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šŖ How to Tap into an Untouched Market
Planet Fitness - The gym designed for people who donāt go to the gym.
As of 2024, Planet Fitness has more locations and members than any other gym chain in the United States, generating over $1B in revenue last year.
All while:
Capping their dumbbells at 75 lbs, around 40 lbs lighter than most gyms
Lacking free-weight barbells and squat racks, two of the most popular pieces of gym equipment
Becoming an internet meme: āOnly at Planet Fitnessā for the strange crowd it attracts (Is this woman seriously doing contemporary dance on a treadmill??)
How did they do it?
Is it their $10/month membership? Free pizza Mondays?
Or did Planet Fitness create an environment that succeeds exactly because it is less āgymyā than other gyms?
Hereās what we got for ya:
šŖ From Weak to Peak Performance
š„µ High-Intensity Marketing
šļø Pumping Profits
Read time: 4 min 43 sec
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šŖ From Weak to Peak Performance
Back in 1992, when Planet Fitness was founded, it was nothing special. The gym was like any other: a place for the fit to get fitter.
Planet Fitness had heavy free weights, juice bars, group exercise classes, and even a daycare.
But they werenāt seeing the results they wanted.
Thatās when the Grondahl brothers (founders) had their revolutionary idea.
If every gym caters to the same 15% of the population, there will be endless competition.
What would happen if Planet Fitness targeted the other 85%?
So the brothers started brainstorming: What keeps the rest of the population from the gym?
They came up with two things:
#1- Gymtimidation: One survey found that the gym is the 3rd most common place that people feel judged, after social events and public speaking. So Planet Fitness needed to be a place where the 85% felt welcome.
Planet Fitness deemed their gym a āJudgement Free Zone.ā With the misspelled word judgment because telling the team member they wrote it wrong would be too judgmentalā¦
And they added the famous Lunk Alarm to discourage bodybuilders from drawing attention to themselves. In theory, it goes off whenever someone starts grunting from a hard workout.
@drpenguinthesecond Bro his own lunk alarm #fyp #gym #planetfitness #workingout #gains #fypage #fypć· #memes #dankmemes
But in reality, the employees donāt set it off often. When they do, itās either to play into the meme or if someone is being unnecessarily obnoxious.
#2- Accessibility: Paying $50 for a gym membership that you donāt know if you will use doesnāt make sense. But for Planet Fitness itās just $10/month. Thatās the same as a Chipotle burrito. Planet Fitnessās CEO describes it as ā a āget you off the couchā price.ā Itās an easier cost to accept for first-time gym goers.
Combining confidence and accessibility, Planet Fitness made their recipe for success. Now letās look at how they got peopleās attention with their genius marketingā¦
![](https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80/uploads/asset/file/1cb6daa0-b3f0-4e45-9886-b894f1baa590/50.png)
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š„µ High-Intensity Marketing
Planet Fitness invests into its marketing, spending 9Ā¢ of every dollar it earns on ads.
Not only are the ads catered to first-time and inexperienced gym-goers, but they deter your stereotypical strength trainer from joining.
Most of their ads fall under these three categories:
#1- Encouraging inexperienced gym goers
āDonāt join a gym, join Planet Fitness.ā When you go to Planet Fitness, you wonāt feel like the non-athletic kid in PE class. The message is all about freedom from judgment.
Nobody is judging you, not even if you look like Sasquatch.
#2- Discouraging bodybuilders
One of the best ways to unite people together is to give them a common enemy.
These commercials tell inexperienced gym users that Planet Fitness is on their side, not the bodybuilders.
Basically, Planet Fitness is non-judgmental, unless you look like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
#3- Celebrity endorsements
The public idolized celebrities. So when someone famous tells you a product is good, you are more likely to trust them than a random commercial actor.
To appeal to Gen-Z, Megan Thee Stallion (AKA Mother Fitness) wishes Big Fitness Energy on everyone who goes to Planet Fitness.
And for millennials, Lindsay Lohan appears to be glowing in every part of her life because she is working out at Planet Fitness.
Now that Planet Fitness has attracted its target consumer base, letās look at how they profit from them.
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šļø Pumping Profits
The average Planet Fitness gym has 7K members, but can only hold around 300 people at a time.
At most gyms, the average member goes twice a week. If this was true for Planet Fitness, the gym would be so packed you wouldnāt be able to move.
But at Planet Fitness, every month, 60% of members donāt even step through the front door.
The $10/month membership is great at drawing people in. But itās even better at making them stay.
Sure, I havenāt gone to the gym for the past two monthsā¦ But Iāll start back next month. This time I really will. Besides, itās only $10ā¦
Also, to cancel the membership, you have to physically go to the gym or mail an official letter, which takes effort.
So for Planet Fitness, this is basically free money.
Also, Planet Fitness offers a Black Card membership for $24.99/month, with benefits like access to all locations, infinite guest passes, and tanning beds.
Yes, this is realā¦
More than 60% of members choose to upgrade to the Black Card, bringing the average customerās pay to $17.60/month.
This helps Planet Fitness keep its $10 price the same, despite inflation.
And bring in an annual revenue of $1B in 2023.
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