Sal was already sweating as she blustered into the gym on Monday morning. She sat down heavily on the bench in the changing room. The things she had hastily stuffed into her gym bag tumbled out as soon as she unzipped it. Sal stopped for a second, realising she hadn’t replaced the three-day-old sweat towel that had been there all weekend. She gingerly sniffed it and sighed, then returned to spraying deodorant on her feet.

Sal’s story is about a million miles from the perfect fictional narratives used to sell the fitness ideal in markets from sports apparel to workout equipment. Protein shakes to gym memberships. She will likely never become the woman represented by their avatar. And yet here she is, large as life with unmet wants and needs, hopes and dreams.

We find opportunities for business growth when we meet our customers where they are in the real world, instead of where we think they should be in our ideal version of it.

Image by Crossland Designs.