Lifetime Fitness 2008 Annual Report Download - page 17

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Pre-Opening Phase. We generally begin selling memberships up to nine months prior to a center’s scheduled
opening. New members are attracted during this period primarily through a portfolio of broad-reach and targeted
consumer and business-to-business media as well as referral promotions. To further attract new members during this
period, we occasionally offer lower pre-opening enrollment fees and special charter member benefits, and distribute
free copies of our Experience Life magazine to households in the immediate vicinity of the new center.
Grand Opening Phase. We deploy a marketing program during the first month of a center’s operation that builds on
our pre-opening efforts. The reach and frequency of the advertising campaign culminate when all households within
a strategically designated trade area, based on local access considerations, housing density and travel patterns,
receive targeted advertising. Simultaneously, prospective members receive special invitations to grand opening
activities and educational seminars designed to assist them in their orientation to the center. Our corporate clients
receive special enrollment opportunities, as well as invitations to open house activities.
Membership Growth Phase. After the grand opening phase, marketing activities and costs should decrease as drive-
by visibility and word-of-mouth marketing become more influential. The goal of each center is to achieve consistent
membership growth until targeted capacity is reached. Once the center has reached its targeted capacity, marketing
efforts are directed at keeping membership levels stable and at growing other in-center services to existing members.
Marketing plans for each center are formulated on an annual basis and reviewed monthly by marketing and center-
level sales personnel. At monthly intervals, a comprehensive situation analysis is performed to ensure sales and
retention objectives are meeting the goals of the center’s business plan.
Leveraging the LIFE TIME FITNESS Brand
We continue to build our brand nationally via our centers, and by delivering products and services in the areas of
exercise, education and nutrition at a high quality and value. We are further strengthening the LIFE TIME FITNESS
brand by broadening our portfolio of centers, expanding the circulation of our Experience Life magazine, and
through our series of athletic events and line of nutritional products.
Centers. As of February 27, 2009, we operated 83 centers in 18 states and 22 major markets under the LIFE TIME
FITNESS and LIFE TIME ATHLETIC brands.
Education. Core to our member commitment is the delivery of educational information that supports healthy and
active lifestyles. We uphold this by offering Healthy Way of Life stories, news, products, tips and recipes on our
Web sites, including lifetimefitness.com, experiencelifemag.com, myLT.com, and lifetimeendurance.com. We also
offer educational classes at our centers and distribute our award-winning Experience Life magazine to most of our
members. Experience Life includes an average of 98 full-color pages of health tips and insights, articles featuring
quality-of-life topics and advertisements, and has a current circulation of approximately 615,000 copies to our
members, non-member subscribers, households in new market areas and selected major bookstores nationwide.
Experience Life averages 35 pages of advertising per issue and is expected to be published 10 times in 2009. In
2008, Experience Life was honored with Gold awards for Best How-To Article, Best Regular Column and Best
Single-Topic Issue from the Minnesota Magazine Publications Association (MMPA). Since 2002, Experience Life
has earned 45 MMPA awards, including the top prize for Overall Excellence three times.
Athletic Events. Our premier event is our annual Life Time Fitness Triathlon, held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which
attracted participants from 42 states and 14 countries in 2008, as well as national sponsors. The Life Time Fitness
Triathlon offers a professional division with one of the sport’s largest prize purses. The event draws significant
local, national and international media coverage. We manage the Life Time Fitness Triathlon Series, consisting of
the Life Time Fitness Triathlon, Nautica New York City Triathlon, Accenture Chicago Triathlon, Kaiser Permanente
Los Angeles Triathlon, and the Life Time Fitness-produced Toyota U.S. Open Triathlon in Dallas. This Series,
which also is open to all amateur athletes, provides invited professional triathletes with the opportunity to compete
in each race for a chance to win a portion of the Series’ total available prize purse. In addition to the Life Time
Fitness Triathlon and Life Time Fitness Triathlon Series, we produce several shorter fun run/walks during the year,
such as the 5K Reindeer Run in many of the cities where we operate centers, the Torchlight 5K Run and Turkey Day
5K in Minneapolis, and the Run Wild 5K Fun Run & Walk in Phoenix, Arizona, as well as indoor triathlons in many
of our centers.
Nutritional Products. We offer a line of nutritional products, including Men's and Women's Performance
Multivitamins, Omega-3 Fish Oil, Joint Maintenance Formulation, LeanSource Soft Gels and Whey Protein isolate
that we believe deliver the highest possible quality, value and the performance when it comes to helping our
members achieve their health and fitness goals. Our products use high quality ingredients and are available in our