How Marven Yacoub views the On-Site Fitness Transformation to Hybrid Change Model?

Marven Yacoub, a qualified fitness trainer, believes that the fitness industry is poised for exponential growth after the epidemic. He also claims that workout preferences will shift away from gyms and toward outdoor, at-home fitness, and digital options.

He also feels that the industry is about to undergo significant change. There are already visible signs of change on the horizon. Even though each market segment strives to provide consumers with the benefits of exercise, they are in direct competition to become the best alternative.

According to Marven Yacoub, on-site fitness is transitioning from an in-person to a hybrid change Model.

Because of the pandemic, the $97 billion global health club industry has altered its operations to avoid person-to-person contact.

However, Marven Yacoub believes that traditional gyms and studios have a future: In the first two weeks of February 2021, 30% of US customers went to the gym or studio at least once, while 70% of fitness consumers said they miss the gym as much as they miss family and friends. Vaccinated consumers went to the gym at 35%, a significant increase from the pre-pandemic market penetration of around 25% in the United States.

As economies reopen, gyms and studios should rethink their value propositions and position themselves in the context of consumers’ fitness portfolios, particularly recognizing their promise as third places—community hubs—where members may focus on themselves.

Reaching wellness enthusiasts, researcher-experimenters, and traditionalists might be critical for gyms and studios. Wellness enthusiasts are likely to return; traditionalists who have not yet formed new habits may reintroduce gyms and studios into their routine if they feel safe. Similarly, researcher-experimenters are susceptible to being enticed by various novel alternatives.

Importantly, Marven Yacoub proposes that gyms and studios create communities to meet consumers’ psychological need for belonging and mutual support.

Community types can vary, from those centered on leaders or experts—instructors—to supportive or competitive groups, but our research shows that they all make individuals feel like they are spending time on themselves.

For example, one UK gym created a virtual jogging club with social media assistance during the epidemic to build a sense of unity and healthy competition.

In addition to determining the best community type for the club’s principles and members, gyms and studios should explain and adjust their value propositions for their target consumers. One intriguing area could be measuring floor-space usage and productivity comparable to that of a typical retailer.

For example, suppose a gym’s members have begun to engage in independent cardiovascular activity outside of the club. In that case, decision-makers can change the structure of the gym and reallocate space accordingly. One major gym chain provided outdoor-class experiences, which took members outside the facility. It created its streaming service for on-demand classes in response to the tendency of many gyms to reallocate floor space.

Marven Yacoub suggests that gyms and studios look at ways to partner with producers of complementary goods to fit into consumers’ portfolios of fitness habits. Based on their value propositions and aspirations, a gym and a fitness tracker may be good collaborators. Before the epidemic, a fitness studio chain successfully worked with an indoor-cycling chain by leveraging their shared value proposition of live performance tracking to motivate members.

Traditional on-site fitness players may have the ability to provide data and performance tracking in innovative areas such as power measured by someone’s output in watts as fit-tech capabilities continue to expand. Gyms and studios can create facilities to enhance community involvement or provide visually appealing spaces for social media posts to satisfy certain members’ desire for connection and self-expression—consider wellness enthusiasts whose identities are based on fitness—to fulfill certain members’ urges for connection and self-expression. A mural was used by one riding club to boost social media involvement.

Clubs can also restructure memberships and pricing to provide more flexibility for members who are now exercising in various methods while also enhancing retention and average income per user. The pandemic pushed some competitors to close, altering demand and price tolerances. Still, it also compelled the remaining gyms and studios to offer hybrid memberships, paving the way for broader pricing accessibility models.

Marven Yacoub believes that in the future, the fitness industry can use traditional pricing research to improve its pricing by finding value, aligning goods to consumer categories, and scheduling discounts. Health firms, like other industries, should invest the resources necessary to continuously experiment with different pricing approaches and expand their offerings across the in-gym and at-home ecosystems.

Gyms and studios can boost their employees’ confidence by communicating their value propositions and involving their employees in achieving those goals. In a fragmented industry, gyms and studios can also assist the team in gathering data and selecting fitness content for consumers. Unfortunately, the pandemic’s economic impact resulted in over a million job losses by 2020.

Simultaneously, gyms and studios can adjust the size of their geographic and real-estate footprints and investigate opportunities to expand or contract in other locations based on their success. M&A opportunities will emerge over time.

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