Mass Marketing Fitness For The Individual

Small Health Clubs Strive To Keep Client-Friendly While Expanding Business

(Tuesday, March 15, 2005) - When David Walmsley began franchising his athletic training clinic, Velocity Sports, in 2003, he faced a quandary: how to mass-market the concept without sullying the main selling point -- highly personalized service from hand-picked, advanced-degree coaches.

Some aspects of the business were easier to replicate than others. For instance, all locations are required to use the same Olympic-grade track and court flooring and bright 60-foot-candle lighting. Equipment is uniform, as is the temperature inside -- between 68° and 72°.

More difficult was ensuring that customers forking over as much as $40 a class got the attention that had become a hallmark of Velocity's original Atlanta facility. That operation served everyone from professional athletes and gym-weary weekend warriors to kids seeking training for a school sport.

"It's relatively easy to establish guidelines for making a sandwich -- a piece of turkey is going to be the same regardless of the market," says Lee Kallman, vice president of marketing for Velocity Sports Performance Franchise Systems LLC. "Creating a replicable system for training a human being is a completely different matter."

It's an issue faced by a growing number of entrepreneurs tapping the country's thirst for individualized health and sports regimens that go beyond what most giant fitness chains offer. The $14 billion health-club industry is becoming increasingly fragmented with a variety of niche players catering to those who can afford to go the extra mile.

In 2003, Xercize Studio LLC began franchising its IM=X Pilates studios and pitches itself as an alternative for "aging baby boomers" fed up with overcrowded gyms. A chain of yoga studios out of California is currently expanding domestically under the name Yoga Works and has plans to go overseas. And well-entrenched specialty groups such as Little Gym International Inc., which coaches children on motor skills, are making subtle adjustments as they replicate their operations abroad.

Like Velocity, these groups find that with expansion, some aspects can be readily standardized. At Yoga Works Inc., for instance, floors are natural hardwood, preferably maple, with the wood's vertical grain clearly visible so students can get proper footing alignment. But while the colors and signs of, say, Subway sandwich shops don't vary much, Yoga Works felt compelled to create a plethora of palettes to satisfy regional tastes. Los Angeles is decked in "playful" bright reds, purples and burnt orange, while New York studios get the "serene" look in light blues, greens and yellows.

"When you think of being in New York and coming out of a 15° day in seven layers and walking into class, you want a sense of retreat, cocooning and sanctuary," says Rob Wrubel, co-CEO of Yoga Works. "But in Newport Beach, Calif., people's idea of yoga is that they want it to be like the outdoors and have it brighter and whiter." Further, regional "yoga advisers" are employed to take calls about clients' personal needs.

At Velocity, the greatest challenge is replicating training standards while still allowing for the different needs of each athlete. It's labor-intensive: All class programs are handed down from the company's chief performance officer, Loren Seagrave, a former Olympic coach who developed his curriculum based on teachings from biomechanists and doctors world-wide. Franchises -- there are now 48 open -- also must hire a "sports performance director" with an exercise physiology or related degree to oversee all the clinic's coaches. Messrs. Walmsley and Seagrave vet each director's résumé, and Mr. Seagrave travels between centers monitoring coaches' techniques.

To keep the personal touch, each franchise is required to assess clients' individual needs before they take a class. Adult athletes are given a one-hour functional movement test that grades their ability in various poses, such as an in-line lunge or overhead deep squat. Clients of all ages also complete medical forms and explain their motivation for being there -- i.e., "improve my basketball skills," "lose weight," or even "my father made me."

From there, Velocity coaches determine a suitable class regimen within the scope of Mr. Seagrave's programs. Individual notes are kept on each client, and certain exercises may be emphasized for a customer's chosen sport: sprints for a soccer player, lunges for a fencer.

While sameness is emphasized in Little Gym's 200 international operations -- the English "Giggle Worm" and "Funny Bugs" class names are used on each continent -- some small cultural deviations are permitted: Amsterdam, for one, has a "tea corner" for parents to sit and sip. And the Little Gym's proprietary music has been recorded in many European languages.

Trickier yet for any player in this market is standardizing how to cope with the fragile human ego. There are "What if?" scripts for the Little Gym franchisees to follow: What if a child cries? (Let them go see Mom.)

Meantime, at Velocity, even coaching lingo is supervised. "We never say, 'Not bad, but you need to work a lot more on that left foot,' " Mr. Seagrave says. "Because all you hear then is 'bad' and 'not.' Instead we'd say, 'That's the best we've seen you do today. Now try cocking that ankle just a little more. ...' "

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