When the police use “profiling” to catch a thief, the mainstream media chastises them for being prejudiced and insensitive.
When marketing companies and ad agencies use profiling to separate you from your money, they are rewarded with fat bonuses and industry accolades. That’s why I chose to get a degree in marketing.
Look Who’s Tanning
This is a fact: tanning salons attract the world’s most appearance-conscious consumers.
Every week, millions of people are willing to take time from their busy schedules to drive to your business and then pay you money to enter a small private room, get undressed, apply lotion products from head to toe, lie down on or stand in a UV tanning system for up to 20 minutes, get dressed again and then, jump back into their cars and head to their next destination.
In reality, the entire process to develop and keep that beautiful full-body tan actually takes about an hour each time and is repeated week after week.
However, these appearance-conscious consumers are also spending money on lots of other products and services to make them look good and feel good.
Based on a recent study the, following are some interesting statistics regarding the customer base of the typical U.S. tanning salon:
Salon Customer Profile: 2017
- 90% are high school graduates.
- 43% attend or have completed college.
- 95% are employed full or part-time.
- 95% use sunscreens/SPF products when tanning outdoors.
- 96% vacation in sunny destinations with Florida, Cancun, Jamaica, Hawaii, Las Vegas and the beaches of the Carolinas and California listed among the favorites.
- 97% use skin care products and moisturizers as part of their daily routine.
- 40% use tanning systems to relax and reduce stress.
- 60% take vitamins and nutritional supplements.
- 60% exercise on a regular basis.
- 69% of customers are female, 31% male.
The typical tanning salon offers 11 sunbeds and one stand-up system.
- 90% offer a sunless spray-booth or hand-held airbrush system.
- 45% offer some type of wellness/fitness or beauty services.
The typical 13-unit salon (UV + sunless) has an active data base of 2,600 customers (approximately 200 per system).
Tanning salon customers, on average, spend $110 per year on services and products.
The Golden Opportunity
So, you have thousands of potential customers, who are well-educated, employed, health and fitness conscious, love to travel to sunny destinations, willing to spend time and money at your business, and you are averaging $110 per customer per year? That’s less than $10 per month.
Right now, many of you doubt this figure; I had the same reaction in 1997 when I stated that the average was $75.
Do the math. Take your gross sales for 2016 and divide it by the number of unique active customers who spent at least $1 in your salon in 2016. Sure, you will have many customers who spent hundreds of dollars – maybe a few spent well over $1,000. However, when you take the annual average of all customers, I estimate it will be closer to the $110.
Salons do a great job of getting people through their doors. We just need to take advantage of every buying and
selling opportunity.
Maximizing Your Potential
97% use skin care products, including moisturizers and wrinkle-reducing serums at home as part of their daily routines.
The pages of IST Magazine are filled with superior products from leading companies that offer these products. Your customers are buying them and using them – and they should be purchasing them at your salon.
60% take vitamins, nutritional and diet supplements.
Everyone wants to lose a little weight, especially at this time of year. You should have these products displayed prominently on your salon’s front counter.
96% vacation at sunny destinations.
Are they buying their SPF products, lip balms, beach cover-ups, sunglasses and flip-flops from you?
60% exercise on a regular basis.
Do you offer any retail products or services that would appeal to them?
How to Compete with Wally World
Full-service tanning salons that also offer additional services and amenities such as massage systems, weight loss and exercise machines, anti-aging systems, teeth whitening, etc., have an almost unfair advantage over every major retailer in the country, including the big discounters. They have the ability to sell products using these services as a cross-promotional marketing tool – without lowering prices!
Most salon operators have enjoyed success by using free tanning sessions to help sell lotions. Have you ever tried the same to sell flip-flops or t-shirts? Every product you offer can be sold faster and at higher profit margins by cross-promoting them with the services on your menu.
It’s common sense: if you give someone 20% off on a $100 bottle of lotion, you just gave away $20 in profit. If instead, you gave a customer one free session in a Level-5 tanning system, you just gave them a $20 value – that probably cost you about $1.50 for lamp use and electricity.
Well, the same strategy works using sessions in massage chairs, spray-tanning, anti-aging devices, wellness and weight loss systems, etc.
Try This Today:
• Purchase a bottle of diet/weight loss pills and get one month free use of a wellness/weight loss system.
• Purchase a pair of flip-flops or t-shirt and get one free spray-tan session.
• Purchase a bottle of moisturizer and get one month free use of the anti-aging device.
The old retail mantra is that you never lower your prices; you simply provide more product service, or bonus bucks.
The strategy is to use the high perceived value and low operating cost of the service as a marketing tool to sell the higher priced retail products – and maximize your dollars per customer per year.
Eat Here – Get Gas!
Up until the 1970s, a gas station was a dingy place that had 2-4 gas pumps, did repairs and featured a cruddy-looking vending machine that was usually out of order.
Today, a gas station is a vibrant mini-market selling everything from gourmet coffee to sushi and even firewood. And there are usually 6-10 shiny gas pumps out front complete with video monitors advertising today’s specials and providing updated weather reports.
In the same way that neighborhood gas stations changed their business model to maximize potential sales to the millions of customers who need fuel every week, tanning salon operators can increase sales and profits by offering products and services that maximize the profit potential of every customer.
Since the first commercial facilities opened in the late 70s, tanning salons have done a fantastic job of attracting new customers while keeping millions of existing customers happy and loyal. At the same time, you are missing a golden opportunity if you do not offer products and services that maximize the profit potential of every selling opportunity.
I want to thank the following salon owners for their contributions to developing this article:
Teresa Burnette
Le’ Tan – Weaverville, NC
Bette Dawdy
Easy Tan – Melbourne, FL
Jan Heath
Lani’ Beach Tanning Salon – Marietta, GA
Craig Joyner
Great Tan San Francico – San Francisco, CA
Matt Rauh
Sunsational Tans – Vincennes, IN
Zakara Shirley
Lil’ Pink Electric Tan – Leon, WV
Jeana Smith
JEMS Tanning & Travel – Ogallala, NE
If you would like a FREE copy of “Jerry Deveney’s Top Sales & Marketing Techniques” email jerry@istmagazine.online.
Salon operators need to take advantage of every buying and selling opportunity.
