How a CMO-turned-franchisee bet big on Strong Pilates’ programming and marketing freedom — and grew from zero to 300 members in 60 days
Everywhere Rico Macareg looked, he saw only one thing: high-impact fitness concepts. As a consumer, he’d enjoyed their programming and upbeat energy for years, but that favorability disappeared anytime he looked at them through a business lens. By nature, those operations made it difficult to spur retention and fuel growth, and he couldn’t get past that.
“High Impact leads to higher injury reporting and quite honestly, people deflecting out of the brand because it’s an uncomfortable workout,” Macareg told Athletech News
It wasn’t until he stumbled upon Strong Pilates that he found the right combination between energy, impact and innovation.
“Strong Pilates is low-impact fitness meets high-impact and high-energy, which is what we love,” Macareg said. “They opened up their audience not only to Pilates, but cardio and weight-focused people. For me, those are things that we look to invest in — if they are being innovative in their space to be more attractive for customers.”
With its Rowformer and Bikeformer machines, Strong Pilates blends Pilates with cardio and strength training, a key differentiator in an ultra-crowded Pilates market. The brand continues to grow rapidly, recently getting to 100 locations, fueled by its product and help from franchisees like Macareg.
Space To Create & Build
While Strong Pilates’ unique product initially made Macareg a fan of the brand, the business model’s autonomy kept him one as he continued to invest in it.
“They do a really good job maintaining the global brand of Strong Pilates, like the brand positioning, colors, look, DNA and the identity,” Macareg said. “As a former CMO, I can tell you, those are things that are important. But then they give you a lot of runway for you to make it localized to your state or to your market.”
Macareg shared that his operation conducts its own performance marketing and builds its own creatives.
“There are brand standards and requirements that we have to make sure that we’re incorporating, but we have a lot of latitude in creating marketing that’s effective to our local studios and their surrounding areas,” he said.
Macareg attributed much of his operation’s growth, going from zero to 300 members in 60 days, to the freedom Strong Pilates hands its franchisees.
“We’ve been wildly cash flow positive since day one of this business, and it continues to grow month over month,” he said. “We opened in August. I don’t know much about fitness, but everyone’s told me, if you open in August with over 200 members and become cash flow positive in the middle of the summer, that’s an accolade for a fitness brand.”
Grinding Locally
Macareg’s success also stems from a diligent approach to the presale process.
“I think a lot of franchisees, especially in the health and fitness space that are building MRR (monthly recurring revenue) business models, don’t do enough work in the presale stage to run up the numbers,” Macareg said. “You have a very short window.”
Macareg recognized that. He did as much as he could before his window closed and his business opened, even hosting three or four presale events per week.
“Sometimes we were doing four events on a weekend, between Saturday and Sunday, pulling resources and just making it happen,” he said. “It’s a grind, and it’s very hard, but that ultimately led to the success of our studio opening.”
He also credited early wins to his hyper-localized marketing strategy, made possible by the aforementioned autonomy Strong Pilates grants its franchisees.
“We did a lot of videos,” Macareg. “Just saying, ‘Hey, it’s Rico, Strong Pilates, Garwood (N.J.). Here we are. We’re in front of the fire station. You can’t miss us. Here’s where you park. Come check us out.’”
Macareg reported he saw $5 and $6 CPLs (cost per lead), and on some days $2 CPLs, via ads of that sort.
“That’s because the brand allows us to do that, and we have the wherewithal to create those ads,” he added.
Take a Big Swing
Now 18 months past his Garwood location’s launch, Macareg has five more Strong Pilates studios in the pipeline. He knows it’s a sizable undertaking, but one necessary for worthwhile growth.
“I’ve met so many franchisees who say they just want to build one location and then they’ll wait for the cash flow of that one to build another,” he said. “If you think you’re going to get to that point by just opening one, working at it and then seeing how it goes, before you do your second and third, people like me are going to come up around you and buy everything, because we recognize the opportunity.”
“It’s a risk,” he noted. “Don’t get me wrong, everything in life is a risk, but if you don’t reassess your risk tolerance, then you’re going to wake up one day and realize in three years, you should have moved faster.”
Macareg noted he and his husband intend to eventually donate a portion of their profits to their own foundation, which supports youth-aged individuals of color and part of the LGBTQIA+ community. To get there, they’ll continue leveraging their vision, vigor and Strong Pilates’ distinctiveness, which they have full trust in.
“This is the Orangetheory brand, pre-COVID,” he said, believing that Strong Pilates can replicate OTF’s rapid franchise growth. “This is absolutely that brand.”
