GNC History
General Nutrition Corporation was originally founded as a health food store in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1935 under the name Lackzoom. The store officially registered as a corporation in 1936 and opened several chain stores in multiple locations in Pittsburgh 1940’s. In 1960’s, the health food craze experienced in the United States allowed the company to expand outside Pittsburgh for the first time. General Nutrition Corporation currently has over 8,900 stores in more than 50 countries (Vault, 2016).
Products
The company’s main products include Vitamin Mineral Herbal Supplements, sports nutrition, diet, and other wellness products. The Vitamin Mineral Herbal Supplements are found in many different forms and potencies. Sports nutrition products include sports drinks and bars, weight gainers, protein and high potency vitamin formulations. Diet products usually increase metabolism and are used for weight management and dieting. They include pills, cleansing products, meal replacements, shakes and energy tablets. Other wellness products include non-supplement items like cosmetics, food items, books, and DVDs.
GNC Products’ Consumers
Research Method
The chosen research method is ethnographic research that involves an in-depth look at a consumer’s daily activities and lifestyle. Since the products consumed by the buyers are only a small portion of the peoples’ lives, ethnographers spend extended time assessing the study subjects’ habits and attitudes. The researcher is required to interpret both verbal and non-verbal forms subjects’ communication. Ethnographic research is usually expensive and time-consuming but produces concrete results (Myers, 2016).
Consumers’ Lifestyle
The gender balance of General Nutrition Corporation products consumers was found to be split evenly. The customers are well educated, having more than average incomes and are more engaged on social media. Most of the buyers engage in fitness routines more than the average American, and love hanging out in sidewalk cafes and health food stores. The customers also tend to shop in multiple product categories and are more concerned with the quality of the product rather than the price.
Consumers’ Psychographic Profile
The consumers live Bohemian Mix lifestyles because they love to exercise their bodies and are very active in social media sites. The customers of General Nutrition Corporation are very keen about their weight and health and are unlikely to be found in fast food restaurants like McDonalds.
These consumers fall under experiencers in the Values and Lifestyles psychographic profiles of American consumers. Experiencers have the characteristic of being impulsive consumers; this is seen in the consumers of the products who purchase multiple products. Experiencers are enthusiastic about new possibilities and spend any amount of time and resources to look cool. This is also true about buyers of General Nutrition Corporation products because that are mostly used to enhance the physical appearance of the users. Finally, experiencers are known to outlet their energy through sports, exercise and social activities, which most buyers of the company’s products engage.
GNC’s Brand
Over 93% of the brand sales happen in the United States with only 7% of sales coming from international business (McGinley, 2012). Approximately 80% of the company’s products customers are under 50 years of age. However, the distribution is skewed towards a younger demographic of under the age of 35 years that is only 35% of the consumers. Buyers over 50 years are heavy users of the products especially Vitamin Mineral Herbal Supplements. The younger consumers tend to increase their average annual spending on the brands and have a high lifetime value to the company.
The brand is materialistic since its products are luxurious and meant for people with comfortable lives. The brand appeals to people who are more concerned about their health and looks above anything else. The brand is not associated with status consumption because the use of the brand’s products does not offer any social advantage.
GNC’s Brand Significance
A study conducted in 2012 revealed that GNC’s brands had a 94% awareness rate among its consumers and were significantly better than their competitors (McGinley, 2012). This is attributed to the fact that the company has been manufacturing high-quality products for over 70 years and maintained the highest standards of customer satisfaction. The corporation’s brand value is maintained through well-established customer relationships and trust that take the form of good packaging and advertising.
GNC’s Brand Significance in Lifestyle Marketing
General Nutrition Company has a $ 60 million annual advertising budget and has a campaign called “Live Well.” The campaign enables the company to connect better with its customers and conveys a general health, fitness, and wellness appeal as opposed to pure body and muscle building.
The Brand’s Target Audience
The brand targets consumers who aspire to live healthy lifestyles, athletic and goal-oriented. The goals of the consumers range from weight loss, muscle building to weight maintenance. The brand aims to reach buyers of all ages with above average incomes who have surplus money and can purchase their products since the products are not necessities.
GNC Brand Marketplace Position
General Nutrition Corporation has most over 5500 stores in the United States that is its biggest market. The company uses a swamping strategy opening about 11 times the number of stores in the United States than its next competitor (McGinley, 2012). The stores are attractive, modern, recognizable and homogeneous offering the same type of product selection. The company also uses Point of Sale software to track each customer’s sale.
Using Consumers Psychographic Analysis in Marketing Strategies
The company places its advertisements in magazines and media mostly viewed by people who love exercising such as Men’s Fitness and ESPN. Large-scale billboards are also placed in strategic positions where the target audiences are most likely to be found in like Beverly Hills and Madison Square Garden.
General Nutrition Corporation also knows that their customers are well educated and establish trust by disclosing all information about their products in the labeling. This information makes enables consumers to make informed decisions about the products and know what they are getting into when they use the product.
The store also uses glass cabinets to display products that show more advertisements. This is to appeal to their customers to buy other products since they are known to be impulse buyers and use multiple products.
The latest strategy used by the company is sending of customized catalogs based on previous buying habits tracked by the point of sale software to one million of its most loyal members. The strategy is based on the fact that the younger customers increase their spending on the brand every year, and it is cheaper to get loyal customers to buy more than bring in new customers (Nixon, 2015).
References
McGinley, A. (2012). GNC Holdings Incorporation. University of Oregon Investment Group. Retrieved from http://uoinvestmentgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/GNC.pdf
Myers, C. (2016). Consumer behavior research methods. Small Business Chron. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/consumer-behavior-research-methods-70706.html
Nixon, A. (2015, April 4). GNC tailors mail marketing to customers’ purchase habits, demographics. Retrieved March 25, 2016, from TRIB LIVE, http://triblive.com/business/headlines/8014713-74/gnc-customers-marketing
Vault. (2016). GENERAL NUTRITION CORPORATION. Retrieved March 25, 2016, from Vault, http://www.vault.com/company-profiles/retail/general-nutrition-corporation/company-overview.aspx
