http://ideasspotter.com Fri, 03 May 2013 08:34:09 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 http://ideasspotter.com/2011/01/pay-less-sweat-more/ http://ideasspotter.com/2011/01/pay-less-sweat-more/#comments Mon, 31 Jan 2011 06:00:22 +0000 Tony Separovic Editor http://ideasspotter.com/?p=111 A fitness program where you pay less if you exercise more. Gym-Pact is a program in Boston where for $10 a month you get unlimited use of affiliate gyms, dance centres, yoga studios and other fitness programs. But, if you miss a day you pay a $10 per missed day ‘motivational’ fee. But you needn’t go everyday, Gym-Pact has a selection of programs where you can commit to a minimum of one day a week and should you get injured along the way, a doctors note will suffice. Calling themselves ‘enforced fitness’, they keep tabs on members through a simple SMS system. Whenever you arrive at your fitness destination there will be a passcode for the day at the front desk. You SMS this code to the Gym-Pact designated number when you sign-in and when you sign-out. Started by a couple of Harvard graduates, Zhang Yifan and Geoff Oberhofer, the system is based off thoughts thrown around in Zhang’s behavioural economics classes. Zhang learnt how people are motivated more by immediate consequences than by future possibilities and applied that to the fitness business. An industry that has long relied upon front-up sunken investment. Zhang and Oberhofer see Gym-Pact as a social enterprise program. Currently still in development stage, they look to profit from this venture solely off referral fees and revenue sharing programs with affiliate gyms. Motivational fees all go towards operation costs of the Gym-Pact program and supporting individuals in financial need – so as the website says, they can “get fit too”. Behavioural economics getting people in shape.]]> http://ideasspotter.com/2011/01/pay-less-sweat-more/feed/ 0