Banh 1 DOES THE PRICE OF A GYM MEMBERSHIP AND THE SERVICES A GYM OFFERS CONTRIBUTE TO ITS POPULARITY?

Transcription

1 Banh 1 DOES THE PRICE OF A GYM MEMBERSHIP AND THE SERVICES A GYM OFFERS CONTRIBUTE TO ITS POPULARITY? Statistics in Action Project Athena Banh 12/10/2014

2 Banh 2 Athena Banh AP Statistics Pd. 7 Kiker 12/10/2014 Does the price of a gym membership and the services a gym offers contribute to its popularity? As living a healthy lifestyle gradually becomes endemic to describing Austinites, the price of maintaining such a lifestyle inevitably also increases, but how much are local gym members willing to pay to attend? Over the past decade, many gyms, both chain and independent, have been built in Austin. Several of these gyms offer a variety of services beyond the expected exercise equipment ranging from childcare, to unique group exercise classes, to pool facilities, to spa treatments, etc., and with each additional service, the price of a monthly membership is expected to rise. Are Austinites willing to pay more for their gym membership if the price includes a variety of services? Does this price affect the amount of attending members per gym? I investigated the matter of whether or not the price of a gym membership and the amount of group exercise classes offered contributed to the popularity of gyms in southwest Austin. I suspect that the lower the cost of membership and the greater the amount of offered classes, the higher the attendance of members, and thus the popular the gym will be. As someone who enjoys working out and living a healthy lifestyle and intends to pursue a future in health sciences or public health, this topic is something that I am passionate about as it relates to my educational and professional futures. This investigation relates specifically to the study of public health since it regards the health of a specific population and whether or not the price, accessibility, and offerings of a gym affects its members attendance, which would consequently improve the health of the members, and therefore the local population. Though I

3 Banh 3 enjoy exercising, I do not regularly attend a gym because I usually run along the Lady Bird Lake Hike and Bike Trail. I thought it would be interesting to compare the range of money that people are willing to pay in order to work out as I intended this range to be large since many Austinites, like me, take advantage of the free facilities around our city while others are comfortable with paying a rather excess amount to access a gym. All of the gyms I investigated are within a fivemile radius of my neighborhood and have been built or renovated within the past 10 years, so I was also just personally curious to see which was the most popular. The population I am investigating is the gym members of southwest Austin. The gyms at which I will be conducting my study are 24 Hour on William Cannon, Gold s Gym on William Cannon, YMCA on Oakclaire, Lifetime on South Mopac, and Planet on Highway 290. I chose to conduct my study at all five of these gyms because they represent all of the gyms in southwest Austin, excluding those at professional corporate buildings that are available for employees to use for free, like at Freescale Semiconductor and AMD, so that my study would account for the entire population of southwest Austin gym members. All of these gyms are not sport/equipment/type-specific (i.e. a cross-fit gym or yoga studio), so they are valid to be compared to one another since they attract the same general crowd of people and not one particular group. I began my study by first collecting data regarding the monthly membership fee of each gym, which I did by looking at each gym s website to obtain the different prices. However, I could not do so on the Lifetime website without having to fill out an intensive survey as if I were actually applying for membership, so I spoke with an employee when I was at the facility conducting my study instead. While collecting data, I realized that some of the gyms had different levels of memberships, so I changed my experimental variable to specifically be the

4 Banh 4 price of the most basic or cheapest level of membership. Lifetime had the highest monthly charge at $59.95, followed by the YMCA at $36.00, then Gold s Gym at $35.98, then 24 Hour at $29.99, and then Planet at $ This data can also be found in Appendix A. Another issue I came across while obtaining the monthly fees per gym was that some gyms charged an initiation fee upon registration while some did not. In order to take into account the entirety of the price that a member pays, I calculated the projected cost of a yearlong membership for each gym. I found that the expected annual membership fee for Lifetime was the most expensive at $919.39, followed by Gold s Gym at $441.75, then the YMCA at $432.00, then 24 Hour at $379.87, and then Planet at $ These values can also be seen in Appendix A and Bar Graph A. To conduct my study, I assigned a two-digit number between to a time of the day, starting at 3:00PM, and increasing in 15 minute increments (00=3:00PM, 01=3:15PM, etc.). I then used a random number table to select the number 04, which corresponded to the time of 4:00PM. I stood outside each of the five gyms between 4:00PM and 4:15PM on different various weekdays (December 2, 3, 4, 8, and 9) and tallied how many people entered. I only observed the amount of people entering on a weekday so that I would be able to compare the observed values of each gym to one another, which I could not validly do if I observed on weekends and weekdays since the number of attendees would likely vary greatly between the two whereas the amount of attendees across different weekdays are more representative of one another. I counted each adult who entered the gym, avoiding repeats (if someone left then entered again) and employees when possible. I excluded children from the count because they most likely are not paying members, only their parents are. Photographical evidence of me conducting my study can be found in Appendix D.

5 Banh 5 After tallying the amount of people walking into each gym in a given 15 minutes, I concluded that Lifetime was the most popular with 36 people entering, followed by Gold s Gym with 19 people, then 24 Hour and the YMCA with 18 people each, and then Planet with 7 people. This data can also be seen in Appendix B and Bar Graph B. Comparing the projected priced per year to the amount of people who entered each gym, I found there to be a positive, linear correlation between the two variables. This relationship can be modeled by the equation y= x, y being the amount of people and x being the cost, with an r-value of The r²-value was , meaning that 99.15% of the variation or change in the amount of people attending the gym between 4:00PM and 4:15PM can be explained by the regression on the projected annual cost of membership. The similarities exhibited by Bar Graph A and Bar Graph B further prove their strong linear relationship. As displayed by the two graphs, Lifetime has the highest expected annual membership cost and greatest amount of people entering the gym, Gold s Gym at the second greatest for both, the YMCA at third most expensive, but tied with the fourth most expensive 24 Hour at third greatest for the amount of attending members, and then Planet at the least for both. It can be concluded that the most expensive gyms seemed to be the most popular as they attracted the greatest amount of members during a given 15-minute period. I also compared this collected data to the average number of daily group exercise classes that are offered at each gym. I only considered the classes that were included with membership dues at no additional cost in the calculated averages because not all of the gyms memberships were all-inclusive and some specialized classes at some gyms required an extra payment. Coinciding with its highest standing annual cost, Lifetime had the greatest average number of classes offered per day at about 16, followed by the YMCA at about 11, then 24 Hour

6 Banh 6 at about 10, then Gold s Gym with about 8, then Planet with none. The actual averages can be found on Appendix C and Bar Graph C; the values were rounded down for analysis since the amount of classes is a discrete variable. The average number of classes offered per day and the number of people who walked into the gym were positively correlated, so as the average number of classes per day increases, the member attendance is also expected to increase. Their relationship can be modeled by the linear equation y= x, y being the amount of people and x being the average amount of daily classes, with an r-value of , proving a strong, positive, linear correlation between the two variables. The r²-value is , meaning that 86.69% of the variation or change in the amount of people attending between 4:00PM and 4:15 PM can be explained by the regression on the average amount of classes offered per day. It was then obvious that Lifetime was the most popular gym with its 2.4 people/minute walk-in ratio. It made sense that Lifetime s membership fee was the most expensive since it offers the most group exercise classes per day, among several other things. So even though Lifetime s yearly membership fee is nearly double that of the second most expensive one, its average number of classes offered on a daily basis is also nearly double that of its following competitor. Some confounding variables that may have contributed to Lifetime s high popularity may also be its large facility and its numerous amenities including a childcare center, multiple indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a spa, a café, and various sports fields/courts. The second most popular gym, Gold s Gym, had the second most expensive yearlong membership, corresponding to the trend Lifetime established of having the highest annual fee and the highest member attendance. However, Gold s Gym did not offer the second

7 Banh 7 greatest average of daily classes, but rather the fourth greatest by offering only about eight classes per day, falling beneath both 24 Hour and the YMCA. 24 Hour and the YMCA tied at third most popular. 24 Hour offers more daily classes on average than the YMCA does, but the YMCA also has amenities that 24 Hour does not, like a basketball court and an outdoor pool. According to their equal popularity, these differing aspects of each gym seem to balance each other out, making neither one more popular than the other. Even though Planet had the lowest projected annual membership fee, it was the least popular as it only had 7 people walk in during the observed 15-minute period. Most likely because of its inconvenient location and lack of group exercise classes, Planet s popularity stood significantly below that of its surrounding competitors. A confounding variable that may have affected the number of people who entered each gym during the determined 15-minute period could be the location of the gym in respect to accessibility/convenience. For instance, Planet is located right off of an intersection between two major highways (Highway 290 and Texas 71), making it more difficult to access compared to gyms like 24 Hour and Gold s Gym that are both located in populated plazas near residential neighborhoods and accessible freeways. The availability of resources and equipment, such as an outdoor pool, an indoor pool, a locker room, shower facilities, a steam room, and a sauna may also all be lurking variables that affect the amount of people attending each gym. These extra facilities would most likely contribute to an increase in the number of members. One other major confounding variable may have been the presence of children s activities, such as recreational sports teams, camps, dance classes, etc., which were notably

8 Banh 8 popular at the YMCA and Lifetime where member attendance was high at both gyms. While collecting data at the YMCA, a manager was sitting at the front desk, so I explained my project to him and he made me aware that his gym offers more than a regular gym would offer, including afterschool childcare, children s competitive sports teams/leagues, and children s swim lessons that do not require an official membership but rather a separately categorized fee. With this knowledge, I made my best judgment on whether or not a person coming through the door was a paying member; I counted the adults who scanned their member ID cards upon entrance, but not the adults who were accompanied by uniformed children or those who headed straight to the childcare center and did not scan their ID at the desk. Another variable that I suspected to be confounding the data was the timing of the group exercise classes that were offered. Even though Lifetime offers the most classes per day, both 24 Hour and Gold s Gym had classes beginning during or soon after the observed 15 minute time slot of 4:00PM-4:15PM on the days that I conducted my study at those locations. This would have affected the number of attendees at these gyms during that time by increasing the incentive for a member to attend at that certain time compared to other times in the day. The scheduling of the classes may have also lessened the number of people attending at the other gyms between 4:00PM and 4:15PM because the most popular classes may have been at a time not in that 15-minute period, increasing incentive to arrive for that specific class rather than during the observed 15 minutes. After accounting for the price of membership and the amount of group exercise classes per gym, I was able to make a valid conclusion on the observed differences between the amounts of people attending each gym in a given 15-minute time period. In conclusion, these data can be modeled by a positive linear trend, meaning that as the annual membership cost and average

9 Banh 9 amount of daily group exercise classes increase for a gym, its popularity, measured by how many members attend in a given time period, is also expected to increase. My original hypothesis of the lower cost and greater daily class offerings increasing popularity was both proved and disproved; lower membership cost did not contribute to an increase in walk-ins, but greater daily class offerings seemingly did. Despite the potential for such confounding variables to affect the counts of member attendance in a set 15-minute period, it is clear that a gym with a high membership fee that offers numerous various amenities, facilities, and services is expected to be popular.

10 Banh 10 Appendices Appendix A Name of Gym Initiation Fee Monthly Dues Projected Cost for 1 Year of Membership 24 Hour $19.99 $29.99 $ Gold s Gym $9.99 $35.98 $ Lifetime $ $59.95 $ Planet $29.99 $10.00 $ YMCA $0.00 $36.00 $ Appendix B Gym Number of People that Entered between 4-4:15 24 Hour 18 Gold s Gym 19 Lifetime 36 Planet 7 YMCA 18 Appendix C Gym Average Number of Classes per Day 24 Hour Gold s Gym 8.57 Lifetime Planet 0 YMCA 11.43

11 Banh 11 Appendix D 24 Hour Gold s Gym Lifetime Planet YMCA

12 Amount of People Price ($) Banh 12 Graphical Displays Bar Graph A Projected Cost for 1 Year of Gym Membership Lifetime Gold's Gym YMCA 24Hour Planet Gym Bar Graph B Amount of People Entering Gym between 4:00-4:15PM Lifetime Gold's Gym YMCA 24Hour Planet Gym

13 Number of Classes Banh 13 Bar Graph C Average Number of Classes Offered per Day Lifetime Gold's Gym YMCA 24Hour Gym Planet

14 Banh 14 Works Cited 24 Hour Group X Schedule. 24 Hour. 24 Hour USA, Web. 9 Dec Calendar: Austin (South) #662 Gold s Gym. Gold s Gym, Web. 9 Dec Class Schedules: Austin (South). Lifetime. Life Time Inc., Web. 9 Dec Fall Group Exercise Schedule2014: Southwest Family YMCA. Austin YMCA. YMCA of Austin, Web. 9 Dec Join Gold s Gym. Gold s Gym. Gold s Gym, Web. 9 Dec Join the Y Today and Save! Membership Rates. Austin YMCA. YMCA of Austin, Web. 9 Dec Membership Options. 24 Hour. 24 Hour USA, Web. 9 Dec 2014.