How to train men

A men's fitness brand I looked at recently.

The training is good, professional, it get’s results (see: weight loss and visible muscles on show due to lower body fat percentage, lovely). But the website isn't doing the job the male founder thinks it's doing. It's all hypermasculine and polished; but it reads like he's letting out office space, not like it's speaking to a real man with a real life.

And it can't decide what it is. One line calls it a consultancy; the next calls it fitness. Which is it? Neither, as it happens, speaks to the person he's actually trying to reach.

Here's what he hadn't seen: his customer isn't a "business owner." His customer is a dad. Specifically a knackered one, somewhere between 35 and 55, who'd love a bit of time for himself, but mostly wants to show up with energy for his wife and his kids. That's who's buying. Not a job title; a tired father who adores his family and has quietly slid down his own list.

Once you can see that, everything wrong with the site becomes obvious: it's built to impress businessmen, when its only job is to make one specific dad feel understood. Get in front of that man and say the true thing (I'm always tired, because I'm a dad and they need all of me; but putting the work in means I'm fitter, and more there for them) and he doesn't need selling to. He just needs to see himself.

Mercifully, none of the training needs to change. He's already excellent at the actual job. What's off is who the brand thinks it's talking to; and that's a decision, not a rebuild.

The company I was looking at doesn’t need to concern itself with ability or getting clients to their goal weight/ strength, etc. It’s that the ideal customer (a tired Dad, whether he’s a busy dentist, tech investor, or has a string of restaurants) doesn’t see any language, visuals, or psychologically-speaking, anything that indicates that *he* will transform from tired and unfit, to present, strong Dad.. Reflecting the customer in the language, layout, shades etc of the site are what keeps that customer on the page, and keeps them curious.

At present it’s an ill-designed business page that screams amateur. If this is you, book a Brand Audit.