Indian Fitness / Wellness industry - digital disruption

YOGA IN OUR LIFESTYLE Yoga is essentially a spiritual discipline based on an extremely subtle science, which focuses on bringing harmony between mind, body, and spirit. It is a beautiful exercising practice that links the soul to nature and keeps fit and active. It is a very rich and highly complex tradition. The practice of yoga is gaining worldwide appreciation and popularity. A healthy person can do more work than an unhealthy person. Just 10-20 minutes of yoga every day can help your health to be good. To read more... https://vichaardhara.co.in/index.php/2023/04/04/yoga-in-our-lifestyle/

Adarsh Nigam It is a very well written article. This article shows your indepth knowledge of the industry.???? In a wonderful manner, you have captured the direction wellness industry is taking now and is expected to take after the lock down. Eagerly looking forward to more of such interesting and incisive articles????

There’s an article which said that they have asked employees to resign and have implemented pay cuts at all levels in lieu of their pledge to donate 100k for every 1000 people who successfully complete the 21 day challenge. Also, how are they affording celebrities like Mary Kom and Mandira Bedi? Not a smart move! In my opinion, cure.fit is losing its charm.

Adarsh & Vikram - Both of you have made some nuanced observations and commentary. Most of it validates the direction ImStrong is pursuing. These notes will be useful for everyone who wants to build a better user experience. There is a massive opportunity for technology product companies to deliver innovative fitness solutions and fitness companies (gyms/ studios) to adopt technology. The one who delivers better user experience will continue to grow.

Adarsh, my views basis what I have read, heard, infer and feel will happen: COVID19 will hit the majority of business owners hard – gym & studio owners, fitness professionals & practitioners who have chosen or been forced to close down their clubs. As an industry the gyms & studios a strong contributor to a members’ health and happiness through training and providing them a community. A sense of belonging. So when the gyms & studios shut down, the members lose more than their dumbbells and treadmills. They lose the social value the gyms & studios provide. Looking at the other side of this epidemic, being in good health will likely be even more of a priority AC (After Corona), so there is no reason why we would fear there are no members left when the gyms & studios reopen. But what the gyms & studios do while they are closed? How do the gyms & studios facilitate exercise and provide a sense of belonging? And can this be done in a way that is not only firefighting but can actually be useful long term? I strongly believe the answer to the above is yes. I’ve seen numerous great examples from health club owners around the world leading from the heart with their members in mind. Many have taken to social media to provide exercise, for instance by streaming live classes and also providing a schedule of classes. Some are lending out equipment to members. And in times like these done is way better than perfect. Acting supersedes good thoughts. It’s about showing the members you care. Because as loyal gyms & studios are to members, as loyal they will hopefully be to gyms & studios AC. The gym & studio owners must not forget that the digital push by them, their trainers and other practitioners are resulting in progression in isolation for the gym goer who is stuck at home and the same person this member has had a crash course increase in digital savviness. Just like the food industry, whereby the online food delivery explosion is resulting in the person at home discuss food more, experiment with different foods, consume more information about food categories and also many are wanting to try and cook at home for themselves as a social activity. Overall the food category has expanded from just an experience of dinning out or eating in to become an broader experience with a more educated customer wanting many different things. The supply side – food industry will have to cater. The collateral damage would be the undercapitalised, poor quality, very shallow restaurants and food offerings. The same would happen with gyms & studios and the trainers and other practitioners who are in the supply side of the industry. The gyms & studios should by all means provide as much value as possible to their members while closed. Talk to them. Share knowledge about exercise and nutrition. Provide at home workouts online. But be aware that you are not only catering to your members, you are catering to your potential new joiners as well. But how do you identify they these potential new joiners? If you deliver your workouts through an online platform that does not provide information on who you are providing services to - you don’t know who to reach out to at a later point in time. That makes the long-term value of the hard efforts while doing firefighting far less than what it could be. Another interesting observation from the many live and pre-recorded classes offered on GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple) during lockdown is that they do not only attract members. They also attract non-members who want to work out. Gyms & studios are now exposed to potential members who will want to engage with their businesses AC. Yet the club & studio and individual practitioner or influencers following is stagnant (number of followers does not exceed the BC – Before Carona Member Base or Follower Count. The same followers continue longer and harder, and the members of the physical clubs & studios are using the supply push of classes and workouts) and the reason for this is the type, nature and tone of content. The content is primarily aimed at experienced users who are familiar with the instructor, the exercise formats and also the data output from a 20/40/60 minute session. It is easy to go digital with such content than than create content that appeals to the first-time user. There is very little focus on induction into exercise & fitness, very little focus on the first-time user. One must not forget that the number of people who never joined a gym before, during lockdown has been made more aware of health, fitness and broader category of betterment. If there is one thing the gyms & studios will need when they reopen it is new joiners and the industry has to be far more ready for the new AC member. Summing up the above, the industry must use social to be social, to interact live, to show face and be close to the members and non-member community. Deliver online exercise through a robust and scalable platform that allows one to identify and understand who one is servicing. A platform the operator or individual professional can see themselves using in a profitable way looking forward AC. And very importantly, a platform that allows one to own and control the customer journey and its underlying data, so one can pick up communication with potential new members who will ultimately help the business recover. The New Gym Member AC – digital savvy, omni channel expectation, will want cellular health more than vanity fitness, will drive a broader definition for fitness under the betterment desire. Will spend more than the Gym Member BC (before Corona) and want more knowledge and quicker results. The BC member will demand more progressions, a lot of data feedback and become very competitive. They will come to the gym for the theatre of fitness, the sport of fitness. For every thing else, they have their phone. They will spend less for access only gyms, and more for gyms that provide the above with added offering of recovery. There are two very important milestone to keep an eye out in the AC world. First, when a therapy/protocol treatment is confirmed whereby people become Covid Resilient like they are towards Swine Flu and other severe viral and are more than 99% confident of surviving with a less severe experience if and when infected. And second milestone is when a vaccine is out. Both these milestones will be pivot points for the industry because these two milestones will also be turning points of the customer behaviour. In this lies the risk and reward from reorganization, restructuring, relaunch etc. FOMO “fear of missing out” and TINA “there is no alternative” given the clear link of infection probability to immunity and overall health levels will drive a high tide for betterment and exercise driven fitness will play a major role in it. New world, new customer behaviour from disruption driven by risk of close proximity and high density need of the business model will be the challenge and one will have to follow a “barbell strategy” to realign a legacy business to the new world, new customer behaviour. Under the barbell strategy one will have to immediately address the short term physical distancing norms and long term address the throughput and density management. Fitness Industry has a high growth outlook due to secular trends. One has to capitalise on omni channel digitalisation, product proposition that also addresses the aging population and the hyper increase in awareness of causes of co morbidity conditions and their solutions lying within the exercise and fitness industry.??