Young Members at UK Fitness Facilities Outnumber Older Adults 3:1.
Our industry is successful at attracting young members but poor at winning the hearts and minds – and therefore the commitment – of the older adult. This is one of the striking conclusions from the second National Audit of Fitness Consumers conducted by The Leisure Database Company (TLDC) and sponsored by Experian®, the global information solutions company.
Using Experian's people classification system, Mosaic UK, TLDC has analysed the types of people regularly using fitness gyms across the UK and, by implication, identified those not participating in regular physical exercise.
Data has been collected from a total of 923 leisure sites, with 600 private health clubs and 323 public fitness facilities participating in the audit, making it the largest review of fitness consumers available. Over two million members were profiled using the Mosaic consumer segmentation system, which has become an industry standard for the fitness industry.
Key statistics
Some of the key summary findings from the audit are that 72 per cent of gym members are under 45 years old and 46 per cent under 35 years old. Older adults are significantly under-represented amongst gym members across both the public and private sectors. Members over the age of 56 years account for just 13.7 per cent of gym members compared to 28.6 percent of the UK population.
For the second year running, the audit has found that lower income groups are under-represented in fitness facilities. Almost two thirds (65.9 per cent) of all gym members earn less than the national average wage of £30,000pa compared with 84 per cent earning less than this in the UK population.
Dominant groups
Mosaic UK classifies people into 11 Groups and 61 Types. The most dominant Mosaic Groups among gym members, as identified by the audit, are: Group A, Symbols of Success (‘people with rewarding careers living in sought after locations, with high disposable income’) which accounts for 21 per cent of gyms users but just 10 per cent of the UK population; Group C, Suburban Comfort (‘where families are successfully established in comfortable, mature homes, children are growing up and finances are easier’), which accounts for over 17 per cent of gym users compared to 16 per cent of the UK population; and Group E Urban Intelligence (‘young, single and mostly well-educated people with cosmopolitan tastes’), which accounts for 15 per cent of gym users but just 7 per cent of the UK population.
Under-represented segments
Meanwhile, the Groups most under-represented at fitness facilities include: Group I, Twilight Subsistence (‘elderly people subsisting on meagre incomes in council accommodation’), which makes up just under 3 per cent of the UK population and yet only 1 per cent of gym users; Group G, Municipal Dependency (‘families on lower incomes who often live in large council estates where there is little owner-occupation’), which accounts for almost 7 per cent of the UK population but only 3 per cent of gym users; and Group H, Blue Collar Enterprise (‘people who, though not well-educated, are practical and enterprising and may have bought their own homes’), which accounts for over 11 per cent of the UK population and yet only 6 per cent of gym users. At present even our so-called ‘budget’ facilities are not achieving significant penetration in much of this sector.
UK health clubs and leisure centres are simply not attracting enough older adults into their facilities. The audit highlights that only one quarter of gym members are over 45 years old, despite the fact that nearly 41% of the population as a whole fall into that band. Mosaic Group J, Grey Perspectives (‘those in full or semi-retirement who own their homes and have some source of income beyond the basic state pension’), accounts for just under 7 per cent of UK population but just 4.75 per cent of gym members. Today many of these people have quite active lifestyles and are usually considered well-informed in their purchasing decisions.
Questions & the way forward
In general, the penetration rates across the socio-economic groupings suggest the industry is still not sufficiently focused on its target markets.
Is the health and fitness industry setting its sights on too narrow a segment of the population? If the market take up is around 12%*, what is it doing to lure in the 88% who are currently non-participants? (*FIA State of the Industry Report, 2007, compiled by TLDC)
Why is the industry taking such a scattergun approach to fitness provision and member recruitment? Where are the market-specific product ranges and niche advertising we would take for granted in other service industries, such as holidays, restaurants or transport?
Why are we failing to reach a larger proportion of ‘greys’, the fastest-growing market with increasing potential for secondary spend and a tendency towards product loyalty?
On the one hand, the audit highlights increases in the share of membership accounted for by the most affluent groups, encouraging many operators to feel that the world of luxury facilities - where pampering and secondary spend is all-important - is the way forward.
At the other end of the spectrum, has the customer been hoodwinked into believing that the link between catchment profile (i.e. income) and member profile (i.e. gym cost) is an inevitable one? Or is there now an opportunity for a bold operator to roll out a genuine low cost product which gives the customer what they want when they want it, as well as leaving them with change in their pockets?
Greater detail from the Audit and a full understanding of the consumer characteristics of the fitness market segments can be accessed from detailed reports available on request from The Leisure Database Company Ltd. Tel: +44 (0)20 7379 3197
www.theleisuredatabase.com
