A high-end sports club called Lifetime Fitness recently opened in La Jolla (CA) where I live. Think high-end resort amenities located on Main Street. With an abundance of classes, machines, healthy and tasty restaurant offerings, experienced trainers, and to-die-for steam bath and sauna, this “top brand” is stealing members from other clubs and from specialty niches gyms, like the Barre, Yoga, and Pilates studios. At $200/month, Lifetime membership is expensive. But if you work out a lot and enjoy a range of activities and an occasional steam bath, it’s a deal. The low-end clubs in La Jolla, like 24-hour Fitness, will do just fine. It’s the former high-end clubs that will find themselves challenged. Not surprisingly, some here in town are now offering membership deals, hoping to beat Lifetime’s price point. The niche spin-cycle clubs and yoga studios will also have a less-safe…
How Lyft can surpass Uber
My daughter, Lauren Christianson, does experiential marketing out of an agency (Cunning) in NYC, producing events for clients such as ride-share company Lyft, Uber’s main competitor. Experiential marketing immerses customers in the brand’s promise, such as Lyft’s fun and irreverent brand personality. This past Halloween, for example, Lauren used special effects make-up artists to transform actors in San Francisco and New York City into zombies. People could request Lyft Zombie Mode and have a zombie delivered to their gathering. Other recent work includes Lyft Ghost Mode, a promotion for the new Ghostbusters movie, where users could take a ride in an Ecto-1 vehicle. (See picture.) There was also Lyft Jazz Mode at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, where riders could order a vehicle with live jazz musicians playing. Both companies are networks (also called two-sided markets) — digital platforms enabling individual…
Is your business fabulous? It should be.
I opened the birthday card to find a silver metal cutout of the word FABULOUS glued to a background of shiny fuchsia ribbons. The message was wonderful to receive, for sure. Looking at the card days after my birthday, I realize the word FABULOUS is an important word for all of us as we begin a New Year in our organizations. Competing on more than price is getting increasingly difficult. There is excess supply in many markets. Many customers face financial pressures and want a bargain. They find them as they have more buying power than ever, be they a consumer with access to the Internet, or a business offering large contracts that you do not want to lose. The only way past competing on price is to offer your target market benefits that are relevant, unique, and hard for competitors to copy….