AP Economics A4
Mrs. Straub
10/30/18
The Recent Economic Growth of Anytime Fitness
In 2002, three men by the names of Chuck Runyon, Dave Mortenson, and Jeff Klinger founded the now extremely popular fitness club franchise “Anytime Fitness”. The specific niche service they wanted to give clients was the flexibility of hours and quality of service provided so they could succeed as a company. In every club, Anytime Fitness is open 24 hours per day, 365 days per year and accommodates well to clients that way. They can fit the schedule of any prospective client no matter what time they want to work out. I believe that the flexible and quality hours and services of Anytime Fitness has led to their ultimate economic growth and success in the recent years.There are many factors that have led to the entire fitness industry growing rapidly throughout the past 50 or so years; for example, multitudes of scientific studies by companies, universities, governments, and so-on have proven cigarettes, drugs, high-sugar, high-sodium, high-artificial fat diets to be harmful to the human body and literally cause people to live shorter. New cultural norms of personal fitness and attractiveness have impacted people as well to make fitness centers more popular. However, why has Anytime Fitness grown such an extreme amount itself since its opening in 2002?
Anytime Fitness struck big on the idea of discovering customer wants and capitalizing on them. We all know that customers have unlimited needs and wants but the key for Anytime Fitness was installing programs and services that the most people want, or that there was the most demand for. By being open all day, every day, it attracts more clients. By offering free video-classes for clients to take, it attracts more clients. By offering personal fitness training and having a large amount of readily-available equipment available, it attracts more clients. Also, while they are franchised, most Anytime Fitness clubs look extremely similar on the inside so pretty much wherever somebody goes, they know exactly what to expect out of this club - consistency. All of these factors are tailored to customer needs/wants increase the demand as a whole for Anytime Fitness. With the introduction of new, nice programs and services for members, there was a change in expectations out of consumers in that they want and expect more quality out of fitness clubs and more equipment to use while they’re there. They expect good service and a clean environment. All of this meets new expectations, and attracts more consumers, therefore increasing demand. There was also a change in tastes over the past 50 or so years where health and fitness has grown so much more popular in the world that the introduction of Anytime Fitness gave another option for people interested in fitness. The numbers show this as well. From 2012 to 2017, the total annual revenue for Anytime Fitness increased from $484.4 million(2012) to $1.45 billion(2017). That is almost 1 billion dollars worth of revenue growth in 5 years! In 2014, Anytime Fitness was rated the fastest growing health franchise by Forbes Magazine. As of 2018, Anytime Fitness has over 4,000 fitness clubs, with over 3 million clients in over 30 countries. The amount of growth for them has been insane and due to the shifts in demand from consumers. Also, Anytime Fitness is tailoring more to their customers than other franchise chains in the fitness industry - they are outperforming their substitutes. Consumers expect more out of Anytime Fitness than they do the substitutes such as Snap-Fitness or Planet Fitness.
Also, over the years, there has been an extreme change in technology in fitness equipment that Anytime Fitness has kept up with. From the invention of TRX straps to advances in cardio machines, weight machines, and free weights, working out has become more efficient, safer, and cleaner and Anytime Fitness has kept up with that. In an industry that’s demand is extremely elastic, meaning very sensitive to a change in price, Anytime Fitness still keeps on attracting more clients even though new workout technology has become more expensive, driving the price of memberships up. When the price of gym memberships increases, the quantity of gym memberships demanded shrinks at a more rapid rate due to people always looking for a cheaper alternative when seeking a club to belong to. However, from 2007 to 2014, Anytime fitness had an average of 625 members per club(2007) increase to 811 members per club(2014). Even with the industry’s demand being extremely elastic, Anytime Fitness’ demand has proven to be less elastic due to high customer satisfaction that outweighs the increase in price.
Overall, the recent rapid growth of the Anytime Fitness franchise has been due in major to their flexibility and quality of programs and services. Their business decisions have caused increases in demand for memberships and an increase in total revenue as well. This company keeps hitting milestones, because they know their target market and consumers very well. And they continue to thrive. In 2017, Anytime Fitness became the first United States-based health chain to be granted a franchising license in China. They’re obviously doing something right.
Works Cited
“20 To Watch: What's Trending in 2016.” Franchise Times, www.franchisetimes.com/January-2016/20-to-Watch-Whats-trending-in-2016/.“Anytime Fitness.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Oct. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anytime_Fitness.
“Anytime Fitness Ranked As The Top U.S. Franchise.” Twin Cities Business, tcbmag.com/news/articles/2013/anytime-fitness-ranked-as-the-top-u-s-franchise.
“Anytime Fitness Revenue 2012-2017 | Statistic.” Statista, www.statista.com/statistics/348458/anytime-fitness-revenue/.
Fitness, Anytime. “For The 7th Year In A Row, Anytime Fitness Is The ‘World's Fastest-Growing
Fitness Club.’” PR Newswire: Press Release Distribution, Targeting, Monitoring and Marketing, 10 July 2014, www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/for-the-7th-year-in-a-row-anytime-fitness-is-the-worlds-fastest-growing-fitness-club-266562561.html.
I think it's reasonable to say that the increase in demand for gyms and physical fitness is due to a change in consumer tastes. If you look at the last 100 years, think of how technology has lead to a significantly less physical lifestyle whether if be in the form of transportation or automation. There are few physical labor jobs left and rarely jobs that involve staying physically active. Even construction has seen drastic changes with machinery. Now look back 1000 years. Most all jobs had a physical labor component. The very way of life 1000 years ago involved physical fitness. The improvements in technology today have taught us that physical fitness is a basic human need because we are seeing what happens to our bodies without it. Heart disease, diabetes, and obesity are only some of the many problems that can occur by not staying physically fit. Our culture and lifestyle is responsible for this. People are realizing that fitness is required for them to stay functional. The market for fitness will continue to grow because it is no longer a want, but a need.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with this increase in popularity of Snap Fitness because whenever I drive around I see a lot of Snap Fitness business’s all around and that really helps get the brand name of Snap Fitness into people’s heads and once they think of the idea to start working out the first name that comes into their mind is Snap Fitness. The idea of having big names come and workout at your place I feel like doesn’t do much impact on people or at least me but I like the idea of how every Snap Fitness business is similar which really helps customers know what to expect and make them feel comfortable when they go to a new Snap Fitness workout place. With these new case studies about how healthy it is to workout just helps the whole franchise of working out so much and with the big name of Snap Fitness even more people are going to start working out to make themselves feel healthier and Snap Fitness is going to benefit from those numerous amounts of people coming in supporting the name of Snap FItness.
ReplyDeleteI feel as though Anytime Fitness is finding increasing success in this fitness industry where there is very elastic demand and many different firms. Therefore, to find success in an industry where prices are all very similar, it's important a firm finds a way to differentiate themselves from competition. Gyms are different in the way that they target their consumers. Some gyms promote many group classes, while other promote personalized training sessions. Anytime Fitness is different in the fact that they are open 24 hours. Since American's are incredibly busy with work and families, exercise has often fallen on the back burner causing rises in obesity and unhealthy lifestyles that contribute to disease. Therefore, since Anytime Fitness is always open, it appeals to busy individuals who can only find time to exercise at unpopular hours of the day. By targeting that consumer, Anytime Fitness has found success and will continue to succeed within the busy American culture.
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