Gym Franchise Advertising Case Study

Introduction

As Zap Fitness 24/7 decides to commence a branch in Elwood the IMC campaign needs to be crystal clear. Therefore, before and after the opening of the branch and so the implementations of the channels will be listed strategically. In addition, the IMC campaign will focus on the start of the summer since the opening of the branch will be 1^st of November. Thus, the campaign will spotlight the near summer and create and urgency through the channels and platforms. Through the channels that will be listed, the objectives that are already set will be achieved. Then the tools to evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign will elaborated.

1 IMC Media and Contact Points

As Killian and McManus (2015) states, channels and platforms are the bridge between customers and the brand, thus, the effective usage greatly benefits the companies (p.3). Thus, the platforms and channels will be detailly elaborated with specific dates for the Zap Fitness 24/7 in Elwood.

1.1 Advertising

According to Moriarty et al. (2018), advertising is a paid form of interaction that implements interactive and mass media to communicate with wide range of audience and thus to connect with target audience while providing information about the good or service and pinpoint customers’ needs (p.65). Regarding the brief definition of the platform of advertising, Zap Fitness will implement various channels to communicate the customers which are; magazines and radio. The reason TV will not be implemented as channel of communication because the popularity of national TV displayed a declivity in recent years and rather than TV people watch Netflix or Hulu which has become extremely popular in the last 4 years. Koblin et al. (2018) states: “But the combination of rising prices and falling viewership is giving some big brands pause (p.1). Therefore, minding the budget planning and advertising strategically, skipping TV channels is a better option. On the other hand, the implementation of newspapers will be avoided due to the high prices and the unavailability to pinpoint the target customers.

1.1.1 Magazines

According to Belch et al. (2017) the availability of magazines of variety of topics, enables small companies to get into relevant industry and speak to target customers (p.820). For instance, existence of Men’s Heath, Bodybuilding, Universal and Woman’s Health magazines, opens doors for gyms, supplement companies, and sport wear companies to advertise their service. Referring to that, Zap Fitness 24/7 in Elwood will start advertising the branch for, October and November issues. Regarding the other magazines, just including the Men’s Health and Women’s Health would be a better choice because Universal, Bodybuilding and Muscle& Fitness magazines are geared towards hardcore bodybuilder fans.

• October Issue

Figure 1: Cover page of Men’s Health Figure 2: 3^rd Page of Men’s Health

• November Issue

Figure 3: Cover page November Issue Figure 4: 3^rd Page of November Issue

As illustrated in the images, in the October issue the awareness is aimed and in the November issue, the price and the 1-month free promotion is elaborated. In the cover pages, the catch phrase “summer is coming…” is implemented. The same structure will also be used in the Woman’s Health magazines in the 3^rd pages.

1.1.2 Radio

The majority who resides in Elwood are maturing and established independent individuals with 33.8%, the independent youth takes up to 23.6% of the population and the other big chunk with 10.8% is maturing couples and families. Comparing the percentages with the average youth population in whole Melbourne which is 64% which is younger than Elwood average (Realestate, 2019). Regarding the information of the Elwood residents, the implementation of the radio advertisements shall be aligned. According to Radio Today (2019) ratings for Melbourne, 3AW is first overall including Breakfast and Drive. The key point here is the drive time because, people who will listen to radio during the drive time to work and home will be maturing and establish independent people which also takes 33.8% of the Elwood population. Thus, Zap Fitness will aim to advertise on 3 AW radio station. In this particular station, 30 seconds cost 850 dollars which is considerably affordable. The punch line of the advertisement should be extremely to the point and short. So, the company could afford to advertise every day in the drive time for 4 weeks straight from 1^st of October to 1^ST of November.

• “Get Ready for Summer in Elwood Zap Fitness 24/7. Closer to home than your basement.”

The timing of creating an urgency is crucial which is the upcoming summer. Therefore the “Get Ready for Summer in Elwood Zap Fitness 24/7” will be essential. On the other hand, “Closer to home than your basement” is already mentioned as the Zap Fitness’s brand image and the way of creating a convenience for the people nearby Elwood.

1.2 PR (Public Relations)

As the campaign is built around for the opening of a new branch, the traditional way of working which is with organizations for non-profit campaigns, would not benefit for communication stand point in the short- terms (Blech et al., 2017, p.1120). However, there other ways of implementing PR. According to Honeysett (2019) the deliberate maintenance of a favorable public image by a firm, a famous individual or an organization (p.1). Regarding the definition, Zap Fitness 24/7 will implement the new age PR method which takes place on YouTube. Zap Fitness will provide free membership for a year to growing fitness channel owners on YouTube, welcome them to the gym to train whenever they want and ask them to film their workouts in the new branch in Elwood. Due to the reason this is not a paid action, the gym will show up in the video in a mild way which will surge the awareness and increase interest of the fitness enthusiasts. The chosen YouTube Fitness channels in Melbourne are;

1. Taylor Crabtree 2270 Subscribers
2. GymMonsta81 4310 Subscribers
3. Punjabi Vlog 2000 Subscribers
4. Lauren Simpson 44500 Subscribers
5. Frenchy By Chelsea Elizabeth 1000 Subscribers

Doing PR with fitness channels will pinpoint the target customers because their audience are already fitness enthusiasts, thus the stated growing fitness channels in Melbourne will not desire to get paid for the given PR project. In terms of timing, the YouTube content creators shall be contacted 1 week before opening of the branch and the training videos in the Elwood branch shall occur after 1^st of November. On the other hand, there still different aspects and types of public relations which are interviews, exclusives, media conferences, media releases and community involvement (Belch et al., 2017, p.1123). Nevertheless, the stated aspect of PR will be implemented for this campaign.

Figure 5: Thumbnail

The figure 5 is an example of a YouTube thumbnail, where the content creator posts a video on YouTube and this is the first picture that shows up. The aim is not to push the brand in this platform, the aim is to raise awareness with the training vlogs of the upcoming YouTube stars.

1.3 Sales Promotions

Regarding the platform of sales and promotions, Zap Fitness 24/7 will benefit from channels such as discounts and coupons, the Zap Fitness branch in Elwood will implement low prices the price of 12.95 dollars per week, creates a positive leverage whereas the other gyms in Elwood such as in 6 Degrees South Gym, full membership is 18.95 dollars p/w and in Step into Life Gym membership is 25 dollars p/w.

Table 1: Sales Promotion Channels

1.4 Direct Marketing

• Postcard Letter: While implementing this channel of direct marketing, we want to arouse curiosity. Therefore, placing postcards into residents of Elwood and neighborhoods nearby such as South Yarra, St.Kilda , Brighton, South Melbourne, Prahan, St. Kilda East, Elsternwick, Gardenvale, Caulfield, Caulfield North and Elwood. The postcard shall be brief and effective to trigger curiosity in the residents and make them question.

Figure 6: Summer is coming

As Zap Fitness 24/7’s brand color is red, the letter cover will be red, however, there will be no sign of the brand to make the possible customers question what is it all about. When the residents of stated suburbs open the red letter cover, they will see the “Summer is coming…” sentence, which creates an urgency as well. On the other hand, “winter is coming” has become a popular and witty quote among Game of Thrones audience, so, people may think this could be a related TV series or a comedy show. However, people will get to know what is it about on 14^th of October which is 2 weeks before the grand opening. The exact date is 14^th because on that day, personal selling will commence on nearby neighborhoods. This letter will be sent every Monday from 1^ST of September to 14^TH of October.

• E-mail: It is found that 94% of customer insights and marketing professionals said personalization is extremely significant for meeting their email marketing objectives (Campaign Monitor, 2019). Thus, the e-mails will be containing the receivers name regardless. On the other hand, just one e-mail to each individual who is living in the stated suburbs will be sufficient because more than one email will more likely to go into the receiver’ spam. The direct marketing will be more regional because the general brand awareness will be accomplished advertising section via newspapers, magazines, and radio. Those will not only impact the people who live near Elwood branch but will also affect the people living all around Melbourne and positively impact the brand and other branches as well. Even this is an IMC campaign for the new opening branch in Elwood, the impact will surge the number of memberships of other branches too. Coming back to the topic of e-mails, they will be sent on 14^th of October when the personal sales start and the website accept sing-ups.

Figure 7: Email

The e-mail will look like this which includes the receiver’s name on the heading and the punch line which creates the urgency. On 14^th of October, the memberships will be open on the website as well, thus, people who receive the email, will be also curious due to the postcards so, with one click to this email, they can sign up and be in the first 100 to get the coupon.

• Phone:

Pre- Opening Calls	Implementing the channel of cold calling before the opening of the gym and trying to convince people do not worth the effort and can damage the brand image. Therefore, implementing cold calling before opening will be avoided.
Post- Opening Calls	Since we have avoided the pre-launch calling, post opening calls could substantially benefit the customer- brand relationship. Calling the members after their 1st month in the Elwood branch, will display caring and customer-oriented image and persona. Therefore, calling each member after their 1st month will be a great connection point to evaluate their thoughts.

Table 2: Cold Calling

1.5 Personal Sales

This platform be used by placing kiosks in shopping malls and busy venues near or in Elwood. The region will include South Yarra, St.Kilda , Brighton, South Melbourne, Prahan, St. Kilda East, Elsternwick, Gardenvale, Caulfield, Caulfield North and Elwood. Then, the responsible sales persons of Zap Fitness, will persuade customers to sign-up for the free trial with aggressive techniques. By using the personal sales platform, the aim is to achieve at least 400 membership sign-ups for the first 15 days. Personal sales will commence on 15^th of October to 1^st of December in the stated nearby suburbs and malls. After the postal code’s distribution to homes, the interest levels of the residents will be high due to the unexpectedness of the sole sentence:” Summer is coming…” On the date the distribution ends, the personal sales will commence and experienced sales people will starts pursing sign-ups.

Table 3: Kiosk Locations

As observed from the table, there will be 2 sale persons per kiosks, however, the bigger the shopping mall is and the more traffic it attracts, the more kiosks there will be. As could be observed in the table certain locations has 2 kiosks in 2 strategically chosen spots. The dates are changing due to the effective usage of qualified salesmen. Our goal is to sign up 400 members in the first 15 days, thus, the sales people have to be qualified and obtain exclusive skill set.

• The kiosks will look like:

Figure 8: Kiosk

1.6 Digital Marketing

In this segment the channels that are necessary to use will be Facebook and Instagram. A survey made by West (2019) reveals that 72% of people between ages 30-49 uses Facebook which is Elwood’s main population, however, 49% of people who in the same age range uses Instagram (p.1). Thus, this illustrates that the inactive interaction of Facebook is a huge threat for communication aspects.

Figure 9. Which format drives more ad clicks on Facebook. Adapted from “Videos vs. Images: Which Drives More Engagement in Facebook and Instagram Ads?” by Dopson, 2019.

Figure 10. Which format drives more ad clicks on Instagram. Adapted from “Videos vs. Images: Which Drives More Engagement in Facebook and Instagram Ads?” by Dopson, 2019.

Considering the charts above, video ads are more effective on Facebook, however, pictures are almost the same on Instagram. Therefore, the sprinkle variety, on Facebook, videos, on Instagram picture ads will be used.

Table 4: Digital Media Channels

1.7 Contact Points & Touch Points

Even though some researchers say that public attitudes toward advertising continue to be negative, advertising effectiveness steams from the advertising messages are potential communications exchanges between advertisers and customers (Ducoffe, 1996, p.21). It is mentioned that regardless of some surveys and thoughts, if each party is satisfied, the advertisement is successful and serves the purpose. In our case, the advertisement platforms and channels serve the purpose of satisfying the customer with the service and reaching out to target customers to increase their interests with the stated platforms and make them take action and purchase.

When it comes to contact points the first contact point happens at 15^th of October where the personal sales starts and personal e-mails are received. The advertisements before that aims to create awareness and raise interest. In personal selling, face to face interactions occur which is the most critical step of the whole process. As the society moves towards digital marketing and online platforms, there will be chaotic traffic and full of junk information and advertisements. At that, point the face-to- face selling which is personal selling platform stands out. As Jack Ma (2016) stated in an interview; “The online marketing was profitable when nobody was doing it, but now nobody is doing personal selling”. Thus, I think most important contact point which will kick-start the interaction process, is personal selling. Visit here=> Gain Weight Fast With 4 Simple Steps

2 Management and Campaign Controls

2.1 Budgeting

Table 5: Budgeting

2.2 Evaluation of Effectiveness

Different tools will be implemented to measure the effectiveness of the channels. According to Anastasia (2015) there are 4 steps to measure the effectiveness of a IMC campaign:

1. Planning the campaign and how we want to track it
2. Defining the channels, we want to track
3. Defining the market metrics
4. Measuring our campaign.

The first 2 steps are already covered, thus, when we regard the 3^rd step, the market metrics could be listed as such

• Tracking KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) in personal sales.
• Tracking the click through rate on the ads on the digital marketing channels. This will measure how many people visited the Zap Fitness 24/7 Elwood website through the ads.
• Tracking new visitors versus returning ones. This method aids to figure out how effective new site content and ads to drive traffic in the website.
• Tracking social media effectiveness by likes, shares and comments on Instagram ad and Facebook video ad.
• Tracking e-mail openings. This will illustrate how effective the mailing method which is mailing by their name in the title and by putting the slogan.

When it comes to the last step, the actual measuring happens where we will see;

• SEO positioning
• Dynamic number insertion code
• Google Analytics
• Marketo, which is a RIO tool where we professionally track our effectiveness by key data, however, this service costs 2000$ per month.

3 Conclusion

In a nutshell, advertising, PR, sales promotion, direct marketing, personal selling and digital marketing platforms are implemented in this IMC campaign of Zap Fitness 24/7 Elwood. The channels that are implemented to communicate are radio, magazines, YouTube, promotion, coupons, social media contest, kiosks, email, phone, post cards Instagram and Facebook. Regarding the number of channels that are being used, the final cost expenditure is not high for a big franchise like Zap Fitness 24/7. The reason for that is modern and effective channels are chosen which are statistically proven to work in marketing. Therefore, the final cost is not substantially high. The effectiveness of the campaign will be measured with the specific tools such as SEO positioning, dynamic number insertion code, Google analytics and Marketo. All in all, this is a to the point marketing campaign with a specific punch line and target customers where the channels are chosen accordingly.