Even if you’re not in the industry, it’s hard to ignore the way that wellness took over the beauty industry. It’s no longer enough to be beautiful. You need to be “well” too. Clients are all about wellness, with some going so far as to hire wellness consultants and coaches for their workplace.
The Beginning Of Wellness
When people ask you if you’re doing “well,” did you ever really take time to think about what that means? What does wellness mean, really? Believe it or not, the concept of wellness is probably much older than you would expect it to be.
Contrary to popular belief, the term “wellness” isn’t something that just popped off in the early 2000s. The actual use of the word started in the 1650s, where “wellness” meant the opposite of illness.
In the more modern wellness movement, the term “Wellness” was really launched by Dr. Halbert L. Dunn, author of the 1961 book High-Level Wellness. To Dunn, the concept of wellness was a holistic measurement of how healthy a person was in several different fields.
The National Wellness Institute notes that there are eight points of wellness:
- Physical wellness. Are you actually physically doing well? Are you active? Are you a healthy weight? Is your cholesterol good?
- Financial wellness. We all know how much financial worries can take a toll on your mind and body. This is actually part of wellness measurements these days.
- Emotional wellness. Are you feeling good? How are your emotions?
- Social wellness. Do you have a decent social life? Are you an active part of your community? Are you okay romantically?
- Intellectual wellness. Are you learning new things every day? Do you feel intellectually stimulated?
- Occupational wellness. Does your job make you happy and help put food on the table? Is your job beneficial to your health?
- Environmental wellness. Are you in a quiet, healthy area? Is your area heavily polluted, or are you in a place where you really can experience fresh air?
- Spiritual wellness. Believe it or not, it’s not always about religion. Spiritual wellness is defined mostly as connecting with a higher purpose and feeling spiritually happy.
In the past, health was only viewed as a physical thing. Wellness was the first concept of measuring health in a truly holistic way—and now, we’re starting to see its preventative value through many studies.
Two Modern Meanings Of Wellness
Officially and traditionally, wellness is the practice of getting “well” in all aspects of your life. The idea is that all parts of your life will impact your overall health. Wellness is about ensuring that you’re doing well in every corner—and if you’re not, remediating that issue immediately.
However, in recent years, there has definitely been a growing connotation when it comes to the term “wellness.” More and more people view wellness as either a subtle way to prevent illnesses or as the “icing on the cake” when it comes to physical health.
As a salon professional, it’s important to remind your clients that wellness cannot directly prevent illnesses. However, it can improve the quality of your life and help you gain a higher level of holistic health.
The Rise Of The Wellness Industry
Health was always primarily focused on how a person’s body is doing—basically, it was a measure of whether you’re sick or not. While humanity has always tried to help curb health problems before they happened, prevention always took a backseat to curing.
But in recent decades, doctors began to recognize that external factors really impact a person’s health—and it’s not just a physical thing. Wellness started to “blow up” because people started to realize that there’s more to health than just the physical. In fact, our general health is a mirror of what’s going on in our lives.
If you’ve ever been burnt out from a job, you know that the job is the problem. However, you end up getting physical and emotional symptoms from your burnout. That’s an example of how wellness has an impact on the more concrete sides of your health—and it’s one that’s increasingly common to see these days.
Wellness also had another perk: fewer laws restricting the industry. The medical industry is heavily regulated. The wellness industry (including supplements) is not as regulated as the actual medical industry, which means that people without a medical degree don’t get shut out.
The wellness industry has a wider berth for people who wanted to enter it, which in turn, meant more businesses found it attractive. That had the eventual effect of making it more popular among consumers thanks to the heavy marketing wellness professionals used.
While not all wellness products are effective at what they are meant to do, the wellness industry’s businesses were very effective at getting people to pay attention to the concept of wellness. Marketing efforts from companies had a huge impact on the wellness focus we see in today’s consumer.
By the 2000s, people started to view wellness as a holistic method to prevent potential illnesses. When you pair that with the ever-increasing price tag of healthcare, it makes sense that so many people want to invest in wellness as a way to prevent illnesses later on.
That leads us to where we are now: a world where wellness is mainstream rather than a fringe health movement.
The Historic Issue Of “Snake Oil” Wellness
Remember when I said that a large part of the push towards mainstreaming wellness came from business owners who couldn’t quite make the entry standards for typical medical treatments? There’s both a good and bad side to this.
The good side is that many businesses took off, helped feed families, and were often later proven to be effective treatments for things like inflammation and mental health. The bad side is that many “businessmen” were peddling treatments and products they knew were ineffective under the “wellness” umbrella.
In fact, this isn’t a new issue. It’s been recorded for centuries. The most famous case of medical quackery being sold as a health tonic was snake oil. Shady salespeople would sell it as a cure-all and as a treatment for preventative care.
That’s actually where we get the term “snake oil” from. The term is exactly what it historically meant: a treatment or product hawked as a magic cure, despite being useless. Snake oil has, unfortunately, been a major issue in the wellness world.
Among more skeptical health-conscious people, the issue of snake oil is a very alarming one. It’s added serious stigma to the industry as a whole. This is a particularly common issue among sketchy “on-trend” products, as well as products found in sketchy, misinformation-heavy groups.
That stigma hurts legitimate wellness businesses, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
Adding scientific studies, FDA-approved services, and avoiding trends with a bad reputation can all help prove to consumers that wellness products are legitimate. Showing FDA approval (and compliance) also helps destigmatize the industry as a whole.
Marketing Wellness To The World
One of the more surprising things about the tanning industry is its stigma. Because of rampant misinformation, many people believe that both UV and spray tanning can cause high rates of melanoma. That misconception puts off many people from tanning.
Needless to say, it can be surprising for some to hear that tanning salons are now rapidly becoming the new wellness centers. The skepticism on services you might get can be the biggest hurdle before you are able to close on new sales.
Knowing how wellness started and what wellness really means can help you become an expert in wellness marketing. It allows you to see what terminology to use, what to emphasize, and also what to encourage users to do. We suggest…
- Making it clear that wellness products and services are not meant to prevent a disease. This is a legal issue. You can’t say that a product prevents or cures a disease. You can, however, cite studies where wellness services have been linked to lower inflammation or a better sense of wellbeing.
- Encouraging clients to take a look at before and after photos. As we all know, certain wellness services have noticeable effects on people—especially after multiple uses. It’s good to take a look at before and after photos to give people an idea of what to expect.
- Reminding them that wellness services don’t need to be ordered as part of a tanning package. It’s true! Tanning is a great service but it does not have to be part of every wellness plan. If your clients want to stay a little pale, that’s fine. Wellness products are incredible on their own.
- Mention whenever a wellness product or service has been cleared by the FDA. The FDA is what acts as the governing body on effective treatments in the United States. If a service is FDA-approved, that makes it official and makes consumers happy.
- Encouraging people to ask what they want wellness services to do for them. Being able to match the service to the benefit? That’s priceless.
- Educate people on what services can do for them. TikTok and social media are great for this. Coaching sales staff on what they can do also makes a world of difference in the sales turnout.
- Remember that patience is a virtue. Most areas are still just beginning to start out on the wellness train. You have to wait a while to see the results of your marketing efforts, simply because it will take time for them to sink in. From a marketing perspective, it usually takes two to five years before you get a core audience for anything that’s totally new. So, keep that in mind.
The Future Of Wellness
I always say that you can never really tell where the future is headed without really knowing the past. The past of wellness is one that has been rooted in common sense, a care for health, and hype. But what about the future?
Well, the future of wellness is going to be seen in sun salons across the country. Tanning salons are going to be one of many different locations that will act as holistic wellness centers. Our industry will likely be on the “techier” side of things, but make no mistake about it: the future is bright!
