customer behavior report

Customer Behavior Study:

Personal trainer services

Hezha Muhammad

Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

Table of contents

Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 3

Target Group................................................................................................................................... 3

Information search .......................................................................................................................... 6

Purchase.......................................................................................................................................... 7

Influencing factors .......................................................................................................................... 9

The buying situation .................................................................................................................... 9

Extensive problem-solving .......................................................................................................... 9

Limited problem-solving ........................................................................................................... 10

Automatic response ................................................................................................................... 10

Personal influences ....................................................................................................................... 10

Lifestyle ........................................................................................................................................ 11

Social influences ........................................................................................................................... 12

Survey .......................................................................................................................................... 13

Survey distribution and collection ............................................................................................. 14

Survey questions and analysis ................................................................................................... 15

Respondents satisfaction about their body ............................................................................. 15

Do respondents read sports/health magazines ........................................................................ 16

Eating healthy ....................................................................................................................... 16

Paying attention to looks ....................................................................................................... 17

Do our respondents like exercising ........................................................................................ 18

Receiving exercising information through the internet ........................................................... 19

Usage of sports supplements .................................................................................................. 20

Usefulness & awareness concerning personal trainers ............................................................ 21

Exercise frequency and challenges in meeting physical goals ................................................ 23

Reasons for exercising ........................................................................................................... 24

Most important things in training ........................................................................................... 25

Exercising preferences; how, with whom and where .............................................................. 26

How much willing to pay for such personal training services ................................................. 29

Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 30

Sources ......................................................................................................................................... 31

Appendices ................................................................................................................................... 32

Survey ....................................................................................................................................... 32

HAAGA-HELIA Customer Behavior Study 3/34

Team F

Hezha Muhammad 15.5.2008

Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

Introduction

Business idea is offering personal training services to customers with

different needs and health conditions. A personal trainer is a professional

who educates people about physical fitness. Personal trainers are also

referred to as "trainers," but should not be confused with "athletic

trainers". Personal trainers typically design exercise routines and teach

physical exercises to their clients. While some personal trainers work

with only one client each session, others also teach groups of clients.

Personal trainers typically work with clients to improve body

composition (weight loss or muscle gain). They may also be hired for

more specific goals, such as an increase in strength, muscular endurance,

cardiovascular endurance, or flexibility. Some trainers are qualified to

improve sports performance, including speed and power. While not as

common, some trainers may also be qualified to work with people who

need help with physical dysfunction, including the improvement of

balance, range of motion, knee and shoulder issues, and those released

from physical therapy.

Personal trainers often also have a specific method of motivating clients.

Common techniques for motivation include demeanor (some trainers

have an aggressive and commanding demeanor; others are more calm

and supportive; incentives for reaching goals; and positive re-framing or

visualization.

Understanding consumers on a deep level is significant in health and

fitness industries. Therefore we need to analyze thoroughly

fundamentals of our consumer behavior, describe buying process and

identify different influences on their behavior. Main questions that we

are going to take into consideration when studying our consumer are:

who is important, how do consumers buy, what are their choice criteria,

where do they buy and when do they buy (Jobber, 60). We are going to

find answers to these questions through a survey, which is the most

appropriate in this case, because there is not so much information about

face-to-face and on-line personal training in Finland.

Target Group

Our consumers are people who buy personal training services and sports

supplements as a tangible product for personal using. Target group

consists of senior citizens (the biggest population group in Finland),

young people, wealthy professional individuals, corporations, and

average class people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Athletic_trainers&action=edit




Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

According to Jobber (2001, 61) most of consumer purchases are

individual, which means that a buyer makes decision to buy a product

independently. Although decision-making can be done by certain group,

where all members relate and influence each other. For instance, Engel,

Blackwell and Miniard (2000) offer five roles, which can be taken by

family members, work colleagues or other members of the buying

center.

1. Initiator: the person who starts to think about purchase and gather

information about personal training to help decision-making process.

2. Influencer: the person who is willing to make an effect on the

outcome of decision-making. Also they present choice criteria.

3. Decider: the person who is in charge of making final decision about

purchase of the product (most often it’s a customer who chooses

needed fitness program , pays and uses it)

4. Buyer: the person who pays and influences delivery of the product

(chooses the type of payment and as we have on-line service our

customer doesn’t need to care about delivery, because he or she will

just use the service through the internet).

5. User: the actual consumer who uses the product.

However one person can take at the same time different roles. For

example, he or she wants to look better by summer time and it motivates

an individual to search for some options how to achieve this goal. After

analyzing received information consumer chooses one of the programs

we have, then makes a payment and finally uses it. So in this example

consumer was initiator, decider, buyer and user at the same time.

Decision-making process shows how consumer buys a product.

According to Michael Solomon, Gary Bamossy and Soren Askegaard

(2002) in this multipart process people first combine as much

information as possible from what they already know about product,

then analyze advantages and disadvantages of each alternative, and

finally come up with a satisfactory decision. However Jobber (2001, 63)

highlights that there is also final step of post-purchase evaluation of

already made decision. But for the first step he offers to admit that there

is a problem. For example, a person admits that he or she isn’t satisfied

with condition of their body and that there is a need to start doing

fitness. In addition, Blackwell, Miniard and Engel identify five steps

which consumer can come through before purchase. These steps form

consumer decision-making process.


Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

Figure 1. , The consumer decision-making process

Blackwell R.D, Miniard P.W, Engel J.F (2000)

However Jobber (2001, 63) points that need recognition can be

influenced by two issues: the size of difference between present and

desired situation and importance of a problem. That means, for example,

an individual has an obesity problem, he or she looks at attractive bodies

in adverts and surely starts to want to have the same one, but the

significance of the problem can be very low in comparison with other

purchase needs (holidays or studying). Therefore even when the

difference is big, person may not step up on information search, because

the importance of a problem is small. Although, it can be the other way

round, when the discrepancy between current and most wanted situation

is small (consumer doesn’t have any problems with overweight, for

instance) then he or she isn’t much motivated to use our on-line personal

training service.

If need recognition is strong enough, consumer starts to look for

alternative ways of problem solution (Jobber, 2001; Kotler, 2003). As

Jobber (2001) and Kotler (2003) suggest the search can be internal and

external.

Need recognition/ problem

awareness

Information

search

Evaluation of

alternatives

Purchase

Post-purchase evaluation of

decision


Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

Firstly, consumer takes information from memory, in other words,

appeals to

internal source. Then, if there is still not enough information, external

search begins. It falls into personal resources, such as family, friends,

colleagues and commercial sources, for example advertisements.

Information search

There are two types of information search: Pre-purchase search, which a

consumer may recognize a need and then search the market place for

specific information and Ongoing search, which consumers enjoy to

browse just for fun, or because they like to stay up-to-date on last news

in the market place (Solomon, 2004).

As Jobber (2001, 64) points out, the main purpose of information search

is to build the awareness set. It means to make a list of possible options

that may solve your problem. For example, it can look like this

Face-to-face training

On-line training

Partner/group training

In order to choose one option consumer should evaluate and compare

alternatives, in other words step up the next stage of decision-making

process. In this part consumer establishes criteria for evaluation, features

the buyer wants or not. Also he/she ranks or weights alternatives or

resumes the search. For instance person may decide to exercise with a

wife/husband, so Partner/group training gets higher rank.

Jobber (2001, 65) emphasizes that the first step in evaluation is to reduce

the awareness set to a smaller list of options which deserves more

serious consideration. The awareness set goes through different choice

criteria to create an evoked set: short list of alternatives for careful

evaluation. While assessing alternatives customer can use different

choice criteria, such as price, reliability, popularity. In addition,

Schiffman and Kanuk (2004, 559) state that customers while evaluating

alternatives use two types of information: a “list” of brands (models)

from which they make their selection (the evoked set) and the criteria

they use to asses each brand or model. For example, a person, who aims

to do some exercises for keeping fit and healthy, doesn’t know much

about fitness programs, but he/she has 2-3 options, such as to go to gym,

buy DVD to exercise at home and to take on-line course.


Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

Let’s suppose that of these, two were acceptable possibilities and one

wasn’t. Solomon, Bamossy and Askegaard (2002) name alternatives that

are under consideration but not to be bought as inept set, whereas the

ones that are not under consideration at all involve inert set.

The criteria consumers use to evaluate the alternative products in their

evoked set usually depends on important product attributes (Schiffman

2004). Instances can be price, trustworthiness, availability, health issues

and diversity of choices. However, the research described by Schiffman

and Kanuk (2004) shows that most often consumers looking for one

option that performs “right” and feels good, don’t pay most attention to

price and brand popularity, vise versa their final choice reflects their

personality characteristics or childhood experiences; and it’s often “love

at first sight”.

However, a key determinant of the extent to which consumers estimate a

product is their level of involvement.

According to Jobber (2001; 65) involvement is a level of personal

importance and significance that goes with the product choice. Thus

when a purchase is very involving, the customer is going to carry out

very extensive evaluation. High involving purchases include those ones

which are expensive, important and have some degree of risk. On the

contrary, low involvement purchases consist of simple evaluations and

fast decision making. For example, when customer has a need to have

cardio work out, he/she will have a pretty long evaluation trial, as this is

a serious health issue and needs to be assessed thoroughly.

When the customer eventually should make a product choice from

among of alternatives, a number of decision rules may be used. For

instance, Solomon, Bamossy and Askegaard (2002; 262) point out that

there are non-compensatory and compensatory rules. Non-compensatory

rules eradicate alternatives that aren’t efficient on criteria the consumer

has chosen to use, whereas compensatory rules, which usually are

applied in high involvement situations, let decision-maker consider each

alternative’s pluses and minuses to achieve the best choice.

Purchase

Schiffman and Kanuk (2004; 569) also add that there are three types of

purchases: trial purchases, repeat purchases, long-term commitment

purchases. In details, when a person buys a product for the first time and

buys it in small quantity, this purchase is considered to be a trial. For

example, in our on-line personal training web site we are going to have

trial courses for just familiarizing customers with different programs.


Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

We think it’s a really effective way to conquer customer’s attention and

loyalty.

When a new type of product is found by trial to be better than other

products, costumers are likely to repeat the purchase. Typically the

repeat purchase confirms that the product has met costumer’s approval.

In our case, it’s possible to buy different programs for different periods

of time. If people like them, they will wait for new courses and use our

service more and more that stimulates customer’s loyalty.

In addition, long- term commitment purchases don’t fit our company

because we don’t provide durable goods like refrigerators, cars or

electric ranges.

As our business operates on-line, we should research also how usage of

the Internet affects consumer’s decision-making. According to

Schiffman and

Kanuk (2004; 565) it is often suggested that because consumers have

limited information-processing capacity, they must develop a choice

strategy based both on individual factors, such as knowledge, personality

traits and contextual factors, like characteristics of the decision tasks.

Also they stated that there are three contextual factors: task complexity,

information organization and time constraint. That means in on-line

environment the information is more available, there are more

alternatives and more information regarding each alternative. Besides,

information giving is more flexible and time is saved by using

computers to apply decision rules.

Finally there is post purchase evaluation of decision. It’s common for

customers to feel not confident about their purchase; they doubt whether

it was right to buy our service or whether they chose the best type of

work out for them. This goes from the concept named “cognitive

dissonance”. A customer having bought the product can feel that the

other alternative would be better. In this case a customer won’t

repurchase, but may change the kind of product or company at all next

time.

To make consumers feel right about their purchase is the target of

marketers, who should make potential buyers think that the product will

meet their expectations. After having done the purchase, customer

should be also persuaded that he/she has done the right decision. For

instance, it’s easy to do for on-line personal training company, where we

can post in the web site pictures of people who already have used our

service and achieved considerable results. This will encourage our

customers to use the program they chose at most and with pleasure.


Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

Influencing factors

Influencing factors in the consumer decision-making process and its

outcome can be classified under three headings (Jobber and Lancaster

2003):

the buying situation

personal influences

social influences

The buying situation

Different kinds of buying situations are identified to be of three major

types (Howard and Sheth 1969):

extensive problem-solving

limited problem-solving

automatic response

Extensive problem-solving

When customers are faced with a need that is new to them, requires

expensive means to be satisfied or otherwise raises high uncertainty in

the consumer's mind, the consumer is likely to use extensive problem-

solving.

Extensive problem-solving involves a high degree of information search

and close examination of alternative solutions (Jobber and Lancaster

2003), exactly like finding the best price-quality service in the current

fragmented field of health clubs (see Hill 2004).

With buyers that are in dire need of information, for example about

exercising and alternative personal trainers, the salesperson can create

immense goodwill by providing information and assessing alternatives

from the product range in terms of how well their benefits conform to

the buyer's needs. The goodwill generated in such a situation may be

rewarded by a repeat purchase when the buying situation changes to

limited problem-solving. (See Jobber and Lancaster 2003.)

Put in practical terms, being the first to be very helpful to a customer

seeking information about the possibilities of personal training can

attract highly loyal customers.

HAAGA-HELIA Customer Behavior Study

10/34

Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

Limited problem-solving

Limited problem-solving occurs when the consumer has some

experience with the product in question and may be inclined to stay loyal

to the brand previously purchased. However, a certain amount of

information search and evaluation of a few alternatives occurs as a

rudimentary check that the right decision is being made. This provides a

limited opportunity for salespeople of competing products to persuade

consumers that they should switch service provider by providing

relevant comparative information and for example by providing risk-

reducing guarantees. (Ibid.)

Automatic response

Automatic response purchases happen when the customer feels certain

that there is no pressing reason to conduct any information search before

buying (Jobber and Lancaster 2003). In terms of personal training

service this could mean a customer that has possibly tried out many of

the alternative providers, but even if not, has his or her personal reasons

to stay with a certain provider.

For an internet personal training service, this means people who are

limited on time, money or capabilities to travel to cities where

competitors would be located, and feel that the level of service provided

is both sufficient to their personal needs and is better or close enough to

the level provided by competitors.

The situation is of course changed when competitors would start

entering the personal training cyberspace; from that point onwards being

the first isn't enough and methods like advertising should be used to keep

the brand in the forefront of the consumer's mind and reinforce

favourable attitudes towards the company.

Personal influences

Personal influences concern the psychology of the individual consumers.

Relevant concepts include personality, motivation, perception and

learning. Although personality may explain differences consumer

purchasing, reliable personality measurement has proved difficult, even

for qualified psychologists. (Ibid.)

Brand personality is the characterisation of brands as perceived by

consumers.


11/34

Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

Brands may be characterised for example as 'for young people' (Levis)

or 'intelligent' (Guinness). By creating a brand personality, a marketer

may create appeal to people who value that characterisation. Research

into brand personalities of beers showed that most consumers preferred

the brand of beer that matched their own personality (Ackoff and Emsott

1975).

Buzzotta et al. (1982) proposed a two-dimensional approach to

understanding buyer psychology. They suggest that everyone tends to be

warm or hostile and dominant or submissive, and salespeople benefit

from adjusting their behaviour accordingly.

Also as buyer motivations can vary, different kinds of sales or marketing

efforts succeed in attracting different kind of customers. The real

motives for purchase may be obscure, but when found, they can be used

to increase buyer motivation by stimulating need recognition, by

showing the ways in which needs can be fulfilled. These may be

functional, for example, time saved by not having to travel to meet the

personal trainer, or psychological, e.g. the status imparted by having a

great-looking body. (See Jobber and Lancaster, 2003.)

As consumers have different motivations to buy the same service, one

consumer may perceive the same marketing efforts as being honest and

appealing while another may not. In general, people tend to forget more

quickly and to distort and to distort or avoid messages that substantially

differ from their existing attitudes.

Learning is also important in consumer decision-making. Learning refers

to the changes in a person's behaviour as a result of his or her

experiences. A consumer will learn which brand names imply quality

and which salespeople to trust.

Lifestyle

Lifestyle refers to the patterns of living as expressed in a person's

activities, interests and opinions. Lifestyle analysis, or psychographics,

groups people according to their beliefs, activities, values and

demographic characteristics such as education and income. There is a

multitude of different psychographics for different purposes. For

example, Research Bureau Ltd, a UK marketing research agency,

investigated lifestyle patterns among housewives and found eight

distinct groups.


12/34

Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

Lifestyle analysis has implications for marketing since lifestyles have

been found to correlate with purchasing behaviour (Jobber and Lancaster

2003). A company may choose to target a particular lifestyle group with

a product offering, and use advertising which is in line with the values

and beliefs of this group. As information on readership/viewing habits of

lifestyle groups becomes more widely known it affects the media

selection used in conjunction with lifestyle research.

Social influences

According to Kotler and Armstrong (2006) and Jobber and Armstrong

(2003) major social influences on consumer decision-making include

social class, reference groups, culture and the family. Social class has

been regarded as an important determinant of consumer behaviour for

many years, but doesn't play such a role in Nordic countries like Finland,

where the income levels are more evenly spread.

The term 'reference group' is used to indicate a group of people that

influences a person's attitude or behaviour. Where a product is

conspicuous, for example, clothing or cars, the brand or model chosen

may have been strongly influenced by what the buyer perceives as

acceptable to his or her reference group (e.g. a group of friends, the

family, or work colleagues). Reference group acceptability should not be

confused with popularity. As personal training is a fragmented and not

brand-oriented industry (see Hill and Jones 2004), acceptability by

reference group carries a smaller influence there. However, it could still

influence the decision whether to use a personal trainer in the first place.

Culture refers to the traditions, taboos, values and basic attitudes of the

whole society within which an individual lives (Jobber and Lancaster

2003). When marketing to a cultural group that matches one's own, the

cultural aspects tend to be taken into accord automatically. When

marketing to a group of different cultural background, more emphasis

has to be put on the proper conduct of business. In Arab countries, for

example, salespersons may find themselves conducting a sales

presentation in the presence of a competitor's salesperson. In France

chocolate is sometimes eaten between slices of bread.

Family members can strongly influence buyer behaviour. The family is

the most important consumer buying organization in society, and it has

been researched extensively. (Kotler and Armstrong 2006.)


13/34

Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

The decision as to which product or brand to purchase my be a group

decision, with each family member playing a distinct part: for example

husband might choose the model for the new car, wife would choose the

colour and children might have a strong say in what cereals to buy.

When a purchase is a group decision, a salesperson will be wise to view

the benefits of his or her service in terms of each of the decision-makers

or influencers. (Ibid.)

When advertising for a personal training service which aims to improve

the overall health of all participants and even whole families, the

advertisements should vary according to the media they are presented

with: in Finland the TV channel Jim displays a lot of programs for

fathers about for example home renovation, whereas many home and

family magazines find their ways to the hands of mothers across the

country.

Survey

A survey was needed in our group, because there is not a lot of

previous/secondary information about personal training either from face-

to-face or via internet personal training. Our survey consists of

quantitative questions and close-ended questions. The advantage of

using a survey is its flexibility and it yields a wide range of data (Jewell,

pp. 207).

Quantitative research is a scientific way of research, since the results

may be mathematically calculated. The process of measurement is

central to the quantitative research (Wikipedia, 2008). Close-ended

questions are closely related to the quantitative questions, since they are

easier to be measured scientifically. A closed-ended question is a

question, which can be answered with a simple “yes or “no”

dichotomous question (Jewell, pp. 209). The closed- ended question is a

specific, simple piece of information.

Example of quantitative/close-ended question:

Is exercising a waste of time? -- Yes

The survey will be available to be filled out and answered by any one

within the Haaga-Helia building. Because of this we are using the non-

probability sampling which means that individuals are selected on one or

more criteria determined by the research (Jewell, pp. 210).

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dichotomous_question&action=edit&redlink=1


14/34

Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

Our criterion is the location where the survey will be filled out. In non-

probability sampling it is not possible to state a sampling error (Ibid).

Non-response bias needs to be taken into consideration as well. Not all

of the people that we ask to answer our survey will have the interest or

time to fill it out. If the people that refuse to answer our survey have the

same characteristics as the people that do answer, the final results will be

unbiased (Wikipedia, 2008). However, if the people have different

opinions and lifestyle, there will be bias in the results. This will be

needed to take ito consideration when analysing the results of the survey.

Response bias is something that also affects our survey results and the

analysis of them. The survey results may be distorted due to the fact that

some answers given by respondents do not reflect their true beliefs and

lifestyle (Wikipedia, 2008).

Since our survey is about exercise and nutrition respondents may answer

in an untruthful way. This may happen, because our respondents may

want to exercise four times a week, but exercise only once a week and

they answer accordingly to their desires instead of the truth. Therefore

the respondents may answer the questions according to the lifestyle they

would like to have, instead of answering what is fact. This needs to be

taken into consideration when making conclusions of the survey results.

Also we will try to have as many participants as possible, in order to

have as reliable information as possible and this way there will be less

room for misleading outcome.

Ethical issues need to be taken into consideration when making a survey

and having respondents answering the questions. First of all, no one will

be forced to answer any of the questions. The respondents need to have

the opportunity to answer anonymously and answers need to be

confidential. Also the questions need to be simple and worded clearly, in

order for the respondent to fully understand the questions. Most

importantly the participants need to know why the survey is taking place

and what the information they provide for us will be used for. This way

they may refuse if they do not want to take part in our survey.

Survey distribution and collection

Survey was conducted mainly in the Haaga-Helia and SLK building and

also using a online based survey (created by ourselves). We succeeded

into getting 155 respond by paper and 18 respond through the online

survey, so all together 173 responds.


15/34

Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

We feel that that this is enough to give us some kind of a direction

concerning the needs of the target customers, since the business would

concentrate first to provide the personal training services to Haaga-Helia

and SLK student and staff.

Survey questions and analysis

Respondents satisfaction about their body

This question was to indentify the satisfaction of the respondents about

their own body. 53 % of the respondents said that they are very satisfied

with their current physique, however almost a quarter (23 %) said they

were not satisfied fully with their body.

Combining this info along with results from question 4, we can see that

82 % of the respondents pay attention to their looks and only 4 % don’t

pay attention to it, so this means that there are plenty of people who

want to improve their looks but aren’t satisfied yet, which in turn gives

us an opportunity to serve their needs.

I’m totally satisfied with my body

Strongly

agree

7 %

Agree

46 %

Neutral

24 %

Disagree

20 %

Strongly

disagree

3 %

Question 1


16/34

Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

Do respondents read sports/health magazines

Question 2 was about knowing whether our respondents, who are also

our target customers reading sport or health related magazines, we

wanted to know this, because we would use that information for

marketing of our services, but since the results showed that only 24 %

agreed with reading sports or health related magazines, we can’t

concentrate our marketing effort and budget for advertising through this

marketing channel, since it wouldn’t be used effectively to reach our

target customers. The fact that 76 % were either neutral or not reading

these magazines, means that they are way too busy to consume their

time in doing that.

I read sports/health related magazines

Strongly

agree

8 %

Agree

16 %

Neutral

28 %

Disagree

25 %

Strongly

disagree

23 %

Question 2

Eating healthy

Knowing whether or not our respondents pay attention to their eating

habits and what they consume and it seems that they are very aware of

healthy eating, because 70% of respondents answered that they try to eat

healthy which totally correlates with results received from question 1

and 4.


17/34

Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

I try to eat healthy

Strongly

agree

22 %

Agree

48 %

Neutral

22 %

Disagree

6 %

Strongly

disagree

2 %

Question 3

Paying attention to looks

As mentioned in relation with question 1, question 4 was about the

amount of respondents who pay attention to their looks and majority pay

a lot of attention to their looks, proven by 82 % of the respondents

claiming so in the survey.


18/34

Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

I pay attention to my looks

Strongly

agree

18 %

Agree

64 %

Neutral

14 %

Disagree

2 %

Strongly

disagree

2 %

Question 4

Do our respondents like exercising

Our survey respondents say they like exercising, 72 % claims to like

exercising which is a positive, because there is willingness to exercise

due to the reasons identified in the previous questions, only 11 % said

they don’t like exercising at all.


19/34

Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

I like exercising

Strongly

agree

31 %

Agree

41 %

Neutral

17 %

Disagree

9 %

Strongly

disagree

2 %

Question 5

Receiving exercising information through the internet

It seems that our respondents are open to receiving their exercising

information through the internet, since 33 % of the respondents said they

currently get their exercising information primary from the internet and

also it’s possible that the 26 % who were neutral about the question,

would be open to persuasion. This is encouraging because the web-based

health services and personal training services are almost non-existent in

Finland, so this gives hope for possible importation of the service model

to the Finnish society.


20/34

Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

I use the internet as my primary source for

exercising information

Strongly

agree

10 %

Agree

23 %

Neutral

26 %

Disagree

31 %

Strongly

disagree

10 %

Question 6

Usage of sports supplements

This is a valuable piece of information retrieved from this question in the

survey, since it clearly tells us that the target customers of ours are not

using sports supplements (74%) strongly disagreed or disagreed when

asked whether using sports supplements or not, so this tell us that the

willingness to give sports supplements a try is limited, hence we might

even opt to eliminating sports supplements from our offering even

before starting the business, since only 11 % are using sports

supplements currently.


21/34

Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

I use sports supplements (vitamins, protein, fat

burner etc.)

Strongly

agree

1 %

Agree

10 %

Neutral

15 %

Disagree

30 %

Strongly

disagree

44 %

Question 7

Usefulness & awareness concerning personal trainers

A personal trainer is very useful and helpful in

achieving one’s physical goals?

Strongly

agree

17 %

Agree

43 %

Neutral

30 %

Disagree

5 %

Strongly

disagree

5 %

Question 8


22/34

Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

These two questions were to indentify the perception of consumers

towards personal trainer’s and how much they know about the duties of

a personal trainer, it was encouraging to see that 60% of the respondents

thought that a personal trainer was very useful and only 10% deemed

personal trainer not useful, while 30% being neutral, which explains also

from the next question that 32% felt neutral about the knowledge about

personal trainers, we feel this 30-32 % is untapped, which are open to

new suggestions as long as they are aware of the personal trainer’s duties

and benefits. Almost half (46%) of the respondents felt that they are well

aware of the job descriptions of a personal trainer and looking further

into our survey, we found that those who saw personal trainer’s useful,

they also said that they were aware of the duties of personal trainer, so

increasing awareness is very important for a profitable and growing

business.

I’m well aware of the job description of Personal

trainers

Strongly

agree

10 %

Agree

36 %

Neutral

32 %

Disagree

18 %

Strongly

disagree

4 %

Question 9


23/34

Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

Exercise frequency and challenges in meeting physical goals

We wanted to know the frequency in respondents training and it became

clear that 59% of the respondents workout at least 2 times a week,

actually 17% even works out 3 or more times per week, which is

encouraging since that means that our target customers do exercise and

going back to question 5, they also like exercising.

27% said they exercise occasionally or rarely, so this group of people we

need to encourage more by increasing their awareness about health

benefits and improved working ability with a health body.

How often do you exercise weekly

More than 3

times

17 %

2-3 times

42 %

Once a

w eek

14 %

Occasionall

y

21 %

Rarely or

never

6 %

Question 9

As you can see from the next question that we wanted to know what are

the biggest challenges in achieving their physical goals were lack of

motivation and lack of time for exercising, this is excellent for our

company because we can separate ourselves from other personal

trainer’s by providing the fastest and energetic workouts possible and

this is made possible by the respondents telling us that limited

knowledge was the smallest of the challenges.


24/34

Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

Meaning our target customers know about training basics and don’t need

constant hand holding, so we can provide this to them through our

interactive personal training website.

Biggest challenges for achieving physical goals

244

127

217

258

Rati

ng

scale

Lack of motivation

Limited know ledge

Lack of patience for

results

Lack of time for

exercising

Question 12

Reasons for exercising

In here we wanted to know the reasons for them exercising and we

found that 21% did it to lose excess fat, 41% did it for improving their

overall health, 22% did it for a more attractive body and only 12% did it

for pure muscle gain. We can see that these are not a group of people

that want excess muscle mass; they want to look lean, attractive and be

healthy. This is important for example in the case of website design; we

shouldn’t design the website to be too competitive looking, filled with

muscles and huge bodybuilders. We should concentrate on convening

the message of health, beauty and energy with their corresponding

colours and themes.


25/34

Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

Reasons for exercising

Muscle gain

12 %

Fat loss

21 %

Improving

overall

41 %

More

attractive

body

22 %

Other

4 %

Question 10

Most important things in training

This question didn’t really help us, since the only thing that stood out

from this is that the most important thing for the respondents was that

the exercise that they do is effective. Other answering options got pretty

much the same amount of points.


26/34

Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

Which things are the most important to you in

training

160

254

161168

157

Rati

ng

scale

Time saving

Effective

Individualized program

Healthy nutrition

Affordability

Question 13

Exercising preferences; how, with whom and where

These three question responses had to be put together since, they are

connected, more so than the other questions. First it was surprising to

find out that only 26% wanted to exercise alone and 70% wanted to

workout either with a partner or in a group. Also their preferred ways of

exercising was 34% running/jogging and 36% had other things

preferred, such as team sports, group weight lifting etc. Only 16% chose

strictly weight lifting.


27/34

Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

Which do you prefer more?

Exercising

alone; 26 %

Training in

a group ;

34 %

To not

exercise at

all ; 4 %

Training

w ith a

partner ; 36

%

Question 14

Also 55 % wanted to workout outdoors and 28% indoors or in a health

club/gym. There were some people who wanted to workout at home

(15%). So to the majority of the respondents we need to come up with a

service that is able to combine their need to be with others while training

and have something other than just weight lifting also. For this we need

to be present ourselves while conducting the classes or sessions, but then

again we simply charge more for those services, without eliminating a

possible target group.


28/34

Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

If you could decide, where would you exercise?

Health

center(indo

or)

28 %

Outdoors

55 %

Home

15 %

Other

2 %

Question 16

Preferred ways of exercising

Weight

lif ting

16 %

Aerobics

14 %

Running/Jo

gging

34 %

Other

36 %

Question 17


29/34

Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

How much willing to pay for such personal training services

Last but not least, was to find out how much are our respondents willing

to pay for our services through the internet.

45% weren’t willing to pay for personal training services through the

internet

36% were willing to pay less than 100 €/month for such services

2% were willing to pay 100-200 €/month

6% said price not an issue, if quality is good

11% said other, such as 10€, 20€, 40€, 80€ a month

How much are you willing to pay for the services of a

personal trainer through the internet

Not w illing

to pay

45 %

Less than

100€

36 %

100-200€

2 %

Price not an

issue,

quality is

w hat

matters

6 %

Other

11 %

The response was not great, but good since there are people willing to

try such services although it’s almost non-existent in Finland, specially

the internet based service. So again increasing personal training services

and job description awareness is going to benefit us in the future and

keep bringing us people, that might have been unaware or prejudice

about our services.


30/34

Team F


Yulia Volkova

Annika Austin

Joni Lehto

Conclusion We found this study very useful, since at least some of our group

members will be making an actual business based on these findings. The

survey gave us a lot of insight about our target customer training

preference, frequency and willingness to use personal training services.

The survey was so useful, that without that some mistakes would have

been made in the business that now will not be done, thanks to the

survey results. Consumer behaviour is very important to know, no matter

which line of business you are in or entering into. Customer knows best

and we have to cater to their needs and demands.

Survey conclusion is that our target customers:

Majority workout 2 or more times per week > active people

Students > so they don’t have much time, workouts need to be

effective, fun and short

Students have low income levels, hence they are not able to pay

high amount for personal training services, but more than half are

willing to pay as long as it’s less than 100€ per month

They want group and pair workout sessions, so we have to design

such service products for those people

They are not looking to be a bodybuilder. They are mainly

concentrating on being fit, healthy and having fun while training.

Overall the customer behaviour report along with the theory and survey

results will give a much better ground for success if one chooses to enter

the personal training market and an interactive web-based one with using

the information retrieved in this study.

HAAGA-HELIA Customer Behavior Study 31(34)

Team F

Annika Austin 23.5.2009

Joni Lehto

Hezha Muhammad

Yulia Volkova

Sources

Constantinides, Efthymios (2004), “Influencing the online consumer’s

behavior: the Web experience”, vol.14 No 2, pp. 111- 126

Jewell, Bruce R. 2000. An Integrated Approach to Business Studies. Fourth

Edition. Harlow: Addison Wesley Longman Limited.

Jobber, David 2001. Principles and Practice of Marketing. Third edition.

London: McGraw-Hill.

Kotler, P. (2003), Marketing Management, 11th ed., Prentice-Hall

International editions, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

Leon Schiffman G., Lazar Kanuk L. (2004), Consumer Behavior:

International Edition (8th Ed.), Pearson Prentice Hall.

Media College. Open-ended Questions.

http://www.mediacollege.com/journalism/interviews/open-ended-

questions.html. Visited 18.04.2008.

Solomon, M. (2004). Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having and, Being (6th

Ed.), FT Prentice-Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ

Solomon, M., Bamossy G., Askegaard S. (2002). Consumer Behavior: A

European Perspective (2nd

Ed.), FT Prentice-Hall Upper Saddle River.

Wikipedia 2008. Opinion-poll. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_poll.

Visited 18.04.2008.

Wikipedia 2008. Qualitative Methods.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualitative_methods. Visited 18.04.2008

Wikipedia 2008. Quantitative Methods.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_research. Visited 18.04.2008

www.udel.edu/alex/chapt6.html, visited 21.04.08

http://tutor2u.net/business/marketing/buying_decision_process.asp, visited

09.05.08

http://www.mediacollege.com/journalism/interviews/open-ended-questions.html.%20Visited%2018.04.2008

http://www.mediacollege.com/journalism/interviews/open-ended-questions.html.%20Visited%2018.04.2008

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_poll

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualitative_methods

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_research.%20Visited%2018.04.2008

http://www.udel.edu/alex/chapt6.html

http://tutor2u.net/business/marketing/buying_decision_process.asp


Team F


Joni Lehto

Hezha Muhammad

Yulia Volkova

Appendices

Survey

We are conducting this survey to find out your exercise habits and preferences in order to create a new innovative, effective and affordable training method for everyone, especially students.

Please take the time to fill out the questions below and remember to put your name and e-mail in the end to participate in our wonderful FREE PERSONAL TRAINING PACKAGE-RAFFLE.

I’m totally satisfied with my body

I read sports/health related magazines

I try to eat healthy

I pay attention to my looks

I like exercising

I use the internet as my primary source for exercising information

I use sports supplements (vitamins, protein, fat

burner etc.)

A personal trainer is very useful and helpful in achieving one’s physical goals?

I’m well aware of the job description of Personal trainers

How often do you exercise? More than 3 times/week

2-3 times/week

Once a week

Occasionally

Rarely or never

What are your preferred ways of exercising? Weight lifting

Strongly agree

Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree


Team F


Joni Lehto

Hezha Muhammad

Yulia Volkova

(can choose more than one option) Aerobics

Running/Jogging

Other, specify

If you could decide, where would you exercise?

Health center (indoor)

Outdoors

Home

Other, specify

Your goals for exercising?

(choose 1-2 most important ones)

Muscle gain

Fat loss

Improving overall health

More attractive body

Other, specify

What are the biggest challenges for reaching your physical goals?

(Rate the most important as 1 and the least important as 4)

Lack of motivation

Limited knowledge

Lack of patience for results

Lack of time for exercising

Other, specify

What things are the most important to you in training?

(Rate the most important as 1 and the least

important as 5)

Time saving

Effective

Individualized program

Healthy nutrition

Affordability

Most preferred ways of communication with a personal trainer?

Internet (website, e-mail, chat)

Face-to-face

Other, specify

Which do you prefer more? Exercising alone

Training with a partner

Training in a group

Don’t exercise at all


Team F


Joni Lehto

Hezha Muhammad

Yulia Volkova

How much are you willing to pay for the services

of a personal trainer through the internet? Not willing to pay for such services

Less than 100 €/month

100 – 200 €/month

Price is not an issue, only quality of the service matters

Other, specify

If you would like to participate in a raffle with the possibility of winning a 4 week training package with a personal trainer for free, please take the time to fill out the following:

Name:

Age:

E-mail:

customer behavior report

Technology