Marketing Plan for FitLife Health Club: Strategies and Analysis

This marketing plan report focuses on FitLife Health Club, an Australian fitness chain. It begins with an executive summary and table of contents, followed by a detailed marketing audit. The audit encompasses SWOT, PEST, GAP, BCG, and Porter's Five Forces analyses to assess the internal and external environments. The SWOT analysis identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, while PEST examines political, economic, social-cultural, and technological factors. The GAP analysis highlights areas for improvement, and the BCG matrix evaluates different services. Porter's Five Forces analyzes competitive dynamics. The report also includes feasible strategies, marketing tactics, and a discussion of the product life cycle. It also covers relevant legislation, ethical principles, and work health and safety considerations, concluding with a draft marketing plan and methods for measuring marketing effectiveness.

Running Head: MARKETING PLAN 1
Marketing Plan
FitLife Health Club, Australia

MARKETING PLAN 2
Executive Summary
Fitlife Health Club is a privately operated Australia based health club chain, which is
having 80 health club centers and 182,000 members in the country. It gives the members of the
club the ability to utilize 80 different clubs in different cities, Washington, Oregin, Montana,
Idaho and Wyoming on a short term. The company is serving as one of the industry leaders in
the fitness and sport segment, which provides different fitness venues across the country, which
provides state of art health club to sport club, swimming pools, squash courts and other health
related services. An analysis of the strengths and weaknesses, opportunities ad threats assisted in
preparing the marketing plan for the health club. This report includes various other analyses
regarding the organization, such as; PEST analysis, GAP analysis, Growth matrix and Porter’s
five forces analysis. The major objective is to explore the market opportunities with targeting the
new and specific customers. However, Fitlife health club is doing well in Australia, but still there
is a scope of improvement in its marketing mix and other strategies for achieving its general and
specific objectives.

MARKETING PLAN 3
Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Conducting a Marketing Audit..................................................................................................4
Part A - SWOT analysis...............................................................................................................4
Part B- PEST Analysis.................................................................................................................5
Part C- GAP Analysis..................................................................................................................7
Part D- BCG Growth share matrix...............................................................................................8
Part E - Porter’s Five Forces Analysis.......................................................................................10
Part F- Evaluation of Marketing Opportunities Options...............................................................11
1.2 Feasible strategies................................................................................................................12
1.3 Marketing Tactics................................................................................................................13
Part B..........................................................................................................................................14
Product Life Cycle.....................................................................................................................14
Introduction............................................................................................................................14
Growth....................................................................................................................................15
Maturity..................................................................................................................................15
Decline....................................................................................................................................15
Part C.............................................................................................................................................15
Part D.............................................................................................................................................16
Legislation codes and regulations..............................................................................................16
Discrimination legislation..........................................................................................................17
Privacy.......................................................................................................................................17
Ethical principles........................................................................................................................17
Work health and safety..............................................................................................................17
1.4 Draft Marketing Plan (Email)..................................................................................................17
1.5 Measuring marketing effectiveness........................................................................................18
Conclusion................................................................................................................................... 19
Task B Response......................................................................................................................... 19

MARKETING PLAN 4
Introduction
Fitlife Heath Club is the Australian health club, which is established as one of the leader
in the sport and fitness industry. It provides various fitness venues all over the country by
offering various fitness related services. The Head office of Fitlife health club is in North
Sydney. From there, it operates its branches in every state of the country. All the health clubs are
offering the services like; swimming, recreation hall, gymnastic hall and gym for weight lifting
and other exercises. The health club is working for its mission and vision with effective
strategies. This marketing plan includes the marketing audit of the Fitlife by utilizing various
analyses.
Task 1
1.1 Conducting a Marketing Audit
Part A - SWOT analysis
The following table indicates the possible strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the
Fitlife Health club.
Strengths Weaknesses

MARKETING PLAN 5
Internal
 Strong brand image and market
leadership
 Innovative cultures
 Expert and high class trainers and
dieticians
 Special time slot for the elders
and children allows the parents to
work freely
 Availability of sufficient
equipment and machines for work
out
 Pricing structure is very high, so it does
not attract international customers
 Less social media presence
 Lack of distribution channels in global
markets
 Higher cost structure (It includes cost of
Maintenance, delivery of service and
trainers)
 It is hard to find out the high quality and
expert trainers (Surujlal, & Dhruup,
2011).
 Timings are limited, which are not
suitable for all the clients.
External
Opportunities Threats
 Global expansion
 Online coaching
 Improvement in the quality assurance
by providing internal training
 New products and services
 It should implement the loyalty card
program to retain the existing
customers
 Competitors with lower cost services
 24*7 Opened health clubs
 Growth in health and wellness related
apps
 Wide range of free health and wellness
resources on internet reduces the use of
physical health clubs. It teaches the
people that how they can do exercise
and eat without paying money (Fitness
Australia, 2015).
Part B- PEST Analysis
Political  There are some political factors, which impact the growth of health
club, like; unfair contract regulations, sales strategies and
miscommunication (Aubrey, 2017).
 The health club must consider the following elements as they vary on a
continuous basis and will have a large impact on delivery of attributed

MARKETING PLAN 6
options:
 Taxes: The Fitlife Health club has to adopt the changes in the taxes
and tariffs
 It requires keeping up to date with the policies and regulations to
decrease the chance of claim for any injury (Payne, Kennedy, Davis,
2009).
 The health club needs to comply with the Work Health and Safety Act,
2011 by introducing the compulsory online training to provide its staff
easy access to the resources to implement in the Fitlife club
atmosphere.
Economic
 Decline in inflation: Due to decline in the inflation, people are spending
their disposable income on the luxury services like; health club
membership. But if there will be decrease in the household income, the
people will shift to the cheaper options.
 The Australian health industry is growing continuously from the last few
decades. The government is making many efforts to motivate the people
towards getting the health club services to keep themselves healthier.
 The health and wellness sector is earning about 1 billion revenues from
last few years. There are approximately 3000 health clubs and gyms in the
country (EZYPAY, 2015).
 Increase in the expenses, like; rent, trainer’s salary etc.
Socio-
Cultural
 28% of the Australian people are obese
 The increase in the reality TV shows related to the weight loss, initiatives
by the government to encourage the healthy life are some factors, which
have contributed in increasing the demand for fitness industry
(McDonalds, 2007).
 Impacts in social media have created more people of the society health
conscious.
 Most of the people want to go fitness centres and gyms for looking good

MARKETING PLAN 7
Technologica
l
 Advancement in fitness equipment enables to use the internet, connect
with the users, play music, watch TV and put their personal information
into machines to make the workout personal.
 There are various apps for fitness. 26% of the population use the apps to
burn the calories and to search for the healthy recipes.
 Approx. 14% of the people use the social media to follow the diets and
fitness blogs.
 Implanting new technologies in the products is very important. In
Australia, there is an emerging trend of using the gym gadgets and other
technology devices like; Fitbit Tracker (Luo, 2008).
Part- C GAP Analysis
Marketing Objective Gap Actions Bridging the Gap
1. To develop innovative
and wellbeing
programs
Market segment is more
interested in online fitness
apps
Launch its online website and
apps
2. To launch most
revenue generating
health bar
Premium prices of services Implementation of effective
pricing strategy
3. To provide offsite
support Lack of online presence
Create a app and providing
videos of exercises and diet
plans on the online sites
The below graph indicates the current position and desired position of the FitLife Health Club.
The graph shows the gap between both the situations (Keyzer, Finch, Dietrich, & Sekendiz,
2014).

MARKETING PLAN 8
Figure 1 Gap Analysis
Part D- BCG Growth share matrix
Market Growth Rate
(Cash Usage)
High
Relative Market Share
(Cash Generation)
High Low
Stars Question Marks (new markets)
 Children exercise programs
 Exercise and diet programs for
elder people
 BodyAttack
 Zumba
 Nutrition program
 Gym-Cardio
 Online and remote classes and
fitness training
 Introduction of health bar
 Physiotherapy facility
 Loyalty card program
 New wellness and fitness
programs

MARKETING PLAN 9
Low
Cash Cows Dogs
 Swimming classes
 Recreational activities (Table
tennis, Basket Ball, Badminton
and Netball)
 Personalised weight lifting
programs
 One-on-one training sessions
 Pilates
 Body pump
 Yoga
 Cycling
 Fat burner
 Kendo
 Boxing
The above BCG growth matrix indicates the growth-share matrix about the different
units and activities of FitLife Health club. This includes four categories; dogs, question marks,
stars and cash cows. In the matrix, star shows the units, which generate large amount of cash due
to the strong market share. But, the units in this category consume huge amount of cash due to
higher growth rate. For the FitLife health club, the star matrix shows that the club can generate
more cash from children exercise programs, nutrition programs, body attack, Gym-cardio and
Zumba (Close, 2013). These activities are very common for the Australian people, who are very
health conscious, but it requires a huge cost for installing the gym equipment and machines. For
nutrition programs, the fitness center has to hire a nutrition expert or dieticians. The organization
has to pay demanded salary to them. FitLife should invest in these services to increase its market
share.

MARKETING PLAN 10
Investments made in these services will assist the health club in introducing new and
innovative health and wellness programs. The health club should drop the services like; Kendo
and Boxing, as the people are less interested in these services and it has low market growth and
low market share (Alpert, 2015). These dropouts can help the organization, as it can invest the
cash in other services, which generated from divestiture of related assets. The health club should
focus on the profitable services to achieve the marketing objectives. It should make the
investment in the services, which can generate more cash and revenues in the future.
Part E - Porter’s Five Forces Analysis
There are five forces, which affect the players in an industry. The Following model
indicates the fives forces for the FitLife Health Club. It includes the five forces like; Competitive
rivalry, threat of new entry, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers and threat
of substitutes (David, David & David 2016).
The Threat of New Entry
(High)
 Development of private
gyms and fitness centres
 Low product
differentiation
 Legal regulations
 Requirement of high
capital
Supplier Power (Moderate)
 High competition among
suppliers
 Quality of equipment
critical
 Similar production inputs
 Low cost of switching
Competitive Rivalry
 Large industry size
 Fast growth rate of
industry
 Low exit barriers
Buyer Power (Strong)
 Different range of services
 Competitors with lower
cost service providers
 Health clubs with same
facilities
 Players with high prices
(FitLife) can lose the
customers

MARKETING PLAN 11
Threat of Substitution (High)
 High cost of switching
 Private health clubs
 Various options are
available
Part F- Evaluation of Marketing Opportunities Options
Marketing Opportunity Option
Feasible
?
Yes/No
Rationale
Strategic alliances and cooperative
business models Yes
The FitLife Health club has the opportunity to
alliance with any other fitness centre in
Australia. It will help in raising its revenues
and grow in the market (Chang, & Ming,
2013).
New products or services to target
specific markets Yes
It can offer new services and products in the
fitness centre to target the specific segment
like; for elder people, children, pregnant
women etc.
Greater market penetration with
existing products or services Yes
It can go through the market penetration by
introducing new services or by lowering the
prices of existing services.
Take-overs No
FitLife club is not as stronger that it can take
over any business. First, it should establish its
own business in all over the country, and then
it should think about take-over.

MARKETING PLAN 12
New businesses and franchising Yes
This is a new business initiative. In
comparison to establishing a new business,
the franchises business will have an already
established brand among the customers.
1. Global Expansion Yes
It has the opportunity to expand its business
internationally by providing online coaching
and increasing its social media appearance.
2. Introduction of new health
and wellness programs Yes
Introducing new and innovative and wellness
programs can help the organization in
contacting and attracting more customers.
3. Group fitness training
classes for niche segment,
like; pregnant women,
senior citizens etc.
Yes
It can develop group fitness classes for niche
groups including pregnant women, seniors,
children, cyclists, kettlebell lovers, post-birth
mums, yoga with babies and toddlers and
aqua fitness.
1.2 Feasible strategies
Marketing
Mix Strategy Rationale Alignment
Product 1. Quality services
2. Seasonal and
special training
packages
Providing quality
services and special
packages will make it
different from other
competitors.
Both the strategies will
help in attracting more
customers by providing
high quality services.
Price 1. Competitive
prices
2. Discount to
regular and loyal
customers
The company is
providing the services at
higher prices; it must
reduce the prices and
give discount to the
Lowering the prices of
services will help in
generating more
revenues by increasing
the customer base.

MARKETING PLAN 13
loyal customers.
Promotion 1. Promotional
plans
2. Increase social
media
appearance
The company is not
providing online
services, so it must
increase its appearance
on social media.
Implementing the
promotional activities
will assist health club in
expanding the business
internationally.
Placement 1. Expansion in
distribution
channels
2. Multipurpose
fitness centres
It should expand the
distribution channels and
fitness centres in all over
the country.
It will come up with
other fitness centres with
value added products; it
will increase number of
customers and allow it to
increase the sales.
1.3 Marketing Tactics
Product
Tactics Owner Cost Schedule Accountability
1. Product
differentiation Production 300$ 2-5 weeks Trainer
2. Service
expansion Gym owner 300$ 1-2 weeks Shareholders and
promoter
3. Special
packages Gym owner 200$ 2 weeks Trainer and
dieticians
Price
Tactics Owner Cost Schedule Accountability
1. Cost
leadership Accountant 100$ 1 week Shareholders and
owner
2. Discounts for
regular
customers
Finance
department 100$ 1-2 weeks Finance manager
3. Loyalty card Manager 150$ 1 week Customers

MARKETING PLAN 14
program
Promotion
Tactics Owner Cost Schedule Accountability
1. Online
sponsorships Marketing
manager 200$ 2-3 weeks
Advertising
manager and
customers
2. Ads in
newspapers
Advertising
manager 100$ 2-3 weeks Customers and
print media
3. Mobile apps Owner and
partners 200$ 3-4 weeks IT
Placement
Tactics Owner Cost Schedule Accountability
1. Expansion Manager 200$ 2 weeks Promoters
2. Opening new
fitness centres Gym owner 600$ 3-4 weeks Trainers and
physiotherapist
3. Conducting
events Gym trainers 200$ 1-2 weeks Volunteers
Total cost ($2650)
Part B
Product Life Cycle
Introduction
At this stage, the club will start to introduce its health and fitness services in the well-established
industry in Australia. It will install the equipment and exercise machines in the center (Bauer,
2012). It incurs more costs to purchase the machines and hire trainers and nutritionists. Company
focuses on establishing in the market.
Growth
At this stage, the sales and revenues of club will start increasing and competition will grow. The
fitness services of the health club will be identified in the market. It will start to gain market

MARKETING PLAN 15
share. The customers will focus on the special services of the health club. The products and
services of health club fit in the growth stage of product development life cycle.
Maturity
At the maturity stage, brand image will be strong in the market. Sales of the health club continue
to grow but at a decline rate in comparison to past. At this stage, it will add new services and
features to the services, like; special packages and discounted packages (Andreasson, &
Johansson, 2014).
Decline
This stage starts to decline the sales due to changes in the trends and economic conditions. The
organization will reduce the prices of the services and packages. Company has to make an
effective marketing mix for increasing the revenues. This will beneficial for the health club to
grow again.
Part C
Introduction
Tactics Owner Cost Schedule Accountability
1. Product
promotion
Marketing
manager $300 2-3 weeks Marketing team
2. Skimming
pricing
strategy
Gym owner $100 - Finance manager
Growth
Tactics Owner Cost Schedule Accountability
1. Focus on
brand
building
Advertising
manager $150 3-4 weeks Marketing team
and media
2. Product and
service
extension
Promoters $160 4-5 week Gym trainers
Maturity

MARKETING PLAN 16
Tactics Owner Cost Schedule Accountability
1. Set Price to
beat
competitors
Owner 120$ 5 week Shareholders
and partners
2. Use of
variety of
media
Marketing
manager $200 5-7 weeks Media and
customers
Decline
Tactics Owner Cost Schedule Accountability
1. Cut the
prices Cost manager $100 7-8 weeks Accountants
2. Reduce
market
spending
Marketing
manager $110 8 & 9 week Advertising and
marketing team
Grand Total ($1240) (10 weeks)
Part D
The tactics mentioned in the above segments are meeting with the legal and ethical requirements.
Legislation codes and regulations
The Fitlife Health club is complying with all the legislations rules and regulations. It is
following all the laws and regulations of the Australian government. It has taken the license for
introducing its services in the city (Australian Government, 2017). The marketing tactics are
aligned with the laws and regulations, which are imposed by the government.
Discrimination legislation
The tactics and strategies used in this plan align with the different acts and laws of the
discrimination. Fitlife is complying with the Age discrimination act, 2004 and Sex discrimination
act, 1984. It is conducting the fitness sessions for all the age groups. There is not discrimination
by the gender. Equal programs and training is provided to both male and female groups.

MARKETING PLAN 17
Privacy
For this aspect, the organization is following the Privacy Act, 1988. This Australian law
deals with the privacy. It states that the organization must keep the client’s information private. It
includes the information privacy principles. The club will take the client’s information, but will
keep it confidential. Complying the copyright legislation protects the exclusive rights of the
organization.
Ethical principles
The Fitlife Health club is complying with the AANA code of ethics. It will follow this act at
the time of advertising and marketing communication activities (Australian Government, 2017).
It will not provide the fake ads of their products. The products and services will be provided
according to the customer expectations. It is complying with the consumer protection act, 2010.
Work health and safety
With all the above legislations, the Fitlife health club is going ahead by following the work
health and safety regulations. It is providing a good working environment and conditions to the
employees, like; trainers and dieticians. Safety and health standards are taken into consideration
by the health club.
1.4 Draft Marketing Plan (Email)
Hello sir,
I am hereby attaching the marketing plan for the initiative of Fitlife health club. The plan
includes all the effective strategies and marketing tactics in the tactical implementation plan. It
includes internal and external analyses for the health club. All the factors, which may affect the
organization, are discussed. Furthermore, it includes how the services will go through the
product life cycle phases.
Here, it is request to you that kindly review the marketing plan of organization and give
the feedback immediately, so that we can implement the plan in the operations. You may arrange
the meeting, if there is the need for discussion. Along with this, assign the date for
implementation.
Kindly revert.

MARKETING PLAN 18
Thanks & Regards
Marketing Team
FitLife Health Club
1.5 Measuring marketing effectiveness
Marketing Metric Example of Implementation
Revenue per
member
Measuring the revenue per client can provide the clarity and easiness of
tracking.
Client retention rate Retention rate measures the rate of clients, which are spending in the
services.
Member lifetime
value
This value refers to the value one client is worth over the whole time
which are engaged with the gym.
Client Satisfaction The health club can take the feedback from the clients by using the survey
and questionnaires method. Client satisfaction can help in measuring the
effectiveness of the plan (Kipley, & Jewe, 2014).
Profit margin Measured as a % of revenue, profit margin is simply how much you have
left over once you’ve applied expenses to revenue.
Number of members
in the events
The effectiveness of the events can be seen by measuring number of
members present in the events and fairs.
Conclusion
Thus, FitLife health club can use this marketing plan for expanding its business and
services. This will assist in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the health club. All
the analyses in the above discussion include all the strengths and drawbacks of the organization.
The health club should focus on the profitable services to achieve the marketing objectives.
Porter’s five forces analysis shows the situation of the industry. There are some factors, which
affect the growth of health club in the Australian industry.

MARKETING PLAN 19
Task B Response
In an organization, cross cultural communication can be a challenge. It is an increasing
norm in this era. The growth in internet and technology has introduced new markets which allow
the organization to promote the business to different geographic locations and cultures. A
productive organization has the environment that assists the cultural diversity. There may be
people at the workplace, who is from different culture and who have different cultural values,
cultural beliefs and cultural practices. There must be implementation of some strategies to avoid
the issues of cultural diversity (Dabija, & Abrudan, 2015). The cultural competency training
program must be implemented, so that more different cultures can work together. When the
company starts to recruit the new comers, it must provide the training to its existing staff about
the new culture. Cross cultural training and cultural awareness assists in avoiding the
misunderstanding between staff and clients from diverse cultural backgrounds. There must be a
welcoming environment in the organization for new comers. Appointing a leader of a team, who
is working across different cultures or who knows different languages will be beneficial for
managing the cultural diversity. There are some factors, which can affect the cross-cultural
communication, such as; different languages, non-verbal differences, low context vs. high
context cultures and power distance.
If there are different cultures in the organization, then it must create some effective strategies to
avoid the related issues in effective communication. In this, language may be the biggest barrier
to both the new employee and organization. It can overcome by providing training to the
employee about different cultures. The following activities can avoid the issues:
 Stay with the open mind in the unfamiliar situations
 Increase the interactions and aware to the different manners the people interact
 Understand the background off different community groups
 Encourage the people to learn about the different cultures
 Keep a personal touch
The managers in the organization can use effective communication techniques and methods to
establish cross cultural communication, like; observation, feedback system, active listening,
stress management etc.

MARKETING PLAN 20
An effective leader may play an important role in this context by motivating the employees. The
leader must try to motivate the team members to develop a positive attitude towards the culture
and working environment. He must try to boost up their confidence levels regarding the
performance. By establishing an open communication with the followers, leader can inspire
them. The leader must listen to them and their opinions must be taken at the time of decision
making process. It will keep them motivated. The ability of leader to admire and provide the
guidance to the employees has a critical impact on motivation and morale (Leitner &
Guldenberg, 2010). The leader should provide the training and coaching to develop new skills
and abilities for enhancing the performance. An effective leader can become an ethical leader by
possessing honesty, integrity and trust. The ethical leader always inspires the team to work with
the integrity and honesty for achieving the organizational goals. Thus, these strategies and
methods can be used to motivate the new comers in the organization.
References
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Global Gym and Fitness Culture, „Sport Science Review”, 23 (3-4), p. 91 - 112
Alpert, R.T, 2015, Cultural Diversity in the Workplace, Part 1

MARKETING PLAN 21
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