MyFitness Obviously not Worried about MyMentalFitness

CONFESSION

I have a confession to make - I work out a lot. It's borderline obsession or addiction if you prefer. Almost every day I spend an hour on a stationary bike while reading my mails and sometimes answering them, then I hit the gym or the tennis court for another hour or two. I always feel the best right after working out. So it should be understood that I also take the facility I work out at very seriously.


PROBLEM

Recently my gym merged or was bought up or something like that. Now it's MyFitness. Since that happened some things have changed. First of all a big branding operation or maybe I should call it a branding tornado has overtaken everything. The entrance to the gym was redesigned to fit the universal MyFitness theme. Unfortunately they hired the same designer who did the "Korovo Milkbar" in Clockwork Orange and now when I walk in my cornias are literally screaming. So even though you don't need sunglasses in Estonia you'll need them if you do go to MyFitness.

Then they plastered every possible surface with labels claiming the obvious
like MyPool, MyStretchingRoom, MySpinning, MyLadiesLockerroom, MyToilets and so on. Today standing at the MyUrinal in the MyToilet in the MyMensShowers in the MyMensLockerroom I was surprised not to find a label stating MyPenis after unzipping. C'mon guys, what are you trying to do? Take over the world by MyBrainwashing everyone.


BIGGER PROBLEM

There is a label from a shampoo bottle stuck on a shower-stall wall. It's been there for three days now. No biggy right? But what does it mean? OOPS, it means that the cleaning lady hasn't been to that shower-stall for 1 - 2 - 3 days. My, my, my...

The machines and the stationary bikes are tricky, well actually the tricky part is to pick which one to use, since most of them are missing something or are broken and down right dangerous. My, my, my...

The check-in at the entrance, that's right the check-in, has two computers designated for client check-in. One of them has never worked. To purchase a bottle of water requires at least a doctorate in logistics because nobody knows how to explain where to pay for it. How about a label saying "Pay for MyWater here". My, my, my...

Are you sick of my my-mys yet? Now you know how I feel.

Big part of the MyFitness theme is blasting music that's truly unbearable at high volumes and everywhere. I'm not gonna go into different musical tastes here and I don't think they should play music I like, but why did they have to install speakers in every hidden corner of every hidden hallway. Just yesterday I received a Skype VOIP call on my mobile and you know how Skype is... Well long story short - I couldn't hear anything, no matter where I moved because of the horror coming from the speakers. My, my, my...


DILEMMA

I have been paying for my gym privileges around 750EEK's a month. Hmmm, in fact exactly 750EEK's a month. Now I just found out that the type of membership I have will be 1299EEK's a month. HELLOOOOO. Haven't you noticed, there's a reasonable chance out there, that this is Armageddon, the Apocalypse, the end of the world as we know it. Even if it's not, I don't think many would argue that tougher times are ahead. Is this how you react to economic downfall and worldwide financial crisis - by raising prices by 70%?


CONCLUSION

The near future will be about value and added value for customers, not graphic design driven branding.