by Rocky Romero
The game of Soloflex is over for Jerry Wilson, the
founding father of Soloflex.
He played well, provided a fine product, and faded
into a whisper.
Sadly, Soloflex joins that list of products that
includes larger cars, tube TVs, and print newspapers. The time had come.
There is discussion by some that perhaps a well
heeled, deep pocketed, health enthusiast would resurrect the products and
reposition Soloflex in the marketplace.
Wishful thinking.
There are many factors that conspire against that.
Age, gravity, and disappointments have affected Jerry Wilson and subsequently,
the Soloflex brand.
Notwithstanding the success of selling one million
Soloflex machines, according to their website, the fundamentals for a solid
business diminished quickly in the final days.
There are three fundamentals. I refer to the
success formula as TPM, the Target audience, the unique
Process, and the compelling Message.
Only one of those fundamentals existed in the final days
for the company to reach excellent levels. Its uniqueness. Its process.
Soloflex only had one, all three were needed to excel
to the level it had in the peak year of 1995.
Clearly, we can all agree, that the biggest strength for
Soloflex is the unique distinction of being the first to market in the home gym
arena in 1978.
While many men had barbell equipment in their homes in
those days, a radical shift in concept for muscle strengthening with a home gym
providing as good or better results than weights became a compelling reason for
a niche segment of the market. This is the second ingredient to the success
formula: a great target audience, willing and able to pay for the Soloflex
promise.
It worked.
It worked better with the TV advertising that took off
at a time when millions of people where ready to consider something unique like
this. It also required about $150 million in marketing muscle dollars to
bring it to the public. This is the third ingredient of the success formula:
the messaging to the right audience with a unique product.
The timing was also right because of the growing
awareness of strength as an integral part of our health. Soloflex helped to
teach us this.
Men adapted to the Soloflex Muscle Machine more easily
than women. The women’s strength movement had yet to take off. At that time,
sports programs for women were barely starting and muscle strengthening was not
considered feminine.
It would be 8 years later, in 1986, before a
competitor in this arena would appear. It had a similar sounding name: Bowflex.
Soloflex had defined the marketplace and others began
to look at this area more closely.
Even then, Soloflex maintained it’s uniqueness in the
product and the recognizable, signature styling. This styling continued with
the announcement of the Rockit. The Soloflex Rockit focused on the lower body
strengthening. It also was the first product to consider another target market:
the aging population.
The Rockit advertised not only strong, healthy, great
looking, young people but also those fun, gray haired people in their later
years. They also could become stronger, safely.
It almost worked.
The boomer generation noticed but was not ready to
admit that they were aging.
Sales for the Rockit were weak, while the sales for
the Soloflex Muscle Machine continued strong.
Not strong enough as their competition, Bowflex.
Bowflex blossomed into a public company and began to acquire
other companies in the fitness arena. It grew stronger in marketing, products
and positioning and renamed itself as Nautilus, Inc.
Soloflex remained a private company, with a few
products, and a smaller share of the market.
Even the last hurrah for Soloflex, the WBV (Whole Body
Vibration), became an attempt to resurrect its niche dominance. The
target market was the “baby boomer”, aging population.
While somewhat unique, the Soloflex WBV encountered
legal opposition because of its advertising. Less than favorable consumer
reports also affected the continued success of the WBV. Missing from the
success formula was the compelling message to its target audience to buy the
WBV.
Soloflex had become the aging fighter that had taken too
many punches and was unable to stand up to answer the bell for the next round.
It was a great 30 year fight.
By 2008, the time had come to hang up the gloves and
to rest the signature Soloflex Muscle Machine.
Rocky Romero