'Feeble' and ‘amateurish'. That's the view of an obscure organisation called the Fitness Industry Association to a Brand Health Check I recently wrote on gyms.
Delighted to receive some feedback for once (see number of comments on Blogs passim....) and aware of our responsibility to grant the right of reply, we will be publishing the entire rant, I mean letter, in its full glory in this week's Marketing.
But there are a number of points - aside from my competence or otherwise - that I thought warranted addressing beforehand. According to the FIA, gym membership is not a luxury (as I described) but is just the same as ‘drinking water and eating brown bread' to over 7m consumers. Really? Exactly the same as drinking water and eating brown bread? I'd be very surprised given the difference in price.
This just shows that we are all sometimes guilty of making overblown claims - some are feeble and amateurish and some are blatant whoppers, but on occasion trade bodies think that they are professionally qualified to make them and they should therefore pass without further comment.
