Oxygen Insight

Below you will find a selection of recent articles from Oxygen Consulting.

	What does your club stand for? This presentation argues for health clubs to create a special position in members lives achieved through market positioning. Presentation by Ray Algar of Oxygen Consulting at the Rimini Wellness Conference, Italy, May 2007. File size: 1.7 Mb. Read more >>
	Ignore the online buzz at your peril Create an enthusiastic customer in the new digital age of user-generated web content and you have an unpaid evangelist who can authentically speak about the merits of your brand. Upset them at your peril. Publish on demand A few years ago, poor service or a defective product triggered a letter of complaint, which may have sometimes escalated to the local media. If you were very unlucky, it may have attracted national attention. C'est la vie. You wait a few days; the papers are pulped and then 'business as usual'. Do you recall the often-quoted conference statistic about the unhappy customer who tells 13 people about their experience. Perhaps, the curt greeting they received from the hotel reception during a recent stay or the iPod that inexplicability stops working precisely one day after the warranty expires? Well, welcome to 2007 where they now go on-line and tell not 13, but 1.3 million about the experience. Upset a 'tech-savvy' customer now and you potentially unleash a digital diatribe with a warts and all account posted on dozens of review web sites and personal web logs (blogs), which is captured by the search engines within a few hours. Phase two of the complainant's strategy is to set up a protest web site and web log and forensically critique and expose any and every customer-facing issue since the company was formed. Ignore the Online Buzz At Your Peril, Fitpro Business Magazine, May 2007 Read more >>
	Collaborative Consumption Spare a moment for those poor retailers who still insist on putting 'things' in windows, accompanied by a fixed price tag. How quaint. In bygone times when asymmetrical information flourished (when the retailer knew far more than us), this method of trading was appropriate. Consumers were guided by the marketer's pen. They set the price and we chose to pay, or not. Individually, we lacked influence and bargaining power. However, what happens when pricing insight becomes accessible and consumers begin to share knowledge? Welcome to the world of collaborative consumption. A growing global movement Collaborative consumption is a phenomenon that is sweeping across the globe. Global 'Wikipedians' continue to build Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org), the world's biggest on-line encyclopaedia. The English version has 152,000 contributors, 609 million words and is 15 times larger then Encyclopaedia Britannica. Consumers collaborate on-line to exchange goods and services through web sites such as EBay and Gumtree, share hospitality experiences through Trip Advisor (five million reviews and rising) and pool their collective purchasing power to co-own (fractional ownership) high value assets such as prestige cars, property and airplanes (www.12thshare.com). Collaborating to leverage discounts and incentives is an inevitable reality of 'connected living'. Collaborative Consumption, Leisure Report, April 2007. Read more >>
	It's the trend of the world Most leisure organisations are aware of the need to 'trend watch'. For some, it will be a strategic imperative, while others will treat it more as a 'nice to do' at an annual planning event. What follows is an overview of some of the key consumer trends relevant to leisure operators. Fad or Trend? Before rushing out and building a business around the 'next big trend', we need some confidence that this new future is where our consumers are going to be. Obviously, there is no certainty to our newly formed insights, but it helps to know whether we are backing a short-term fad or long-term trend. Consequently, in forming these trends, I have focused on consumer behaviour that seems set on a long-term trajectory, rather than something temporary. Authenticity Consumers are increasingly seeking honesty, integrity, personalisation and transparency when choosing their preferred brands. Mutual trust flows from an authentic brand positioning. Everything a company stands for (enriching the lives of gym members; creating an unforgettable dining experience), and all its actions are consistent and build a deep sense of unquestionable credibility with consumers. Innocent Drinks run the annual Fruitstock music festival and offset the Co2 emissions by planting trees. Customers expect this type of corporate behaviour from Innocent. You gain a better sense for the meaning of true authenticity, if you imagine a company that is the opposite - misleading product claims, short-termist behaviour, inconsistent actions and focused on a single stakeholder. It's the trend of the world, Leisure Report, March 2007. Read more >>
	Know your position What does your club stand for? It sounds like such an innocent question, but scratch deeper and it reveals some fundamental truths about the long-term strategy and prospects for a club. A few years ago I decided to conduct research for a Masters degree on an independent health club in Milton Keynes. It was well established with 1,800 members. However, the owner was very concerned as a national operator was pre-selling a large-scale club less than five minutes from his door. He believed his club was going to be seriously affected by the new arrival, even though he had thrived in a city with an abundance of clubs. I thought otherwise and we spent the next few weeks getting close to members and understanding why they loved the club. It soon became apparent to me that the vast majority had no intention of leaving. Members knew the club was not the biggest nor with the latest array of exercise equipment, nor did it have a swimming pool. However, what members loved about the club was its informality. It was a club where they could be themselves and meet familiar people. It was unpretentious and there were none of the unwritten rules found in many other clubs such as dressing up for the gym! They also loved its friendly ambience and its strong sense of community. These intangible aspects of any business are extremely powerful and, significantly, very difficult to imitate. Know your position, Health Club Management, March 2007. Read more >>
	Winning the intangible space Ray Algar, Managing Director of Oxygen Consulting wonders how the fitness industry might look, not in the near future but in 10 years and beyond. David Albutt from Leisure-net discusses some of his ideas and looks for clues from customer insight research Winning the intangible space - Read more >>
	Let's get sentimental If the company wins this contract, its business will double in size. The owners have spent the past six years crafting a business that they believe provides a great service to customers, most of the time. They have invested heavily in people, technology and have a service proposition that has won industry recognition. Four members of the bid team have collectively spent 56 days honing their proposal to perfection. The bid to operate 13 leisure centres over a 10-year period is submitted with a sense of great anticipation. Two weeks pass and enquiries begin to stream back from the prospective client. Most are routine. However, one enquiry is perplexing. Can the company explain a series of comments posted in an on-line discussion forum about service and safety concerns at their leisure centre in Cardiff?... Leisure Report Article - Read more >>
	A new way to serve up hotel fitness It is Sunday evening and you are about to set off on yet another business trip that will see you away from your family and normal routines for three nights. You researched that the hotel has a health and fitness club and so pack your gym bag. Fast-forward the clock to the following Wednesday when you haul your weary body back through your front door, re-acquaint yourself with your family and un-pack. Guess what? Yet again, your gym shoes shared no time with your feet. Why is it that in the intervening three days a miserly thirty minutes was not found to enjoy the pool or walk the beautiful hotel grounds? It is this 'good intention' mind-set that has influenced hoteliers to build health and fitness facilities into their offer... Leisure Report September 2006 - Read more >>
	The health club industry, but not as we know it Presently, there are 2,900 private health clubs in the UK, which is one for every 15,000 adults. Let's now move forward to 2016. Do you think there has been significant consolidation? Has there been a steep rise in the number of clubs? Do you think the service proposition has slowly evolved since 2006 or has a disruptive innovation occurred sending the industry on a fundamentally new path?... Leisure Report June 2006 - Read more >>
	Shape Up - health and fitness technology to enhance our lives The irony in this brave new world where we can sequence the human genome or take a tourist trip into space, is that more of us will die from lifestyle diseases than any other cause of death... it is a bleak picture. But a healthy dose of new-fangled technology and some old-fashioned will power could yet save the day... Economist Article June 2006 - Read more >>
	Probably the best health club in the world I was recently talking with Richard Duvall, the founder of Egg, the on-line bank, about his compelling vision to 're-invent' banking. He knew that people were ready for a radically new banking proposition. Eight years later, and Egg is quickly moving towards acquiring its four millionth customer. It really made me think that the health club proposition needs a similar degree of reinvention if it is to become a significant contributor to the country's long-term health and well-being as we move towards 2010... Leisure Report February 2006 - Read more >>