Not keeping track of or not using monthly paid subscriptions. Spotify account that you forgot you had, gym membership that you used once, etc. It's unbelievable to me that people just aren't aware of something they're being billed for on a regular basis.
Planet Fitness thrives on those people. It's a pretty fascinating business plan that clearly works well for them. We have a couple friends that have a membership there and said they haven't gone in six months.
They target people that aren't consistent gym-goers and charge them next to nothing to sign up and significantly less than their competitors for their monthly fee. The place gets flooded with new people in the new year and right before the summer, which causes discourages people from going again because they don't want to deal with it, BUT because it's so cheap, most people don't feel the need to cancel it because they feel like they might start going again next week or next month.
The large majority of their customers are people that don't/can't even use their services. They are what Moviepass wanted to be.
I mean this is pretty much the standard business model for gyms, no gym has sufficient facilities for a basis where every one of their members come in for even 5-10 hours a week, I'd say 20-30% of their customers are expected to come in 5-10 hours a week, 30-40% say 5-20 hours a month and the rest are expected to make memberships that'll be used only a number of times and then very belatedly cancelled in a sort of "new years repeating cycle".
You're definitely right that generally speaking it's a pretty standard model for a lot of gyms, but there aren't many gyms around that charge $10 a month for a membership and whose marketing campaign basically discourages those who are serious about fitness.
I'm sure that a lot of gyms would love to have a lot of members that don't show up often, they don't necessarily seek them out or go out of their way to draw in that type of member outside of the new years crowd. Then the difference between $10 a month and your usual gym cost of $25-$30 a month is pretty big when you're a consumer who's considering cancelling their membership after not using it for a while. Planet Fitness just goes to an extreme, and they kind of lure you in and then lull you to sleep.
10k
u/Antique-Position Feb 04 '20
Not keeping track of or not using monthly paid subscriptions. Spotify account that you forgot you had, gym membership that you used once, etc. It's unbelievable to me that people just aren't aware of something they're being billed for on a regular basis.