David Lloyd Clubs: A tale of taking the high road - premiumisation in the midst of a category price war

Over seven years, David Lloyd Clubs pursued a strategy to reinforce its premium positioning and pricing against the category trend of growth in low-cost gyms. The role for communications was to change perceptions of the breadth of club services and increase consideration, leading to growth in members and revenue per member. This case describes multiple phases from establishing new data foundations to demonstrating a hybrid brand- response model, which helped the company recover from Covid’s impact and enjoy long-term brand growth and enhanced pricing power. Econometrics estimates that between 2017 and 2023, these activities generated £137m of incremental revenue.