Future Target Market Segments

Market segmentation is method of combining potential buyers into groups who have homogeneous
and will be responsive uniformly to a particular marketing action. Market segmentation provides
incentives for companies to target different types of consumers who distinguish the full value of
certain products and services from one another (Cahill 1997, 12). The future target market
segments can be put into effect in based on different techniques. We are going to embark on the
future target by assessing the segmentation variables which are Geographic, Demographic,
Psychographic and Behavioural.

The profitability and image of I-Fitness will be elevated by attracting a larger group of new
customers, that is, by achieving a new target market. Firstly, the variable geographic will be
utilized as it will enable division of the targeted market into sections of towns, villages and market
size. I-Fitness is already established and serving customers from Curepipe. Indeed, there should be
a convenient travel route with the least traffic bottleneck and easy access for customers to come to
the gym. In Mauritius, many developments had been in place with regard to building new roads
and motorways, thus, with the advent of new road which connects many towns and villages to
Curepipe more easily, I-Fitness will avail from this convenience where many more customers can
be targeted from Curepipe, Quatre bornes, Vacoas, Beau-Bassin, and Midlands. In fact, using the
new motorway consumers can reach I-Fitness in less than 15 minutes which hence benefit
customers. I-Fitness can implement many effective strategies to attract these potential customers,
many people in these places lack awareness about the gym, thus awareness is a milestone and
should be raised.

Firstly, advertising banner can be utilized as it is not that expensive and it can be put almost in any
strategic places and therefore this will attract potential consumers. Secondly, I-Fitness has built its
own football and volleyball team which was not that costly, hence allowing organisation of football
match in these places so as to raise consumer awareness. People will gradually have an insight of
the gym and about its activities and this will create positive word-of-mouth. Besides, this may also
attract people who are not members of the gym since they will be aware of its benefits.
Furthermore, using Internet technologies and social networking pages like Facebook, I-Fitness can
attract more customers from other regions of the island as the gym is found at Curepipe, where
there are many reputed companies. Through the use online advertising, people from many corners
of Mauritius and who work at Curepipe can be attracted. Moreover, through the use Google
AdWords, the website of I-Fitness can be seen at the first position on google search, thus this can
help in attracting new employees and students from abroad who are coming to Mauritius for
professional or educational reasons.

Secondly, demographic segmentation will be analysed by segmenting the targeted market into age,
income, gender and ethnic background groups. I-Fitness already consists both male and female
consumers ageing from 14 to 65 years. Through age, new target can be found in the demographic
segment. In Mauritius many people from 50 to 65 years old are suffering from chronic diseases like
diabetes, heart disease and obesity. Consequently, for this age group, new charts of exercises
should be encouraged and there should be a different paying package for them with a view to
attract these people in the gym. The gym should give special attention on growing awareness about
how fitness improves the quality of life for people with these types of diseases. The awareness can
be raised be using the website, Facebook page, newspaper and health magazine.

Likewise, there is a growing trend for youths to go to the gym and build their body and as a result
more students can be targeted. I-Fitness could introduced a Student membership package with a
lower price for students ageing from 15 to 23 years. This will attract more customers and creating
word-of-mouth in school and campus of universities. Furthermore, there is a growing interest of
female groups in keeping fit and doing more physical exercise. There are as well many housewives
who go to the gym and train to keep fit during the day. Most of the gyms have Zumba, jam packed
with their services but I-Fitness introduce aerobic, dance classes, yoga and strength training for
female customers as differentiated services. This will attract more female customers in the gym and
will enable I-Fitness to gain a competitive edge.

Thirdly, psychographic segmentation will be utilized to target the future target market. The
psychographic segmentation is based on personality, motives and lifestyle of the market. As such,
people who are fond of having fun, enjoying their leisure time, and experiencing new things can be
part of the targeted market. First of all, the VALS group will be identified which refer the
experiencers. The experiencers like to experience new things such as following fashion and fads
and spend more on their income (Strategic 2013). New things should be introduced such as
Mountain climbing, other hiking activities and outgoing in the nature and this should be advertise
by using advertising banner and newspapers to attract these potential customers apart from normal
activities such as activities workout in the gym or the football team.

Additionally, people who have left the gym and were drifted to competitors can be re targeted and
re convinced. Awareness about health and new services that have been introduced should be
communicated to the target market and try to be aware of hindrances that would keep them from
coming back and train again. Furthermore, I-Fitness should be in close proximity with the
community, that is, work in collaboration with local businesses, and associations in the around the
region and give special packages for employees or owner. Then, new customers can be found
around the nearby regions to offer them a free training session or a month for free of charge. This
will make future customers appreciate and create value for the gym and this can be seen as a
benefit and also attract more people.

Finally, behavioural segmentation will be evaluated in great detail, it lays emphasis on customer
loyalty and purchasing status. The new target market is the one who plays a crucial role in repeat
purchases and who want benefit for what they are paying. For this I-Fitness should create a distinct
picture in the eyes of its loyal customers. First of all, I-Fitness should find what differentiate it
from other gym and shout it everywhere using banner, newspaper, pamphlets and Facebook.
Secondly, the company should develop loyalty programs to make customers make as a sense of
belonging. Also, free t-shirts can also be offered to the current customers and as well allocate
coupons to gain extra service like add-on. In addition, the 80/20 principle can also come into force
and entitle them points per week, thus allowing customers to benefit from free services. If the
existing customers will be given a special treatment and if customer satisfaction is provided, most
of marketing will be done through word-of-mouth. Indeed, new premium services like massage
and hamman should be bundled to attract more premium customers who seeks interest in consumer
loyalty. Moreover, a blog should be created and gives fitness tips regularly and this will be free of
charge and this will likely used to raise awareness and loyalty. These strategies need to be executed
in the likely future target market segments which will benefit I-Fitness to the fullest.

Proposal of brand position

Positioning is the concept of creating a unique image of the organisation in the mind of the
customer compared to competitors (Lovelock, Patterson and Wirtz 2011, 79). To be more specific,
the main objective is to inculcate a great impact of I-Fitness to enlarge the perception of
consumers, thus creating and augmenting potential benefits to the gym. Even if I-Fitness has a
logo, it is not an easy task and not enough to be able to draw people’s attention as today’s new
generation is influenced mainly by fitness celebrities and adopt them as a role model. I-Fitness is
highly recommended to be represented by Mauritian celebrities such as Stephan Buckland (African
Champion) and Bruno Julie (Olympic medallist). I-Fitness can also organise sport events such as
 weight lifting tournaments, football tournaments in the sense that it already has its own football
team and offer help in blood donation to the ministry of health. The implementation of such events
are inexpensive and can thereby be put into effect to sponsor charitable bodies such as red-cross,
paws for animals and accordingly help in improving health care and at the same time promoting a
good image of its brand. I-Fitness through other binding forces that can make its brand stronger is
to put emphasis and add value to facilitating and supporting services. I-Fitness can provide
significant information about direction to its operating site, service hours and prices, agendas,
notices to its customers. I-Fitness through internet technologies can notify its customers by email
and or make phone calls if necessary. I-Fitness can make some improvements on its service quality
and increase efficiency by allowing potential customers to register online on the website and offer
discount code to new member. I-Fitness can cater its customers by providing them a lounge or rest
room to relax and have drink water and protein shakes. I-Fitness can also offer childcare facilities
to parents in order to attract them by the service provided. I-Fitness can uplift its position in
regards of its competitors through a decent advertising of these facilities outlined. Staffs can be
called upon to wear uniforms with the company logo attached to it, these will undoubtedly hike the
professionalism side of I-Fitness. Some items such as free t-shirts, music CD, and calendars can be
doled out to gym members which will help I-motion to value its customers and hence forth.

SERVQUAL

Table 1: SERVQUAL Result

SERVQUAL WEIGHTED SCORES Total score x Importance weight Weighted Score
Average Tangible -13.5 x 15 -20.25
Average Reliability -18.6 x 12 -22.32
Average Responsiveness -6.5 x 22.5 -14.63
Average Assurance -6.1 x 30 -18.3
Average Empathy -14.55 x 20.5 -29.83

SERVQUAL is a framework used to measure the scale of quality in the service sector (Abu-El
Samen, Akroush, Abu-Lail 2013). An analysis of the perception of customers on the service
attributes can be made, thus allowing an organization to give importance to required changes.
RATER is the main aspect of service quality that is, Reliability, Assurance, Tangibles, Empathy
and Responsiveness (Bayraktaroglu and Banu 2010, 50). The answers generated is used to make
an analysis of whether there is a need to change in business operations to improve the overall
satisfaction of customers (Reh 2010).
Many factors are essential for the survival of a business and customer feedback is an advantage
which helps the organization to make sure that they are heading in the right direction and quality
services are provided. Therefore, it can be said that SERVQUAL helps the management of I-
Fitness in order to make effective decisions and provide customer satisfaction.

Reliability
This refers to the organization doing what it said to be undertaking (Llosa, Chando and Orsingher
1998). Whenever customers want to gain any information or have any queries made to the firm,
the latter must respond to their requests. From the analysis in the table above, reliability is -22.32,
which means I-Fitness is not performance on their promised service. This can hence affect more
customers in the longer term as their needs are not fully fulfilled. Customers do value reliability
as it is an important aspect and thus I-Fitness must make effort for service to be reliable.

Assurance
This refers to the expectation that service providers are ought to be experts in the service that they
are delivering (Llosa, Chando and Orsingher 1998). It is important for the firm to deliver and
communicate that expertise to customers in order for them to now that service provider is a highly
skilled one thus raising their confidence level. Another way for customers to know that the
service provider is skilled and competent, the employees can also display badges at the firm’s
location. Result obtained for Assurance is -18.3 and this means that there is lack of expertise in
the performance of employees. Customers expect service quality delivery. Another issue may be
that customers view employees as unskilled. Ignoring the expertise level of the employees is not
good for I-Fitness.

Empathy
Empathy refers to the behavior and attitudes of the service provider’s employees when
performing the task (Llosa, Chando and Orsingher 1998). The results for empathy is -29.83, and
improvement need to be done. Employees need to perform the service efficiently but customers
feel that the expected treatment is given to them during delivery process. Hence, this affects
customer satisfaction as well as customer loyalty.

Responsiveness
This is defined the quick, rapid and immediate response made by the firm to its customers (Llosa,
Chando and Orsingher 1998). The result of I-Fitness for the responsiveness is -14.63 and this
means that customers feel that employees are good performers and do not respond quickly.
Examples include replying emails, and answering phone calls. This therefore affect the image of
the company through negative word-of-mouth.

Tangibles
This consists of the appearance of this service providers to the customers as it does matter for them
(Llosa, Chando and Orsingher 1998). The results for is -20.25 which means that customers are
disappointed with the tangibles items in the gym. Customers see the equipment, uniforms
and the work area not attractive and outdated. As a result, this reduce customer satisfaction
and hence it may not attract new potential customers.

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