Several years ago, I wrote a case study about Planet Fitness, the "Judgement Free Zone" chain of fitness centers. Therefore, I tend to follow the gym industry. On New Year's Day, premium fitness center chain Equinox posted the following message on social media. It created quite a stir.
Others on social media criticized Equinox as well. What was Equinox doing scaring potential customers away with what seemed like an insulting tweet. Yet, we should ask the question: Did Equinox really make a mistake? To understand the intent of these dueling tweets, we need to assess the contrasting strategies of these two firms. Equinox targets serious fitness enthusiasts and provides them a premium experience at premium prices. Planet Fitness focuses on the person who previously may have not enjoyed going to the gym at all. They are after the person who is trying to get some exercise, but is most certainly not a "gym rat" at all. Planet Fitness doesn't cater to the fitness enthusiast at all. For instance, they don't have heavy weights at all in their gyms, and they don't offer exercise classes. Their gyms focus mostly on cardio machines and light weights. Given their target audience, this humorous rebuttal is right on the money. It fits their customer quite well, and it provides that sharp contrast with the upscale gym, Equinox.
Interestingly, both firms are telling certain people they are NOT very welcome at their gyms. Recall Planet Fitness' famous "I lift things up and put them down" advertisement in which an employee shows a bodybuilder the exit! That Planet Fitness advertisement is very much like this January tweet from Equinox. So, neither firm is off the mark here. They are each addressing their customers with distinct messages that fit their contrasting audiences and their associated needs and wants. They are both trying to attract their core customer by explicitly describing who doesn't fit at their gyms.
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