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The biggest pitfall when entering the day spa market, is not listening to your customers and thinking that you know exactly who your target market is.
It is really important to establish a service that connects with your customers.
When thinking about how you are going to market your beauty parlor or spa business, it is also important to look at how women shop and their buying behavior, in order to be able to win over the hearts and minds of women, when it comes to their beauty treatments.
Years ago when I first started in the spa industry marketing techniques were all about segmenting the market by age and income. It was basically assumed that attitudes and interests were similar enough for marketing messages to reach our potential audience.
Fast forward to today however and its easy to see that attitude and lifestyle factors have a much bigger impact on how receptive women are to different marketing efforts. For this reason it is important to get to the root of women’s beauty habits, in order to build on your spa marketing strategy.
In such a competitive market place, whether you have a spa or beauty parlor business you need to stand out from the crowd, in order to stay one step ahead of the game.
To do this you need to identify your target market. Once armed with this knowledge, you are then in a better position to competitively target treatments and pricing.
The following marketing information I extracted from the 2006 pink consumer report, which looks at some of the best marketing options for your business:
Women have definitions of what beauty therapy means today
The subject of exactly what beauty is gives a good insight into the many hearts and minds of women across the globe.
Whilst trying to juggle so many tasks women are more stressed than ever before, and in order to seek solace they will often turn to a favorite beauty service or product.
Beauty care is as popular as skin care and is growing rapidly in importance for women.
92% of women cited that skin care is one of the most important areas of their beauty regime,whilst 74% favored body care. 48% will turn to a hot bath and chill out music to fight stress, and the remaining 10% must always have their lipstick.
How Women perceive advertising for beauty services
Women will often turn to magazines for advice. Cosmopolitan was identified as the number one source for beauty advice, with 13% of respondents identifying it by name. The Good Housekeeping magazine and Glamor followed with 10% each.
This shows that in the beauty market, whether you are selling a new break through product, lipstick or even an organic moisturizer, you need to be seen in the places your beauty buying consumer is looking, in order to drive business forward.
Women are all about minutes, hours and days
Without question the number one consistent theme in most women’s lives is time management.
The one thing women don’t appreciate is having their minutes and time wasted.
I have found that as a Spa Manager offering quicker salon services does make the treatment protocol as easy and seamless as possible, which helps busy women to savor their time.
Women shop for their beauty supplies to relax and relieve stress
A woman’s approach to shopping for beauty parlor supplies and products is a very different experience than shopping for household goods.
Beauty shopping is something that makes them feel better when they are feeling down.
Women often prefer to shop for beauty products alone and consider it be time out from daily stress.
They often say they feel like they are in their own world and are able to cope better when they get home.
A recent survey found that 55% of women said they shop for beauty products to relive stress and relaxation. 25% shop to keep up with the latest beauty trends and skin care products. 65% said they feel happy if they buy a new beauty product.
Women are image conscious
Contrary to popular thinking most women do appear to feel good about how they look and who they are.
They are however still interested in learning about and purchasing new beauty products that make them look and feel younger. 45% said they rate their looks as above average, whilst 48% said they are extremely happy with their overall beauty.
From a retail perspective 42% want to buy beauty products that make them look younger.
This is an important aspect that should be reflected in the products and services you have on offer, with an emphasis on anti aging skincare.
Women feel that advertisers don’t understand them
Women’s lives are multidimensional and complicated, they crave seeing authentic images of themselves and other women and their busy lives reflected in these models.
This doesn’t mean that they are not realistic, they just don’t believe that every model should be a size zero!
Instead they want advertisers to portray themselves, as women of diversity as a mom, eco warrior, diva, or a CEO, an important point when you think about your approach to your beauty salon marketing
A professional women looks at advertisements as an opportunity to aspire to, whether it be a new look, a way to wear a new lipstick, or in discovering a new beauty secret, women love to look and feel beautiful.
Think carefully about the marketing and advertising you do around your salon. Are you going to use thin waif life models to sell your services or realistic models that portrays everyday women
Women talk
The research also showed that 64% of all women recommend beauty brands to girlfriends on a regular basis and 17% of women get beauty advice from their girlfriends.
Yes women talk and they also love to listen to each other, so word of mouth will be a big part of your business.
For this reason it is essential that you offer first class beauty treatments and service to your customers, so they’ll remember your beauty parlor and will naturally want to recommend your business to their friends and family.
Spa and Beauty Products, women connect with brands
The relationship a women forms with a brand is essential to its success.
By their very nature women evaluate information and share it with their friends and colleagues. As a beauty business owner you need to work on understanding this concept and watch the word spread.
All in all women are multi-faceted. They are savvy buyers who pay attention to detail.
They are pressed for time and yet need to relax and relive stress and always want to look their best and love using beauty products to enhance their appearance.
As we can see there are several consistent themes that are relevant, when trying to understand women’s buying habits, especially when it comes to what influences their purchasing behavior when it comes to beauty parlor supplies.
By paying close attention to these factors we can begin to win the hearts and minds of the female consumer and provide exactly the right services for them.
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About Samantha Miller