New Entrants in Health and Wellness 3.0
Employers are aware that unhealthy employees can be bad for the bottom line due to reduced productivity, higher healthcare costs, higher absentee rates, and other costs. This awareness, coupled with innovative strategies and based on the general tendency to incorporate movement directly into employees' workdays, constitutes the most potent argument why players from the health and wellness 3.0 sector have an enormous potential for growth. Some of the recent entrants to the sector mentioned above have found innovative ways to tackle the ever-changing business environment and consumer's needs. While companies as Gympass and Peloton enable employers to involve their workforce in physical activity and to encourage them to be more active, Mayo Clinic Executive Health found a solution for busy executives and leaders to take care of their health.
Gympass
- Gympass is a B2B platform that enables companies to involve their workforce in physical activity and to encourage employees to be more active by providing access to the largest global network of workout facilities. It encompasses 11,600 gyms, 570 activities, and 3,103 cities with Gympass. It offers a win-win option to proactively reduce healthcare costs while allowing employees to choose the fitness plan that best adjusts their lifestyle. Founded in 2012, the company started in Brazil and moved its headquarters to New York in 2018.
- Gympass's innovative strategy relies on the growing importance of Talent Management, on nurturing talent in the corporate structure special treatment, which can be precisely the thing to tip the scale that keeps top talent in the company and performing at its best. In 2018, the global talent shortage was at its highest in the last 12 years. By 2030, talent shortages are expected to impact the financial and business services sector significantly.
- Initially, the company used a B2C business model, selling day passes to gyms until a major consulting firm showed its interest in signing up for the whole company. This event reshaped the company's future. In 2019, SoftBank Group Corp. announced a $300M investment in Gympass which made the company to be valued at more than $1 billion.
Mayo Clinic Executive Health
- One of the 2019's winners for best business in Minnesota, Mayo Clinic Executive Health, has been developed in response to a summons from business executives and corporations that
recognized the importance of maintaining
the good health of their leaders.
- Mayo Executive Health patients get comprehensive medical exams and preventive screenings in one thorough visit. Providers aren't focused solely on tests and metrics, but also on stress management, wellness counseling, sports medicine, and cosmetic treatments. Mayo offers a hub for busy executives to take care of all their health care needs.
- Mayo Clinic offers corporate enrollment and claims that its programs offer companies the best instrument to engage their team members in a healthier way of life. Their motto is that a healthy executive team drives a healthy business.
Peloton
- Peloton Interactive Inc is a fitness startup known for on-demand workout programs on its exercise bikes or treadmills. It offers boutique-quality classes to in-home consumers who buy both internet-connected equipment and a monthly programming subscription and claims it "sells happiness." The company's goal is to bring captivating and challenging workouts into people's lives in a more accessible, affordable, and efficient way. It is a great solution for remote work, which can often feel overwhelming, isolating, and chaotic.
- Peloton features up to 950 live classes taught by instructors like Robin Arzon, a writer and an RRCA-certified running coach and ultramarathoner. Instructors are not just excellent, they are some of the best in their respective fields. Peloton also offers thousands of on-demand classes that members can stream at any time, and a mix of other workouts, from running to strength training to yoga and meditation (no equipment required).
- Over the past three years, Peloton has shown some impressive revenue growth. At the end of 2019, Peloton had more than 1.6 million members and had sold 577,000 of its connected fitness products. Last fall, the company went public with an initial public offering (IPO). It raised $1.2 billion (an amount that almost doubled its valuation), which will allow for even more innovations from the company and for Peloton to be rolled out to more markets.
- Peloton's market is still young and growing, but it's also highly competitive. However, the company's stationary bike might be the product that hits that niche. For $2,000, the bike manages to combine into one package the fitness device, the progress-tracking application, and the online streaming content making Peloton one of the most prominent player in the emerging subscription-fitness space.
- An Alpha report from 2018 indicated that 54% of Americans who exercise at least once a month are interested in purchasing an at-home fitness system. These together with the increased general interest for a healthy lifestyle. Recently, the company announced that it is stretching its regular Peloton App 30-day free trial to 90-days free in light of the COVID-19 outbreak. The app is available on Android, iOS, Amazon Fire TV streaming devices and smart TVs, Chromecast, as well as most computers and tablets. As gyms are closed due to the outbreak, the majority of streaming fitness companies have suspended filming. Peloton, however, continues to produce content with the instructor alone in the room and a skeleton crew.
Equinox
- The luxury fitness chain is not new in the health and wellness industry. Equinox offers a holistic approach to fitness, including group fitness classes, personal training, spa services, apparel, food & beverage, and experiential travel. The company desires clients engaged in well-being in addition to fitness, and this in a luxurious style. Equinox has corporate membership affiliations with hundreds of firms. Employers are more and more aware that unhealthy employees
can be bad for the bottom line, and here comes the promising future of Equinox.
- In June 2019, Equinox opened its first hotel in New York which incorporates the same philosophy as Equinox Fitness Clubs, and encompasses a 360-degree lifestyle travel experience with a simplified interplay between work, rest, self-indulgence and discipline.
- The innovative concept targeting wellness-conscious travelers was inherent to the company's research, which showed that Equinox members were choosing hotels in proximity to Equinox gyms. These findings, combined with the recent growth of wellness travel, pave a promising future for the company as it plans to open more hotels.
- Furthermore, in recent years, Equinox has used technology to boost its business. The company developed AI-driven apps that utilize individual user data to tailor workouts and improve results. Equinox's digital coach is an AI bot that learns from each individual member and offers customized work reminders and fitness plans. The company has also developed Halo Neuroscience headphones, which cause non-invasive transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and improve athletic performance according to a study from 2017.
- These times are great for Equinox, and demand for their brands has never been more significant. Looking at broader macro-trends, it is clear that "health is the new wealth." People are more willing than ever to invest in a healthy lifestyle and travel. Equinox's most significant appeal is physical space, which has a sense of exclusivity and comfort; in crowded cities, free space is the ultimate luxury. Nonetheless, the fitness-hospitality nexus enables people to continue their exercise routines during travel.
Work It
- Work It in St. Paul, Minnesota, claims to be
the world’s first fitness-branded co-working space, it has made international news as the first health integrative shared office space in the world. For a $300/month membership, Work It offers ample free parking, fitness equipment, full kitchen, inclusive bathrooms, lactation room and a business address. The company states that its co-working space allows clients to focus on their health and fitness as they work.
- Work It's business model reaches to freelancers. With the growth of freelancing and remote work, the company is targeting the growing number of workers who don't have access to an appropriate workplace. The professional environment offered is way better than a noisy, distracting coffee shop. The company serves its clients with active workstations and a built-in network of like-minded professionals.
Life Time
- Life Time, Inc. is a company which helps organizations, communities and individuals achieve their total health objectives, athletic aspirations and fitness goals, both inside and outside of Life Time's facilities. Their Healthy Way of Life approach enables our customers to achieve success by providing the best places, people and programs of exceptional quality and value.
- Life Time Fitness's business model has been regularly refined and is both based and dependent on driving membership growth by ramping memberships and optimizing membership mix and pricing after a new center is opened. Once a center matures, it maintains a tight expense control and retains the dues stream.
- In 2017, Life Time Fitness, Inc. changed its name to Life Time, Inc. and started transforming from a fitness center business into an all-encompassing, “healthy way of life” brand with co-working, healthcare, retail, and residential components. Therefore, in 2019, Life Time already had four co-working spaces, which is considered one of the latest gig economy creation.