Using Intuitive Web-To-Print For Financial Fitness
InDesign In ‘ The Cloud’ Keeps Marketing Simple For Klubbsverige, A 250-Gym Net Work Grappling For Efficiencies In Northern Europe.
Business owner Stefan Tingwall is a fit, Swedish gentleman. His sport of choice these days is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a combative martial art focused on grappling and emphasizing ground fighting. “I’m a purple belt and have, among other things, won a gold medal in Nordic BJJ Open,” the chief executive of KlubbSverige AB says proudly, referring to the largest such competition in Sweden.
When he wore a younger man’s uniform, Mr. Tingwall was an American football player in Sweden. “I played both Division 1 and the highest division, called Superserien,” which roughly translates to “the Super League.” (Speaking of super, he is a huge fan of the NFL’s New England Patriots.) Tingwall excelled as a wide receiver, able to run fast and catch well on the proverbial pigskin gridiron.
Early in his business career, Tingwall was working out five to six days per week while putting his university degree — in organizational theory and management — to good use at a publishing firm. “It was there that I learned about printing,” he says. His professional and fitness interests first blended when Tingwall developed a training guide that started out as physical book in print. “But I soon understood that it was better to have the actual diary online,” he adds. The interactive workout component employed software that converted different activities into point values, allowing consumers to log and track progress — and compare with their friends’ results; essent
Early Challenges
- Manage rapid, organic growth while allowing client/owners to stay focused on their core healthclub business.
- Efficiently add marketing elements beyond the print channel.
- How can low-tech business owners make ads and posters look good?
While peddling the concept of his Träningsguiden to gyms, Tingwall got to know many fitness club owners and began to empathize with them about their common business challenges. In 2005 KlubbSverige, which translates to Club Sweden in English, was born. “Most of these independent club and small-chain owners are fitness enthusiasts, but they are not businessmen or businesswomen by default,” he explains. “With growth comes challenges, and many of them are not prepared for what’s coming.” So he created a new network to help them.
KlubbSverige first focused on adding value through group purchasing, using economies of scale to help its members save money. Tingwall negotiated with preferred partners for supplies and other recurring purchases – for products as diverse as office and restroom products to protein bars and fruit juices. Even health insurance is part of the gym procurement program, which grew quickly to some 50 member clubs.
SCSC Solutions
- Automated design from BrandingUI centralizes marketing efforts while also increasing profits.
- BrandingUI’s native InDesign integration makes it easy to create print and non-print components for multichannel flexibility, employing a best practices approach among KlubbSverige’s network.
- The BrandingUI platform is intuitive and adds value by making advertisements and collateral material look highly professional.
“We have created 100+ templates, and now our customers pick the ones they like and build their own campaigns,” Tingwall adds. “Very rarely do we need to support them — so it [BrandingUI] just runs in the background. And we can collect their subscription every month. We now and then add a couple of new templates, but that’s pretty much it.”
The cost-effective end result is great-looking advertisements and posters for gym/fitness marketing. “Our customers are happy because they get a lot bang for their buck! And with BrandingUI, they get to be part of the [creative] process,” Tingwall explains. “Many of them actually enjoy giving their own look and feel to these pieces.”