Client Profile of Spanish Fitness Centers: Segmentation by Loyalty and Characteristics of the Client

With the growth of the fitness sector, a concern for client loyalty emerges as managers recognize its importance. Loyalty is the client’s predisposition to select a preferred provider and the tendency to resist any persuasion from the competition (Crosby and Johnson, Marketing Management 13(4):12–13, 2004). In particular, loyalty could be assessed with objective and subjective measures. First is the keeping or repurchasing of sport services. In the case of subjective loyalty, it could be said client behavior intention or the recommendation to other possible clients. Based on these premises, the objective of this study was to examine the subjective and objective measures of loyalty toward private fitness center by sociodemographic and behavior variables. For this a questionnaire measuring longevity of membership and behavior intentions was administered to 2931 clients (1221 women and 1710 men) from 101 fitness centers in Spain. A descriptive analysis, factorial exploratory analysis, analysis of variance, and a two-way luster analysis were conducted. The principal results show five subgroups of client segments from the objective measure and two subgroups in the subjective measure. The results demonstrate significant differences in both subgroups with regard to behavior intentions but not according to membership longevity. This study suggests a difference in the subjective perception of the client and their behavior with regard to the purchase of service.