A consumer downloading an app is the ultimate symbol of someone accepting your brand, a mobile is the most personal item people can have, they have it with them 24 hours a day checking it 150 times a day (Ashford, 2016). In downloading your app that means that they have a constant reminder of your brand. In order to maintain that relationship brands need to have an app worth downloading and has an offering that positively reinforces the brand. This is perhaps why companies such as Under Armour have invested millions in creating an app. Both Nike and Under Armour saw positive results due to their apps stating that it is one of the reasons sales increased 70% for women (Lobosco, 2014), because apps that provide useful information for consumers can increase consumer trust and preference for a brand, which increases sales (Urban & Sultan, 2015).

When viewing the most popular health and fitness apps there were various recurring features. (Cohen, 2015).

Features

• Step-by-step workouts by leading personal trainers of varying difficulty and length (Cohen, 2015)
• Tracking system to track your fitness through monitoring movement done during the day – including a calorie counter. This feature is even more useful when it presents tracking information in an easy to read format (Cohen, 2015).
  

• Meal plans, healthy recipes and healthy meal options even when eating out
• Ability to type in or scan the barcode of what is being consumed and add that onto the tracking device of how much exercise you have done manually (Alpe, 2016)

 

 

 

 

 

 

• However, the most valued apps have in-built personal trainers suggesting workouts and meal plans giving validation to them through your personal targets and workouts (Rodio, 2016), it is these personalised features that are key to continued use (Tang et al., 2015).

• Gamification features – things to encourage you to complete a workout, this makes people want to become more involved in fitness, return to your app – reinforcing your brand – and helps people overcome prior barriers such as a lack of time (Urban & Sultan, 2015; Gowin et al. 2015)
• Music to motivate you throughout your workout according to your heart rate or connected to the fitness tracker tracking your movements & personalised to your favourite music taste (Rodio, 2016).

• Share and complete workouts by following new & old friends as well as commenting on each others progress & experiences (Alpe, 2016). This ability to create virality increases engagement (Larizadeh, 2013).

• Allow users to track their fitness progress through activity logs (Cohen, 2015).
  

 

 

 

 

 

Something most health and fitness brands do not include in their apps is giving reasoning to peoples behavior – such as less movement at work than usual is why you did not complete your workout goal for the day, users also find this beneficial and it increases customer retention (NewsRx Health & Science, 2014). Many companies leave this important factor out and could be the differentiator between you succeeding and your competitor not so much.

Although it is unlikely that your business will have the app budget to contain all of these elements, ultimately it is up to what your customer would want. Choose an objective for your customer and pick out the items from the above list that fit your objective that you know your customer would find important. Once you have decided on elements you wish to incorporate into your app, test them regularly to ensure your customer is using it. It is better you do these well than do lots of things half-heartedly with an extensive & unwieldy design (Youens, 2011).

Technical

For a brand health and fitness app, people are more likely to download it if it is free (Tang et al., 2015), however you can incorporate in-app purchases to mitigate the cost.

An app must have an easy to use interface, (you can use fluid to help with this), as people will not be bothered to use it if they find an app hard to use, they will use another (Rodio, 2016; Fierce Developer, 2011; Gowin et al. 2015; Tang et al., 2015). Additionally, people are more likely to meet their fitness and activity goals when their data is presented in an easy to understand visual way (NewsRx, 2014).

Continually update your app (Cohen, 2013). Although giving it the latest features are important, do so in a way that maintains your brand image as customers my become dissatisfied if there are regularly large overhauls of the app they have come to rely on. With this in mind it is also important to listen to your customer and update according to their feedback on the app (Cygnis Media, 2013).

Measure

Number of downloads; time spent using app; money spent on/in app (Youens, 2011). Track the number of people using each page and how long they are on each page, as well as viewing where traffic to your app is driven from & where your best users are driven from (Larizadeh, 2013). However many apps are free, especially if it is made to market your brand therefore it would be more beneficial to see if there has been an increase in sales since the release of your app and if there is a correlation between the number of people who have downloaded your app that month and increased number of sales that month.

Benefits

If you get an app right you improve your brand image (Urban & Sultan, 2015), you can help people lose weight – with greater brand recognition and various outlets publishing your app for even more brand recognition. You will develop and improve your relationship with customers through giving them useful information.

 

Furthermore, effective apps can be a reason for an increase sales (Urban & Sultan, 2015), with Nike & Under Armour saying their app contributed to their 70% sales increase. However this was just two apps who have a lot of money being pumped into their app – alongside this was mainly women so further studies would be have to undertaken to reveal the extent of impact on men.

Limitations

Interestingly, Gowin et al. (2015) found that people strongly opposed linking their social media with their apps, and did not use those features which is why it is important to track page usage, if your customers are using all features – this may only be in young people as it was based on a college study.

Fitness apps can be incredibly expensive to make and very few get recognition therefore more money will be need to be pumped into advertising the app. However, if you are serious about becoming a health and fitness brand, customers expect more from you than just clothes and shoes (Bradshaw, 2015) so must give more to your customer. If you are an established brand with a vast social media following, that can help you to get the word out there to combat this limitation.

If you found this blog post interesting, find out more by reading these articles:

• Case for Benevolent Mobile Apps
• 7 Tips to Create Awesome Mobile App Designs

References

• Alpe, L. (2016) The best health and fitness apps to make life easier The Telegraph, 9^th March 2016 [Online] < http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/03/09/the-best-health-and-fitness-apps-to-make-life-easier/> [Accessed 23^rd April, 2016]
• Bradshaw, T. (2015) Under Armour Snaps up Fitness Apps Financial Times, 5^th February 2015 [Online] < http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2eed0aac-acc7-11e4-beeb-00144feab7de.html#axzz46kT2k5Dd> [Accessed 24^th April 2016]
• Cohen, H. (2013) 3 Steps to Creating and Effective Mobile App Strategy [Online] < http://heidicohen.com/mobile-website-versus-mobile-app-which-should-you-use-charts/> [Accessed 23^rd April, 2016]
• Cohen, J. (2015) 11 Health And Fitness Apps That Achieve Top Results Forbes, 7^th January 2015 [Online] < http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennifercohen/2015/01/07/the-11-top-health-fitness-apps-that-achieve-the-best-results/#143d72e61aca> [Accessed 23^rd April 2016]
• Cygnis Media (2013) Considerations for Designing an Effective Mobile App [Online] < http://www.cygnismedia.com/blog/how-to-design-mobile-app/> [Accessed 23^rd April 2016]
• Fierce Developer (2011) 6 steps to making a more effective mobile app [Online] < http://www.fiercedeveloper.com/special-reports/6-steps-making-more-effective-mobile-app> [Accessed 23^rd April 2016]
• Gowin, M., Cheney, M., Gwin, S. and Franklin Wann, T., 2015. Health and fitness app use in college students: a qualitative study. American Journal of Health Education, 46(4), pp.223-230.
• Larizadeh, A. (2013) Eight Tips For A Successful App Forbes, 19^th July 2013 [Online] < http://www.forbes.com/sites/avidlarizadeh/2013/07/19/eight-tips-for-a-successful-app/#21923b7765cc> [Accessd 23^rd April, 2016]
• Lobosco, K. (2014) Nike online sales jump 70%, stock surges [Online] < http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/25/investing/nike-online-sales/> [Accessed 7^th February 2016]
• NewsRx (2014) “Better visualizing of fitness-app data helps discover trends, reach goals”, NewsRx Health & Science, , pp. 28.
• Rodio, M (2016) 12 of the best fitness and health apps for 2016 Mens Fitness [Online] < http://www.mensfitness.com/life/gearandtech/12-best-fitness-and-health-apps-2016> [Accessed 23^rd April 2016]
• Tang, J., Abraham, C., Stamp, E. and Greaves, C., (2015). How can weight‐loss app designers’ best engage and support users? A qualitative investigation. British journal of health psychology, 20(1), pp.151-171.
• Urban, G.L. & Sultan, F. 2015, “The case for “benevolent” mobile apps”, MIT Sloan Management Review, 56, no. 2, pp. 31.
• Youens, R. (2011) 7 Habits of Highly Effective Apps Gigaom, 16^th July 2011 [Online] < https://gigaom.com/2011/07/16/7-habits-of-highly-effective-apps/> [Accessed 23^rd April 2016]