What is fitness?

What does it mean to be fit? What does fitness mean? Fitness means something a little different
to everyone. To me, it is more than just what time you can do a race in, or how many weights
you lift. Fitness is an increased enjoyment in life. Fitness has so many benefits: getting sick less
often, relieving stress, burning calories, better sleep, improved disposition, and so many more.
Getting in good shape is boring
Achieving fitness and working out does not mean an hour or two on the treadmill every day, and
it doesnt mean marathon weight training. The key to achieving and maintaining fitness is
keeping training and workouts fun, challenging, and varied.
Keys to Attaining Fitness
Here are a few basic things that will help in getting in shape once and for all.

No single type of training: Unless you are training specifically for a marathon, there is no
reason to spend countless hours running long distances or to do 3 sets of 10 repetitions on the
same exercises three days a week. MIX IT UP! Lifting, jogging, cycling, yoga,
calisthenics/bodyweight exercises (push-up, pull-up, dips, etc.), sprinting, swimming,
plyometrics, stretching, and more!
No routines: Try to no-t develop any specific pattern. There is no need to jog everyday, or
even every Tuesday for that matter. No need to workout at the same time everyday. Constantly
try new things and new workouts, as you learn how your body reacts it will become easier and
easier.
Net time requirements: Some workouts should be short and high intensity, some should be long
and low intensity, and some in between. Constantly switching it up prevents your body from
settling into any type of routine.
Cross-Train: You dont need to do training everyday. Play! Play different sports (basketball,
soccer, football, hockey), go ice skating, play games outside with your kids (or nieces &
nephews), go for a long walk or a hike. Play like you did when you were a kid!
Set a few goals: Setting a few goals helps you stay on track. Make the goals as specific as you
can. Set short, middle, and long term goals. Maybe your short term goal is to workout for a total
of 3 hours a week, the middle term goal is to lose 10 pounds by the end of the year, and the long
term goal is to be able to play catch outside with your grandson when he is able to.

Track all workouts and progress: Record every workout in a notebook or on your computer.
This doesnt have to be anything fancy, simply write down what you did that day, and how long
it took you. Periodically measure yourself against your goals. From the example abovemaybe
you have lost seven pounds by the end of November, only 3 to go! You may want to use the
same notebook to track your workouts and your diet side-by-side.
Tell people your goals, get a partner: If you tell everyone your goal, and what you are aiming
to do, it makes you accountable. Sharing your goals with the people close to you may even
result in them helping to put you back on track. Getting a workout partner can also be
motivational and help out.

Fitness centers
A health club (also known as a fitness club, fitness center, and commonly
referred to as a gym) is a place which houses exercise equipment for the purpose of
physical exercise. It is one the fastest growing service industry in India. With a
expected business of 1 trillion by 2015 it is attracting a lot of new players in the
industry.
People are becoming more health conscious now a days. They are ready to take
time out of their already busy schedules to go to gyms and work out because they
have understood the benefit of healthy living.
Fitness centers provide a variety of services to the customers such as:-

Group exercise classes

Sports facilities

Personal training

Main workout area

Cardio Theater

Cardio area

Strength training

Some fitness centers have also started providing additional services to their
customers such as:

Physiotherapist

Kick boxing

Massages

Juice bars

The research findings are:-

Consumer behaves with the services of Fitness Centres

Introduction / purpose
Knowing your customers and being able to provide what satisfies them is a critical issue for
todays service providers and at the core of todays marketing paradigm. Knowledge of what
services consumer wants helps in effective segmentation and in creating successful service
offers.
However, consumer behavior varies across industries and is considered to be multidimensional.
Many researchers have investigated the effect of various
factors, such as service quality; customer satisfaction; perceived service value, and cost of
services on consumer behavior in different industries including banks; fast-foods; dry cleaning,
athletic services; entertainment; thematic parks, and health institutes
In athletic services, research has focused on service quality and customer satisfaction
Dimensions and how these affect current and potential behavioral intentions. In fitness centers,
there is a strong relationship between all service quality dimensions
and positive word-of-mouth communications of customers. Major customer motives for
becoming members in a fitness centre include training and staying fit as well as losing weight.
Moreover, customers choose
fitness center based on criteria such as cost; quality of environment; building, and equipment,
group exercise program content, and quality of instructors. Although this study provides some
deeper insights regarding the way consumers behave with the services in fitness centers, there is
a need to analyze further this behavior.

Objective of the study

Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyze consumer behavior with services in fitness
centers.
In detail, we aim to study consumers profile (demographic and psychographic), their motives for
becoming members in a fitness centre, the selection criteria they use, their usage behavior in the

fitness centre, the factors that affect their satisfaction from the fitness centre, and their future
behavioral intentions regarding the fitness centre.

Methodology
The study is descriptive in nature intending to describe the way consumers behave with the
services in fitness centre. A survey was done based on a structured questionnaire that was
personally administered to a purposive sample of 100 respondents from 4 fitness centers that are
based in Preet Vihar. The sample included different sizes of fitness centers in order to cover for
different environments. The questionnaire was divided into 6 sections, namely consumer
motives, selection criteria, factors affecting satisfaction, behavior in the fitness centres area;
behavioral intentions; demographic & psychographic information. The analysis of the data
included descriptive statistics, factor analysis. The only scales used from prior research are for
the factors that affect customer satisfaction.

Results
Results show that respondents are 61% men and 39% women, most of them (45%) belong to the
24-35 age category whereas 32 are from 36-50 years old. Almost half of the sample has a
bachelors degree (43%). The majority of respondents are not married (62%) and their income
level is mostly (43%) between Rs.25000-35000. Respondents are employed as private employees
(20%), civil servants (26%), or free professionals (19%). Also, there are a lot of students
members of fitness centers (35%).
The most important consumer motive to become a member of a fitness centre is to enhance
Their fitness state followed by relaxation stress reduction (see Table 1 for mean scores for
Each motive).
Table 1. Motives to become a member of a fitness centre
Enhance fitness state

4.35

Relaxation
Control body weight
Health reasons
Increase body mass
Social interaction

3.62
3.58
3.52
2.88
2.39

Linkert scale from 1= not important to 5 = very important

The selection criteria customers use to choose fitness centre belong to four major groups
1. Quality of environment & equipment;
2. Supplementary benefits such as massage solarium or hair-styling

3. Value for money aspects of the offer (opening hours prices quality of personnel)
4. Social factors (social relations to personnel, friends already members etc.)

Table 2: Fitness centre choice criteria

Quality
of 4.1
environment

equipment
Value for money 3.65
aspects of the offer
Supplementary
benefits
Social factors

3.55
2.39

As the sample is dominated by men, 82% use weights whereas only 54% take part
in group workout sessions. Most customers use aerobic equipment and weights very often and
many times they do what trainers tell them whereas they work out in groups less often (see table
3 for means of usage behavior). A large 50% work out from 1 to 1.5 hours and 36% from 1.5 to 2
hours. Also, 56% come to the centre from 17.00 up to 21.00 and 94% visit the centre from 2 to 5
times per week. More than half of respondents (55%) are members of the fitness centre for more
than 1 year whereas 38% are members for more than 2 years.
Table 3: Usage behavior in the centre
Aerobic equipment 3.90
(running
belts,
bicycles etc.)
Weights
3.68
What trainers tell me 2.99
Anything depending 2.57
on my mood
Group
exercise 2.53
classes
Likert scale from 1= never to 5 = very often
All categories of factors that affect satisfaction are important according to respondents as it is
shown in Table 4. However, the most important ones concern the quality of personnel and the
quality of environment of the fitness centre.

Table 4: Factors affecting satisfaction in the fitness centre

Quality of personnel 4.3
professionalism
Economic factors
4
Quality
of 4.3
environment
Security, reliability 3.9
and organization of
activities

*Likert scale from 1= not important at all to 5 = very important

In behavioral intentions, we must note that the most important intention is word-of-mouth
communication. Most respondents are willing to provide positive word of mouth for their fitness
centre and are quite committed to their supplier in terms of purchase intentions now and in the
future. Also, most respondents are not very price sensitive and their complaining intentions are
low (see table 5 for means for each type of behavioural intentions).
Table 5: Behavioural intentions
Word
of
mouth
communication
Complaining
intentions
Purchase intentions
Price sensitivity

4.6
3.2
3.5
3.3

*Likert scale from 1= extremely unlikely to 5 = extremely likely

Factor analysis on psychographic factors shows that there are 4 types of customers in fitness
centers, the Sports-savvy consumer, the Health-oriented consumer, the Athletic consumer
and the Pressured consumer. Further analysis with an aim to describe these 4 types of
customers in terms of behavior revealed that the different groups have different motives, use
different selection criteria, and behave differently in the centre. Also, their satisfaction is affected
by different factors, and exhibit different behavioral intentions (see table 6 for a description of

each type of customer identified. In motives; selection criteria, and factors affecting satisfaction,
the two most important in each case appear in the table in order of importance).

Table 6. Additional Services

physiotherapist
Personal training
Kick Boxing
Massages
Juice bar

3.5
4.5
3
2
4

*Likert scale from 1= extremely unlikely to 5 = extremely likely

Factor analysis on psychographic factors shows that there are 5 additional services that the
customers want. Personal training is preferred by more, after that at second people want juice
bars in the fitness centers, at third customers want the services of physiotherapist in the gym,
then people would like the kick boxing facility, and at last they want massages in their fitness
centers
Types of customers of fitness centres and their profile
Sports-savvy consumer Health-oriented consumer Athletic consumer Pressured consumer

Managerial implications of
The findings of this study present many implications for fitness centre management.
1. Consumers of fitness centers differ in many ways and managers of fitness centres face the
difficult task of satisfying all these different people. The emergence of four Different types of
fitness centre customers presents a challenge for sports managers. Their different needs and
preferences should be linked directly with the creation of Customized offers. For example, a
pressured consumer who is primarily interested in a good deal should be offered a good price for
a limited variety of services because he doesnt use everything anyway. On the other hand, an
athletic consumer is not so concerned about price provided that the environment and equipment
are good and there is security and good organisation in the business. So a different package
would be suitable for such a customer.
2. Relaxation and stress reduction is a very important motive for fitness centre Customers. As a
result, managers should make sure that their programs can make Customers feel better, release
their tension and have a good time.
3. In their choice criteria, all types of customers consider the core service (environment
equipment) of the centre more important than any supplementary benefits or social interaction.
This means that any communication to customers must primarily focus on the core service and
extend to other benefits according to target group.
4. The importance of motives and selection criteria differs between the 4 types of customers
identified. This means that sport managers should carefully segment their market and customize
their advertising messages according to the group of customers targeted. Also, it is important for
fitness centres to enhance thne power of their brand by strengthening associations that relate to
the motives or selection criteria of their target market.
5. Employee professionalism as well as quality of the environment and the equipment were
found to be the most important determinants of customer satisfaction. Therefore, careful
selection and training of employees and effective management of the physical evidence of the
fitness centre are priorities that should not be neglected by managers. Especially important is to
keep all aerobic equipment in a good state since most customers use them very often.
6. Identification of the groups that are more likely to complain and provide negative word of
mouth can help in preventing customer defection and enhancing long-term relationships with
customers.
In summary, the results of this study will help managers of fitness centres to improve their
services, segment their market appropriately, satisfy all types of customers, retain the most
profitable customers and create long-term relationships with them that lead to higher profits.

Limitations further research

This study extends findings in the area of consumer behavior in fitness centers. However, the
sample is purposive and is limited to 4 fitness centers in one region. Future research can extend
the sample; use a random sample from the whole city; do multi-city studies showing changes in
consumption and behavioral patterns of services.

Bibliography:

Thegym.com
Goldgym.com
Worldgym.com

Questionnaire :-

Ques 1. What are the motives to become the member of fitness centre?

Enhance fitness state

Relaxation
Control body weight
Health reasons
Increase body mass
Social interaction
(mark from 1 to 5. 1 being not very important and 5 being very important)
Ques 2. What are your fitness centre selection criteria?

Quality of environment
equipment
Value for money aspects of the
offer
Supplementary benefits
Social factors
(mark from 1 to 5. 1 being not very important and 5 being very important)

Ques 3. What services you use in the gym?

Aerobic equipment (running belts,

bicycles etc.)
Weights
What trainers tell me
Anything depending on my mood
Group exercise classes
(mark from 1 to 5. 1 being not very important and 5 being very important)

Ques 4. What are the factors that affect your satisfaction in fitness centre?

Quality
of
personnel
professionalism
Economic factors
Quality of environment
Security,
reliability
organization of activities

and

(mark from 1 to 5. 1 being not very important and 5 being very important)

Ques 5. What are your behavioural intentions?

Word of mouth communication

Complaining intentions
Purchase intentions
Price sensitivity
(mark from 1 to 5. 1 being not very important and 5 being very important)

Ques 6 What additional services would you like in your gym?

physiotherapist
Personal training
Kick Boxing
Massages
Juice bar
(mark from 1 to 5. 1 being not very important and 5 being very important)