Taylor B
October 25, 2017 13:39
This athletic club is going to evolve or go extinct. The Concourse Athletic Club is afraid of change or has too tight of a budget, maybe due to a loss of memberships. You guys need to re-brand yourselves. If it ain't broke don't fix it? It is broke. This will be a constructive but political & suggestive review.
Your current membership age group is around late 50s to 60-something. You have Mercedes Benz moving to Atlanta. You have all of these companies moving their corporate headquarters here. This city has a whole new generation of people in their 20s, 30s, 40s. You guys need to find a way to target that demographic. Family and old money does not just pay the bills. Atlanta is quickly becoming a young money city.
When you go to the pool here, the music that plays at the pool is like out of a bad 80s movie. Can we get some early 2000s hip hop or 90s-now alternative etc? There is no variety. It is like Dad-rock or Gloria Estefan with a cheesy drum machine pumping. Does this athletic club have fear of loss of its seasoned 20 and 30 year annual members. I promise they will not cancel their membership for a real mixed-drink bar and some Migos playing. Morbid reality: Ask yourselves, what happens when your current demographic dies off?
The biggest determining factor of gaining young people I might add is a more flexible and later schedule. You guys practically close before dinner on the weekends. On the weekdays after work, most of us young heathens can't make it to the gym until 11pm, let alone all the late night pumps we could get in at 12am, 1am, etc. But I am sure you have run the numbers and believe the operating cost to stay open more hours exceeds some variable in your membership revenue model. Have you ever thought if you stay open later, you will have more members? If the energy bill is too high consider solar panels on your roof-space and motion activated lights in far reaching areas of the club. Now you can even be a part of that whole crunchy granola green movement.
There are tons of changes you could do to get the younger vibe going. Resurface some cement around the pool to make it look fresh, especially that wall. Paint some color on it if you have to hide the weathering. Get some real speakers that have some treble and bass in them all around the pool, you can still leave a quiet corner or two. Where those palm trees are in the corner of the pool close to the glass side of the building, a lot could be done. Take out the extending wall of where the walk way ramp is (to give an eye's view of the pool) and turn that area into an outdoor tiki bar, during the winter, make it so it can be enclosed with the plastic walls and heated. That area is a huge waste of space and it could be turned into a lively bar area with icy bushwackers, margaritas, mixed drinks, and beers on tap. This is where the hot tubs should be--not in the locker rooms where somebody with dingleberries just got off the loo. Get some of those Las Vegas waterproof cabana things, get an outdoor towel hut, and get some real fully body floats for the pool, not kickboards. It is really simple, copy the Vegas pool model--it is proven to work. I know it's an Athletic club, but at least for a few hours per day, take all of the floating lanes out of the outdoor pool. Also: more people would use the outdoor shower if the water was not piped in from Antarctica.
The card swipe thing is really antiquated, I have to fish my card out every time and hand it to somebody? Why can't I just tap it like a Marta card. Why do I have to go through the building to get to the pool--not that many people will sneak in--there are plenty of pools in the Atlanta area. Also, figure out a way to make the guest pass more reasonable, if I bring my cool friends--and they like it--they might join the club, but I don't bring them at the current price. Incentivize young people so that it does not hurt the feelings of the older members financially. Have like a recent college graduate or sub 35 starter-discount incentive to join, couple it with some sort of referral program.