Executive Summary
Klamath Fitness is an entity that offers personalized gym services and study guides for clients’ fitness needs. The company strives to provide professional, pocket-friendly, and personalized fitness coaching and instructions to clients. The entity’s primary target consumer is generation Z, consisting of females and males who want to keep fit. The firm also targets overweight people who are looking to become healthier. Klamath Fitness operates on a Blue Ocean strategy whereby the firm shifts its focus from highly to the lowly concentrated market. Despite its strong position in the industry, Klamath Fitness faces stiff competition from other industrial rivals. Therefore, the company plans to adopt a social media marketing plan consisting of social media tools such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to enhance its visibility and lure more consumers to the firm.
Introduction to the Business
Klamath Fitness Coaching is a company that offers personalized gym services and study guides to serve clients’ fitness needs. Over the years, people have become more health-conscious, and many are inclined to seek price-reasonable fitness services. Klamath Fitness meets this growing demand for fitness services by offering professional, affordable, and convenient group exercises and personalized instructions and coaching depending on the client’s needs. While Klamath Fitness studio is currently doing well in the fitness industry, the proposed business plan will help elevate the firm’s performance and position in the sector by providing a comprehensive roadmap for integrating social media marketing in its business strategies.
Remarkable Aspects of the Company’s Services
Some of the remarkable services that make the company distinct from its competitors are the availability of an experienced certified trainer and certified nutritionist all in one place, personalized instruction and coaching, and unique classes. Furthermore, the company boasts unique fitness classes that are not only available in its facility but also streamed for those at home who hold a membership. The firm’s instructions and coaching are also personalized so that besides the physical coaching in the facility, clients can also subscribe to a home-follow-up program to help them adhere to the recommended fitness exercises.
Blue Ocean
The blue ocean is a framework that allows businesses to shift from highly concentrated to lowly concentrated competition. (Alam and Islam 1) note that this framework enables firms to think and create innovation in their business to generate sustainable profits. The company’s uncontested market space is its distinctive value and affordable fitness services. Most notably, very few firms in the industry can offer low-cost quality fitness services. However, Klamath Fitness links people to a professional trainer and personalized coaching for reasonable costs.
Target Market
An analysis of fitness services consumers reveals three market segmentation: demographic, psychographic, and geographic. Demographic segmentation consists of youth men and women. According to statistics by IHRSA, young men and women, commonly referred to as generation z, account for 15 percent of the total health club members (Rodriguez). This group’s high interest in fitness services is mainly influenced by celebrities who flaunt their well-groomed bodies and muscles, inspiring the former to seek similar physical outcomes (Jain). Psychographic segmentation consists of people interested in sports and those who are overweight. The first category of individuals is mainly interested in sporting activities and is frequently in the gym to keep fit and build on their strength and stamina. On the other hand, overweight people are interested in accessing personalized training programs that can reduce weight to avoid lifestyle diseases associated with such increased body mass index (BMI). This group resonates significantly with Klamath Fitness’s idea to provide personalized coaching programs to clients.
The company’s geographic segmentation also constitutes a significant fraction of its target market. Most notably, the company targets local consumers seeking affordable fitness services within Klamath Falls. This group of consumers comprises individuals working in offices and attending school within Klamath Falls and seek gym services to help maintain their physical health.
Importance of Social Media
Besides creating its brand, Klamath Fitness must ensure that it is recognized among its prospects and current consumers. This brand awareness is achievable through social media channels, which enable firms to build their brand and generate buzz marketing (Tiago and Verissimo 6). For example, videos and blogs posted on social media channels could enhance the brand’s visibility as consumers are more likely to stumble into such content when conducting their online market research of available fitness facilities in the town. In essence, social media channels are important to the company’s overall business because they are the key to enhancing the brand’s visibility, leading to increased demand for fitness services and sustainable profits. The company has begun its campaign to utilize social media marketing by creating videos of the staff training and uploading them to social media platforms.
Competitive Analysis (SWOT)
The SWOT analysis evaluates the company’s internal and external environment, providing an overview of its primary strengths and opportunities that need to be capitalized and weaknesses and threats that should be combatted. Klamath Fitness’ primary strengths are the availability of new facilities and equipment which can help satisfy clients’ fitness needs. The firm’s well-established marketing program is also a key strength in integrating social media marketing in the business strategy. The firm also has unique classes and a professional trainer that can be leveraged to drive traffic into the facility.
The firm also has a few weaknesses that stem from its internal environment. For example, the company has limited funds for business expansion to meet the growing subscription of fitness clients. Furthermore, the current facility has limited parking space that fails to provide enough parking during peak hours, thus driving some clients to seek alternative gyms with larger parking areas.
Nonetheless, Klamath Fitness has multiple opportunities to capitalize on to enhance its performance in the industry. Most notably, consumers have a positive perception of the brand, which implies that they would prefer the firm to its competitors. Furthermore, the growing demand for fitness services and health-consciousness among consumers makes the gym a luxurious business.
Klamath must also be vigilant about some of the threats in the industry that may affect its performance. Some of these threats include the growing competition from current and new market entrants. The regulatory changes during the pandemic, such as social distancing, also threaten the firm’s operations. Notably, the firm is forced to operate at the minimum capacity in compliance with the regulatory changes.
SWOT Strategies
SWOT | Strength (S) | Weaknesses (W) |
Opportunities (O) | S-O strategy | W-O strategy |
Threats (T) | S-T strategy | W-T strategy |
Information gathered from the SWOT analysis can determine the most critical areas that the firm should focus on and the appropriate strategies required for the business to thrive. These strategies include:
S-O strategy: Utilize social media platforms that match the business to strengthen the brand’s visibility.
W-O strategy: Overcome the weakness associated with social media to allow the business to leverage social media web opportunities.
S-T strategy: Capitalize on the businesses’ social media strengths to combat the threats posed by industrial competitors using social media sites in marketing.
W-T strategy: Develop a protective strategy of combatting the firm’s social media vulnerabilities to prevent further deterioration that may affect its image among prospects and current consumers.
An analysis of the SWOT analysis reveals that the company has a higher concentration of strengths and opportunities; thus, it should pursue an S-O strategy. Most notably, the firm should utilize available social media platforms to enhance its visibility among consumers. Some of the primary social media marketing opportunities available for the fitness company include using YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram videos to attract the attention of individuals in seeking pocket-friendly, quality fitness services.
Strategies Employed
Overall, Klamath Fitness studio is doing well in business. Still, it requires additional tactics to enhance its visibility in the industry to make it the number one fitness firm among consumers. Therefore, multiple social media marketing strategies have been developed to help the firm attain the mentioned goals, including:
Listening: This strategy will involve listening to consumers’ views about the fitness firm and other competitors, as reflected on their social media posts. Arguably, consumers with a remarkable or poor experience in the firm may post online reviews and tag the firm on sites such as Instagram. Listening to these consumers’ thoughts and perceptions of the fitness industry will help the company determine its strongholds and improve areas that receive negative criticism.
Interacting: The company will interact with consumers on social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. As suggested in the literature, marketers can use social media to collaborate with existing and potential consumers in a two-way interaction and pick up rich, unmet customer demands speedier than other times (Abrar et al. 278). Similarly, the firm’s interaction with consumers on social media sites will help the former promote the brand’s visibility, gather information on unmet consumer demands that require improvements, and address questions and concerns that clients may have about the brand.
Engaging: The fitness studio will inspire clients to engage with its gym services by portraying some of the customers’ benefits from the service offerings. In this scenario, the company will post short videos of approximately 11 seconds, showcasing the facilities and unique services provided by Klamath Fitness. It is vital to keep the videos short and entertaining to captivate consumers to engage with the content. Engagement is likely to market the gym’s services to prospects and encourage them to subscribe to the firm’s offerings.
Influencing: One of the important ways of influencing prospects to purchase a service or a product is through influence. Appel et al. note that influencers are seen as credible “experts” in what they post, encouraging others to want to view the former’s content and engage with them (83). Therefore, the firm’s focus on influencing will help attract consumers that refer to celebrities’ consumption behavior before making a purchase decision. In this case, the firm will rely on micro-influencers, who are not well-known as celebrities but have substantial and enthusiastic followings (Appel et al. 83). Some of the influencing activities that the firm will undertake are posting workout videos by our celebrity trainer, which is likely to attract more consumers.
Connecting: Connecting with clients at a personal level is an ideal way of showing the business’s human side. Therefore, Klamath Fitness will connect with customers through social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram. The firm will use these sites to respond to clients’ inquiries promptly and guide them on the process of subscribing to the firm’s physical and virtual fitness services.
Platform Specific Tactics
The fitness studio will use social media tools to lure more customers into consuming its services. The platform-specific tactics for the company will include:
Facebook posts
Prior literature reveals that Facebook is one of the leading social networks commonly used by consumers and marketers. In 2011, researchers estimated that Facebook received approximately 700 million visitors monthly (Barker et al. 2). The massive Facebook consumer traffic presents an opportunity for the entity to enhance its brand visibility and interact with consumers through frequent and consistent posts relevant to the fitness industry.
Some of the Facebook tactics that will be utilized include:
- Posting short and sweet informative videos, 11 seconds long, about the studio’s facilities and services. Facebook videos will be kept short and straightforward because the majority of consumers may not have time to view long videos. The video sound will also be off and substituted with text overlay to make it friendly for consumers viewing the content in public spaces.
- A Facebook live will be posted each Friday to keep consumers informed about the team’s various fitness activities and the significant progress being made by current clients.
- The firm will post Facebook videos each day to ensure consistency in consumer engagement, which is vital in encouraging them to subscribe to the firm’s services.
Instagram Videos and Blogs
Instagram is also an ideal social network that will be used to promote the brand. WebsitePlanet avers that Instagram is the fastest growing social network, whose visual nature can be used to publish materials such as photos and videos and edit with tools available on the platform (cited by Belanche et al. 38). Also, Instagram has about a billion active users, half of whom visit the platform daily (Belanche et al. 38). Therefore, the use of Instagram blogs and videos will be an ideal way of engaging with a large consumer base.
Some of the Instagram tactics that will be used include:
- Posting short workout videos and photos and using appropriate captions and hashtags that can help the firm reach the target consumer and enhance its visibility.
- Instagram blogs aimed to spread motivation and inspire people to be the best of themselves, coupled with relevant hashtags to enhance the brand’s campaign towards fitness.
YouTube videos
YouTube ranks among the top video sharing sites globally. A 2011 study revealed that the site had about 450 million monthly visitors and was ranked third in terms of global traffic (Barker et al. 2). The site’s massive traffic makes it ideal for the firm to build on brand awareness and engage with consumers through the site’s comment section.
Some of the YouTube tactics that will be used include:
- Posting weekly videos on fitness routines to enlighten consumers about the nature of the firm’s services.
- Responding to consumers’ questions about the brand’s services and other details on the comment section to help promote consumer engagement and satisfaction.
- Posting work out tips on the firm’s YouTube page to help generate views from people seeking fitness services globally.
Monitoring Results
Besides implementing the social media marketing plan, the firm will also monitor its performance to determine their effectiveness in enhancing the brand’s visibility and engagement with consumers. The firm will monitor each social media platform separately to evaluate its effectiveness in facilitating the attainment of the pre-established company goals. On the one hand, the firm will use Facebook Insights to monitor the tool and determine areas that require improvement for better presence and efficient marketing (Pasma 45). Some of the Facebook insights that will be used to monitor the marketing plan include the likes in each content, which will reveal the number of people that like the firm’s page each day. Arguably, increased Facebook likes will suggest an increase in the firm’s awareness among potential consumers.
On the other hand, other social media sites such as YouTube and Instagram will be monitored using the available site analytics. For example, the firm will use Instagram analytics to determine videos and content that receive the most likes and comments. Such analytics may likely suggest content that a majority of social media users prefer to view. Furthermore, the entity will use YouTube analytics, such as views, to determine the most viewed and liked content. Monitoring these analytics and insights will help the firm determine the marketing plan’s stronghold and areas that require improvements.
Works Cited
Abrar, Kashif, et al. “Impact of Social Media Interaction and Social Media Usability on Brand Love and Brand Attachment with the Moderating Role of Gender.” Journal of Business and Tourism, 2017, pp. 378-393.
Alam, Samsul, and Islam, Mohammad Tariqul. “Impact of Blue Ocean Strategy on Organizational Performance: A Literature Review Toward Implementation Logic.” Journal of Business and Management, vol. 19, no. 1, 2017, pp. 1-19.
Appel, Gil, et al. “The Future of Social Media in Marketing.” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, vol.48, 2020, pp.79-95.
Barker, Melissa, et al. Social Media Marketing: A Strategic Approach. Cengage Learning, 2012.
Belanche, Daniel, et al. “Followers’ Reactions to Influencers’ Instagram Posts.” Spanish Journal of Marketing, vol.24, no.1, 2020, pp.37-53.
Jain, Vikas. “8 Reasons why Popularity of Gyms is Increasing Exponentially.” Entrepreneur, 5 Jul. 2017, www.entrepreneur.com/article/296797. Accessed 22 Nov. 2020.
Pasma, Melissa. “Facebook Marketing Strategy.” Theses, 2017, www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/130991/Pasma_Melissa.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Accessed 3 Dec. 2020.
Rodriguez, Melissa. “3 Ways Youth are Shaping the Health Club Market.” IHRSA, 28 Sep. 2017, www.ihrsa.org/improve-your-club/3-ways-youth-are-shaping-the-health-club-market/. Accessed 22 Nov. 2020.
Tiago, Teresa, and Verissimo, Jose Manuel Cristovao. “Marketing and Social Media: Benefits, and Ways Forward.” International Network of Business and Management Journals, 2013, pp. 1-13, www.researchgate.net/publication/262793755_Marketing_and_Social_Media_Benefits_and_Ways_Forward. Accessed 22 Nov. 2020.