Getting people to use Fitness Products ? (2/3)
If you are landing here for the first time,you are straight to discussion. If you want some context please go to Part I of our discussion (Link Here)
Let’s start by defining a few typical Personas(not the detailed ones we generally do for product discussions but more of segment definition) for better understanding and then use them on how Fitness products tackle them.
Starters : A typical starter would be urban resident, aged between 30–40 with an annual income above INR 10 Lacs per(1 million) annum who has warmed up to the concept of a healthy life style.Career and Family have always taken precedence over personal health goals. A Starter is struggling with emotional despair everytime he/she gives up on exercise after starting, and fitness dreams too high to reach. Avoids the conflict of interest and feasibility by either giving up or taking up some kind of alternate medicine.Most of his/her fitness guide is friends on WhatsApp, nutrition magazines and water-cooler gossip.
Goal : Manage to lead a healthy lifestyle without compromising on high priority items like family/career.
Aspirers : A typical aspirer would be a urban resident, aged between 25–35 with annual income between INR 10–20 Lacs (1–2 million) per annum. He/She owns or has owned a gym membership or hit the office gym at some point and is pretty respected in his/her social circle as the health focused one. Uses some or the other form of fitness tech ( either wearable or in built APPs). His network does have some super fit folks and he is hopeful to reach at par with them. Aspirer’s main challenge is to keep intcuerest levels up through a bit of handholding. He/she may be ok for paid professional help,but past experiences of giving up on GYMs doesn’t give confidence to commit financially to the initiative.
Goal : Manage to go from being just a health person to some serious performance levels ( Run 20 k/cycle 50k/ reduce body fat to 10% ) without dedicating life to it.
Fitness Freaks(It’s a compliment) : A typical fitness freak would be a urban city resident, aged anywhere between 30–45 with annual income between INR 10–30 Lacs (1–3 million) per annum. He/she is in a pretty stable position professionally. Extremely competitive and tend to have some serious physical fitness track record. Enabled with all kinds of fitness tech which includes fitness trackers/apps which analyze data, he/she analyzes performance form a professional stand point. Would have run many marathons/ or hikes and his/her social feed would be mostly of their last achievement or plans for the next one. Sees self physical threshold breach as sense of self actualization and often goes out of his/her way to motivate others to join in on the fitness regime.
Goal : Gain higher levels of self esteem through a super fit body with newer experiences with other like minded people.
In Maslow’s hierarchy you would find Starters in would fall in Safety zone while fitness freaks would typically fall in Esteem Zone.
In this post i will be trying to analyze Fitbit ( the fitness tracker + APP) and Strava APP. The reason being both work in health and fitness domain but track two different kinds of customer segments. I am a fitbit user who has started transitioning to Strava and hence thought to take my personal experiences into advantage.
Disclaimer: I am neither affiliated with Fitbit or Strava. I am using them as test-bed as i use them both.
So how do these Products keep up the good work of engaging their respective personas?
Step 0 : Understand your customer’s Job to be Done.
Clayton M. Christen in his book “Competing Against luck” describes a “Job to be done” as
“Progress an individual is trying to make in a particular circumstance”.
He goes ahead in breaking the definition in identifying the following identifiers
- Progress
- Circumstance of struggle ( Emotional/Functional/social)
- Obstacles
- Current Solution
- Idea of a quality solution
Fitbit : As a company they started off in 2007 as wearable tech company constantly evolving as company who wants to makes sure people lead a healthier live without disrupting their routines. Their mission statement reads as
“To empower and inspire you to live a healthier, more active life. We design products and experiences that fit seamlessly into your life so you can achieve your health and fitness goals, whatever they may be.”
If you look into their blog which is an indications of their direction through dedicated sections on
- Get Moving
- Eat Well
- Feel Good
- Be Inspired
They understand that their target audience need a constant assistance and nudge towards a healthier life. They know perfectly that they are into mass market segment where individuals are just looking to make today a bit healthier than Yesterday. And Fitbit hits the nail by breaking the scary task into achievable goals which can integrated into daily life. A great example is their “9 Active hours goal in Blaze” with 250 steps each. The device keeps buzzing if you haven’t completed the steps in the hour. You somehow manage to take the steps and you have already achieve 2250 steps of 10K steps you aim for a day.
Target Persona Verdict : Starters
Strava : On the other hand is catering to a different breed of animals all together. These are the uber fit generation who take health and fitness on equal footing as their daily tribulations , may be even more. They are a competitive bunch with a single goal of either improving or their old numbers or seek out new challanges. Hence the product is designed around tools for people try out new stuff and keep improving themselves through self critic or social competition. Competition is sometimes so high that there are breed of “Stavassholes” who just like to beat people’s best timings in a segment ,a Strava term of a specific piece of road/hike, where multiple people can compare their performance. And quite emphatically their mission states
“If you’re striving to improve, no matter your goals or ability, you’re one of us.”
Person Verdict : Fitness Freaks
Once you have figured out your target base its all about hitting the soft spot of customer again and again to get them returning. Read on the final chapter here …. loading soon.
Links to the other post part of this series
