Importance of Marketing

It is very important to understand what the consumers want before marketing takes place. Knowing the trends or changes and recognizing when to respond to these helps an organization to efficiently deliver what the customer wants profitably. The true importance of marketing is to also comprehend the demographics and how to effectively attract the consumers to the companies products and services. LA Fitness 's marketing department stays aware of the buying behavior of their consumers (LA Fitness, 2007). To appreciate how a consumer makes decisions in buying marketing and relationships must be fully understood (Armstrong and Kotler, 2005, 2003, 2000, 1997, 1993). Until recent history the examination of consumer behavior has been focused on the customers generalized choices. This in a sense has led to poor business decisions which resulted in bad marketing strategies. This day in age marketing has been able to take a better approach by collecting and analyzing data (Carrigan, Szmigin, & Wright, 2004). La Fitness had a great start into the marketing world for their organization. "Not many businesses can claim it all started with a photo of Princess Diana with her legs in the air. In 1993, when the then-owner of London gym LA Fitness, Bryce Taylor, hawked illicit workout photos of his most famous member to national tabloid The Mirror, many of his customers left in protest. In 1996, Taylor sold the club to entrepreneur Fred Turok and his two partners. By then, Londoners had forgotten the scandal, so the funky name stuck" (BusinessWeek, 2007). This little turn of events became a great marketing success for LA Fitness. Marketing is highly important in the success of any business and as they say in Hollywood any publicity is good publicity. LA Fitness began when all three companies merged in 1990 in Britain and in 2003 the annual sales soared 39% to 99.3 million pounds (BusinessWeek, 2007). LA Fitness has continually been expanding internationally in a very

References: LA Fitness. (2007). LA Fitness. Retrieved July 13, 2007, from http://lafitness.com/Pages/default.aspx Armstrong G., Kotler, P. (2005, 2003, 2000, 1997, 1993 ). Marketing: An Introduction, 7e. Retrieved July 13, 2007, from University of Phoenix, Week Two, rEsource. MKT-- 421 Marketing Web site. Carrigan, Marylyn., Szmigin, Isabelle., & Wright, Joanne. (2004). Shopping for a better world? An interpretive study of the potential for ethical consumption within the older market. Journal of Consumer Marketing , 21 (6), 401-417 . Retrieved July 13, 2007, from Emerald Group Publishing Limited database. BusinessWeek. (2007). LA Fitness. Retrieved July 13, 2007, from http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_43/b3905407.htm MidOcean Partners. (2007). MIDOCEAN PARTNERS ACQUIRES LA FITNESS. Retrieved July 13, 2007, from http://www.midoceanpartners.com/news_lafitness.shtml American Heart Association. (2007). Obesity and Overweight. Retrieved July 13, 2007, from http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4639