The Master’s Forum: Fitness Consumers or Fitness Companies. Who is Failing Who?
So why is it that consumers have not jumped on the fitness bandwagon?
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Recently, Ford Motor Company made enormous cultural and structural changes with the goal of becoming more competitive in what would otherwise seem to be a gaping, bleeding wound in the competitiveness of the North American auto industry. With imports continuing to win on the fronts of vehicle sales, reliability and satisfaction, Bill Ford, Henry Ford’s Great Grandson and Ford’s Executive Chairman, stated on Ford’s restructuring, “…our products will be designed and built to satisfy the customer - not just to fill a factory”. Using the same logic, the fitness industry needs a paradigm shift towards selling what the fitness consumer wants, rather than trying to sell the same things to the same people who have already bought them. |
As we, “the converted”, well know, the fitness industry has, at its essence, arguably the best possible product for sale: health. So why is it that consumers have not jumped on the fitness bandwagon in the numbers that should reflect that? One would think that with so many options and opportunities to make regular physical activity part of their lives, membership in fitness centres would be closer to 70-80% of the population, and not the 10-15% that it currently is.
The recent offering of our industry’s products and services have produced some positive results for some, but the abundance of untapped opportunity that still exists overshadows all victories won so far. From fitness for children to stay at home parents, from busy executives to the older adults that were supposed to flood fitness facilities over the past 10 years, most manufacturers, club owners and service providers have failed prospective fitness consumers, by offering roughly the same product mix as each of their respective competitors to the same tiny market share.
To achieve our potential as an industry both socially and financially, we all must do better. We must take up the challenge to critically analyse who our existing customers are, as well as who the potential customers are, create a product mix they want, and then communicate that to them with the unbridled enthusiasm this industry prides itself on.
The Master’s Forum
A regular feature in FitNet. We can learn much from outstanding individuals who have unsurpassed experience and a record of outstanding achievement in the fitness industry.
Rod Macdonald
Combining almost 20 years of health and fitness, Rod is the Vice President of Can-Fit-Pro, the largest provider of education in the Canadian fitness industry, overseeing their 14,000-member fitness organization. An avid multisport athlete and Ironman competitor, Rod is also a former competitive rower and coach, holding a degree in kinesiology. With experience teaching, managing and leading in challenging and diverse environments, Rod has written for a variety of publications, is a contributing author for Can-Fit-Pro’s Certification manuals and is a sought after international presenter.
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