The Health and Fitness Industry is Big Business. In 2015, Australians Alone are Estimated: Marketing Homework, SIM, Singapore

Case Study

Fitbit: the perfect fit for consumer motivation

The health and fitness industry is big business. In 2015, Australians alone are estimated to have spent $8.5 billion on gym memberships, sports equipment, and the latest fitness trends. In addition, one study has revealed that in 2015 over 6 million Australians had made a New Year’s resolution to make fitness top of mind.

Tapping into this growing health and fitness segment are companies specializing in wearable technology devices, and more specifically, fitness and activity trackers. This new generation of smart wristbands helps people manage their health and wellness by quantifying their physical movements, with some of the more popular brands being Fitbit, Garmin, Apple, Xiaomi, Misfit, Jawbone, and Moov.

Allowing consumers to keep track of their activity around the clock, the digital technology behind these wearable fitness trackers uses algorithms, accelerometers, and altimeters to track everything from heart rates and active minutes to calories burned, sleep patterns and stairs climbed. A key question is how are these fitness tracker brands tapping into the influences that affect consumers’ motivation to purchase, use, and share data from their fitness tracker?

One of the pack leaders in wearable fitness tracking technology is Californian-born company Fitbit. Having established themselves in 2007, they have now sold well over 20 million of their fitness trackers worldwide via thousands of retail outlets. In 2015, the company went public on the New York Stock Exchange and has an estimated worth of $4.1 billion. In marketing to the fitness and health segment, Fitbit focus on consumers’ self-concepts, values, needs, and goal-setting behaviors.

The Fitbit brand position themselves as a family of products fit for anyone. They look to make fitness a lifestyle as opposed to a 30-minute workout, viewing everything from working and looking after the kids, to biking, hiking, rowing, and running as all forms of getting ‘fit’.

The Fitbit range of fitness trackers starts from simple wristbands with basic functions such as step counting, through to their higher-end models which provide users with more advanced functions including heart rate monitoring and GPS tracking. The Fitbit Blaze connects to your smartphone, allowing the user to map routes, as well as see run stats like pace and duration in real-time via the fitness tracker’s hi-res color touchscreen.

This instant gratification through the delivery of instant data does more than inform. Fitbit trackers reinforce, motivate, and reward, incorporating elements such as social and gamification in order to keep users engaged. Suddenly, all of the routine things that you do each day, such as vacuuming the floors, picking up the groceries, and pushing the lawnmower are cast in a new light. These routine chores are now seen as an exercise, and Fitbit seeks to measure these activities and turn them into a sense of quantified accomplishment.

Fitbit delivers an always-on relationship with consumers, largely thanks to the continuous monitoring characteristic of its product. Fitbit also lets customers personalize their fitness tracker offering the option to choose from metal, leather, and multi-colored interchangeable bands. On a more functional level, the technology allows users to sync the data collected by their Fitbit device to their smartphone Fitbit app, enabling users to analyze their performance.

The Fitbit app allows users to customize their fitness experience as well as set personal goals and challenges. In addition, Fitbit trackers come with built-in step-based daily and lifetime goals linked to ‘badges’. When a specific badge’s criteria are met, the user’s Fitbit device will vibrate and the app will record the achievement as a ‘badge’, a form of extrinsic tangible motivation. Motivation is further amplified by allowing users to broadcast their results, complete challenges, and ‘badges’ earned via social media and online Fitbit communities, as well as enabling users to create in-app challenges with friends and family.

Case Questions

1. Apart from the Elaboration Likelihood Model, choose another attitude change theory. Use this theory to explain how Fitbit changed/can change consumer attitudes.

2. How does the social element of owning a Fitbit compel a Fitbit purchase? How do some of these groups exert social power on consumers?

3. Source several Fitbit advertisements. Discuss how the Elaboration Likelihood Model is used to justify Fitbit’s advertising content.

4. According to the article, Fitbit faces competition from many other brands. Using the Consideration Set as well as Evaluative and Determinant Criteria, objectively explain why Fitbit has maintained its large market share in fitness trackers.

5. Gather several Fitbit advertisements (printed or video). Apply Regulatory Focus Theory to these advertisements. How do these advertisements affect the Message Source Effects and Attitude Change?