Making Your Mark
Excerpted from Club Industry Magazine, April 1, 2002

By John Agoglia

Branding a business is not necessarily advertising (not by itself, anyway) a catchy slogan or even a hot logo. Many believe that branding is more of an active endeavor than just placing an ad or slapping a logo on stationery. While these are most certainly steps toward building a business' brand, the real key to branding is developing a personal relationship between members (or potential members) and the business (in our industry, the health club). Moreover, the brand you build is itself a name that conveys expectations and lets members know what they can expect from one club over another.

This distinction between advertising and branding is important in an industry such as fitness with very few major national brands. It means that small and mid-sized clubs can compete with the larger chains without having to go dollar for dollar in the advertising world.

"In reality, the big guys in fitness don't do that great of a job when it comes to branding, when you compare them to leaders in other industries," says Jim Tenuto, CEO of Renaissance Executive Forums in San Diego, which builds executive forums on various business and marketing topics. "Which makes it possible for small and mid-sized companies to have a real presence in their markets."

But just because smaller clubs are on an even keel in terms of branding with their bigger competition doesn't mean they should try and think like them. According to Linda Talley, a Houston-based business coach and author of Business Finesse: Dealing with Sticky Situations in the Workplace and the Daily Win, if you follow the competition, you won't make your club appear unique.

"Most businesses think branding takes big bucks and high-paid consultants. It just takes imagination, innovation and guts," says Talley. "You can try to play in the big-money arena, but it isn't the way to go. You have to play in the service and personality arena and set yourself apart from the crowd."

Making a Name
To build a name you will, of course, have to do some amount of advertising, be it the local phone book, newspaper or other paid vehicle. But there are many low- to no-cost ways to get your name in front of potential members.

One of the easiest ways is to do what you do best -- teach people about fitness, according to several branding and marketing experts. This can be done in several ways -- from speaking engagements, through public relations, etc. But first, warns Dave Crowley, principal of Resonate Inc., a Denver-based speaking and consulting company, know what the brand is before you build it.

"My suggestions for any business that wants to create a brand that customers recognize and associate with good things is to make promises and keep them. Every successful enterprise, including health clubs, becomes "known" for certain things. They consistently deliver over a long time so customers know what to expect," says Crowley. "Once a health club knows its promises and consistently delivers them, all the word-of-mouth advertising begins to play a major role in attracting new members."

Now that a direction for the brand has been established (i.e., high-end boutique, certain age demographic, sports-specific, etc.) the club is ready to get out there and let people know it is not only a place to take an aerobics class, but a place where they can get high-level information and service as well.

One of the most cost-effective and low-effort ways of establishing the club and its staff as experts -- and getting free exposure to an interested group -- is to search for speaking engagements. In fact, local, state and national groups create over 100,000 opportunities every year to speak in front of potential customers, according to Vickie Sullivan, author of Speak to Sell.

"Speaking in front of another organization's group serves three purposes at one time," says Sullivan. "First, it allows your organization to stand out as an expert from a third-party endorsement. In other words, you're not just blowing your own horn. Secondly, you move publicity and outreach into the hands of the third-party. You get all of the exposure the event does without any costs or time from you or your staff. Lastly, you are building a database and relationships with only a time investment."

But, warns Sullivan, remember to speak on the topic, not using the time to promote your club only. "One of the biggest mistakes a speaker can make is not have faith in the information, turning the engagement into a chance to pitch from the podium," she says. "The backflash from that can be huge. People see it as a waste of their time and money, hurting your brand rather than helping it. If you provide them with quality information they'll learn your name."

Check out http://www.clubindustry.com/ for the rest of this article and related articles and information.

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