A more in-depth look at the niche service providers
As a multidimensional, fitness promotion with nearly 40 years of industry experience, we’ve seen the fitness winds blow in virtually every direction imaginable and their waters ebb endlessly. We’ve seen models, concepts, modules, formats, and systems come and go. We’ve been through just about all there is. Only legendary men like Weider, Hoffman, Gold, Lurie, Zinkin, and LaLanne have seen more. Along with them, we’ve been through more and have forgotten more things than the Johnny-come-latelies have yet to even see. But, through it all, there remain two principles that have always been and will always be…market segmentation and product cyclicity, factors that have backboned the fitness industry, and many others as well.
You see, most other brands are nothing more than just one-dimensional, one-trick ponies. What that means is that you’re stuck with whatever market segment their system targets. So what do you think might happen? What might be the consequences of pigeonholing yourself, and then boom, all of a sudden, market conditions and the mood of the general public change? Don’t know? Then just ask anyone who’s ever owned or operated a Nautilus® Fitness Center or a toning table joint.
So don’t kid yourself, and don’t be fooled into thinking that conditions won’t change, because THEY WILL, given that they have in the past, and in all likelihood, they will do so again in the future. Faced with that possibility, where would you be left? Would you still be in business or not? That’s one of the major drawbacks of the one-dimensional, niche service providers.
Case in point…an earthquake of market segmentation hit back in the 70’s, with an innovative concept of quick, efficient exercise called circuit training, promoted by the inventor of Nautilus® equipment and the founder of Nautilus® Sports / Medical Industries, Arthur Jones. His popularization of this format spawned the original, 70’s circuit training craze, which served as the forerunner of Curves®, and vaulted him, and his philosophy of the 30 Minute, Total Body Workout to the top of the fitness world. Thousands of these so-called Nautilus® Fitness Centers popped up worldwide almost overnight. Today, you’d be hard pressed to find just one. But you wouldn’t for today’s somewhat cyclical version…Curves®, who resurrected this once forgotten format, but this time for women only.
It’s an age-old adage, which is just as true for fitness as it is for fashion…“What goes around, comes around!” And just like Curves®, we haven’t forgotten those words of wisdom either, offering pure circuit training under four different market segmented formats…smashmouth® coed citcuit™, smashmouth® gals circuit™, smashmouth® guys circuit™, and smashmouth® 50 plus™.
Yet another shortcoming of the one-dimensional, niche service providers involves dollars, and something that they really don’t want you to known up front…that in order to make any real money, you have to own a slew of locations!
Still another involves price point, and the fact that because these niche, studio-type operations need to charge $30 to $50 per month, per member, they just can’t compete, regardless of their gimmick, against clubs, like smashmouth® coed classic™, that offer massive amounts of strength training, circuit training, and cardio equipment for $10, $15, or $20 per month!
Consequently, many are already being squeezed out of the market, including some Curves® locations that have been forced to close their doors! So be very careful before you commit to this type of situation, because when you choose to dance with the devil, the one-dimensional, one-trick pony, you could be setting yourself up for failure, not to mention being out-of-business in a flash!
In recent times, there’s been a recycling of the bare-bones, no-frills, 20 and 30 minute circuit training clubs and neighborhood fitness centers. Many actually believe, maybe you’re one of them, that these formatsare brand new to the market. What most fail to realize is that these types of niche service providers, including Curves®, are nothing more than just spin-offs, modern day versions of the Nautilus® Fitness Center, the entity that decades earlier, launched the concept of circuit training.
During this era, when Nautilus® ruled the fitness landscape, even smaller-sized cities had numerous clubs tucked into every nook, cranny, corner, and neighborhood. But once again, just as they have done in the past, market conditions and the mood of the general public changed, and as fast as they popped up, these clubs disappeared even faster, falling victim to an entity that offered a far greater diversity of programs, services, amenities, and equipment…the gym!
Hard to believe, but it’s been just about 20 years since another wave of market segmentation hit with lightning quickness and disappeared just about as fast. We’re talking about the onrush of worthlesstoning table salons that exploded back in the mid-80’s. How many of them are left today? That’s right…zilch, nada, not one! Hopefully, those folks made a quick buck because when the public mood changed and their market dried up, they fled the business faster than rats off a sinking ship, and so did their one-dimensional affiliates who, once the bottom fell out, had no transitional capability. To no one’s surprise, circuit training successfully recycled itself, but this shake-away-the-fat format certainly never will, forever remaining the flop it was destined to be!
So always be on the lookout for anyone who pitches you the fact that their model is the way of the future; who tells you that they’re the next big thing. When you hear those words, ask them what they’re going to do for you if the bottom eventually falls out, just like it did for the Nautilus® Fitness Center. Ask them what they’ve got planned for you, if the public mood changes, the same way it did for the toning table salons. Ask them what kind of transitional capability they going to provide you with!
The moral of these stories…the Nautilus® dinosaur is factual proof of exactly what we said before…market conditions and the mood of the general public do indeed change, and when they do, it forces entities like the Nautilus® Fitness Center and the toning table salon right out of the market!
So remember, just like those one-dimensional, service providers of the past, the Nautilus® Fitness Center and the toning table salon, today’s one-dimensional, service provider can’t provide any transitional capability either, thus, you could easily become their next victim the minute you sign on the dotted line!