What is fitness?What does it mean to be fit? What does fitness mean? Fitness means something a little different to everyone. To me, it is more than just what time you can do a race in, or how many weights you lift. Fitness is an increased enjoyment in life. Fitness has so many benefits: getting sick less often, relieving stress, burning calories, better sleep, improved disposition, and so many more.Getting in good shape is boringAchieving fitness and working out does not mean an hour or two on the treadmill every day, and it doesnt mean marathon weight training. The key to achieving and maintaining fitness is keeping training and workouts fun, challenging, and varied.Keys to Attaining FitnessHere are a few basic things that will help in getting in shape once and for all.No single type of training: Unless you are training specifically for a marathon, there is no reason to spend countless hours running long distances or to do 3 sets of 10 repetitions on the same exercises three days a week. MIX IT UP! Lifting, jogging, cycling, yoga, calisthenics/bodyweight exercises (push-up, pull-up, dips, etc.), sprinting, swimming, plyometrics, stretching, and more!No routines: Try to no-t develop any specific pattern. There is no need to jog everyday, or even every Tuesday for that matter. No need to workout at the same time everyday. Constantly try new things and new workouts, as you learn how your body reacts it will become easier and easier.Net time requirements: Some workouts should be short and high intensity, some should be long and low intensity, and some in between. Constantly switching it up prevents your body from settling into any type of routine.Cross-Train: You dont need to do training everyday. Play! Play different sports (basketball, soccer, football, hockey), go ice skating, play games outside with your kids (or nieces & nephews), go for a long walk or a hike. Play like you did when you were a kid!Set a few goals: Setting a few goals helps you stay on track. Make the goals as specific as you can. Set short, middle, and long term goals. Maybe your short term goal is to workout for a total of 3 hours a week, the middle term goal is to lose 10 pounds by the end of the year, and the long term goal is to be able to play catch outside with your grandson when he is able to.Track all workouts and progress: Record every workout in a notebook or on your computer. This doesnt have to be anything fancy, simply write down what you did that day, and how long it took you. Periodically measure yourself against your goals. From the example abovemaybe you have lost seven pounds by the end of November, only 3 to go! You may want to use the same notebook to track your workouts and your diet side-by-side.Tell people your goals, get a partner: If you tell everyone your goal, and what you are aiming to do, it makes you accountable. Sharing your goals with the people close to you may even result in them helping to put you back on track. Getting a workout partner can also be motivational and help out.Fitness centersA health club (also known as a fitness club, fitness center, and commonly referred to as a gym) is a place which houses exercise equipment for the purpose of physical exercise. It is one the fastest growing service industry in India. With a expected business of 1 trillion by 2015 it is attracting a lot of new players in the industry.People are becoming more health conscious now a days. They are ready to take time out of their already busy schedules to go to gyms and work out because they have understood the benefit of healthy living.Fitness centers provide a variety of services to the customers such as:- Group exercise classes Sports facilities Personal training Main workout area Cardio Theater Cardio area Strength training

Some fitness centers have also started providing additional services to their customers such as:- Physiotherapist Kick boxing Massages Juice bars

The research findings are:-Consumer behaves with the services of Fitness Centres

Introduction / purposeKnowing your customers and being able to provide what satisfies them is a critical issue for todays service providers and at the core of todays marketing paradigm. Knowledge of what services consumer wants helps in effective segmentation and in creating successful service offers.However, consumer behavior varies across industries and is considered to be multidimensional. Many researchers have investigated the effect of variousfactors, such as service quality; customer satisfaction; perceived service value, and cost of services on consumer behavior in different industries including banks; fast-foods; dry cleaning, athletic services; entertainment; thematic parks, and health institutes In athletic services, research has focused on service quality and customer satisfactionDimensions and how these affect current and potential behavioral intentions. In fitness centers, there is a strong relationship between all service quality dimensionsand positive word-of-mouth communications of customers. Major customer motives for becoming members in a fitness centre include training and staying fit as well as losing weight. Moreover, customers choosefitness center based on criteria such as cost; quality of environment; building, and equipment, group exercise program content, and quality of instructors. Although this study provides some deeper insights regarding the way consumers behave with the services in fitness centers, there is a need to analyze further this behavior.

Objective of the study

Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyze consumer behavior with services in fitness centers.

In detail, we aim to study consumers profile (demographic and psychographic), their motives for becoming members in a fitness centre, the selection criteria they use, their usage behavior in the fitness centre, the factors that affect their satisfaction from the fitness centre, and their future behavioral intentions regarding the fitness centre.

MethodologyThe study is descriptive in nature intending to describe the way consumers behave with the services in fitness centre. A survey was done based on a structured questionnaire that was personally administered to a purposive sample of 100 respondents from 4 fitness centers that are based in Preet Vihar. The sample included different sizes of fitness centers in order to cover for different environments. The questionnaire was divided into 6 sections, namely consumer motives, selection criteria, factors affecting satisfaction, behavior in the fitness centres area; behavioral intentions; demographic & psychographic information. The analysis of the data included descriptive statistics, factor analysis. The only scales used from prior research are for the factors that affect customer satisfaction.ResultsResults show that respondents are 61% men and 39% women, most of them (45%) belong to the 24-35 age category whereas 32 are from 36-50 years old. Almost half of the sample has a bachelors degree (43%). The majority of respondents are not married (62%) and their income level is mostly (43%) between Rs.25000-35000. Respondents are employed as private employees (20%), civil servants (26%), or free professionals (19%). Also, there are a lot of students members of fitness centers (35%).The most important consumer motive to become a member of a fitness centre is to enhance

Their fitness state followed by relaxation stress reduction (see Table 1 for mean scores forEach motive).

Table 1. Motives to become a member of a fitness centre

Enhance fitness state4.35

Relaxation3.62

Control body weight3.58

Health reasons3.52

Increase body mass2.88

Social interaction2.39

Linkert scale from 1= not important to 5 = very important

The selection criteria customers use to choose fitness centre belong to four major groups1. Quality of environment & equipment;2. Supplementary benefits such as massage solarium or hair-styling3. Value for money aspects of the offer (opening hours prices quality of personnel)4. Social factors (social relations to personnel, friends already members etc.)

Table 2: Fitness centre choice criteria

Quality of environment equipment4.1

Value for money aspects of the offer

3.65

Supplementary benefits3.55

Social factors2.39

As the sample is dominated by men, 82% use weights whereas only 54% take partin group workout sessions. Most customers use aerobic equipment and weights very often and many times they do what trainers tell them whereas they work out in groups less often (see table 3 for means of usage behavior). A large 50% work out from 1 to 1.5 hours and 36% from 1.5 to 2 hours. Also, 56% come to the centre from 17.00 up to 21.00 and 94% visit the centre from 2 to 5 times per week. More than half of respondents (55%) are members of the fitness centre for more than 1 year whereas 38% are members for more than 2 years.

Table 3: Usage behavior in the centreAerobic equipment (running belts, bicycles etc.)3.90

Weights 3.68

What trainers tell me2.99

Anything depending on my mood2.57

Group exercise classes2.53

Likert scale from 1= never to 5 = very oftenAll categories of factors that affect satisfaction are important according to respondents as it is shown in Table 4. However, the most important ones concern the quality of personnel and the quality of environment of the fitness centre.

Table 4: Factors affecting satisfaction in the fitness centreQuality of personnel professionalism4.3

Economic factors4

Quality of environment4.3

Security, reliability and organization ofactivities

3.9

*Likert scale from 1= not important at all to 5 = very important

In behavioral intentions, we must note that the most important intention is word-of-mouth communication. Most respondents are willing to provide positive word of mouth for their fitness centre and are quite committed to their supplier in terms of purchase intentions now and in the future. Also, most respondents are not very price sensitive and their complaining intentions are low (see table 5 for means for each type of behavioural intentions).

Table 5: Behavioural intentions

Word of mouth communication4.6

Complaining intentions3.2

Purchase intentions3.5

Price sensitivity 3.3

*Likert scale from 1= extremely unlikely to 5 = extremely likely

Factor analysis on psychographic factors shows that there are 4 types of customers in fitness centers, the Sports-savvy consumer, the Health-oriented consumer, the Athletic consumer and the Pressured consumer. Further analysis with an aim to describe these 4 types of customers in terms of behavior revealed that the different groups have different motives, use different selection criteria, and behave differently in the centre. Also, their satisfaction is affected by different factors, and exhibit different behavioral intentions (see table 6 for a description of each type of customer identified. In motives; selection criteria, and factors affecting satisfaction, the two most important in each case appear in the table in order of importance).

Table 6. Additional Servicesphysiotherapist3.5

Personal training4.5

Kick Boxing3

Massages2

Juice bar4

*Likert scale from 1= extremely unlikely to 5 = extremely likely

Factor analysis on psychographic factors shows that there are 5 additional services that the customers want. Personal training is preferred by more, after that at second people want juice bars in the fitness centers, at third customers want the services of physiotherapist in the gym, then people would like the kick boxing facility, and at last they want massages in their fitness centers

Types of customers of fitness centres and their profileSports-savvy consumer Health-oriented consumer Athletic consumer Pressured consumer

Managerial implications of The findings of this study present many implications for fitness centre management.1. Consumers of fitness centers differ in many ways and managers of fitness centres face the difficult task of satisfying all these different people. The emergence of four Different types of fitness centre customers presents a challenge for sports managers. Their different needs and preferences should be linked directly with the creation of Customized offers. For example, a pressured consumer who is primarily interested in a good deal should be offered a good price for a limited variety of services because he doesnt use everything anyway. On the other hand, an athletic consumer is not so concerned about price provided that the environment and equipment are good and there is security and good organisation in the business. So a different package would be suitable for such a customer.2. Relaxation and stress reduction is a very important motive for fitness centre Customers. As a result, managers should make sure that their programs can make Customers feel better, release their tension and have a good time.3. In their choice criteria, all types of customers consider the core service (environment equipment) of the centre more important than any supplementary benefits or social interaction. This means that any communication to customers must primarily focus on the core service and extend to other benefits according to target group. 4. The importance of motives and selection criteria differs between the 4 types of customers identified. This means that sport managers should carefully segment their market and customize their advertising messages according to the group of customers targeted. Also, it is important for fitness centres to enhance thne power of their brand by strengthening associations that relate to the motives or selection criteria of their target market.5. Employee professionalism as well as quality of the environment and the equipment were found to be the most important determinants of customer satisfaction. Therefore, careful selection and training of employees and effective management of the physical evidence of the fitness centre are priorities that should not be neglected by managers. Especially important is to keep all aerobic equipment in a good state since most customers use them very often.6. Identification of the groups that are more likely to complain and provide negative word of mouth can help in preventing customer defection and enhancing long-term relationships with customers.In summary, the results of this study will help managers of fitness centres to improve their services, segment their market appropriately, satisfy all types of customers, retain the most profitable customers and create long-term relationships with them that lead to higher profits.

Limitations further researchThis study extends findings in the area of consumer behavior in fitness centers. However, the sample is purposive and is limited to 4 fitness centers in one region. Future research can extend the sample; use a random sample from the whole city; do multi-city studies showing changes in consumption and behavioral patterns of services.

Bibliography:- Thegym.com Goldgym.com Worldgym.com

Questionnaire :- Ques 1. What are the motives to become the member of fitness centre?Enhance fitness state

Relaxation

Control body weight

Health reasons

Increase body mass

Social interaction

(mark from 1 to 5. 1 being not very important and 5 being very important)Ques 2. What are your fitness centre selection criteria?Quality of environment equipment

Value for money aspects of the offer

Supplementary benefits

Social factors

(mark from 1 to 5. 1 being not very important and 5 being very important)

Ques 3. What services you use in the gym?Aerobic equipment (running belts, bicycles etc.)

Weights

What trainers tell me

Anything depending on my mood

Group exercise classes

(mark from 1 to 5. 1 being not very important and 5 being very important)

Ques 4. What are the factors that affect your satisfaction in fitness centre?Quality of personnel professionalism

Economic factors

Quality of environment

Security, reliability and organization of activities

(mark from 1 to 5. 1 being not very important and 5 being very important)

Ques 5. What are your behavioural intentions?Word of mouth communication

Complaining intentions

Purchase intentions

Price sensitivity

(mark from 1 to 5. 1 being not very important and 5 being very important)

Ques 6 What additional services would you like in your gym?physiotherapist

Personal training

Kick Boxing

Massages

Juice bar

(mark from 1 to 5. 1 being not very important and 5 being very important)