Back to Experiential Learning hub
By Lauren Oxer (Project Lead on Trusted Consultants – the Business Clinic student-led organisation that offered consultancy advice to David Fairlamb Fitness)
Rewarding, challenging and enjoyable! That’s how I’d describe my experience at the Business Clinic. I didn’t do a placement year at university so this was a great opportunity to learn some new skills and gain knowledge about the commercial side of running a business.
I teamed up with Lucy, another business marketing student at Northumbria, and the two of us were given a brief to devise a digital marketing strategy to enhance the visibility of among new and existing customers. David started the business more than 25 years ago and offers various activities from indoor and outdoor fitness sessions to beach boot camps, as well as the unique Versaclimber experience where customers can use low-impact, high-intensity and non-weight-bearing exercise machines to really build up their fitness.
He's done really well to build up a client base of dozens of regular customers, but he needed some advice on how to use digital platforms to attract new customers, particularly younger people as most of his clients are over 40 years old.
Lucy and I undertook two in-depth surveys: one to understand consumers’ general fitness habits, social media usage and gym brand awareness, and the other to gain insights from DFF customers on why they chose DFF in the first place, why they keep coming back and any aspects of the business they think could be improved. This helped us to identify several key barriers, such as DFF’s limited social media presence, limited market reach, and a lack of awareness from potential customers who are based outside of North Tyneside (David’s studio is located on the Tyne Tunnel Trading Estate in North Shields).
On the back of this research, we came up with a series of recommendations to help David promote his business. Making better use of digital platforms to improve DFF’s online presence was a key priority, as was investing in strategic digital marketing. We also thought he could introduce gym management software and host community events to raise awareness of the business.
Hopefully we managed to provide David with some inspiration! The feedback he gave us was generally very positive and he said he’d take some of our recommendations forward. He’s also planning an exciting new venture called Versahub, a dedicated space in Newcastle where customers can use Versaclimber machines to build up their fitness, so the knowledge he’s gained from the DFF project could be applied to this business too.
This project has given me the skillset and confidence to pursue my chosen career in talent management, and it will look really good on my CV when it comes to getting a job.
A big thank you to David and the Business Clinic team, who gave us great support throughout – it has certainly been an enjoyable ride!
Real-world projects are just one way students could get hands-on experience at 51. We call it experiential learning and there are lots of ways to get involved.
Depending on your course, you might be able to get involved with professional projects, workplace simulations, industry placements, internships, and more.
Find out more on our Experiential Learning hub.
Back to top
