Club Lime's Success as Explained by the CBBE Model
- Hexx Blogs
- May 11, 2020
- 3 min read
Club Lime is an ACT based organization that have reached 29 health clubs currently in operation across the local region. Whilst still a relatively young brand having been founded in 2004, the brand has developed a strong local community and has become one of the leading brands in the ACT. How has Club Lime implemented themselves in a highly competitive market so successfully? Below is a video of myself describing my personal customer experience with Club Lime over the two years I have been a member.
In order to determine this brand’s success, let’s analyse what exactly it is that Club Lime are doing so well at every stage of the holy grail of marketing: Keller’s customer based brand equity (CBBE) model.
The first critical step to achieve in order to get of the ground is the bottom layer of Keller’s pyramid – brand salience. Club Lime have incorporated positive aspects from other brands but have also differentiated themselves to achieve very strong brand awareness. Whilst their logo and mascot follow a similar formula with a cartoon character, their name hold very strong advantages – ‘Club’ denotes a sense of community and gives an existing member a feeling of exclusivity, whilst ‘Lime’ allows deep brand awareness – immediately connecting their green logo to their brand; aiding brand recognition, and further; assists in recalling the locations of their green gymnasiums.
When further inspecting Club Lime, it’s brand image and performance that comes to the fore. For the more functional aspects, the brand has a reputation of providing very clean gyms with well-maintained equipment – a major point of parity from other brands. There are a number of services provided for customers which can serve as an important aspect to choose the brand as well, such as the HIIT Republic boutique functional fitness classes and on-the-wall radio stations where members can choose their music.
An important image for the brand is always its people, both staff members with how they value their customers – to which Club Lime hold a high standard; and consumers of the brand, such as the wide array of fit students walking through campus with a Club Lime towel over their shoulders.
Beyond how a brand is perceived is how customers feel when they interact with the brand. Whilst a brand does have control over these factors through its image and performance – it is ultimately the consumers that perceive this aspect. With its cleanliness, well-maintained equipment and friendly staff, the brand is very often perceived as high quality and in some cases superior to its competitors.
Club Lime attempts to create a culture whereupon its members feel safe and secure from other members (no stolen possessions, harassment, etc.), valued as a person rather than just a customer, and to have a fun, exciting culture that will further motivate an individual to continue interacting with the brand. Altogether, Club Lime has very positive consumer responses that stimulates the continued growth of the brand.
Finally, to ensure the success of a marketing strategy is to facilitate a strong relationship between the brand and the consumer. Fortunately, in the health and fitness sphere, loyalty is very much necessary as the service is accessed through a payment subscription – but the key lies in a brand relationship that has both high intensity and activity.
A highly active member will continue to participate with the brand – being more likely to advocate for the brand via word-of-mouth, whilst a more intense brand relationship involves feeling a greater sense of community with the brand. Fortunately, being a smaller brand centralised in the ACT is a blessing of sorts, as this helps create a really tight-knit community that helps all members feel more connected to the exclusive club.
To summarise, Club Lime have extremely effectively used Keller’s CBBE Model to create a strong community with its members, portraying a very positive brand image. It’s truly no wonder they have so successfully implemented themselves into the ACT market, and with existing members – such as myself – hoping for their continued growth and success, it will surely be little time until they are as large an organization as their nation-wide competitors.
The Holy Grail
Keller, K. (2001). Building Customer-Based Brand Equity. Marketing Management, [online] Volume 10(2), pp. 15-19. Available at: https://search-proquest-com.virtual.anu.edu.au/docview/194194945/fulltextPDF/32D27F93192447C8PQ/1?accountid=8330 [Accessed 08 May, 2020].
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