Some time ago, I had the pleasure of being a guest on Tony Demakis’, of Alliance Specialties and Laser Sales, Chat and Chow podcast. As we are both fitness enthusiasts, it was natural that this topic came up. Tony is a Planet Fitness member and I am a CrossFitter. When Tony visited Connecticut in July of 2019, he came to the CrossFit gym I am a member of and worked out with me. While he truly enjoyed the style of exercise, he had one large problem with CrossFit: the cost.
On his show, I was asked to justify the price of CrossFit, which can be up to 10 times that of a place like Planet Fitness. The concepts of price, cost and value are concepts I deal with daily, so I was happy to discuss. The first thing to understand is that Planet Fitness and a local CrossFit gym are not comparable places! Sure, both are in the fitness industry, but it is unfair to attempt an apples to apples comparison. A CrossFit gym looks like it is more expensive, but that is only if you look at it based on raw cost, not the value you receive for the price paid. In this aspect, CrossFit style gyms are quite a good deal. CrossFit style gyms come with many things that you won’t get with a $10 Planet Fitness membership.
The first thing is professional coaching. These coaches are required to, at a minimum, attend a 16 hour certificate course and pass an exam. They are available at every class and help athletes to be safe and accomplish their goals. The second thing, which is equally important to coaching, is programming. Workouts designed to achieve specific skills such as strength, stamina, agility, etc. are provided every day along with ways to customize the workout to each athlete’s ability.
More intangible benefits, though equally important, are things like motivation, accountability, community and support. Sure, these are things that can exist at any type of gym once relationships are formed, but they are purposely built into every CrossFit gym that I am familiar with. So while it is absolutely possible to obtain peak fitness in any type of exercise facility, CrossFit caters to a customer that is looking for training, programming and community all in one.
We have similar conversations at Wepco Plastics. Often, potential customers will ask us to quote a project and we find out that they are also pricing the job out in China. At this point we want to understand what they want to achieve and what the most important factors to their decision making process will be. If it is price, we dig a little deeper to find out what their definition is. Does it include the total cost over the life of the mold, or just the initial price of the mold itself? We also want to know if they are assessing price in relation to the value they receive. Unfortunately, many times, price means to them the upfront cost of the mold. In many situations, we won’t waste their time by offering a quote. Just like CrossFit and Planet Fitness, you can’t make an apple to apple comparison between Wepco Plastics and companies in China. The prices in China will always be lower than ours, but there will never be a better value or lower lifetime cost associated with that value than what you get with us.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with discount gyms. I have used them in the past myself. If you have the motivation, exercise knowledge, and aren’t as concerned with community, it might be the best fit for you. I am just not the right customer for them. Similarly, if you are looking for a cheap mold and don’t care about professional advice, your relationship with the molder, or working with a company that will be as dedicated to your product’s success as you are, then Chinese mold makers may be best for you. When you start looking at overall cost and the value you receive from the price paid, you will begin making much better purchasing decisions and will have the confidence and satisfaction in knowing that you made an informed, appropriate choice.