The Marketing Efforts Of The Gym Group: An Overview

Task 1

This particular study is reflecting the portfolio of The Gym Group in the United Kingdom which is a 24*7 no-contract fitness club chain. The company was first founded in 2007 by John Treharne. The company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2015. The first site of the company was situated in West London (Askelson et al. 2018). Currently, it operates around 200 gyms in different places of London where it handles around 750000+ members. Some of the operating sites were also acquired by EasyGym and Lifestyle Fitness (Tggplc.com 2022). This particular section will provide an overview of the marketing efforts made by the company within the UK market segment for its improvement in operations and identify the marketing efforts' efficiency. 

Here the marketing efforts and the promotional mix will help to identify the elements of the company that are used for its marketing objectives and operations (Beede 2020). The effectiveness of the marketing strategies will be considered and identified after measuring the operations and the marketing efforts of The Gym Group.

Background of the company

The Gym Group was founded in 2007. This is one of the top original fitness providers in the entire United Kingdom which provides low cost and high-quality gym facilities to the members living in the UK. The Gym Group provides 24/7 gym memberships without the requirement of any contract (Tggplc.com 2022). The company was founded by John Treharne. The company was first enlisted under the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in 2015 and after that, it has been continuously competing with the existing competitors of the UK market segment for fitness providers. The company has over 200+ outlets and handles over 750000+ members all across the United Kingdom (Daabes 2018). 

Currently, it has been estimated that the share price of The Gym Group (TGG) is 188.20 on 16th March 2022. This is showing a significant fall of 17.80 GBP and an 8.64% fall in the share prices (Thegymgroup.com 2022). The company has earned the “Budget Gym of the Year Award” in 2011, at the National Fitness Awards. The company provides budget-friendly services to its members due to which the company was able to achieve a healthy balance among citizens of the UK (Howlett 2019). The main focus of the company is to provide services that will have no significant restrictions and it will be convenient for the members according to their daily schedules and routines for which the 24/7 rule is made and considered while operating (Thegymgroup.com 2022). 

Promotional Mix

The company primarily operates through its official websites where the customers are able to find the appropriate information about the Gym. The functionality of the visitors and the gym are equally important for the company that helps it to maintain the appropriate communication system. The official website has been designed in a maximum flexibility manner so that the style sheets can promote and attract new customers through their presentability within the website (Kishor and Ramanaiah 2017). The customer executives provide the correct support through feedback and suggestions. In case, any customer faces any issue, query or problem, then the availability of contacting customer care is always open. The major criteria of the customer executives are to improve the accessibility of the website and TGG facilities in a disciplined yet flexible manner.

The promotional mix in this particular portfolio will help to analyze the marketing efforts and objectives of the Gym Group. There are significant marketing strategies implemented by The Gym Group that directly impact and improve the operational and marketing efficiencies of the company within the UK fitness provision market segment (Lilien, Rangaswamy and De Bruyn 2017). The promotional mix, in this case, helps in analyzing the advertising, products, pricing, promotions, place, direct marketing and public relations of The Gym Group. The promotional mix is used by every organization to ensure appropriate measurement of its promotional techniques. The effective promotional mix ensures that the customers are well informed about the company’s primary products and services (Thegymgroup.com 2022). 

Products Strategy: according to the product strategies of the gym group the main products are evidently based on the fitness Centre which provides a range of exercise equipment and strengthens the cardiovascular equipment and training purposes to help the clients (Lim 2016). If the company offers certified trainers for personal and individual client training so that the individual clients get their own personal guides according to their specialised and customized programs. The gym also offers exclusive classes regarding aerobics, Pilates, groups cycling, Latin dance, power yoga and yoga. The genius provides locker rooms, boxing studio, swimming pool and basketball court through which it enables the customer attraction policies. Some of the Pro Shop nutritional centres in the gym area also sell nutritional products such as water bottles, different Protein shakes, bar supplements, clothes accessories and trims (McDonald and Wilson 2016). The main offering sustained by the gym group company is based on a secure, fully equipped, comfortable and spacious clean environment to its members which enhances their performance levels and also drives their satisfaction in a better way.

Place Strategy: the gym group company operates within the London of the United Kingdom and it has also spread its network across the United Kingdom through several parts of the world. The operations have expanded itself through a franchise system but its headquarters are based in west and east London initially (McDonald, Pini and Bartlett 2019). The gym group has become one of the largest chains for fitness provision of physique and bodybuilding purposes where it has over 200 + clubs all across the United Kingdom. There are over different countries where the gym group is currently operating and over 750000 plus members who are getting the best of the services from the particular company. Apart from the offline clubs there are significant online websites through which the gym group is providing the best possible services and customer satisfaction. The driver of enhancing customer relationships is going through the distribution channels and the places from where the particular services are being provided to the members (Palmatier and Sridhar 2017).

Advertising: advertising is a particular promotional method for promoting the products and services that are produced by the organisation. In this particular section the gym group applies a significantly effective marketing and replacement so that it can attract more new customers. the advertising and promotional activity also helps with the company's sales and customer satisfaction as it increases them. The overall results are based on earning revenue and better profitability. Here the gym group uses various platforms such as social media platform like Instagram Twitter facebook and show to attract new customers (Shrivas and Khandelwal 2019). The gym group also sometimes organise campaigns for new products and services available at the clubs. The technological advancements and advantages of the company are easily e explained to all the customers and the members through the social media marketing system where it showcases existing products and services and compares it with the newly introduced services. The company has significant competitors within the market segment but so far its marketing strategies and able to perform the responsibilities to create effective advertising and business activities where the competitive advantage can be gained by the gym group club chain (von der Heidt 2018).

Public relations: public relations is a significant tool which helps the company in launching new services and products where the promotional activities are considered. New companies often make this mistake related to their public relations but in this case the gym group has been existing in the market segment for a long time due to which the public relations have a significant importance to the company (Wood 2016). The effective customer base has been created by the company through which it is defining the significant forms of communication where it is able to directly communicate with the customers by understanding their demands needs and trends. The gym group utilizes its official website through which the customers are able to provide their feedbacks and queries which are efficiently handle by the customer executive of the company. These feedbacks and queries help the gym group in improving its existing products and services according to the requirements of the customers (Goc?owska and Pi?tkowska 2020). The official website of the gym group is constantly monitored so that the customers are not kept waiting and the appropriate navigation system to communicate with them is taken into consideration. The online presence of the gym group is sustainably monitored to engage into large contracts and attract new customers.

Sales promotion: sales promotion is a short term incentive tool which ensures that the company provides attractive offers to its customers and increases their sales within the market segment. In this particular case the sales promotion done by the gym group is through providing discounts on subscription and membership cards. This particular activity helps in increasing the sales of the company but the company is also launching new products and services which are directly drawn through flash sales loyalty cards and customer discounts. At the gym group company is ensuring that the customers are properly satisfied with the help of different discounts provided to them in order to get their loyalty (Choudhury 2020). The company is also able to tu to increase the customer satisfaction as it is providing various discounts to the new customers as well as the existing customers on the basis of their requirements and their bargaining capacity. The discounts are applicable for everyone who is willing to join the the membership club of the gym group but it is equally constructing the promotional services of the gym group that keeps the old customers satisfied and brings back new customers to the the company's operations (Bradford and Boyd 2020). The company e has provided discounts in a way that can be sated whether company is offering one month deposit and one month free plan for membership purposes of the customers. This is playing a psychological role for the the customers as they will think that they are saving one month of cost for joining the fitness club.

Pricing strategy: the main strategy of pricing is based on identifying the company's potential of maintaining its customers and bringing on new customers to the club for membership purposes. In this particular section, the Gym group is a well recognised fitness chain in the United Kingdom that provides high quality equipment and training programs to its members (Berry et al. 2019). The company has adopted an affordable pricing policy whether products are believed to be provided at a hai quality but the affordability of the products and services is nominal by the members. According to the important reason of personalities people are looking for convenient opportunities to do their fitness and workout regimes. The gym group is providing the opportunity where the members can come at any time to the club and do their workout session in order to fulfill their needs as well as maintain their work and personal life balance. The prices of the products and services are quite portable for the people and the members of the club due to which the extensive membership and subscription of the members and the customers are mostly providing the confidence to the company while maintaining the perceived value pricing policy regarding its products and services (Williams, De Carvalho and Marzetta 2020).

Model 1: AIDA

The AIDA model is known as the hierarchical model of an organization. The AIDA acronym stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Actions. This particular model helps in developing all the marketing steps that the customers have to go through at the time of subscribing or purchasing any services or products (de Almeida and Belim 2020). This particular model has been used since the late 19th century. The model was first developed and founded by E. St. Elmo Lewis in 1898. The model shows the interactions of a buyer and a seller throughout the purchasing process concerning the services and products of the company.

According to the implementation of the AIDA model, the gym group club chain is a well known company for different customer segmentations. Here the products and services are directly provided to the customers through its online websites and the offline clubs or gyms. According to the model it helps the company and understanding the customers effective interaction with the products and services that the gym group is providing to them (Ullal and Hawaldar 2018). In case of increasing the profitability and sales of the company the gym group is implementing the AIDA model within the organisational structure. The major four states will be discussed and stated below.

Attention: in the first step of the model the company continuously tries to attract the customer's attention. Advertising material and promotional activities will directly help the company in doing so. Somewhat that type of eye-catching products and advertisements will help the company in gathering the customer's attention (Pashootanizadeh and Khalilian 2018). The Gym group is aware of its customers and their preferences regarding the brand and the production services. Here the company is presenting its products technological advantages and services through appropriate advertisements on social media and other promotional platforms. With this their ability to attract more new customers and their attention can be diverted towards the promotions and advertisements.

Interest: after the potential customers and their attention is gathered by the company the interest of the customers need to be seen physically. Here the gym group company is trying to make the interest towards the services and products more efficient so that they will be able to sell their service speech to the customers properly (Fortenberry and McGoldrick 2020). The customers of the gym group automatically willing to buy and engage into the membership program that the company is offering to them because this will be beneficial for the customers as well as for the company. Here the gym group brand is providing the performance of its previous customers and through that the value of the company is increasing in the perspective of the new customers.

Desire: after the interest of the customers are obtained it needs to be directed in a way so that the seller is able to promote its innovative service and product information to the customers where the company will be able to sell its offerings. The sales representative will provide information to the customers via online websites and offline interactions. In the case of the gym group it is to raise useful information after gathering the interest of the customers so that the glamour of the products and the USB of the services can be identified by the customers themselves (Budimansyah et al. 2019).

Actions: In this model, Action is the final step. This step classifieds the actions after the interest and attention of the customers are achieved by the company. The Gym Group provides appropriate financial deals and services along with loyalty cards and discounts which increases the customer attraction towards the beans. Eventually the deals are made to look too important and eventually the company products and services are sold to the customers.

The company is continuously improving its performance day by day so that it can help in achieving the organisational goals in the long run. The companies use its key performance indicators so that the performance can be evaluated properly as the KP of the gym group based on its price of affordability and high quality training programs. The customers are able to accommodate their routine according to their convenience and visit the gym at their own convenient time without being pressurised off closing and opening time (Shala 2020). The company is is providing 24*7 services to its customers due to which the company is receiving positive feedback regarding the flexibility of the operations and performance. There are several positive feedback coming from the company related to their services and the high quality of training programs. different comments and tweets are also being exchanged among customers through social sites. It is becoming one of the premium and well known organisations in the entire United Kingdom.

The idea of communication model mainly helps with the company in increasing the demands of the products and services while they are being produced. This model was first invented and established by Shannon and Weaver in 1948. This communication model introduces the idea of transmitting the message to the receiver. The different communication platforms are through advertisements, emails, advertisements posters, radios and so on. Here the company is effectively using the communication model by using different social media platforms, the official website and the company applications to communicate with the customers differently.

The gym group utilizes the communication model in order to target the potential customers of the chain. Here the company is focusing on direct marketing, social media marketing and personal selling process (Tggplc.com, 2022). The effective relationship of the company with the customers ensures that they are visiting the company to interact about the product services the company is offering to them. The company is also taking feedback from the customer so that the issues and the problems can be identified properly which are faced by the people while interacting with the company and regarding the production services. This communication feedback is received through online websites and offline face-to-face interactions. According to the improvements of the company products and services the sales are increasing. As the gym group is one of the biggest gym club changes in the United Kingdom it is able to provide all the knowledge and information about the significant features of the services that it is providing to the customers. Here the customers are getting a clear perspective about the services before enrolling for the membership.

The gym group has evaluated the performance through the understanding of keeping performance indicators of the company. Here the communication model helps the company in making efficient decisions and the organisation annual meetings create better perspective towards the managers and the stakeholders (Tggplc.com, 2022). The company is receiving positive feedback to different social media sites where the social media platform and the website and field with positive feedbacks on the half of the customers. The effective communication is also helping in interacting with the customers and solving their queries and problems separately according to the requirements.

Conclusion 

The entire portfolio has undertaken the marketing strategies and objectives of the company that helps with an appropriate understanding of the company’s operations. Here, different models and theories used by the company were identified so that the appropriate portfolio can be prepared, explaining the marketing efforts of the company. According to the requirements of the company within the UK market segment, it is considered that the competition can be very high within London based fitness provider market segments. The marketing mix has helped in analyzing the marketing efforts of The Gym Group within the United Kingdom to maintain its position for the last three years. With improved technology and gadgets, the competition is simultaneously rising within the UK market segment. In this case it can be said that the marketing mix has helped with the appropriate identification of training programs and high-quality services provided by the gym group. On the other hand, it can also be concluded that the marketing mix is helping in chalking the entire structural requirements of the company through which it will be able to assign appropriate marketing efforts and increase the sales and profitability of the company. The communication system on the other hand is helping with the sales promotion and personal selling program where the various events are leading towards generating better profitability and growth for the company. The company is allowing the AIDA theory and the communication all models to interact with the customer so that their feedbacks and issues can be resolved according to the requirements. The marketing strategies a resulting in increased profitability and expansion of customer base.

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