1 Bangkong
1 Bangkong
1 Bangkong
IN BANGKOK, THAILAND
THANAT PIROMCHAIKIJ
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thematic paper could not have been completed without their
thoughtfulness and assistance; I would like to take this opportunity to thank every one
of them. The first is to Associate Professor Sooksan Kantabutra, Ph.D., my advisor, for
his inspiration, suggestions, and comments throughout this study. I am also appreciative
of the recommendations my classmates (batch 24A) especially, Pi Duangthip provided
me throughout the Thematic paper period. Another thankful for me is Suki Jinda, that
place has always been my favorite restaurant after doing this paper. Without these
people and my favorite location, this paper would not have been done satisfactorily.
Thank you once again.
Thanat Piromchaikij
iii
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to investigate user satisfaction that could lead them in using
fitness services in Bangkok, Thailand, provided by factors affecting their decisions to use those fitness
services. Though every user has individual activity purposes, preferences, and life factors, it's critical to
choose the appropriate fitness services that fit your expectations. There are more than 2.2 million people
from the social media community were interested in exercise activities and 1.4 million people from that
community focus on exercise in the fitness center. Since in 2021, there is 81% of people will start to plan
for their health by exercising and 42% of that number are willing to spend more time on their health.
Nowadays, Fitness services keep expanding their branches and operating to respond to this need from
users in terms of moving and focusing more on health consciousness after the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the steady growth of health consciousness from the user and fitness industry, it is
beneficial to research the satisfaction level of the users of Fitness services in Bangkok, Thailand. The
study's research objectives are to understand the factors that influence users to choose Fitness services in
Bangkok, Thailand to suggest further improvement to the Fitness industry. Such analysis would benefit
various stakeholders of the Fitness industry. The researcher purposively sampled 60 users of membership
for Fitness services in Bangkok, Thailand. The research instrument was online questionnaires on the main
factors that have a significant role in users’ satisfaction. The relationship hypothesis between factors and
satisfaction was tested in this study, including service quality, product/equipment effectiveness,
accessibility, cost-effectiveness, and social influence. To reach the aforementioned objectives, this study
implements quantitative method research to see the satisfaction level of each factor to Fitness services in
Bangkok, Thailand.
According to the findings, it was found that the majority of the users of the Fitness services
would be both males and females since the number of respondents is too close to each other and between
26 – 35 years of age. Importantly, it is evident that Fitness services are required to find ways to maintain
their accessibility and product/equipment effectiveness for their users. As a result of the study, the
researcher determined several ideas that led to defining the actionable recommendations for improving
the satisfaction level of users of Fitness services in Bangkok, Thailand.
42 pages
iv
CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
LIST OF TABLES vi
LIST OF FIGURES vii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Problem Statement 2
1.2 Research objectives 3
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 4
2.1 Variable 4
2.1.1 Service Quality 4
2.1.2 Product/Equipment Effectiveness 5
2.1.3 Accessibility 5
2.1.4 Cost-effectiveness 5
2.1.5 Social Influence 6
2.1.6 Overall Customer Satisfaction 7
2.2 Conceptual framework 8
2.2.1 Service Quality (Driver, +) 8
2.2.2 Product/Equipment Effectiveness (Driver, +) 8
2.2.3 Accessibility (Driver, +) 9
2.2.4 Cost-effectiveness (Driver, +) 9
2.2.5 Social Influence (Driver, + or Barrier, -) 9
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY 10
3.1 Developing Research Methods 10
3.2 Quantitative Method 11
v
CONTENTS (cont.)
Page
3.2.1 Sampling Plan 11
3.2.2 The Questionnaire 11
3.2.3 Pilot Test 12
3.2.4 Reliability Analysis 12
CHAPTER IV FINDING 14
4.1 Demographics and behavior of respondents 14
4.2 Descriptive Statistics 18
4.3 Regression Analysis 22
CHAPTER V DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATION 25
5.1 Discussion 25
5.1.1 Service Quality 25
5.1.2 Product/Equipment Effectiveness 26
5.1.3 Accessibility 26
5.1.4 Cost-effectiveness 27
5.1.5 Social Influence 27
5.2 Recommendation 28
CHAPTER VI CONCLUSION AND LIMITATION 31
6.1 Conclusion 31
6.2 Limitation 32
REFERENCES 33
APPENDICES 35
Appendix A: Questionnaire 36
BIOGRAPHY 42
vi
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
3.1 Reliability Statistics 13
4.1 Descriptive Statistics 18
4.2 Mean of overall satisfaction 18
4.3 Mean of Service Quality 19
4.4 Mean of Product/Equipment Effectiveness 20
4.5 Mean of Accessibility 20
4.6 Mean of Cost-effectiveness 21
4.7 Mean of Social Influence 22
4.8 Regression result 23
vii
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
1.1 Physical exercise and sports behavior of the people in 2021 2
2.1 Conceptual framework 8
4.1 Screening question in Quantitative research 15
4.2 Screening question in Quantitative research 15
4.3 General question1 in Quantitative research 16
4.4 General question2 in Quantitative research 17
4.5 General question3 in Quantitative research 17
4.6 General question4 in Quantitative research 17
4.7 Conceptual framework linking to users’ satisfaction 23
5.1 Recommendation for increasing Users’ Satisfaction 28
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Figure 1.1 Physical exercise and sports behavior of the people in 2021
the Sports Authority of Thailand of 48.59 million users across all social media platforms
found that 2.2 million of the respondents were interested in sports or exercising.
Referring to the above information, it is mentioned that 63.4% of people turn to focus
on exercise in the fitness center and weight training is also in the second trend of public
popularity forecast. Therefore, from what the researcher has stated above, it is an
opportunity for Fitness industry that can expand its business to gain more revenue.
found that 42% of that number are willing to spend more for their health (HKTDC,
2021). It is also aligned with the introduction statement about people turning to focus
on exercise in the fitness center, and the number of it is more than 1.4 million.
Therefore, as the users have many brands or choices to choose from because
the fitness industry is also kept themselves growing to serve this trend, the findings of
the study will present fitness services insight as a recommendation to the fitness industry
to enhance the experience of fitness users and to make further improvements to increase
overall satisfaction that can draw users’ attention.
CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
The researcher assumes that it is not only health that consumers seek from
using Fitness services, but that there must be additional variables that influence a Fitness
user's preference or decision to use that service. According to the research objectives,
the variables with definitions would further explain through the paragraph below.
2.1 Variable
2.1.3 Accessibility
Based on the researcher's definition, considering defined accessibility as the
potential for interactions with any fitness services mostly. Accessibility is the time it
takes a user to get to the fitness center from where they live or work (Jang & Choi,
2018). The availability and accessibility of exercise facilities heavily influence users in
physical activity. At the end of the day, users can only take part in activities that are
conveniently available to them. For people who live in isolated communities, the
facilities available may be limited or non-existent. (Wei, 2020). Without an accessible
nearby user in a reasonable period of time or locating it in a convenient location, most
users may lead to unwilling to use that fitness service. Therefore, the facilities around
Fitness Services are important to be one of factors that can influence users to use. For
example, public transportation will need to be accessible to reach the fitness services
easily, also, including having a parking lot.
2.1.4 Cost-effectiveness
Definition according to Kotler and Armstrong (2010) price is the amount of
money charged for a product or service or the sum of the values that customers exchange
6
for the benefits of having or using the product or service. Stanton, Michael, and Bruce
(1994) defined price as the amount of money or goods needed to acquire some
combination of other goods and their accompanying services. From this research study,
the researcher can assume that the equipment inside the fitness services is a product and
the staff inside their as a service for users to face. The marketing literature showed
researchers’ inclination toward price fairness in relation to customer satisfaction
(Kukar-Kinney, Xia and Monroe, 2007; Martin-Consuegra, Molina, and Esteban, 2007).
Since, price fairness is a critical problem that leads to satisfaction and the fair pricing
contributes to customer satisfaction and loyalty as well. Perceived price is particularly
significant since the researcher observed that offering fair pricing to users, in addition
to building a long-term relationship, increased loyalty in terms of positive attitudes and
behaviors in the case of doing long-term business. In this case, the membership fee is
the monthly fee rate charged for customers to be enrolled in the fitness services. From
this study, the researcher could conclude that people evaluate the value of products and
services by comparing it with the amount of money they spend. The term "cost-
effectiveness" refers to the process of comparing a product's or service's effectiveness
to its costs. When it comes to product pricing and effective use, it is the critical
consideration for users, which the business must take into consideration the perspective
of the user. In terms of marketing, the link between cost-effectiveness and customer
satisfaction could also be seen as a result, when considering service quality.
feelings, attitudes, and related thoughts and behaviors regarding a subject, a product
category, brand, store, or buying process. In this regard, the process of changing feelings
and behaviors that occurs unconsciously or indirectly when the majority influences the
minority is known as social influence
The researcher found research from Perform (2019) has further described
that it explained why individuals might become addicted to exercise either by the
chemical releases (Tanaka et al. 2009) and personal experiences (Spink et al. 2013) or
by the influence of others/leaders in an exercise group whose norms accept the
consequences of exercise addiction (Parastatidou et al. 2012). As a result, the user's
decision to use Fitness is influenced by others around them or the current social trends
that might persuade people to switch from one brand to another.
users’ memory. By the way, the experience of each user could be both good or bad,
depending on what they have faced in the Fitness services. Anyway, in this study, in
terms of effectiveness, it is considered a driver for users to have more satisfaction with
Fitness services.
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
The first section contains screening questions and is designed to filter out
the responses which do not fit the sampling plan also includes general questions related
to knowing more about the experience of using the fitness center. Sections two to seven,
which combine responses based on each independent variable in the research
framework, are used to understand the level of the user's overall satisfaction. There were
four levels on the questionnaire's rating scale, starting with Strongly Agree, Agree,
Disagree, and Strongly Disagree, for the respondents to answer. Since this study wants
to understand the users' positive or negative responses and provide a recommendation
to the Fitness industry, the researcher decided to apply a 4-point rating scale because a
7-point scale would be too much and would cause the respondent to suffer. As a result,
the researcher discovered surveys and studies used a 4-point rating scale to be a
reference before making this decision.
Finally, the last section is to collect the respondents' demographic
information. As the researcher would like to understand the factor that influences users
to choose fitness, this research also aims to study and understand the factor to increase
customer satisfaction in choosing or making the decision that would benefit this industry
in the future.
The Cronbach's Alpha result is shown as ranging from 0.63 to 0.87 for all
study variables. It displays that all questions are still considered valid even though some
variables are still up for debate. However, a connection between each item is still taken
into consideration.
In the next chapter, the researcher will go through the finding.
14
CHAPTER IV
FINDING
experienced one brand. The majority of respondents answer to the brand, the three
largest brands are Fitness First with 47 respondents (74.6%), Jetts Fitness with 24
(38.1%) respondents, and Virgin Active with 10 respondents (15.9%), and others would
the brand that located in Bangkok, Thailand as well.
93.5% or 115 people are the target respondent while 6.5% or 8 people is
living in other provinces, not in Bangkok, Thailand.
From the 115 respondent who passed the first of screening question, there
are 55.6% or 64 people only are the membership of Fitness center in Bangkok, Thailand
while 44.3% or 51 people does not a membership to any brand of Fitness center in
Bangkok, Thailand.
In order to better understand more and help the researcher to assume or
ensure that the respondents have appropriate experience and are able to respond to the
provided variable factors, the researcher develops four general questions for the online
questionnaire survey. Begin by questioning respondents concerning their personal
experiences in Bangkok, Thailand. Of the 115 respondents, 100% had lived for more
than a year. That leads to the following question concerning experiences in using fitness
services in Bangkok, 79.7%, or 51 people have experience using for a year or more than
1 year, and 20.3% of them, or 13 people have experienced less than 1 year. In addition,
44 respondents, or 68.6% of the overall, have used fitness services from more than one
brand in Bangkok, Thailand, compared to 20 people, or 31.3%, who have only one brand
experience. As the researcher previously stated that there are 3 brands majority were
selected from the respondents.
The most significant variable for users when choosing a fitness center in
Bangkok, Thailand is “Accessibility”. The researcher will also demonstrate which
attribute in each variable has the most significance to that variable after the tables below;
Overall Satisfaction
Table 4.2 Mean of overall satisfaction
N Minimum Maximum Mean Std.
Deviation
I am satisfied with the 64 3.00 4.00 3.4219 0.49776
service quality of the staff at
the fitness center.
I am satisfied with the 64 2.00 4.00 3.3281 0.56497
equipment inside the fitness
center.
19
Variable 3: Accessibility
Table 4.5 Mean of Accessibility
N Minimum Maximum Mean Std.
Deviation
I prefer to use the 64 2.00 4.00 3.6875 0.61399
fitness center that is
located near my
house.
I prefer to use the 64 1.00 4.00 3.3594 0.86129
fitness center that is
located near my
workplace.
My fitness center is 64 1.00 4.00 3.3438 0.91233
on my commuting
route.
21
Variable 4: Cost-effectiveness
Table 4.6 Mean of Cost-effectiveness
N Minimum Maximum Mean Std.
Deviation
A membership fee per 64 1.00 4.00 2.9531 0.78538
month in a fitness
center is appropriate.
Membership fee 64 1.00 4.00 3.0938 0.75000
considering the variety
of equipment is
appropriate.
Membership fees 64 1.00 4.00 3.0000 0.77664
considering the quality
of services are
appropriate.
Promotion campaigns 64 1.00 4.00 3.0156 0.88178
(contract, cash back,
points collection)
motivate to use that
fitness center.
If the price is reachable 64 2.00 4.00 3.6094 0.58056
for me, I prefer to
choose it as my priority
activity.
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CHAPTER V
DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATION
In this chapter, the researcher will discuss each variable after collecting and
finding results from the previous chapter and then will the recommendation at the end
of this chapter.
5.1 Discussion
5.1.3 Accessibility
Accessibility is the third factor that influences satisfaction, according to the
research study. The two main concepts of accessibility are ease of access and location
attractiveness; however, accessibility also discusses the duration of time it takes a user
to go to the fitness center from their location of residence or workplace (Jang & Choi,
2018) in order to influence them to participate in the activity.
The quantitative results of the descriptive analysis revealed that, when
compared to the other four variables provided, accessibility is the most significant or
meaningful for users when choosing a fitness center in Bangkok, Thailand. The highest
factor accessibility mean score states that "I choose to go to the fitness center if the
commute there doesn't take too long," it makes it appear that users are concerned about
how long it will take to get there. If this is the case, users may consider doing something
else, another activity instead, or changing to another fitness center that is more
27
connected to their route, as indicated by the second-highest mean score, which states
that they prefer to use certain fitness centers nearby. Additionally, more than 70% of the
respondent is also used to choosing these top brands, which are Fitness First, Jetts
Fitness, and Virgin Active, as stated in the introduction, which identifies the top three
fitness center brands in Thailand in terms of the number of branches. The researcher
assumes that their decision to recognize that brand was impacted by the location's
accessibility.
5.1.4 Cost-effectiveness
According to the literature review, Stanton, Michael, and Bruce (1994)
defined price as the amount of money or goods needed to acquire some combination of
other goods and their accompanying services. This research, it is also combining the
product/equipment and service from the fitness center. Also, cost-effectiveness in terms
of price fairness has a positive relationship that also leads to users’ satisfaction.
The results of the study indicate that the majority of people are influenced
by price fairness, which they consider to be within their capabilities, as well as when
they compare the cost to the variety of equipment provided by fitness centers. Before
upgrading their facility or implementing any equipment investments that might increase
the membership charge, the fitness services in Bangkok, Thailand, are expected to be
able to carefully evaluate the suitable membership fee. Simply put, some users feel that
the cost may not be appropriate for them and the highest mean score is associated with
a reachable price, this factor could perform as a motivator for users rather than a barrier
for them to choose that fitness service.
The researcher relies on the assumption that users will share their
experiences, feelings, and interactions with other users and/or potential users who could
be interested in applying for that fitness service based on their attitude and behavior.
According to the analysis, friends have the greatest impact on fitness users, and family
recommendations had the lowest mean scores. This is because, as compared to being a
family activity, users are more likely to join with a friend or go independently while
using fitness centers.
5.2 Recommendation
The following are the main suggestions that could support fitness facilities
in Bangkok, Thailand in understanding customer satisfaction, developing a strategy for
users, attracting investment, and convincing users, as well as gathering and sharing
information with potential users to visit your facility. While another aspect of these
recommendations is frequently the one that would greatly improve user satisfaction and,
as a result, generate much more revenue and attract new users. The researcher would
describe each recommendation below paragraph.
services have various options for the membership fee to make users can choose the most
reachable or suitable option for them.
4. Expand services from staff and fitness center facilities.
During peak hours if there is a higher number of users, the fitness services
are required to find a way to ensure all users still can get proper to the services, fitness
services can find a way to draw users away from the equipment by offering other
exercise classes like boxing, dance, or weight training. Also, have a facility for them to
sit and relax, or maybe just a water and coffee shop inside or around your fitness center.
this recommendation can also help to solve the availability of equipment if the Fitness
services expand more services and facilities. This will ensure that users are still satisfied
with using the fitness services.
5. Promote on social media and a group of influencers.
The significance of social media as a platform for the vast majority of the
public to discover more about fitness services, whether it's through reviews of the
facility, the equipment, or the service altogether. The fitness services can then use this
to get people to join them. For this factor, the researcher would like to draw attention to
the fact that influencer marketing is a strategy used by brands to advertise their products
through recommendations or comments made by online influencers and content
creators. These days, we can see that influencers are trying to make a friend from the
audience’s view because the influencers are trying to make themselves more sincere and
reachable. So, it would be the benefit of Fitness services to let them help to promote the
brand. Additionally, collaborating with influencers is a more effective approach to
connecting with potential users directly because the follower from the influencer will
be under the same interest and the influencer will understand how to put a user
comfortable and build their trust effectively from what they have provided to users.
31
CHAPTER VI
CONCLUSION AND LIMITATION
6.1 Conclusion
The objective is to study how satisfied users are with Fitness Services in
Bangkok, Thailand, and to understand what users see as a significant or meaningful for
them to go to the fitness center so that the researcher can recommend a better idea or
improvement to the Fitness industry in Bangkok, Thailand. The researcher utilized a
quantitative method approach, collecting data through an online questionnaire by
screening only the users that have the experience.
According to the first objective, the regression analysis showed that users’
satisfaction has a positive relationship with Product/Equipment Effectiveness and
Accessibility through satisfaction. The result indicated the variety of equipment and
reachable price are having the most meaning for users. The second objective of this
research is to offer suggestions to the fitness industry operating in Bangkok, Thailand.
The researcher would provide the following practical recommendations for improving
the satisfaction of current users and potential users who frequently visit and find the
activity inside Bangkok, Thailand. The researcher would say that since now there is the
top brand that holds many users join the membership with them because of the variety
of equipment and/or accessibility from many branches which also aligned with the result
from the regression analysis that these two factors are having a sign of significant to
users’ satisfaction, therefore, other brands may be unable to do the same thing like them
right away but all of them are also can start to consider improving more in staff services
to your fitness center, maintain the facility look good, improve the quality of equipment
to make it availability, promote the fitness services through the range of 26 – 45 ages,
and do promote itself or promotion to make the membership fee competitive in the
market.
The study's findings will contribute to those who are responsible for
supporting and encouraging users of the fitness industry or for increasing the number of
32
people in Bangkok, Thailand who participate in other activities that is beneficial for
their health like exercise. Fitness services will be properly represented, users'
expectations will be better understood, and there will be evidence to support additional
investment that invests to the right spot of users' expectations in the future.
6.2 Limitation
As the researcher was doing this research on the user of Fitness services in
Bangkok, Thailand. The researcher found 3 limitations as follows.
Firstly, the number of respondents is too small compared to the standard
number of users in of Fitness center in Bangkok, Thailand. This research required only
64 respondents to pass the screening part of the questions as target respondents. This
limitation comes from the limitation of time collecting, the researcher had to enlarge the
area to recruit more respondents during spreading the survey and including them in the
analysis. Therefore, these numbers maybe not much significant to represent the need of
all users concerning the Fitness center in Bangkok, Thailand.
Second, the experiences that each user had previous to doing the survey
would vary due to the membership fees at each fitness center. Since its service will vary
based on the brand positioning and service fee, this study did not let the respondent
focus especially on only one brand. So, it may not be capable of responding to or
representing some of the factors within the Fitness center.
Last but not least, limited access to Bangkok, Thailand's owner of a Fitness
center. Even though the purpose of this study is to have a better understanding of users’
expectations and to offer the owner suggestions but the researcher has not been able to
communicate with the owner to observe and understand their point of view. The findings
of this research may indicate what they already knew, but there may be some
justification for those improvements that the researcher could not find in this study.
33
REFERENCES
Mybest, ก. (2022, August 11). 10 อันดับ ฟิ ตเนส ที่ไหนดี ปี 2022 คลาสเยอะ อุปกรณ์ ทันสมัย มี
บริ การเทรนเนอร์ . Mybest. https://my-best.in.th/51989/
Peitzika, E., Chatzi, S., & Kissa, D. (2020). Service Quality Expectations in the Fitness
Center Context: A Validation of the Expectations Component of the
SERVQUAL Scale in Greece. Services Marketing Quarterly, 41(2), 89–
104. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332969.2020.1742977
Perform, P. (2019, September 12). Social Influence and its effects on Exercise Addiction
in Group Exercise - BelievePerform - The UK's leading Sports Psychology
Website. BelievePerform - the UK’s Leading Sports Psychology Website.
https://believeperform.com/social-influence-and-its-effects-on-exercise-
addiction-in-group-exercise/
Stanton, W. J., Michael J. E, and Bruce J. W. (1994) Fundamentals in Marketing. 10th
ed. McGraw-Hill.
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REFERENCES (cont.)
Wei, H. Q. (2020, July 15). What Influences People’s Choice of Fitness Activities? Get
Smarter, Fitter and Healthier Faster. https://hansqwei.com/physical-
education/fitness-choices/what-influences-peoples-choice-of-fitness
activities/
ธุรกิจฟิ ตเนส ในสถานการณ์ โควิด ยังฟิ ตแค่ ไหน กรณีศึกษา เจ็ทส์ ฟิ ตเนส. (2022, January 17).
Marketeer Online. https://marketeeronline.co/ archives/210672
427854-2/
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APPENDICES
36
Appendix A: Questionnaire
Quantitative Question
The survey consists of eight sections:
1. Section A: Respondents Profile
2. Section B: Overall Satisfaction
3. Section C: Service Quality
4. Section D: Product/Equipment Effectiveness
5. Section E: Accessibility
6. Section F: Cost-effectiveness
7. Section G: Social Influence
8. Section H: Demographic Information
37
Section E: Accessibility
Strongly Strongly
Question Disagree Agree
disagree agree
Service Quality 1 2 3 4
I prefer to use the fitness center that is
1
located near my house.
I prefer to use the fitness center that is
2
located near my workplace.
My fitness center is on my commuting
3
route.
I decide to go to the fitness center
4 when I have time because of the
location.
I choose to go to the fitness center for
5 exercise if the commute there does not
take too long.
40
Section F: Cost-effectiveness
Strongly Strongly
Question Disagree Agree
disagree agree
Service Quality 1 2 3 4
I feel that a membership fee per
1 month in a fitness center is
appropriate for me.
Membership fee considering the
2 variety of equipment is appropriate.