The company’s ads are certainly ridiculous. You might think they’re rather insulting.
But you can’t argue with one thing: The promotional folks at Axe know their target consumers. They are fully aware that young men don’t just daydream about sex, they think about it nonstop.
So Axe fills its commercials with skinny women in skintight shorts and barely there shirts.
Sex is the most effective advertising tool for specific customers. And Axe knows it.
This leads us to you. Are you doing anything about this?
A little bit of sex never killed anyone.
You may not want to go the full Axe route as far as the level of sex you put in your promotional materials. But I do believe that personal trainers should be using at least a bit of sex appeal to market their fitness training sessions.
This is simply the wise thing to do. You’re a fitness buff, so you have a great body. At least you should have. You should take advantage of this body to convince possible students that they, too, can look sexier and buffer by taking your exercise classes. If your current clients are willing, you might also feature them in your promotional materials, whether it’s a homemade poster in the local hair salon window or a short clip on your business’ web site. Just be certain that each of your students looks as good as possible.
Ever see the ads that big health club chains run? They’re stuffed with beautiful men and women in skin tight workout clothes running, lifting weights, kick boxing, and of course, toweling off. The chains aren’t subtle about what they’re marketing here: They’re marketing sex.
You do have to be careful when creating sexy ads. It’s one thing to market sex. It’s quite a different thing to draft ads that border on pornography. You don’t want to go too far or you may turn off potential students. As a trainer, you have a reputation to protect, too. Sex is a great selling tool if it’s done in a tasteful way. If it seems even slightly pornographic, potential clients might turn away.
Studying the science of SEX
The Journal of Consumer Research recently released the findings of an interesting study that looked at the different ways in which males and females reacted to sex in advertising. According to the data, a majority of men had good feelings about casual and no-strings-attached sex. They responded well to ads that boasted scantily clad women or relied on sexually suggestive jokes.
Female viewers had different feelings. The study said that they reacted in a more positive fashion when the sex in marketing implied devotion and commitment.
You want to bring in both men and women to your personal training business. If you think you should use sex in your promotional pieces – and you should – then you must use it in a manner that doesn’t turn one gender off.
By letting your body and those of your students do the selling for you. Show off your muscles and curves. You’ve worked hard to sculpt it; you may as well let it pay off for you.
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