Consumer attitudes towards adoption and usage of fitness wearables

Abstract

While India’s economic boom has opened up several professional growth opportunities for the workforce, it has not necessarily been kind on their health. Increasing work hours, global or domestic travel accompanied by unhealthy and untimely eating habits have affected the health of a majority of the population. Hence, in this scenario, if there are products or offerings that can help the consumer in forming better health habits, it will be of tremendous value. The wearables product poses one such promise. Using a wearable such as a Mi Band, Fitbit, GOQii, etc., an individual can track various metrics such as amount of calories burnt throughout the day, quality of sleep, etc. Such a device can provide various measures for the consumer to track his/her physical activity, the result of the activity and accordingly, create health plans. Since the category is new to the market, the brands must understand and lead positive consumer attitude formation towards the product category and subsequently brands. For doing the same, it becomes necessary for the brands to understand the barriers which consumers have to the adoption of this category, the barriers and attitudes which consumer have towards health and fitness. We identified some of the aspects important for adoption of product innovation and their underlying motivations and self-related attributes. Through a survey questionnaire, we asked about 73 respondents relevant questions about wearables in general, and two brands in particular. The findings and inferences from this survey have been summarized and appropriate recommendations have been provided.