Social Cultural Forces
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Transcript of Social Cultural Forces
Introduction For California Fitness Centre
California Fitness is a wholly owned subsidiary of 24 Hour Fitness, Worldwide
which has over 400 clubs serving more than 3 million members. The first California
Fitness club was established in 1996 in the business district of Hong Kong. Currently,
there are 25 clubs.
“Energy is a lot like love - the more you give, the more you get back. At
California Fitness, we’ve made it our mission to help you live better through
fitness. And although exercise isn’t the only way to live better, having more
energy, being stronger, feeling fitter and looking trimmer is a pretty good
start!” The above phase is taken from the vision of the company.
The mission of the company is to help members live better through California Fitness.
The company offers members the opportunity to experience the most innovative and
largest number of Group exercise classes in the region as well as providing highly
professional Personal Training from the largest group of Personal Trainers in the
region. In addition to the state-of-the-art cardio & resistance equipment, members can
enjoy sauna & steam facilities, plus free internet via the in-club. California also has
clubs with a swimming pool in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia providing all club
members access.
Beginning in 2005, California Fitness further differentiated its business by partnering
with two fitness superstars, Jackie Chan and Yao Ming, to create signature clubs in
the region. There are a total of 6 California Fitness-Jackie Chan Sport in Asia and 2
California Fitness-Yao Ming Sport in mainland China.
After all, California Fitness sparked the Asian fitness revolution in Asia over 10 years
ago with our large scale and well equipped health club concept. Today, with 25 clubs
throughout China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan and as a wholly
owned subsidiary of 24 Hour Fitness Worldwide "www.24hourfitness.com", over 3
million members are running, spinning, pumping, dancing, laughing and stretching
their way to better health...and better lives.
Introduction to California Fitness father- 24 Hour Fitness Centre
Founded in 1983 as a one-club operation in San Leandro, Calif., 24 Hour Fitness has
grown to become a global fitness leader. Over the past 25 years, 24 Hour Fitness has
built or opened more clubs in the United States than any other privately-owned fitness
club chain. The company is widely credited with changing the industry landscape by
introducing a variety of innovations, including extended hours and month-to-month
memberships.
In 2004, 24 Hour Fitness became the first official fitness center sponsor of the United
States Olympic team. The sponsorship grants memberships to selected U.S. Olympic
hopefuls and includes upgrades to various U.S. Olympic Training Centers across the
country. The first facility renovated was Colorado Springs, Colo., followed by Lake
Placid, N.Y. and Chula Vista, Calif. In 2008, 24 Hour Fitness team members will help
our athletes prepare for the Beijing Summer Olympic Games in a state-of-the-art
High-Performance Training Center at Beijing Normal University
The forming of first California Fitness
Country: Hong Kong
Structure: Joint Venture
Industry: Health and fitness club chain
Background
Ray Wilson, founder of Family Fitness, the largest fitness chain in Southern
California (now called 24 Hour Fitness), had completed a series of trips to Asia, wher
he determined there was a potential to expand the Family Fitness concept.
Challenge
Although Mr. Wilson thought that the Asian market held potential for American-style
health and fitness centers, he lacked specific knowledge of the Asian cities and
countries and had no contacts with the markets for the raising of capital and the
securing of local partners.
Solution
BrandAmerica devised a plan to launch an upscale version of the type of “pure
fitness” facility that Mr. Wilson had successfully developed in Southern California in
Asia.
The plan coupled Mr. Wilson’s concept, the operating capabilities of Eric Levine, Mr.
Wilson's partner and Operations Executive, with a real estate development and
management company, owned by a large Asian Financial group. A joint venture was
formed to develop the first fitness centers in Asia, under the name "California
Fitness." With the real estate expertise and funding brought by the Asian partner, the
first site secured for development was in the most popular entertainment district next
to the central business district in Hong Kong.
Result
California Fitness became an overnight success, generating revenues that were more
than five times the most optimistic projections. The cash flow that came from the first
unit propelled the rapid development of a second unit and so on. Less than two and a
half years after the first unit opened, the business consisted of four very successful
units, three in Hong Kong and one in Singapore, with a forth unit near completion. At
that point the partners accepted a US$ 41.5 million buyout proposal, which brought
the owners a gain many times the value of their US$ 5 million investment.
Task Environment
There are four type of task environment:
a) competitors
b) suppliers
c) customers
d) distributors
Competitors
All organization from services to product organization will surely have one or two
and even thousand of competitors. Competitors are other organizations that produce
similar goods and services. Competition of product between competitors is the most
important forces that will determine the success and failure of a business.
In terms to the Competitor of Californian fitness centre, we can easy to find that
almost all different brands fitness canters are competitors with each other, because
they are substitutes. The services of Californian fitness centre can be offered in place
of another, most of them are competitors.
Example1: Back in Motion Chiropractic Centre
Clark Hatch Fitness Center
Day Thermos - Gym & sauna
These 3 fitness centres above are Malaysia native fitness centre brands, comparing
with the international centre; they have both advantages and disadvantages. Firstly, as
a native brand, local centre has more flexible form that adapts to the native habit than
the international one, they knew natives well, so some local people think it is more
suitable to their tastes and choose the native centre. Turning to disadvantages,
obviously, for native fitness center, there is no a very strongly brand effect in the
world like international one. As well as we know, Jackie Chan is the image
spokesman of Californian fitness centre, and he is a super star all over the world, but
there are few top star for Malaysia native fitness centre who can carry the company.
Example2: Jiva Yoga Studio
Yoga Zone Studio
To name just a few, these 2 studios are Yoga health centre. It is obviously to see they
are pointed fitness centre, the most important sport item that they serve is yoga,
so they can focus on a particular group of people’s needs. For example, in modern
society, more and more office ladies (OL) give importance on their body care, but
comparing with some active sport, they’d rather choose some quietly sport like yoga,
so this type of fitness center is more suitable to them, they can get what they need
there. However, on the other hand, they cannot provide variety selections like
Californian fitness centre, so they cannot get the biggest consumers like
Californian fitness centre, because the group of customers is narrow, but they still
can share some consumers from the traditional fitness center.
Example 3: Celebrity Fitness Centre
Fitness First
Fitness Concept
As for these 3 fitness centers are non local, international brand. These brands can
be founded at many foreign countries. These brands will impose a greater threat
as a more competitive opponent. These strong brands have a greater access to
capital compared to the local gym or fitness centre. As for California Fitness
Centre, we also have a strong company supporting us at the back. Results from
large economic of scale, strong brand loyalty of California fitness Centre, differentiate
California Fitness with others brands. As a result, California Fitness Centre is Ranked
No. 1 in the Fitness Centre Category, for the second year running, California Fitness,
has successfully secured a top 10% ranking in the prestigious Asia’s Top 1000 Brands
Survey compiled by Media Portfolio.
Suppliers
Normally suppliers are well known in the term of organizations that produce materials
and products. But in some in some industry suppliers also provide financial and labor
input for other organization. As for California fitness centre, they have suppliers from
many areas. From a common tower and t-shirt to a more complicated item like
modern software for registration, and gym equipments. Below is one of an example of
supplier for California fitness centre.
For example, Technogym is a manufacturer of fitness equipment based in
Gambettola, Italy. It was founded in 1983 by Nerio Alessandri and now it is the world
leader in the fitness and rehabilitation equipment fields. There are a lot of Branches
all over the world, such as the UK, USA, Japan, China, and Germany etc. More than
20,000 fitness centre use its product, because they are professional and safety product,
from the Sydney Olympic Game in 2000, Technogym is the only one supplier is
recognized by Olympic Games. The field of products in this company is very broad,
not only for the Fitness centre, including Home fitness, Medical and health, Public
equipment in the park and so on. Technogym is one of the most important Partners in
Supply Chain of Californian fitness centre.
Californian fitness centre wants to extend their own field on fitness, so they not
only use some reliable equipment, but also develop their own brand to use in their
fitness centre. Some of sports equipments that they adopt are their own product; it is
good for the development of their company.
Besides above, there are some others Partners in Supply Chain of Californian
fitness centre, such as Life Fitness, Startrac, Maxicam and so on. All of them are
famous brands in the world. They are also reliable supplier, can offer high quality
equipment to Californian fitness centre.
California Fitness Centre tends to have many suppliers for its product as the
organization can get the lowest price for the highest quality of the product from
suppliers. Morever, to ensure the steady flow of supply, the application of e-business
techniques also being adopted and used by the company to deal with suppliers.
Customers
Organizations and companies are existed to meet the requirement and needs of
customers. Without customers, there won’t be any organization form to operate until
now. Customers can also be defined as people who buy the goods or services and then
consume or use them.
Customer: production and purchase of products or services for groups and individuals.
Including individual consumers, businesses, government agencies, educational
institutions and so on.
Organization: Customer is the God, is to organize the sources of profits and income,
to provide customers with high-value products or services that are high-performance
organizations pursue.
The impact of the supply's ability to negotiate price bargaining factors: the
concentration of the buyer (buy capacity), the number of the seller, the buyer's
switching costs, the buyer, such as backward integration. ? Management strategy: to
provide customers with the high delivered value of the product or service.
What comes to mind when you think of fitness centre, some may think as a place
for exercise, some may even think it as a place for relaxing after a hard day of work,
and some may even think it as a place for fun. As a result, fitness centers can have
several groups of customers such as working class, teenagers, elders and even people
with family. Apart from that with the increasing of customers demands, California
Fitness Centre tends to provide a series of services, activities and equipment to cater
the needs for different groups of customers. For example, California Fitness Centre in
Mid Valley offers
Outdoor Swimming Pool Energy Studio Fly Wheels Studio
Chill Out Studio Female only Gym Area Cardio Machines Resistance Machines Free Weights Xpress Zone Kick Fit Area Steam & Sauna Outdoor Jacuzzi
The above services and facilities are the most common one. Some California fitness
centre offer more than the above to cater the different needs for customers. Due to
different geographical factors, some California fitness centre offer aerobic studio,
tanning bed, private training room, babysitting services and others special services.
Distributors
Distribute can helped organize the sales organization to the consumer product or
service organizations and individuals. On the impact of organizations: the impact of
organized marketing capabilities and product brand image. ? Affected distributors the
ability to negotiate price bargaining factors: the number of distributors, geographic
distribution, size, organization prior to the degree of integration. ? Management
strategy: the need for distributors to establish a good relationship between suppliers,
distributors limit the ability to negotiate price bargaining.
As for California Fitness Centre which offers services instead product, the
organization can’t use distributors like Wal-Mart, Retail Shop and others normal
distributors that distribute product to distribute our services. Normally our distributors
are of the Non-profit or charity organization and government campaign. When we
sponsor in an event held by government or charity(non profit) organization, they will
help us to promote our services and distribute some of our goodies for the people.
General Environment
There is 5 type of general environment
a) Technology Forces
b) Demographic Forces
c) Socio cultural Forces
d) Political and Legal Forces
e) Economic Forces
Technology
By now, it's obvious we're pretty serious about fitness. After all, California Fitness
sparked the Asian fitness revolution in Asia over 10 years ago with our large scale
and well equipped health club concept. Today, with 24 clubs throughout China, Hong
Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan and as a wholly owned subsidiary of 24 Hour
Fitness Worldwide ( www.24hourfitness.com), the leading privately owned and
operated global fitness center chain in North America with more than 3 million
members are running, spinning, pumping, dancing, laughing and stretching their way
to better health...and better lives.
Before we start with exercise equipment, California fitness is a health club first and
as a result, facilities like steam rooms, saunas and studios. This is to foster the general
health and well being of the cutomers. This shows our initial commitement to
embracing health technology to better serve our customers and remain competitive.
A fitness centre like the California fitness centre being in the industry that it is
depends a lot on the type and quality of equipment it has. Apart from the standard
equipment used in gyms for a long time like Dum bells, Bar Bell Weights, Jump ropes
etc, to stay relevant in the business the acquisition of advanced equipment that utilize
complex technology becomes a necessity. These vital equipment, the backbone of our
operations, are ensured to be of the highest quality and the latest technology to keep
abreast of the world.
As a result of this, the advance of technology means the invention and application of
new inventions for usage in gyms and fitness centres all over the world. These
equipment could include but are not limited to Treadmills, Rowing Machines,
Treadclimbers, Exercise bikes, Cross trainers, hydraulic equipment, protective
equipment such as a back brace etc (Sprague,2007).
This means one of the most important influences of the gym business model is the
need to keep up with quickly changing technology. As this directly influences the
class and quality of equipment provided by your business and consequently the class
of service you are able to offer to customers which in turn determines the success
and/or failure, in the long run of your organization.
Statistics have shown that the success of failure of most gyms in the first six months
of it's operation and then in the long term depends, on a large part on the quality of the
equipment (Shields, 2003). This means that technology is one of the main forces
influencing the environment of California fitness centre.
Another aspect of the use of technology not yet mentioned is the smart registration.
This is an advance in technology enabling easier use for the consumer and
convenience for the company.
Here, the systemized registration system is a software frame work developed
specifically for use in fitness centres such as ours. It involves the issuance of smart
cards which are the membership cards that show and track a customer's movements
and activity within the facility. The accepted member is first issued a smart card. This
card contains his information such as age, height, weight etc. Also, after consulting
with the personal trainer, it can also contain his training regime which includes the
number of work outs per week, the facilities to be used and in what order, the length
of his usage etc. Also it enables the customer to track his performance online as the
results can be accessed from anywhere through the gym's website.
Another important aspect of this system is the ability of the customer to ascertain
how much calories he is burning. This enables him to find out whether and how
effective his exercise is while silmultaneously giving a general picture of his health.
Apart from all those benefits, it enables the customer to find out the state of his
payments. This also means that the payment structure is flexible as a customer can
now pay only for the particular services he uses since his membership card tracks the
facilities used and the duration.
This synthesis of health, financial and fitness information provided by the smart card
registration system all in all makes the visiting and usage of the gym a breeze for both
consumer and company. Another advantage is the non labour intensive nature of the
venture makes the running of the gym less costly in the long run reducing costs and
increasing the profit margins. The usablilty of the system also attracts many cutomers
hwo are swayed by it's sheer convenience and ease of use.
Demographic
Trying to determine how much demographics influences the business of California
fitness centre, first you have to look at the various aspects of demographics.
The first aspect involves age. With the population divided into various age groups
and each age group with it's individual nuances and preferences. Therefore, the
customers of the California fitness centre are not uniformly aged. Depending on the
age demographic pursued- Old, Teens, Middles aged, Family, the customer base will
be skewered towards one group or another. The general gym population in most
countries is mostly made up of men in their mid twenties (Margetts, 2008).
The second aspect of Demographic involves sex. As the majority of most gym goers
in most countries' are male, a country which has a significantly larger population of
women and a lower number of males aged in their mid twenties would see a lower
number of gym goers than usual. In this way, the sex influences the fitness centre.
This leads to a push in advertising to women in such countries.
In a lot of countries, especially in the third world (Africa,Some parts of Asia and
South America), attending a gym is seen as a luxury only a few of the elite in that
country could afford. This therefore significantly influences the fitness centre as the
general income and standard of living of a country determines the number of
customers.
Also, this includes the employment and hence the unemployment ratio in a country.
As the more people with no jobs especially during times of economic hardship find
that they cannot afford the expense of a gym.
The gym also could choose to cater to certain overlooked demographics such as the
disabled. This is done by providing the gym with disabled specific exercise
equipment. In this way, this demographic forces the fitness centre to change their
approach and try to adapt their facilities for use of this specialized demographic.
Here, depending on the demographic served, you see the distribution of income. With
the family favoured membership contributing to the income of the establishment.
Another demographic though interwining is race and religion. Certain religions such
as Islam especially in countries such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia , Yemen etc that
subscribe to the fundamental version of that faith, women - a major demographic in
other countries are not allowed to attend such establishments as gyms and as a result
the fitness centre will see almost non existent business from that sex. This necessitates
in these countries the establishment of separate sections for men and women to train
and as a result the problems issued by that demographic is solved.
Social Cultural
In Malaysia, healthy, wellness and fitness are currently the trend for most Malaysian
citizens. As a result, more and more fitness centre, gym and health care centre are
starting to pop out in Malaysia. This constitutes an opportunity for California fitness
centre to start a business at Malaysia. Nowadays, many new symptoms and diseases
start spread wildly results of unhealthy lifestyle of people especially the working class
people who just go to work all day long, eat fast food, lack of doing exercise. As a
result from that symptom like obesity are commonly found in Malaysia. To avoid
such symptom people tend to go to gym or fitness centre to work out and exercise
regularly. Some Malaysian female tend to go to fitness centre more often than male as
female Malaysian wish to have a slimmer body to wear those new fashion trend shirt
or skirt from famous brand like Forever 18, Guess and many more. Some Malaysian
whom having a family also tend to take their family go for exercise and have a
healthy lifestyle so as to prevent the high rise of medical bills. These also help the
fitness centre a lot as more people are aware of the importance of health. As the
saying, one of things in the earth that money can’t buy is health. This implies that
health is more important than money in our pocket. According to Regional Office
Fraser & Neave (Singapore) Pte Ltd country marketing head Chris Ng, the campaign
exemplified the brand’s commitment to empower Malaysians to take charge of their
lives. “In today’s fast-paced world, many people struggle to achieve the right work-
life balance, and we want to enhance their overall sense of well-being by saying
there’s always time for exercise,” said Ng. “Inactivity is the root cause of many
health-related afflictions. So why not include some form of exercise into your daily
routine? There is no denying that regular exercise is one of the cornerstones of healthy
living. It does not need to be strenuous, just be consistent,” he added. (taken at new
straits times June 7, 2008). As a results from the many speech about important of
healthy living, government’s advices and campaigns results in a more health
cautioner’s people. These positive socio cultural forces will definitely bring a good
impact on California Fitness Centre. Beside that California Fitness Centre also has a
famous spoke person like Jakie Chan as one of their model. Whenever asian people
who heard of Jackie Chan name, he or she will surely be impress by him for this
martial art action hero. Result from famous martial art hero and actor as
advertisement, more and more people are willing to go to gym for a healthy body.
However, some Malaysians who have old fashion of thinking about health with
definitely bring a negative impact to fitness centre industry. Some Malaysian
especially the elders will be stubborn to go to fitness or gym to exercise as they prefer
exercise in the surrounding of nature. Moreover some religious and belief also prevent
female person from exposing some of their body part to other male person when they
exercise. As a result some people tend to have their exercise at the park or at their
house by themselves. In Malaysian also has some rare belief or practice that
emphasize on having a bigger and fatty body as they believe that fat and big body will
bring wealthy for them. This practice also commonly found among the Chinese
citizens. When facing such problem some fitness centre like California Fitness centre
tend to add some special facilities for those special people. Facilities like Female only
Gym Area also provided by the fitness centre to overcome such problem.
Political and Legal
Our service does not directly depend on juridical or political changes. Because each
kind of service cannot leave legal and the political restraint approximately, however
the fitness center is one about the health Service company, should award legal and the
political restraint, only like this then can give the consumer a good fitness
place.However, some decisions made by the Department of Health office could
impact on our activity. Recently, the Head of Health Department advises people to
exercise frequently and has a balanced diet and healthy life style to prevent obesity.
The government also provides to people the health important attribute, the
government also recommends to the people do some sports is good for our
health.Such act of the government will aid us in the increase of profit in our business
which emphasised on health caution. Malaysia has put in place legislations affecting
business environment. Business legislation provides protection for company,
employers, employees as well as consumer from unfair business practices and
conducts. Thus more and more business is established.
Economic Forces
Economic context impacts on the purchasing power of our customers. Since our
service is part of the leisure expense, it may be affected by a decrease of their
purchasing power. But now, Malaysia economic is in upswing state and the increase
of the purchase power of the citizen and then aid in our business of a fitness
centre.Because the economic expansion citizen's income enhancement, can increase in
the healthy aspect's investment, speaking of the citizen, sees regards as is an important
factor, they will penetrate more funds in the healthy aspect, like this better will impel
our health center the economic development, moreover economic expansion, we will
purchase equipment's price also to reduce, thus may engage in more activities to
attract the customer
In the year 2001 and 2002, due to global economic downturn and slump in
information technology sector (IT), Malaysia had experienced a decline growth in
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and inflation rate accelerated to 2.1% year-on-year;
way above our initial estimate and market consensus of 1.8% year-on-year. But now,
Malaysia economic is in upswing state and the increase of the purchase power of the
citizen and then aid in our business of a fitness centre. Such financial circumstance
will reduce the citizen to the health investment, moreover the entire market's price
will enhance, purchases equipment's expense enhancement, the citizen will reduce the
investment, like this will reduce the citizen to the health center purchasing power, will
thus also meet the cinema that our health center down turn.
References
Exercise equipment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Amazon.com: The Gold's Gym Book of Bodybuilding (Gold's Gym Series):
Ken Sprague, Bill Reynolds: Books
Fitness Superstore - Fitness Equipment | Gym Equipment | Exercise
Equipment
Alexander Margetts Trainee Clinical PsychologistOxford University
http://www.health.gov/PAguidelines/
http://my.88db.com/my/Services/Post_Detail.page/Sports_Fitness/
Fitness_Gym_Centres/?PostID=92025
http://www.californiafitness.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Fitness
http://www.24hourfitness.com/company/about_us/
http://www.clubone.com/community.html
Person International Edition Of Management (ninth edition)