Fitness Branding That Gets Noticed

When you begin thinking about your visual brand, it’s essential to first get clear on your intention. What do you want your brand to be known for?

Your brand is not just about standing out. Your brand is defined by what others say about you based on their interactions with your company. The goal is for customers to have a consistent experience across all touchpoints—in person, on your website, or social media. 

You’re likely ready for a new brand design when the visual representation of your brand doesn’t accurately represent who you are.

It’s normal to want to jump right to the pretty things involved in fitness website design, but you need to start with the foundation of your brand (what, who, how). It would be best if you were very clear on those things before you can work on the visible part of the world, such as your brand voice, visuals, and experience. 

If you don’t do it in the correct order, you’re very likely to disconnect from your prospects—disconnection at best, lack of trust at worst.

Your brand is more than your logo, fonts, and colors. Your brand is defined by WHAT you want to be known for, WHO your audience is, and HOW you serve them.

Once you’re clear on that, we want to ensure your voice and visuals accurately represent your brand foundation. 

Your brand foundation: (define this FIRST)

Your brand amplified: (THEN update these)

• Brand Voice (name, messaging)

• Brand Visuals (logo, colors, fonts, photos)

• Brand Experience (decor, service, marketing)

Understand the Goals of Your Fitness Brand Design

If this is your first time branding a fitness studio, it’s essential to start by getting VERY clear on your what, who and how, as well as what you want the visual representation of your brand to feel like.

If you’ve already established everything with your business but are mulling over a rebrand, the time to change your fitness brand design should be when your what, who, or how has changed, and your voice and visuals no longer match. You’ll know it’s time for a rebrand when one (or more) of those brand foundations no longer accurately represents your brand.

Here are some key questions to help you assess your what, who, and how in either scenario.

1. What do you want to be known for?

• Have you already added services?

• Do you plan to add or change other services?

• Does your current branding support those services?

• Does your client experience need to change?

• Does your pricing structure need to change?

• How do you make your audience feel? Comfortable, seen, and heard?

• If you don’t know the answer to this, client interviews can be a great way to discover what your clients love about your studio. 

• You want your clients to feel appreciated, so this is an opportunity to consider how you do this. 

• Do you do regular client follow-ups?

• Do you offer perks to regular clients?

• Do you learn everyone’s names and use them when you see them?

• Do you include client notes in your studio software to help staff remember personal details?

Defining Your Fitness Brand Identity

A vital element of an excellent fitness brand design is having a brand voice and visuals that accurately represent you. This starts with some critical foundational pieces:

Let’s break this down more so that you can see how these seemingly small details can significantly impact your audience’s interaction with your company. 

In 2018, Dunkin’ Donuts announced it would drop “Donuts” from its name. 

Why? In hopes of reflecting its increasing focus on coffee and other beverages. 

This was fitting considering the company slogan is:  “America runs on Dunkin,” NOT “America runs on donuts.”

On the other hand, Facebook’s rebrand to ‘Meta’ still has people wondering why they did it because just about everyone still calls it Facebook.

Now, let’s talk about photography.