snobby boutique hotel?
The case I’m making is that you
need to let go of your obsolete
marketing prejudices, your shadow
fear of building a new gym concept
that is outside your comfort zone.
#
Gymfearlessness
Every commerce category
shifts and those on the
downside of the bell curve, those
with their head in the sand, and
those resistant to change, are often
one and the same, those who
succumb to their antiquated beliefs
(and practices) and are forced to
shutter their doors.
The horse had his Ford, Blockbuster
his Netflix, and the legacy gym his
Big-Box competitor. Then came the
gym franchise monster, and now the
boutiques. Pray tell, what’s a gym
owner to do?
Your gym design is not what you like,
it’s what you need to do in order to
seduce consumers to buy into your
brand. Gym design should be a
first principal marketing effort laser
focused on raising fitness consumers’
expectations of your brand, in your
demographic, of what a gym might
be.
32
Market like Disney is what the gym
owner must do! Force a shift of
consumer expectations and be the
gym that your competitors are not.
Reframe the operating narrative.
Position yourself outside of the tribes,
be purposely “off-grid”.
Your best strategy should begin with
an exploratory and fearless mind
set in the development of a gym
concept, a brand concept. Again,
be fearless, be conceptual, be
experimental, be exploratory and
throw caution to the wind
Retain a super
skilled graphic
designer and
develop a super
cool logo, but also
in some way, a
logo that
telegraphs a
fitness aesthetic.
Retain a super skilled graphic
designer and develop a super cool
logo, but also in some way, a logo
that telegraphs a fitness aesthetic.
Make it unique and highly branded.
If you have to reinvent your logo,
then do so. Thereafter design and
reinforce every feature of your gym
in some way which back-links and
reinforces your brand concept (and
new logo).
WHAT’S NEW IN FITNESS - SUMMER 2019
You’re triggering consumer’s
psyche, their rewards centers, you’re
elevating their training journey’s,
you’re upstaging your competitors,
and you’re moving beyond obsolete
gym offerings.
Scale your
brand by
abondoning your
shadow fears.
Its 2020 gym developers. Stop
building gyms that look like gyms
and boutique hotels. Scale your
brand by abandoning your shadow
fears. Market like Disney and create
fearless fitness adventures that shift
consumers’ perceptions of what a
gym might be.
Abandon green AstroTurf, rubber
floors and industrial lighting fixtures
of the gyms that look like gyms
Reject chic tufted sofas, wood
wall paneling and color changing
lighting; the chill-vibe employed by
countless boutique studios.
You’re doing what Disney did;
creating inspiring experiences,
inspiring fitness experiences.
Listen, you’re still delivering a fitness
program to the public, you’re not
changing your offering or business
model.
All’s fair in gym love and war, Cuoco
Black.
WHAT’S NEW IN FITNESS - SUMMER 2019
About Cuoco Black
Cuoco Black is a trusted and
respected master fitness facility
designer, gym brand architect
and design academic.
A former faculty member of
the New York School of Interior
Design, Black advocates for the
development of conceptual
and theatrical gym models that
dominate consumer attention in
any fitness marketplace.
Promoting an ideal that fitness
facilities must embrace design
attributes which embrace luxury,
telegraph fitness, motivate fitness
consumers to exercise; and most
importantly, amplify the brand.
His work includes independent
gyms, PT studios, women’s only
facilities, residential fitness centres
and franchise models.
Find out More at
Instagram/GymDesigner.
33