Team Up!
At any time, let's sport together
Market analysis
Customer analysis
For this analysis, we will use official releases coming from the Belgian government and the results of a survey that we conducted through the Internet and directly in the streets, and to which 411 Belgian people answered.
Who are they?
According to an European study, conducted in 2009 and published in 2010, the half of Belgian population practices a sport regularly or at least a couple times a week, while the other half never do sport or almost never. In numbers, it means that 5.6 million Belgian people practice sport occasionally.
When it comes to region to region, it appears that the Flemish practice more sport than the rest of Belgium, followed by Brussels and then Wallonia. Official figures indicate the following tendency.
Moreover, the time spent on sport decreases with the age. Besides, the decrease is bigger is Wallonia than in Flanders or Brussels.
As regards the gender, there is more men represented in the 5.6 million sporting people than women. For example, 41.7% of the men practice sport at least once a week, against 27.4% of women. Those figures are confirmed by a survey depicting the timetable of the Belgian population in 2013. It can be seen that, for all age groups, men spend more time on sport than women.
It can also be noticed that independently of age or gender, the education level has an importance. In fact, people with a secondary education’s degree or higher do more sport than people who have left school before having their degree.
Graduated people are thus more prone to do sport than the others, which is reflected in their standards of living. People with a degree have in fact a higher life expectancy than people without one.
Source : Tafforeau, J. (2009). La pratique d’activité physique. Institut scientifique de santé publique, Bruxelles.
Source : Tafforeau, J. (2009). La pratique d’activité physique. Institut scientifique de santé publique, Bruxelles.
Source : Eurobaromètre. (2010). Sports et activités physiques.
Where and what kind of sport do they practice?
Sporting people are more prone to do sport alone in Belgium. However, a slight proportion subscribes to sports associations or fitness club.
Our survey reveals 14% of the sporting population practice in sports associations because they offer a friendly and family atmosphere at the same time. For those who have a competitive spirit, they can also participate in events and meetings with other associations of the same field. Moreover, people joining sports associations tend to practice individual sports, such as tennis or cycling, and team sports such as football, basketball or hockey. Besides, demanding sports like basketball or hockey are more requested by the youngest ones and less demanding ones, like tennis, by all age brackets.
Fitness centres are nowadays gaining more and more ground. According to our survey, it is explainable by the fact that lots of Belgians tend to do fitness or other individual sports like jogging as a default choice to maintain their health and relax. The disadvantage of fitness club is that the members often eventually leave because of weariness.
Source : Eurobaromètre. (2010). Sports et activités physiques.
What are their motivations?
The first reason is to relax. It means that they do not look for stress and tension when they practice sport. Besides, “for fun” and “to be with friends” are the following answers related to the idea of relaxation. We can thus assume that a great atmosphere, without stress and encouraging sharing and fun, is highly important for sport clubs.
The second reason is bound with health and well-being. Some sporting people want to stay in good health, to lose weight or even to stay young. This goal can be reached alone, in group, with the support of a club or not.
Source : Eurobaromètre. (2010). Sports et activités physiques.
What are their expectations?
According the survey that we have conducted, more than 70% of the population are looking for a good atmosphere and flexible schedules in a sports club. In fact, they see sport as a leisure time and a good way to relax and have fun.
To a lesser extent, they pay attention to the quality of courses and they prefer not to have a long ride to get to their club. Finally, having low fees, people with the same level or people of their age is not so important for most of them.
We also identify what current member like about their club. Most of them stay in their club because of the atmosphere. This highlights the fact that a great atmosphere is important to keep members. Other main factors of retention are friends, schedule and location. Moreover, it can be noticed that price does not have a major impact.