza at the gym?
Try “the other 85%.”
Co-founder and Chief Executive Chris Rondeau of Planet
Fitness explains that “most health clubs cater to the roughly 15 percent of Americans
who consider themselves fitness nuts and love to work out. Planet Fitness's
goal, on the other hand, is to attract the much larger percentage of
people who want to be healthier but may only use the gym a few times a
month.”
That’s why they offer free pizza once a month at one of the 750 locations nationwide, to the tune of three million pieces of pizza a year. “The rest of the industry is fighting over that 15 percent," he says. "We're going for the other 85 percent."
That’s why they offer free pizza once a month at one of the 750 locations nationwide, to the tune of three million pieces of pizza a year. “The rest of the industry is fighting over that 15 percent," he says. "We're going for the other 85 percent."
That other 85 percent can pay a membership fee as low as $10 a month, and enjoy mainly cardio and weight lifting equipment, which seem to be the mainstays for those with a sporadic workout regimen. Free pizza night takes the place of juice bars and personal trainers.
What Planet Fitness has managed to accomplish is huge. It’s taken the well-known concept of a gym, a workout facility that exists in thousands of places across the country, and differentiated it by reaching not the fitness nuts, but the majority of people who manage to drag themselves to the gym a couple of times a month with its “No gymtimidation” policy. And it’s working. Rondeau reports that the gym's 5 million members account for roughly 10% of the 50 million people in the U.S. who belong to a health club.
What’s the lesson here? No matter what your business does, there are probably a number of other businesses out there that do the same or similar thing. Your challenge is to find that differentiating factor that separates you from the pack. A local pharmacy with free delivery. A paint store that comes out to your home to counsel you on colors. A marketing firm that will produce a customized versus a cookie-cutter website for your business (insert shameless Xapsis plug here.)
Competition is pretty stiff in today’s world. Look around at other businesses like yours and ask yourself what you can offer that will make you stand out from that 15 percent crowd - even if it means branching out of your comfort zone and going after that other 85 percent.
