Situation Analysis

In the crowded world of fitness brands, Crunch Fitness is the group exercise chain, which has mixed the fun approach to fitness, and it pioneers the philosophy of ‘No Judgement’. This philosophy has not only proved to be a unique marketing approach in the personal service industry, but it has also grabbed the attention of people worldwide. This fitness brand accommodates people of all types regardless of their age, physical appearance, size, gender and fitness level (CNBC LLC, 2016). Customers can select the workout options of their own choice and preference from the multiple options available along with the assurance of feel-good experience provided by the Footscray staff. The personal trainers provide satisfactory experience and help the individual to attain the desired goals. Footscray store is benefited in multiple ways from the parent brand, including the group exercise programs, supportive club designs, purchasing of equipment and operational standards.

SWOT: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats  

Strengths

• Crunch Fitness provides total solutions to its customers at one junction, including fitness, health supplements and nutritional support.
• It has the potential and experience to perfectly blend fun and workout together.
• The Footscray store has competent staff and management, which provides personal support and guidance to the members.
• The marketing tools used by it are trendy and very attractive
• It serves to be a fitness community for all categories of people, with all types of exercises.
• Crunch offers convenience and workout at very reasonable prices. Moreover, the cost of the memberships is flexible (Crunch Fitness, 2019).

Weaknesses

• Low barrier to new entries
• As the crunch Fitness follows the franchise model, the timings for the gym are standard, it is not open for 24 hours.

Opportunities

• The high obesity rate in Australia
• Australia’s supplement industry is massive which sounds to be an opportunity for crunch fitness
• The Footscray store can focus on the health of people falling in all age groups.
• Advanced fitness equipment can be added in the store to provide a special experience to the customers.

Threats

• Competition with other fitness clubs such as Anytime Fitness, Snap Fitness etc.
• Legislation, which comprises of public liability, licensing etc. (Chang & Yang , 2013)

Stakeholder attitudes and behaviours 

The success of any business or brand majorly relies on the attitude and behaviour carried by its stakeholders towards that particular business or brand. Therefore, it is necessary for the marketing team to analyze the attitude of their concerned stakeholders before planning IMC for any campaign. The stakeholders of Crunch fitness agree that this brand has history and experience of working with other companies to turn the brand as an authentic one (Pettace, Guertler, & Hugh , 2014). The business model of Crunch provides its members with a superior fitness program that too at a compelling cost. Members have access to top-quality cardio, equipment, group classes, and personalized training programs. Moreover, they have access to upgraded amenities, locker rooms, yoga sessions, Zumba and much more. The personal trainers employed at the Footscray store believe that they work in an excellent environment where they can follow their passion for fitness and also help the members in doing so. The stakeholders feel delighted as they are offered exclusive schemes and models such as free membership until they are associated with the brand, 20% off on all the retail products available at the store, flexible work schedules and efficient leading staff.

Main communication problems to be addressed

The media team of Crunch Fitness, Footscray is communicating in a slow pace and is not responding well to the requirements of the potential customers.  Crunch berry has introduced a new program called “Pilot program system” in Footscray. Under this program, other selected franchisees are invited to be part of the social media group i.e. Social baker account to share and create the content, thereby empowering the provincial content that ring with their clients. This brand is trying to promote the idea of merging fitness with fun to other fitness brands as well and increase the number of participations or memberships in their club.  

IMC Actions taken to date

Crunch Fitness is using the social media platform to promote its program and approach. The brand has associated itself with the software solution provider company named “Social baker”. This AI-powered social media marketing company allows the Footscray branch to publish different types of posts and even schedule them for different social media profiles like the Facebook app, Instagram, Twitter account, Google etc. This marketing strategy works faster in comparison to other marketing strategies (Bogsnes, 2016). For targeting new customers, Footscray store is making interesting videos and is posting on social media platform, which is grabbing the attraction of many customers. Their idea of advertising through video is very effective and has gained acquisitions from the targeted customers. It has introduced new tools including dashboards, which are used to display the posts of the audience at the Footscray store. The integrated media involved for the IMC campaign is radio, TV, social media platform, digital platform and printed media (Clayton, 2013). The brand is also using the marketing movement, which is initiated by “StrawberryFrog” for social media marketing and broadcast promotions.

Key Strategic Campaign Decisions 

Objectives

• To increase the members at the Footscray store of Crunch Fitness through the IMC campaign
• To attract the customers and make them try Crunch brand for improving their fitness level.
• To increase the interaction of the Crunch Fitness team with a large number of audiences mainly through event promotions.
• To retain the existing members and influence them to bring the new members along with them to join the fitness brand.

Target & engaging stakeholders 

The new proposed marketing campaign “Enough” will mainly target the health-conscious people who aim to lose their weight, youngsters, sportspersons, bodybuilders, working women, peak performers and people suggested to focus on health by physicians or doctors. This campaign will allow the consumers to take a resolution for the maintenance of their fitness level. The IT (Information technology) team of the Footscray Fitness store will be involved to manage and redesign the official website of the brand. Most of the advertisements will be publicized through digital media, including television, social media applications and official website, for this, the social media partners associated with this fitness brand will be engaged to work for this campaign. The marketing team will also be involved in the promotion of campaigns in different places. Mainly, the existing members will also be engaged in this campaign so that they can be retained for a longer duration.

Brand positioning strategy

The Footscray store of Crunch Fitness is looking forward to diminishing the industry intimidation and reposition its brand to appeal to more range of audience by providing a realistic and relatable judgement of fitness. It is trying to cut through the cap in this industry by offering a more human approach to workout. Its new marketing campaign “Enough campaign” is part of its repositioning strategy, which will start with launching of a new website featuring related images and a simplified navigation structure. The store is trying to increase inclusivity and accessibility. The brand will position itself to a new level with the help of “Enough campaign” which aims to encourage youngsters to maintain the perfect balance between their social life and fitness (CCSF Marketing, 2018).

Positioning statement

“Crunch Fitness helps you to pay attention to your health by spending some time from your busy schedule. Unlike the other brands, Crunch Fitness provides one roof for exercise, health supplements and nutritional value consultation.  

Marcom Mix: Platforms and objectives 

Advertisements – The advertisements will be showcased on television during the sports events and will be of 30 seconds duration. The main objective of these advertisements will be to motivate the customers to improve their fitness level and will also encourage them to utilize social media. For this, social media will also be used to keep the customers well informed about the Crunch Fitness events; thereby creating a highly interactive environment.  

Events – Public relations campaign accompanies the capability of letting the customers know about the Crunch Fitness services and products thereby creating interest in the fitness brand (Shishenina, 2011). Through this platform, Crunch will be able to convince the youth to embrace the Footscray store.

Multiple seminars will be organized in the educational institutions that will permit the audience to work with Crunch Fitness personal trainers so that they can learn few workout tips, routines and how they can improve their experience at the gym. The main objective of this platform will be to interact or communicate one-to one with the target people. Such events will not only encourage fitness but will also make the target market aware of the Crunch Fitness brand and its offerings. The goal will be to influence the target audience to join the Footscray branch and become active.  In addition, the Crunch Fitness can use canopies if it sponsors any sports event or seminar in the educational institutions. The sample image of the same is depicted below. Canopies spread brand awareness among the audience who come to visit the sporting event or place.

Promotions – The promotional scheme will permit the new member to visit the gym for ten times for free, before making any final payment for the membership. This will permit the potential members to look into the advantages they can garnish being part of the Crunch Fitness. Along with this, a member referral program will be started to benefit the existing members who will recruit the new members into the Crunch’s Footscray branch. This will enhance customer loyalty and brand image (Chao, 2015). The objective of this Marcom platform will be to increase the number of members.  

Synergy 

“Crunch Fitness is existing to provide quality care in a safe and sound workout environment”. The brand promotes the significance of being fit in this busy lifestyle and it also assists the customers to fulfil their resolution and dream of becoming fit and healthy (Dyer, 2019).

Message Strategy: Key consumer and brand relationship insights 

The key consumers for the proposed campaign will be college-going students and youngsters. Customers in this age group need to stay fit and active, moreover, they can spare some time from their schedule for the workout sessions, as they have no liability at this stage of life. Key consumers will incorporate both types of youngsters that is those who are not interested in finding the benefits of the fitness centre and those who are desperate to lose their extra fats and stay healthy and fit. The brand wants to make an interactive relationship with its key consumers by staying in touch with them through either of the Marcom mix (Pantano & Viassone, 2015).  

Message direction 

An effective message is considered to be the strategy in itself. Development of strong and impactful message that could be translated across the selected channels and targets towards the chosen key customers is the foundation of the efficient IMC campaign.

Primary message

• International focus on health, fitness and well being of the people around
• Crunch Fitness is the number one fitness point in Footscray
• We offer more than just a fitness location; as we pay attention to offer personalized service (Thomas, 2010)

Secondary message

• Motivation to consider health among the main priorities in life by encouraging them to take a resolution.
• Enough campaign can bring the community closer under one fitness roof

Strategic consistency 

Crunch Fitness will be highly involved in the fitness and health workshops being conducted in the nearby area or even when they will be organized by the Crunch itself. Moreover, this brand will be well engaged in all the sporty events; especially the sports events that will take place in the educational institutions. Before launching the campaign, Crunch will announce the “Think over the resolution” message through press releases so that customers can make up their mind for choosing health and fitness resolution. This will require the budget to decide the press content to be showcased to the audience in an effective manner.  It will maintain the web presence to form a community for the new and existing members (Mulhern, 2009).

IMC Media and Contact Points 

Multimedia and multichannel 

A good IMC campaign plan incorporates the multimedia and multichannel to attract the key consumers or target segment over time. To strengthen the strategic plan or consistency, marketers use both tools that are multimedia and multichannel. Media is considered to be the way of sending and receiving different IMC messages (Sattelberger, 2015). The media involved in this campaign consists of the official website, TV and social media. In addition, social media multichannels will be used such as apps like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram etc. Through internet marketing, Crunch Fitness has the opportunity to make the audience share their fitness plans or resolutions, give feedback and interact with them, so that this fitness brand can understand their customers well before actually serving them. The behavioural target of this marketing is to promote the culture of presenting feedback and expressing the joy or dissatisfaction after the service (Skurpel, 2016).

For achieving the objectives of the plan, Crunch fitness requires to create a passion and desire among the audience towards their fitness. This will involve the attempt to make them aware of the benefits of health and remaining active to finally becoming a member of this brand. This can be easily accomplished with the help of advertisements through internet marketing, television and digital media. Advertisements make the audience understand the value of services or products offered (Reinartz & Saffert, 2013). Existing website will be modified to update the audience and make them realize the importance of fitness and understand that everybody’s “enough” is quite different Digital videos and media will be used as digital movement  allows number of people to keep going with their fitness if they are not confident enough  to go to the gyms.  

Multiplatform 

The promotion of the campaign will be done on platforms like advertisements, public relations through events and promotions (Bui, 2013). The advertisement itself will portray the strong message and will influence the consumers to decide the fitness resolution. The image below is the sample of the advertisement, which can be used for the different platforms.

Contact points, touchpoints, and critical touchpoints 

The customers can directly contact the brand officials through the assistance helpline numbers provided on the official website. Along with this, queries will be entertained through emails and live chat options available on the site as well as the social media platforms. Critical touchpoint for this campaign plan will be motivating workout videos and posts. Touchpoints will intend to influence the behaviour of the consumers towards the fitness brands and will also make them aware of the importance of health and fitness in this fast-moving life (Aichner & Gruber, 2017). The marketing communication aims to inspire people, take a resolution for the coming year, and become part of the Crunch Fitness.  

Management and Campaign Controls 

Budgeting 

This fitness brand is aware that budgeting is very important for the success of any campaign and overall growth of the Fitness Company (Naeem, Bilal, & Naz, 2013). Instead of showing the highly paid advertisements with the cost of 400$ per/month, Crunch will target to include the real-time workout videos of the existing members. This will not only motivate the existing members but will also be eye-catching for the new audience. Present members associated with the Crunch Fitness will act as a face of marketing. Having said that, instead of relying on fake advertisements, natural adds will be telecasted. The most appropriate way to propose a budget is to analyze how Crunch Fitness will execute its promotion (Athanasopoulou & Giovanis, 2015). The cost of designing and shooting the video (one minute) will be 300 dollars. The press release work requires adequate content to be showed and the distribution of the same through multiple channels. The cost involved in this will be around $500. Similarly, the table below depicts the costing of others and the total budget will be $4,500. 

Table 1: The detailed budget allocation for the Crunch Fitness Footscray store campaign

Evaluation of Effectiveness 

It is very essential for the marketing team to evaluate the effectiveness of the plan, to assure that the planned campaign will run successfully and will provide the most efficient results. Along with this, it also assures that whether the budget fixed or money spent is worth or not (Dharmappa, 2018). The evaluation is done in both ways that is pre and post-testing. Keeping in mind the controlling of campaign cost, only post-testing will be performed (Tibebe & Ayenew, 2018). The IMC plan of Crunch Fitness will be assessed every month with the aid of a few reports and data. The number of resolutions posted by the customers will be counted and the number of trial requests made by the customers will also be considered. The figures will be analyzed to check if the plan requires any further changes. To check the effectiveness of social media and online marketing, the data such as click and download rate of advertisements and the number of visitors on the Crunch Footscray’s official website will be utilized.

At last, the effectiveness will also be judged based on the financial & sales record; based on the comparison of before and after the implementation of the campaign plan. The overall efficiency of the engaged team members will also be done through follow up emails and scheduled discussion sessions (Reid, 2005).

References

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