SWOT Analysis of Boston University Fitness and Recreation Center (FitRec)

Dannie Annecston, Mandy Chou, Dongpeng Huang, Jessica Li, Alexis Shore, Yuhan Tao

Boston University College of Communication

EM 777: Masters Collaboratory Project

Dr. Kelsey Prena

 2

Like many businesses, the Boston University Fitness and Recreation Center (FitRec), has

had to shift its operations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. People are increasingly finding

fitness resources online rather than traveling to an in-person fitness center. For example, virtual

classes can be accessed through live stream video sharing platforms, pre-recorded videos and

pre-written routines (Lufkins, 2020). Some fitness centers have been able to open their facilities

to a small number of people, but most gyms in Massachusetts are primarily closed to the public

(Niezgoda, 2021). After conducting background research and meeting directly with FitRec,

SWOT informs our approach to both research and practical recommendations to achieve our

client’s goals.

Strengths

One strength of FitRec is its convenience for their local community. The target audience

of FitRec is largely Boston University students, faculty and staff, alumni, guests and residents

near campus. Compared to other fitness centers, FitRec can provide its audience a lot of services

that others cannot due to the preferential policies of university status, such as a free student

membership (“Add fitness”, n.d), and access to physical education classes for college credit

(“Class is”, n.d.). Another strength of FitRec is the content richness of its social media. There

were often up to four pieces of content created and posted per week for the past year under the

“How to Keep Moving” column on FitRec’s web pages (“How to keep”, n.d.). Cumulatively,

FitRec has produced hundreds of pieces of free content for their audience to enjoy the creativity

and freedom of doing a workout at home (“How to keep”, n.d.). Apart from that, FitRec is also

strong in its responsiveness. The FitRec staff acted quickly to the pandemic, and were able to

serve its audience rather quickly. According to Kris, FitRec was able to crowdsource a variety of
 3

content from BU students and beyond to serve their audience through Instagram as soon as their

physical doors shut (K. Covarrubias, personal communication, February 4, 2021).

Weaknesses

As most fitness centers have shifted their focus to online work, the range of choices for

students has increased. Students who are not in the Boston area doing distance online learning

can choose to visit a fitness center that is open in their place of residence. Additionally, any

fitness center that offers online courses will become a potential competitor. During the

COVID-19 pandemic, many free fitness options emerged on Youtube that could be selected over

going through a specific fitness center. With a large portion of FitRec’s audience being students

who were sent home from campus, their operations faced a dramatic halt. The original ways to

attract students, such as free admission and diversified courses, were no longer sufficient. While

FitRec has developed a strong social media presence, there is still room for improvement. Some

colleagues, such as the University of Massachusetts Boston or Northeastern University, are able

to create content which inspires their followers to directly engage with their account (K.

Covarrubias, personal communication, February 4, 2021). In contrast, the content on FitRec’s

Instagram page does not appear to be edited, and does not have consistency across the posts

(Boston University FitRec, n.d.). A reason for this weakness is due to FitRec being unsure of the

type of content that their target audience wants to see. For example, they are not sure if users like

long videos, short videos, popular science texts, funny animated pictures, or pictures with a

particular aesthetic (K. Covarrubias, personal communication, February 4, 2021). Without

understanding the needs of their audience, FitRec continues to struggle to engage directly with

their followers.
 4

A final weakness of FitRec’s communication strategy is its lack of funding to help

achieve its goals. Since their facilities were temporarily closed due to the pandemic,

memberships, facility rentals and class registrations, which were the primary sources of income

that initially supported operations, have been eliminated. Thinking beyond the pandemic,

however, FitRec is an independent department of the university, and its physical education

classes are provided without an additional fee for students. While FitRec has the funds to launch

some advertisements on Facebook, they do not have the infrastructure to invest in paid social

media campaigns to attract paying customers (K. Covarrubias, personal communication,

February 4, 2021).

Opportunities

In assessing their strengths and weaknesses, we can better understand areas of

opportunity. The team at FitRec is passionate about providing content to its audience that

bolsters their physical and mental health. With a current following of 1,848 users on Instagram

(Boston University FitRec, n.d.), there is endless opportunity for growth specifically within the

BU community. The BU community is composed of a variety of clubs and athletic teams, all of

which FitRec is able to assemble to create original content. This content can be either practical

by providing instructions on how to do an exercise, or fun by inserting popular memes or ideas

on platforms like TikTok or Instagram to attract more viewers. Inviting students from those

sports clubs or adding short videos to introduce different types of sports and to show sports tips

or tricks will help to attract more students, since students are their major focus of their social

media.

There are many opportunities for FitRec to provide more online classes or other features

that improve the interactive communication; for example, they hosted a kickboxing class through
 5

Facebook Live in April, 2020 (K. Covarrubias, personal communication, February 4, 2021).

While students are now spending most of their time that used to be on campus remotely, there are

chances for FitRec to create more online classes and other online content to make it appealing to

students. Additionally, FitRec should take a proactive approach to their communication strategy

beyond the pandemic. Generally speaking, FitRec could try to dig into students’ interests and

expand chances to create new content, as students are their primary target audience.

Threats

While FitRec always had an active social media presence, they were not accustomed to

online platforms being their primary source of interaction with their audience. In moving solely

online this year, they found themselves in the same competitive market as big fitness chains such

as Peloton. Brands that are more familiar with sharing fitness content on social media have many

followers, since this has historically been their means of communication and they built a virtual

community from the beginning. Similarly, fitness influencers such as Chloe Ting, Blogilates,

Yoga with Adriene, Keltie O’Connor, maintain large followings and develop personal

relationships with their followers in addition to providing free workouts (Ting, n.d.; Blogilates,

n.d.; Yoga with Adriene, n.d.; O’Connor, n.d.). FitRec must figure out a way to differentiate

themselves from the accounts who have already established themselves online in order to avoid

their audience dismissing their content in favor of others. Even though FitRec is an independent

business unit of the university, it does not have full autonomy over the decisions that they make.

According to Kris, the assistant director of marketing communications in FifRec, if Boston

University isn’t satisfied with FitRec’s revenue, it will pressure them to change their approach

(K. Covarrubias, personal communication, February 4, 2021). For example, if BU doesn’t want
 6

to keep giving away the fitness content free, BU would force FitRec to diminish the remote

contents (K. Covarrubias, personal communication, February 4, 2021).

Researchable Problems

The primary strategy of a future study will be to focus on what method of communication

is best for interaction with the target audience, reflecting on the pandemic while also looking

forward. The goal is to understand what worked for fitness brands during the pandemic, and see

what content best satisfied our target audience’s need for fitness. According to Kris, FitRec

wants to see what counts as engaging and what people are actively doing during a time of remote

content (K. Covarrubias, personal communication, February 4, 2021). Additionally, the client

mentions a disconnect between useful content and target audience during a time when at home

exercise is priority (K. Covarrubias, personal communication, February 4, 2021). Thus, we will

take a broader theoretical approach to address what content was deemed as useful in the past

year. Our findings will not only aid FitRec’s future social media strategy, but will also have

wider implications for how fitness brands should engage with their audience during both

uncertain and “normal” times.

Conclusion

In a time of Covid-19, the fitness industry is saturated with virtual content for improving

health at home (Lufkin, 2020). Moreover, there is a wide variety of content types that capture

attention. By cross comparing the strengths of FitRecs competitors and researching into the

target market, results will show how conversations can be created in social content. In summary,

FitRect already displays strengths in the amount of content created and consistency, but the need

is to look forward by inquiring how to best maximize their efforts for usefulness and

responsiveness.
 7

References

Add fitness to your curriculum. (n.d.). BU Fitness and Recreation Center. Retrieved February 8,

2021, http://www.bu.edu/fitrec/membership/students/

Blogilates. (n.d.) Home [YouTube channel]. Retrieved February 8, 2021,

https://www.youtube.com/user/blogilates

Boston University FitRec (@bostonufitrec). Posts [Instagram profile]. Retrieved February 8,

2021, https://www.instagram.com/bostonufitrec/

Class is always in session. (n.d.). BU Fitness and Recreation Center. Retrieved February 8, 2021,

https://www.bu.edu/fitrec/classes/

How to keep moving wherever you are. (n.d.) BU FitRec. BU Fitness and Recreation Center.

Retrieved February 8, 2021

http://www.bu.edu/fitrec/about/covid-19-information-and-faqs/how-to-keep-moving-whe

rever-you-are/

Important Announcement. (n.d.)COVID-19 Information and FAQs ' Fitness & Recreation Center

Boston University. https://www.bu.edu/fitrec/about/covid-19-information-and-faqs/

Lufkin, B. (2020, May, 4). Covid-19 has forced us to exercise indoors. But home fitness

has been shaping our lives for decades. BBC.

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200504-covid-19-update-quarantine-h
 8

ome-workouts-during-coronavirus

Niezgoda, A. (2021, January, 5). Gyms make adjustments as they struggle to survive the

pandemic. NBCBoston.

https://www.nbcboston.com/news/coronavirus/gyms-make-adjustments-as-they-struggle-t

o-survive-pandemic/2272675/

NU Campus Recreation (@nucampusrec). Posts [Instagram profile]. Retrieved February 8, 2021,

from https://www.instagram.com/nucampusrec/

O’Connor, K. (n.d.) Home [YouTube channel]. Retrieved February 8, 2021,

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9zEqIwv7yPQ8IlzNYpB_Aw

Ting, C. (n.d.) Home [YouTube channel]. Retrieved February 8, 2021,

https://www.youtube.com/user/ChloesAddiction

UMass Boston Recreation. (n.d.). UMB Recreation. Retrieved February 8, 2021,

https://umbrec.connect.umb.edu/

Yoga with Adriene. (n.d.) Home [YouTube channel]. Retrieved February 8, 2021,

https://www.youtube.com/user/yogawithadriene