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Don't Leave Branding Opportunities On The Table

6/12/2015

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Guy Kawasaki, former technology evangelist for Apple says it best....

“I have tried to enchant people with great stuff and I have tried to enchant people with crap…let me tell you, it’s a lot easier to enchant people with great stuff than crap…it’s the skin of it” (Silicon Valley Bank, 2011, YouTube, 12 Lessons Steve Jobs Taught Guy Kawasaki).

Mr. Kawasaki further describes "jumping curves" and avoiding "better sameness" which I take to mean, a brand should deliver a product to the market that is exponentially 10X superior to anything the competition can create. For all the malls and shopping districts I've experienced I have NO recall of any computer manufacturer upstaging or usurping Apple's retail branded outlets. Why?

Complete dominance over the marketplace including % of market share.
Impede, inhibit and psychological stave off any competitors considering entering the market.

Branding Lesson: I-N-T-I-M-I-D-A-T-E the competition forcing them to bypass your market.

1. But That's Not How It's Done

What gym developer would open a luxury gym brand in the same area as an Equinox? Plenty. What gym developer would open a low price point gym near a Planet Fitness? Plenty. What developer would open a comparable chain gym model in the same area of a Crunch franchise? Plenty. What CrossFit Box developer would open a CrossFit Box in the same city as another CrossFit owner? Plenty.

Why do developers continue to invest in blurred brands? This is standard protocol in the fitness industry, and most other, and frankly, if you're not scratching your head by now after reading this in print, you should be.

Those who benefit in this practice are the consumers. You've given the consumer leverage and control over YOUR market. They can pick and choose, kick tires, and compare features of your facility over your competition. They have leverage and options. Why would you invest in, create a business model, and deliver it to your market if it wasn't 10X better than anything out there? Answer: better sameness. And the outcome will be a slugfest between you and your competition fighting for market share.

Better sameness is the result of the developer/builder who doesn't have expertise in design and/or the limited skill set of the design firm and their inability to deliver branded 10X caliber design to the owner.

2. For New Brands

I put forward this theory. You're either magnifciently superior to your competition, e.g., Apple, or only incrementally so, i.e., better sameness.

It becomes critically important for new brands to be aware of this phenomena as the preexisting competition already has the consumers attention, and their dollars. Better sameness is an insidious detractor of a branding strategy usurping innovative and original design. Better sameness strips a business of unique marketing opportunities by creating design that's commonplace and pedestrian. This creates a window of opportunity enabling the competition to enter into your market. Why on earth would you give your competition any advantage? Will this impact your revenue? You bet it will.

3. Don't Leave Branding Opportunities On The Table

The title of this post "Don't Leave Branding Opportunities On The Table" set the stage for illustrating the advantages of powerbranding. Inversely, leaving branding opportunities on the table is exactly the outcome of design infected by better sameness, meaning, design which undermines exclusivity and misuses the developers cash investment. Design firms that deliver better sameness miss BOTH the big picture, and the small, and set their clients up for mediocre branding.

Better sameness design results in space planning and layout that is unimaginative and banal. In contrast, good space planning carves and sculpts the rooms of your facility into an enriching, exciting and engaging member experience that can celebrate your design and reinforce the uniqueness of your brand.
Better sameness lighting design is lifeless and utilitarian merely illuminating rooms and corridors. In contrast, good lighting design can generate drama and theater and create spectacular environments which effort is to seduce prospects to buy into your brand. Lighting fixtures that reinforce your theme and the caliber of your brand are instrumental in lighting design efforts as well. (I mention lighting design as it's one of the most misunderstood and misused tools in a design firm's palette which can make or break your design effort).
Better sameness materials, finishes, furniture and design elements are typically selected by better sameness design firms on the merits of how pretty and nice they look. There's NO relationship to the brand, and if any, only marginally so. The hallmark and benchmark of powerbranding is the ability to back-link and reinforce the theme and brand identity in the selection of every design element in your facility.

....all this means that design firms that create better sameness leave countless branding opportunities on the table which simply is the squandering of their client's investment.

4. Brand Like Apple

In order to stave off its competition and dominate its market, Apple's designers employ PowerBranding. Every material, surface element, mechanical system, graphic, furniture display, and color, back-link and reinforce the brand concept and facilitate the sale. Greater than that, it's a marketing message that resonates with the public. It telegraphs that this is a company that has its act together and its products and services are seamlessly integrated insuring consumer confidence and brand quality.

Mr. Kawasaki says, "it's the skin of it" - so what's the complexion of your brand's skin?

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New Gym Brands "Use The Force"

6/2/2015

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Darth Vader and his TIE Fighters have eliminated the rebel fighters save Luke Skywalker. Skywalker is closing in on the Death Star's only point of vulnerability, a thermal exhaust port. While peering through the view-port of his weapon's targeting computer he hears his departed master's voice.

Obi-Wan Kenobi

(voice)

- Use the Force Luke

Briefly distracted, Luke looks away from the targeting computer, then returns to the sights

Obi-wan Kenobi

(voice)

-Let go

Cut to Darth Vader in his TIE Fighter cockpit

Darth Vader

-The Force is strong with this one

Cut back to Luke concentrating on the weapon's targeting computer

Obi-wan Kenobi

(voice)

-Luke, trust me

Hesitating briefly, Luke then confidently turns off the targeting computer which retracts back into its housing

Cut to the rebel command headquarters where Princess Leia, C-3PO , and others, are anxiously viewing the events over an illuminated battle map.

Communications Technician

(electronic voice)

-His computer's off. Luke, you switched off your targeting computer, whats wrong?

Luke Skywalker

(voice)

-Nothing I'm alright

Video Link: (0:00/4:01) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOFgFAcGHQc

George Lucas was crafting drama and possibly communicating a metaphor for trusting one's own instincts, probably both. Luke Skywalker rejected the resources that were at his disposal - targeting computer, personnel support, technology and the rebel alliance's expertise (all of which I will call the system) and trusted his instincts to solve the problem.The rebel alliance was saved, but the beloved R2-D2 took one for the cause.

The message for anyone developing a new brand, gym or otherwise, is this....don't look to the system for ideas or answers, find a solution that is inspired by you.When developing your brand identity skim past articles in your trade journals that celebrate a competitor's brand aesthetic. Click past HGTV and put down lifestyle magazines. Don't visit your competitors facilities or like businesses. Don't give your creative consultants absolute control over your brand aesthetic and don't heed the good advice of friend's family and colleagues, reject the system, find your own Force.

Typically, when developers are creating their branding platforms, they study, review and look at their competitors brands, it's a natural instinct. However, by doing so, they've planted a seed for a tainted brand aesthetic of their own. They loose the opportunity to create a unique brand identity and business model because their mind map has been influenced, swayed and shaped by the colors, designs, concepts and aesthetics they had seen when studying their competitions brand.

It's understood. A great investment is going to be made in developing your brand and you're in hyper-sensitive-mode. You want to make safe, sure and accurate decisions that will insure your success. As metaphor, Luke's weapons targeting computer did the same, insured a safe, sure and accurate shot that would insure success, yet he turned it off.

Here it is.... You know a luxury gym model when you see it. You know a big-box chain model when you see it. You know a muscle gym when you see it. You know a CrossFit Box when you see it. You see it, you get it? This is what happens when you follow the system instead of trusting yourself to create your own brand.

The CrossFit Box of Source Fitness breaks the mold for the aesthetic of CrossFit Boxes

The problem is systemic in the fitness industry, and I believe true for most forms of commerce. For any market segment be it luxury gyms, big-box, muscle gyms, personal training studios and CrossFit boxes, developers look at, study and visit the existing models that are in the market. After doing so, they deliver some slightly different, yet obviously identical, version of the aesthetic, aka better sameness, leading to blurred brands. I have validated this preposition in earlier posts by identifying the six trends that currently hold the industry is a death spiral of better sameness.

When trusting the system, looking at your competition, following the herd, and creating a brand that is slightly different, but also slightly the same, you have undermined a great marketing opportunity to deliver something entirely different to your target demographic.

The orange mirror cardio wall of Mid City Gym was inspired by the bullet hole pock marked walls in the Terminator film series.

We advise our client's to reject wholesale the aesthetics and brands of their competition and of their market segment. These developers are creating novel new gym models that are dominating their markets, and it's all their ideas. Some inspired by the Rocky and Terminator film sagas, another that reflects the owner's Grecian heritage. Personal training studios with aesthetics used in baseball, and Subway Chic and Nature and gym models that simply reflect and reinforce the client's own logo. The point is, these gym developers created their own brands rather than being influenced by the competition or the market.

These new developers "Use The Force"

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The Gym Predesign Strategy

6/2/2015

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The content of this post is two-fold. First, it illustrates an alternative contract option between gym developer and design firm. Second, it outlines benefits of a Predesign effort.

Perhaps your design firm of choice will provide you with a split-contract agreement separating the creative-conceptual Predesign scope of work from the Production scope of work. Traditionally, this isn't an option. Design firms want the whole humble pie, not a slice. Traditionally to the X factor. Gym design firms don't even produce Predesign or Branding services, they're interior design service factories.

Predesign, is an uber smart augmented strategy that provides developers advance knowledge of aesthetic sensibilities, marketing possibilities and financial probabilities.It's concept-branding-budget-centric information regardless of location, size and physical properties of a space. (Best practice hint, consider Predesign prior to securing a lease). Production however is the "grind". The detail oriented architectural production work encompassing drawings, specifications, permits and construction of a specific space.

Design firms like to close on contracts incorporating both the Predesign and Production phases in their agreements, bigger pie, more revenue. In contrast, a contractual agreement detaching creative work from the production work provides the developer with unique leverage. It amplifies the design firm's creative skill set, positively or negatively, enabling the developer early on to judge the design firm's competence and understanding of the owner's vision. More importantly, it requires a design firm to submit budgetary pricing on design features under review in this early scope of work. Finally, whether one cares to agree or not, client designer chemistry rapidly becomes apparent foretelling a possibly mutually rewarding project, or a project steeped in frustration, obstacles and poor communication, and in turn, potential cost overruns.

A Predesign agreement enables a gym developer to "terminate" a contract with their design firm prior to entering a second, more costly agreement, for production of a gym design that doesn't meet the creative pedigree of the owner's vision or the budgetary requirements.Remember, the Predesign agreement is a branding-budgeting exercise unrelated and independent of any specific space. You're not tied to the terms and obligations and work required to develop a full gym design. It provides you with a "peace of mind" cushion as you're not tied to a more complex and expensive contract.

Another benefit of terminating an agreement of this nature is that there is no leased property, no pending schedules, banking, legal or other, that must be met. It gives the owner time to further develop their branding platform.

If we now consider the face of the successful Predesign effort we begin to see the many opportunities of this contractual agreement. The Predesign effort is the first salvo revealing the design aesthetic, which if in sync with the developers vision, becomes the foundation for the ongoing design trajectory. This may be the singular most important design effort because if successful, it provides the owner with a translation of his or her design vision into a built facility, and this is the fun part of the project, it gets really exciting.

Benefits of the Predesign effort include.

A pre-approved brand identity that can be plugged into any space the developer secures for their facility
Budgets and prices for design features can be itemized and evaluated for consideration before final design
Materials, finishes, concepts, colors and the entire branding aesthetic can be tweaked, revised, rejected or accepted prior to securing a lease saving valuable time.
Renderings, inspiration boards and marketing campaigns can unite offering the owner opportunity to sell to the target demographic prior to opening.

If there was one benefit that I would consider the most valuable in the Predesign exercise it would be in the leasehold agreement with the landlord.

Traditionally, a landlord will provided a developer with terms offering some free rent, enabling the developer to design and build their space prior to incurring rent charges. Conventionally, designers are retained only after a developer secures their lease. This precipitates a time pressured environment requiring the designer to deliver and produce a brand, an interior design, contract documents and coordination prior to any construction.

The Predesign agreement however fast tracks the design process potentially saving the developer a substantial amount of time on their free rent. Simply, the design aesthetic, features and elements that are created in Predesign, are plugged into the final leased space. If all stars align, the developer can potentially open for business prior to incurring any rent charges.

And by the way, this process works.

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Don't Be A McGymDonald's

5/24/2015

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gymdesign, gym branding, gymconsulting, gymtrends,

When gym brands embrace interior aesthetics employed by fast food chains one has to ask, why would a gym developer deliver to their market, a fitness business model that resembles the style of a McDonald's?

A recent LinkedIn post I came across was setting up a dialogue for the failure of McDonald's corporate leadership in guiding their franchisees through hostile waters and receding revenues. Á la Gary Vanyerchuk, I jumped in on the conversation and commented that no amount of corporate welfare was going to rescue any McDonald's franchisee when trial, judge and jury, in the form of public opinion, has found those at the helm guilty of profits at the expense of consumer health and wellness in the form of chemically engineered food- abysmal employee compensation standards - and complicit in animal McCruelty campaigns.

Fortunes's Phil Wahba recently delivered an articulate and lucid essay on the closing of hundreds of McDonald's stores in an effort to mitigate declining revenue and profits. So what's a iconic fast food brand to do? Re-brand of course, in an orchestrated multi channel effort uniting social media, PR, menu changes and interior design (our subject of discourse). Actually, their interior re-branding effort began back in 2008 when franchisees decided to create stylish interiors for the brand which effort was to move them from stogy to stylish, and this, in my opinion, is the classic interior design fail.

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I started this post by asking why gym brands embrace aesthetics that are being employed by McDonald's? To be clear, what I'm arguing is.... why are gyms using the same design trend called Boutique Design that McDonald's is also using? The answer, these gym developers trusted the concepts and aesthetics presented to them by their design or branding consultants (and or they were sold on them and closed by the same). What brands fail to recognize when revamping interior aesthetics is the agenda, ego, and intent of the retained design firm, I know, I've trained some of them.

Designers are a breed of creative elitists intent on spawning their vision at all costs, including and at the detriment of their client's best interests, investment and brand identity.Why? Promotion of their ego and procreation of their superior design vision, it's all about them and their portfolios. Rather than branding you're gym they're more concerned with having their concepts built. They're intent on impressing their industry peers, one-upping and upstaging their competition, by delivering their own interpretation of the current popular design trend. This in my opinion is in conflict with a "professional design code of conduct" and broadcasts design malfeasance.

When interior designers produce designs that reflect a trend or their personal tastes rather than power branding their client's business model they...

Blur their clients brands
Squander their clients investment
Subvert their clients marketing opportunities
Undermine their client's ability to dominate a marketplace

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It is paramount in the field of fitness facility design that designers provide their clients with interior aesthetics that support the business model, telegraph the offering and reinforce the brand.This is critically important because a fitness environment, by the nature of its core ideology, is one that should exhibit energy and excitement in a way that reflects the brand. A gym interior should aspire to motivate and stimulate membership to train. In contrast, the chic aesthetic of Boutique Design, which found it's origin in the chill and sexy Hospitality-Hotel-Lounge-Restaurant industry is meant to be sedate and sophisticated and continues to pervade the sphere of fitness facility design. There you have it, boutique design espousing designers are trying to impose on you a sexy chill sophisticated gym instead of one that telegraphs fitness.

But who else? Some might argue that interior design is a lofty art form, subjective and sacred, practiced by the overlord's of design, the keepers of the creative realm, no, a designer is a consultant, no more, no less. Resist elevating a design firm to the role of sole arbiter of your gym's interior aesthetics. Your gym design should reflect YOUR vision, not the designer's. Designers are facilitators of the built environment and their personal vision, tastes and style should bear no affect on their clients spaces. More than that, designers should rather advise their clients to reject design trends and endeavor to develop some organic concept that is unique to the owner's own vision. Provide your designer with a brief of what you envision your gym to look like, then request that your designer submit to you concepts, products, metaphors, drawings, sketches, photos, ideas and materials that will become manifest in your vision.

TAKEAWAY: If a corporate behemoth in the likes of McDonald's finds no savior in the adoption of a design trend, gym developers will be well advised to invest in a design concept that is more closely aligned with the spirit of their offering and reflective of their brand.

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Fitness Is Being Hijacked By Aesthetics That Say Nothing About Fitness

5/12/2015

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1. And this is?

So, what does the aesthetic of the header image (above) telegraph about the offering?January, one year prior, I had come across an article on Business Wire regarding a new metric, or indicator, of Brand Dependence as a predictor of a brand's influence and potential. This new index, delivered by Laurence Vincent of UTA Brand Studio at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, was titled "Story of Attachment." In summary, it's a measure of consumer brand strength as a sort of touchy feely emotional metric that helps brands (consumer electronics in this case) better gauge influence and power. That's an interesting metric, emotions.

Outside of fitness, industries wage pitched battles in efforts to differentiate their brands. Look no further than the "hamburger arms race" between McDonald's and Burger King or auto giants Honda and Nissan. What's at stake? Market dominance, market share...r-e-v-e-n-u-e.

Yet the fitness industry continues to cross industry trend, or brand borrow cannibalize, internally the aesthetics of its market segments. Cross industry trending is the focus of this content and off all the gym trends which greatly blur a gym brand, the aesthetic known as Boutique Design, reigns supreme. It deserves special scrutiny because it gets little mention in the rhetoric of critical design conjecture. As noted in one of my earlier posts, the design intelligentsia considers this trend to be sophisticated stylish and cool, yet the reality is that it's an exhausted pedestrian cliché employed across all manner of commerce. Hotels, restaurants, bars, residences, retail, hardware stores, dry cleaners, food chains and now gyms embrace this trend.

Boutique Design's greatest disservice is that it telegraphs nothing about fitness, nor a gym brand.

2. And this is?

3. And this is?

4. And this is?

If you're a luxury gym developer and you want to turn your USP (unique selling proposition) over to others, boutique design is your aesthetic vehicle of choice. At first, an ego enlightened joy ride. In time, as you identify the aesthetic everywhere you turn (as will your members,) your once lofty gym joy ride is diminished as another luxury brand wanna-be. Unless you're a fitness facility 1%-er, in the likes of the David Barton brand, avoid this aesthetic lest you appear un-inventive and unoriginal.

As a gym developer you have to really ask of yourself, where is the greater value? Is it in adopting aesthetic trends, or delivering a unique gym model to the marketplace?The preceding will certainly result in a nice facility, the later, opportunity to find other features of your branding platform that will further differentiate you from your competition.

Header Image Boxing Gym

Image 2 Gym Reception Area

Image 3 CrossFit Locker Room

Image 4 Gym Locker Room

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$ = The David Barton Brand

5/11/2015

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Yes there are those who love the aesthetic, and those who hate it, but David Barton continues to expand the brand selling memberships at 15X the price of the big box clubs (you have to admire the EBITDA of this gym model). A $160 per month membership in their new Boston club, now that's a starting point. But DB is an isolated brand, what I call a macro brand, focused on major metropolises, and targets a demographic with "liquid" income....so what's the point?

David Barton employs high design as marketing and a facilitator in the generation of revenue for a specific demographic, that's the point.

The David Barton aesthetic defies the conventions of traditional gym design and transcends all the major design styles that which I had noted in an earlier post. It's this design effort that best telegraphs their marketing message. Walk into any DB facility and know that you're experiencing design on many levels and of a pedigree beyond what is typically practiced in gym design. It should go without saying, but it should be said, DB invests heavily in design and construction on the front end resulting in greater returns on the back end.

A gym brand should posses at least one of any of the following three features. It should endeavor to telegraph fitness, it should exhibit energy and excitement, and it should convey the brand, best case, it should embody all. Of the three, energy and excitement, I believe, can be a powerful motivator in the fitness environment and David Barton does just that, energy and excitement, with élan and wit. Consider the over the top stage sets (environments) and light shows for a WWE wrestling event. It's an eye candy orgy of spectacular theater as a tool of "marketing".

The David Barton aesthetic is all showmanship and theater and that is an environment that moves prospects as spectators to members and then brand ambassadors.

I've never really thought about it but perhaps one of the barriers to deeper penetration of the market is the lack of inspired facilities for a public that are already averse to fitness (a different part of that untapped consumer that Planet Fitness markets to, the Blue Ocean pool noted in one of my earlier posts).

I liken all this to Tesla's Elon Musk's comments about focusing on signal over noise... essentially saying Tesla never spent money on advertising, they focused on efforts resulting in a better product or service....better still, he argues to reject trends and boil your company down to fundamental truths and reason up from there.

Is there is an untapped demographic market segment, that 85% of the American public who are averse to fitness, yet have liquid income, but have not been sold on fitness, perhaps because they are unmoved by the lackluster facilities/brands that populate the landscape?

That is a new question.

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Brand Voice By Our Friends At salesforce Canada Blog

5/8/2015

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Brand Sacrifice In Gym Design Trends

4/29/2015

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Brand Sacrifice In Gym Design Trends

The objective of this post is to make an argument that gym brands should reject design trends and endeavor to be original in order to deliver a unique model to the marketplace.....

Management guru Peter Drucker advised "the best way to predict your future was to create it"

In contrast, embracing the creative template of a trend is an unsustainable formula for long term scaling of a business.

The accompanying image illustrates a simplified identification of six design trends that define the fitness landscape, an expose if you will, of the creative realm of gym design. (In an effort to keep this to a short read I have not included the micro brands, macro brands and other manifestations of fitness facility design). To note, yes, each design is nice, I'm not denigrating any brand here. I'm providing insight into the trending aspects of gym design.

Those who enter into these fitness segments adopt wholesale the identifying aesthetics and characteristics of that segment, simply that is, following that segment Trend. It's formulaic. Some might change colors, shift programing or specify different equipment. Others might embrace some elemental architectural features or different amenities or graphics, but all this, more or less, could be described as better sameness.

Regardless, adopting a trend undermines a developer's ability to stand out and dominate his or her market. It specifically becomes challenging, more so, when another player enters the same market embracing similar aesthetics at the same membership price point.

Six Gym Design Trends

....clockwise from upper left.

1. The Luxury Gym or Boutique Design. Boutique Design, in my opinion, is the single greatest threat to the future of fitness facility design. The aesthetic is an exhausted cliché adopted across all of commerce and is considered by the design intelligentsia to be sophisticated, stylish and cool. This trend is embraced in virtually all manner of enterprise including but not limited to hotels, restaurants, lounges, spas, residences, retail, offices and now gyms. I will go into further detail in a future post. The greatest disadvantage for a gym brand in employing this aesthetic is that it telegraphs nothing about fitness and everything about the trend.

2. The Big Box Gym. The chain gym is a brilliant business model that is here to stay. The success of the model has generated a legion of like "modelers" and the goal is to be the first one in and occupy real estate. The aesthetic is executed (in varying degrees of success) in the use of a two color paint scheme, an edgy slogan, a logo and color coordinated fitness equipment. Perhaps the greatest challenge for this model is the slugfest for the target demographic when like brands compete in the same market at nearly identical price points.

3. The Muscle Gyms. The Muscle Gyms spawned the current day fitness industry and the aesthetic is rooted in the hard no nonsense clubs of the 80's, think Pumping Iron. This style is typically a sea of fitness equipment in large open spaces illuminated by HID (High Intensity Discharge) or fluorescent lighting (another gym design faux pas), walls adorned with images of iconic bodybuilders, and the drone of the juice bar blender. These are blue collar gyms loved and revered by those who train hard and a place I personally call home.

4. The Boxing Gym. Boxing Gyms might fall into a niche or micro category but the model appears to have more of a global following. These gyms are simply executed with a boxing ring, industrial lighting, exposed superstructure and (at times) juvenile color schemes. I believe these gyms have a lot of room for growth here in the States, especially if they "theater-ed up" their aesthetics.

5. The MMA Gym. The MMA Gyms appear to be rapidly expanding in their market segment and seem to be an organic offshoot of the Boxing Gym genre. Red and black paint schemes are the colors of choice for these brands though I have yet to find where that is written in the gym design bible. MMA Gyms are invested more in design beyond their Boxing Gym predecessors in the use of geometry and graphics. I will venture to say their colors would pop more, and their design would be more appealing, if they experimented with different Kelvin temperatures in their lighting design and diversified their red and black color schemes.

6. The Crossfit Gym. The Crossfit Brand has taken the US by storm and appears to posses unbridled momentum. The highlight of this aesthetic is the collection of perceived junk yard scrap that define the equipment such as tires, chains, plywood boxes and steel rigging. Industrial and commercial warehouses, void of little to no design, provide the environment. I find it amazing that this fast paced and highly successful phenomena, that is growing across all borders, continues to adopt the underfunded aesthetics of its origin.

Academically we could ask base questions. Is there an advantage in following a design trend? If so, where and by what measure (other than revenue) would a brand find an ROI for such effort? Polemically one could counter. Does following a design trend provide a gym brand with indicators be they social, fiduciary or other, that undermine a brand identity platform?

In summary....I'm leveling the playing field on a subject that gets little press. Hopefully it will result in helping developer's to be better informed on the subject when making investment decisions for new or existing gym models.

Learn more at: www.fitnesscenterdesign.com

Cuoco Black is a design academic, interior designer, entrepreneur and natural bodybuilder. He is a former faculty member and holds a BFA with Distinction and a Professional Design Diploma from the New York School of Interior Design ranked 4th in the World for superior interior design curriculum's by US News and World Report.

Academic Designer Bodybuilder Cuoco Black

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The $5 Walmart Gym Model Has Arrived

4/22/2015

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Yes..... a $5 per month gym model.

I had the good fortune last Summer of meeting with Tony Chowdhury, CEO of Fusion Gyms of New Britain, PA and we talked a little about his plans to develop a new gym model for the fitness industry. Passionate and focused, he described in detail his ideas on differentiation, his concept and his plans for future growth.

Tony says..."I am committed to my members continued happiness, satisfaction and peace of mind. We are providing the highest quality products and services that will help our members become much more effective in their fitness goals, at absolutely NO extra charge".

Fusion Gyms provides free tanning, free bottled water, unlimited guest passes, free access to all locations, Under Armour and Nike Outlets, fresh meals to go, and month-to-month memberships with no contract. In addition, Fusion offers a $1 enrollment fee and a $5 monthly membership.

In my previous Post I recommended that any gym could model the branding strategies of any organization that has done so successfully, not copy the model, but apply a best practices branding strategy. Tony tells me that Fusion Gym is affecting a shift in brand loyalty in its marketplace and growing in great strides at the detriment of his competition. Tony's model - Walmart and Costco.

Mr. Chowdhury states "We are going to be the change in the lives of anyone that wants to improve how they look or feel about themselves and in return expect to change the world for the better. Our passion and unrelenting desire to promote health and wellness will be the catalyst of that change, bringing about a greater quality of life to all our members and clients at a price point that ensures nobody will be denied the opportunity to better themselves"

Tony says progress is impossible without change.

I am curious if this is the change that moves the fitness industry into a new era?

Fusion Gyms: www.FusionGyms.com

Learn more about Cuoco Black Design:www.fitnesscenterdesign.com

Cuoco Black is a design academic, interior designer, entrepreneur and natural bodybuilder. He holds a BFA with Distinction and a Professional Design Diploma from the New York School of Interior Design ranked 4th in the World for superior interior design curriculums by US News and World Report.

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BRAND Like Planet Fitness

4/22/2015

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Author's Note: This post is not a celebration of Planet Fitness. It is intended to show gym developers the many tools that Planet Fitness has employed in their successful branding which are available for all to use.

If you've ever followed success evangelist Tony Robbins you'll recall one of his paramount observations - that being - "success leaves clues". He also argues that one should "model" those attributes that are practiced by those whom we deem to be successful and hold in high esteem.

It should be clear by now where I'm going with this Post so I'll set forth a case for the brilliant branding platform that Planet Fitness delivers to the market.

1. Logo: As gym logos go the PF Logo is a masterful work of two dimensional design communicating in simple graphics that which requires much in words. It embraces and telegraphs power and strength, it's a wonderful composition of the brand colors, it exhibits a 3D affect, and it's kinetic and powerful. The gear thing (in my opinion) is a touch point triggering one of two possible emotions. A tough machine-esque industrial gesture or a fun and youthful icon of our childhood playthings i.e., some possible Tinker Toy component. Regardless, this logo is a "bulls-eye" graphic icon when marketing to those who fitness goals are "frankly" not serious fitness goals. In contrast to those forever reoccurring gym logos that so many brands adopt, that which I chided in an earlier post - the swirly abstract man woman running figure - the Planet Fitness logo is better than those exponentially as a marketing effort.

2. Brand Colors: Purple and Yellow may not be colors that one considers "gym-centric" however this is MUCH more than simply two colors. In the field of color theory, a complementary color scheme is one in which two colors are positioned directly opposite of each other on the color wheel (shown below). The intellectual argument for this arrangement is that the colors are at maximum contrast and maximum stability at the same time. The resultant effect is the cancelling out of each other's energy. Hence, they are physiologically neutralized, or better, perfectly balanced. In addition, their chromas (intensity and saturation of color) are cavalier and light hearted expertly targeting the intended demographic. That's a design intent smack down and well done at that.

3. Slogans/Social: Judgment Free, Lunk Alarm, No Critics, Pizza, Tootsie Rolls. Call it smart obfuscation, smoke and mirrors, hyperbole....take your pick, it's not the slogan/social footprint...gym industry people, it's the public outcry that brings a landslide of eyes on the brand...any publicity is good publicity, did Madonna not exploit this strategy? It's smart public relations, marketing and advertising, not poor fitness ideology...ummmm well that to.

4. Interior Design: As a design academic it took me a little time to unravel this mystery of interior design branding and I have come to believe PF got this really right, scientifically speaking, better than that, marketing wise. The interior design is mostly cosmetic, surfaces and paint and graphics, not so much finishes and architectural features, but that's just fine at their price point. More design would require a more expensive build out which would move the model "up in category and price" and "down in appeal to their demographic".

5. Blue Ocean: This is marketing for those who haven't heard of Blue Ocean Marketing, that is, finding customers in a larger sea of opportunities vs. fighting for the same customer that everyone else is trying to sell. Planet Fitness is wisely fishing were others have not, the largely unpenetrated non-fitness market. The KEY = have the right bait for the intended fish.

In conclusion, Planet Fitness is a business model that has shrewdly integrated design and branding across all platforms. Marketing, advertising, design, social and pricing unite in a seamless brand identity that expertly sells to their target demographic. Gym developers at any price point, low, mid or luxury, should model their own brand identities to those who have already executed this strategy successfully. To be clear, I'm not saying duplicate another brand. I'm arguing for a process that allows you to create your own identity by applying a best practices branding formula.

Learn more at: www.fitnesscenterdesign.com

About: Cuoco Black is a design academic, interior designer, entrepreneur and natural bodybuilder. He holds a BFA with Distinction and a Professional Design Diploma from the New York School of Interior Design ranked 4th in the World for superior interior design curriculums by US News and World Report.

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