The Fit to Grit Cast
Fit to Grit is an audio/video/newsletter hybrid featuring in-depth conversations with leadership within the athletic space. Guests range from top executives within the athletic space to professionals in adjacent industries with a proven track record of success working in the athletic industry.
We explore visionary ideas and practical strategies driving the industry forward, covering areas such as marketing, finance, branding, equipment, product development, biz dev, and more. Join us as we share actionable insights and real-world experiences while embodying the "fit to grit" spirit.
The Fit to Grit Cast
How Proper Pricing Positions Your Fitness Studio for Profit
Pricing isn't just about what you charge—it's a sophisticated form of communication that shapes how potential clients perceive your studio's value. Studios that strategically optimize their pricing see an 11% profit boost year over year, compared to just 3.5% from focusing solely on lead generation. Yet most studio owners miss this powerful opportunity.
Your studio's visual identity plays a crucial role in pricing perception. As I share in this episode, one premium studio struggled with $1,000 memberships because their branding resembled McDonald's—bright reds and yellows that communicated "fast food fitness" rather than premium experience. This fundamental disconnect between visual messaging and pricing creates cognitive dissonance that drives away potential clients before they even discuss money.
Most boutique studios exist in what I call the "value place"—neither competing with big-box gyms on volume nor positioned as ultra-premium exclusive studios. This middle ground requires careful pricing strategy that aligns with your brand positioning. Should you display pricing on your website? How much should you show? How do interior design choices affect perceived value? We dive deep into these questions, examining both the psychology and practical application of strategic pricing that attracts your ideal members while naturally filtering out poor fits.
Whether you're just starting out or looking to evolve your established studio, this episode provides actionable frameworks for communicating value effectively through your pricing structure. Subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and go out there and get gritty with your pricing strategy!
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I had to basically tell her like your brand looks like it's, you look like McDonald's. You're using bright reds, bright yellows. You're communicating that approachability like you're a fast food joint. Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Fit to Grit cast. I am your host, zach Coleman, and today I want to talk about pricing how you can really position your studio around different pricing models, how pricing is really just another form of communication. We're going to talk about three things going on throughout this cast today. If you're listening, listen to it while you're on your drive, if you're watching the video on this, you will get a little bit more visual cues to kind of help you along the process. Overall, we're going to talk about three things. We're going to talk about the common pitfalls of most studios and what they face and how they can avoid them, some proven mythologies that you can kind of do to effectively price your studio effectively with not just where you're at but how it communicates that pricing. And I want to talk about strategies that you can start looking at as you continue to evolve and grow your studio that can show the value that you guys communicate, not just be a communicate different pricing models, but communicating different types of other forms to enhance your pricing structure so that you can attract the right types of members into your studio. So let's just get right into it. You know, according to a study by Price Intelligence, member-based studios that really focus their pricing and optimize that pricing really see a potential 11% boost in their profits year over year, compared to a 3.5% increase from just trying to bring in more leads, bring in more business, and not bringing enough people in or the fear of charging too little and having a very bad bottom line, which really honestly, just kind of leads to that misalignment towards the type of audience that you're bringing in. I mean, I've done this, you know, early on in my business growth and a continued effort as I continue to evolve what we're doing over here. You know I've kind of gone through some very similar challenges on how to communicate your pricing offers, how to communicate for volume based or value based, depending on where you're at within your business's growth cycle, right, and you know I had to learn quite fast that the offerings and the pricing models and adjusting those could be a year-to-year thing, could be a marketing campaign, and it could also just be an evolution of trying to slowly start to weed out lower volume types of members or people that have lower retention rate so you can start bringing in those higher types of members.
Speaker 0:I'm going to kind of go into a story a little bit here. We had a studio come into us about a month ago and, you know, going over they talked a lot about how they had about $1,000 a month membership, they were attracting people, they were bringing people in and they're like we're bringing people in, we're talking to people, but no one seems to be the right fit for our studio. I took a quick glance, did a quick audit of everything that they've done, everything that they were doing, got on a call with them and first thing I told them was you know that your studio is very approachable. And she said, yeah, like that's what we we we wanted to push across. It was really approachable and I had to sit down with them and actually say, like you don't want to be approachable. And they were confused and they asked why donele is that you're approachable, which puts you in competition with the big box studio. So people are going to be.
Speaker 0:If you're approachable, of course you're going to get a lot of people contacting you because they're going to assume that your pricing is really on the lower end because you're approachable. That's usually the types of feelings and voice and messaging and visuals that you're going to display to that type of audience. Now do I say that the visuals were the main thing? No, there's. There's, of course, a lot more that has to do with that went into why this was happening. You know, location played a huge part of it as well, but at the end of the day, I had to basically tell her like your brand looks like it's, you look like McDonald's, you're using bright reds, bright yellows, you're communicating that approachability like you're a fast food joint, if that makes sense and that's the best way to kind of describe it to anyone that's watching this cast right now is that that's how she was coming across.
Speaker 0:And so, getting into the first real pricing pitfalls and our first real topic, which is the common pitfalls that I usually see studios make when they're kind of in this spectrum or in this realm, right, they don't take the brand portion seriously, they focus so much on trying to bring more clients in that they don't focus on the front end, they don't focus on the pre-purchase cycle and journey, and or they don't understand that communication goes further than just how you communicate verbally. Verbally is, of course, part of it and it's a huge component of it, but I'm very big. One of our values internally here is just communication, because I feel and believe that all forms of communication, no matter what type it is, are what make businesses grow, are what make businesses thrive, is communication. That goes into customer service, visuals, messaging, brand, blah, blah blah. It goes into all that stuff. But that's one of the common pitfalls is that they don't take their brand seriously. You know visual communications and written communications and having guidelines towards the types of communication and behaviors that you want to dictate. It in your studio and externally is if she just made her studio, I mean.
Speaker 0:Let me give you a great example. You look at Exos, for instance. They are very luxury. They offer a large membership type fee. People know that they can tell by visually looking at, looking at them. Before they even get to the messaging. They could just see a billboard with a simple marketing campaign and they could say, oh, like I could tell that that's priced high, which in turn is going to attract those types of people, right. So that's a very common common pitfall that I see how to avoid. How do you really avoid a pitfall like that. Well, you know, look at your. Look at your branding efforts. If it be, if you're just starting out your first location, if you have a business plan to open multiple locations or you're even at, let's say, about $850K a year it's usually between $500K and $1 million, on that higher end where you're getting ready to say, hey, we need to expand, but we need to systematize right, focus on a great branding system.
Speaker 0:Another pitfall I really see is they don't position themselves with that same experience and they don't make it consistent. So when you look at a studio internally, it should match your consistency of your messaging and your visuals and everything you're doing online or out in the world. So you want people to feel that when they first come in, they want them to feel that positioning. So when you're developing a website, you know when you just start, you may do something simple and easy and that's you know. I actually recommend that for someone who's just starting out and doesn't have a budget to really push things forward. But there will come a time when you need to look at that web presence and that positioning as a sign of like, hey, we need to bring our attract, we need to position ourselves online, because what they see online should match the experience of what we're doing offline. How to avoid that pitfall? Well, look at your branding system that you create and leverage that to build your website. Don't just get it hack and slashed. Don't just get it all made up and say, hey, this is good for now and expect that that's going to be there when you reach high figures.
Speaker 0:You know, I had a studio once come to us and they were so stuck on their beginning brand and their website. They were getting they were at almost a million and they had so much passion for what they originally created on a certain platform that they totally went. They didn't believe in that. They needed to grow. It's an ever-growing. It's a lot like working out. You're ever going to grow. You're going to lift more weight, you're going to do more movement, you're going to change your exercises based off your metabolism and your stuff. So it is an ever growing situation that you are eventually going to have to.
Speaker 0:You know, take your, your web presence, to a higher level and make sure that that matches the experience of what you're providing in studio, and so that's probably the best way to put it in that regard. And you know, to pricing. You know talking about pricing. It is a communication. So a pitfall I see is that they're not communicating their pricing with those forms of communication. Back to my original when I talked about a branding system. I talked about a web you know, web system and making sure those are positioned effectively. They don't understand that their pricing is directly correlated to that. So they really have to watch that when they're in the process of, you know, developing the presence right, they have to say, hey, I had a studio that we were talking to, that talked. All about. Their name was, you know, diamond, diamond something or other. I'm not going to go deep into it and they had like a diamond logo that was made by a fifth grader. You know like, okay, just start, like that's fine, but you're pricing yourself like big box gym but you're trying to showcase like you're a premium studio. The messaging and where I'm going with that is the messaging and the communication don't match with the pricing. So really consider that when you're going in and doing your pricing models and what you're showcasing.
Speaker 0:Let's get into the proven mythologies for effective pricing alignment. Well, I look at studios in a very interesting spot. You know aren't necessarily, especially in today's day and age. You're not doing a volume play. You know, if you're a boutique studio and you're competing against the big box, you're not competing against the volume play.
Speaker 0:Big studios You're not, and not everyone wants that. A lot of people want the community and the growth of a smaller studio, and they're willing to pay more for that. Vice versa, if you're not selling $1,000 memberships, you're not a value play either. Usually, you're right in the middle. I like to call it like a value place. I know that that's a drug, but you know, still I like to call it like right in the middle. You're right in the middle like where showcasing your pricing is not a bad idea on your website, because that will help also dictate people coming in, because you can have the volume play of showcasing your pricing, but you can have the value play of. You can have a value play of still having a higher price tag compared to the big box studios. So, showcasing your pricing Good mythology around this, though, is don't show your whole gamut.
Speaker 0:Think about it in terms of a la carte right Like hey, show like the basic packages for what you're providing, and then allow the research that they come in and they call, allow them to come to you at that point so that you could sit down with them and then go through the sales process of coming up with the right pricing for your studio, are the right package for them, in particular, customized around them. And, lastly, strategies for communicating your value through pricing and attracting the right audience. First and foremost, I'm going to say pricing is a form of communication. You're communicating your worth through pricing. It is a play that showcases right off the bat. People are going to either say, hey, this is a big box studio or you're a small brick and mortar. They are. But I will tell you a good example here. If I were to walk into a dude bro gym and I were to see that it was just really heavy weights and it was old, it was old equipment and it was the walls were all grungy and gross and it was small, and then they're like trying to charge me a $200 membership, would I take that? No? So strategies for communicating your value through pricing Okay, one back to what we talked about earlier.
Speaker 0:You have strategies of visually communicating your pricing. How do you do that? Well, visual communication is also pretty much a science, so you really want to dive in and first I I say understand what your internal values are as a team and allow that your messaging and your team and your ethos to be the guide that creates your visuals, even down your pricing. Allow that stuff to be the guide that dictates your look and feel around. The science of color psychology and written psychology right, like that's really the point of color psychology and written psychology. Right, like that's really the point of really good visual communications is. Everyone looks at it and they think it's just a logo that you put up. No, a logo is part of a bigger brand language that identifies that stuff. So strategy is really really thinking about that.
Speaker 0:I mean, you know how many times I've had prospects come in and say stuff like I just want a logo of a dog and I'm like, well, you're a studio. This is just an example, by the way. You're a studio. Why would you need a dog? Oh, because we love dogs. Okay, like I can understand your premise on differentiation and how you want to differentiate yourself, but there's a process and a way we could do that and theme yourself effectively around pricing and around what are the things that you value differently than just I like dogs. So it's about your emotions, who you are, but it's also about that psychology of what people think. What is the first thought process they're going to think of when they look at your studio, when they want to come in and they really want to purchase your stuff? Another strategy is good. Strategy is and this is really just I'm going to use this more of a strategy that affects bottom line instead of effects. You know top line, and what I mean by that is the money that you're going to be making month over month.
Speaker 0:A lot of studios go straight to I want to focus on the internal experience of the studio. So they'll hire a studio developer and we know quite a few that will come in and have a hard time going back and forth with the clients. A lot of revisions, a lot of changes, a lot of repurchasing, a lot of that stuff that actually boosts up the price of the studio being built effectively because they don't have a branding system. So that is a great example of of a strategy, of how you can utilize a branding system to. If you want to kind of start to focus on the internal experience of the studio, you should focus on that at the same time, if not a couple months before. Because if you're going to rebrand your studio, you want your audience and you want your team to see an evolution, and so utilizing your branding system is a way to market that differentiation and the growth of your studio. But it also helps dictate the direction of said interior development of your studio and what you're purchasing there.
Speaker 0:Another strategy for communicating the value of your pricing If you are in that lower range, show the volume-based pricing. Show it. Show that, communicate that you have a broader audience, and that's the whole point of when you have a volume play is it's lower. But if you're a value player, you're a little bit higher in there. Only showcase some of your pricing. Be able to be attractable but also be able to know that, hey, this is our type of audience that we're trying to bring in, and that's a great way that you're going to start attracting the right audience.
Speaker 0:I'd like to sum it all up by just kind of going through one more quick example, just so you can kind of have an understanding. I'm going to go back to this dog one because I think it's so out of the spectrum that I think people will understand a lot better if I use this. So let's say you're a studio and you love dogs and you wanted to create a differentiation of a studio that allowed dogs to come in. So you create this dog logo and you make it all fluffy and great and, you know, use bright colors. You're going to be approachable. You're going to probably attract an audience that are dog lovers, so that's going to be the first thing.
Speaker 0:You're going to detract certain types of people, which means that your pricing models are probably going to have to be the higher end because you're going to be only attracting dog lovers and not a broader audience, and so you're going to have to have a higher end package. But then you're talking about dogs, which people aren't going to. Not a lot of people will have the vibe with and they're going to be. The communication of that's going to be so misaligned with what they perceive your studios like that they're going to expect smaller pricing. So you, you have that, that spectrum right there, and 90 of them will probably even think it's a you know, dog grooming shop, you know.
Speaker 0:So that's just a. That's just an example I want to give you off the bat of why communicating yourself and your pricing is affected by different things. You know we're really pushing this podcast, um, and we're trying to get more people involved, so I love, if any of you have the opportunity, go down, hit subscribe if you're watching the video, or just go to our Apple podcast section. Give us a review. I'd really love to hear if you're listening to the podcast. I'd really love a review. You can find both those in the comments down below. But other than that, I'm Zach, host of the Fit to Grit cast, and go out there and get gritty.
