|
|
The ultimate wellness business of the future will:
1. Provide solutions for
specific problems
The successful wellness business will combine an assortment of products and services into integrated
programs that help customers meet specific goals like weight
management, healthy living, and personal fulfillment.
For example, a
healthy living program might include metabolic assessments, lifestyle
activity awareness, special food products, nutritional counseling,
stress management classes, and family counseling.
That's a huge
change from the "Chinese menu" of services offered by most wellness businesses today, where customers
often have to figure out what they need and where to start.
Businesses which
provide individual services only (ex: nutritional counseling or personal
training or yoga) will grow more easily through alliances with other wellness
businesses and service-providers than by winning business one client at
a time.
2. Incorporating healthcare know-how
and technology
The most successful wellness businesses will integrate fields like physical therapy, dietetics, preventive healthcare and lifestyle medicine with fitness, mind/body, wellness coaching, and personal training.
Fitness and lifestyle improvement professions will gain
credibility through greater collaboration with the healthcare community.
We see a shift towards health maintenance and disease prevention, away
from reliance on folklore, rules of thumb, assumptions about "average"
customers, and less rigorous assessments (ex: calipers for body-fat
testing).
Equipment for exercise and physical activity will
migrate to the consumer market from the medical technology industry. As
a result, wellness businesses will be able to make more accurate and
reliable assessments of clients.
Client recommendations will become
increasingly based on actual client-specific data and thus are likely to
be more appropriate and effective. For example, inexpensive resting
metabolic tests allow development of tailored eating and fitness plans.
Innovative
wellness businesses will use new technology and equipment to focus on
under-served markets (ex: aerobic equipment designed for the physically
challenged).
3. Meeting customers where they're at, not where we wish they
were
The wellness business of the future won't always require customers to go
to gyms or buy special equipment. It'll build on the success of
“mobile medical” and portable fitness programs by taking specialized equipment to customers
and neighborhoods.
It will not require customers to carve out time from too-busy schedules
for "being healthy" by "working out" or by requiring adherence to quirky
diets or food preparation rules. It will focus on incremental lifestyle
change which builds on small successes and fitns naturally into the
customer's day.
It will integrate online services (for example, online communities that
provide peer support) with brick-and-mortar or mobile facilities, allowing
prospects and customers to buy and use products and services easily and
quickly.
4. Responding to growing diversity
The successful wellness business will recognize that not all customers
are the same.
Providing truly valuable products and services to many
under-served groups will require collaboration with the medical
community (for example, balancing diet, exercise, and medication) to
provide truly valuable products and services.
Other needs vary by
segment. For example, older adults may not be comfortable driving in
winter, so serving them will require innovative approaches.
Lifestyle
considerations—business travel or childcare, for example—affect how
other customers buy and use wellness-related products and services.
Cultural, religious and ethnic variations matter. For example, in some
cultures women and men are not comfortable exercising in the same
facility. And ethnic food preferences, key in diet adherence, obviously
vary wildly as well.
5. Learn from the lessons of other industries
Grocery chains: cutting service and selection does not lead to
success. Albertson’s has closed stores in Texas while its in-state rival
HEB thrives by focusing on service and local product selection.
Independent bookstores: Doing things the way they’ve always been done
can lead to failure. Taylor Books failed because, unlike Barnes & Noble and
Borders, they didn’t realize that customers buy even more books if you
can keep them in the store longer with comfortable chairs and latte.
Warehouse clubs: Keeping customers for life leads to success. Consider
Costco, whose lower prices, higher wages, and consistent profits have
created a “virtuous circle” of happy customers, happy employees, and
happy investors.
Auto industry: A good reputation is irreplaceable. The auto industry created its worst nightmare—internet
comparison shopping—by being perceived by many consumers as dishonest
and unethical.
|
|
|
Was this article
helpful?
Rate this article
and tell us what we can
do better. |
|
