ECRM Personal Fitness Research Study 7/7/2016
Consumers have weaved digital into every aspect of their fitness regimens. They’re tracking their workouts, calories, heart rates and routes using various devices and apps. They’re listening to music and audiobooks or streaming videos on tablets as they exercise. And they’re turning to the Web to learn the latest trends.
At the same time, these people are constantly seeking new and novel ways to change their routines, including the use of a variety of personal fitness equipment to complement — or even replace — what they use at the gym.
However, while they are building communities around their workout habits, conversations about fitness equipment are still primarily happening offline, and while peer reviews and word of mouth are important sources of information on personal fitness equipment, the one area where these conversations can happen at scale — social media — is still largely untapped, according to a recent study by ECRM and HellaWella, a consumer healthy-living website owned by Lebhar-Friedman, publisher of Drug Store News.
The study, based on a survey of more than 400 participants, examined how consumers who are part of today’s healthy lifestyle culture perceive personal fitness equipment products from a wellness standpoint, and how these perceptions drive their shopping behavior. What this research drove home is the opportunity for suppliers to bring these consumers’ conversations around personal fitness equipment to social media in a much larger way. Social media is the place where they can easily gather and tie all of this together, and they are increasingly migrating there to do so. Those suppliers who engage with these consumers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube will have the opportunity to keep a finger on the pulse of their evolving needs and develop personal equipment solutions to address them.
