Senior Advisor to Aspen Spa
Management, Raoul Andrews Sudre, spoke on this methodical approach towards
integrating more men into the spa in 1997 in Las Vegas. He was then asked to
write this article which has been published numerous times throughout many industry
publications. His detailed recommendations are clear concise and to the point,
much like he is. New owners who grasp onto this information will have less of a
challenge now given the barriers to men’s grooming have come way down since
2001. We chose this aged article because it shows not only once again our
Senior Advisor was carving the path for others to follow, but more so the
statistics of men in spas in Europe is now
higher than initially reported and is close to half if not more. The guidelines
provided in the article will prove to benefit new owners just forging ahead in
this industry and will hopefully remind the women centric spas there is always
room to grow during their next renovation.
MEN - AN EXPLODING MARKET FOR SPAS - According to surveys by
Price-Waterhouse and Yeasavich & Pepperdine, 33% of spa clients were men
(1999-2000 survey). Some American spas are now reporting 45% male attendance
and as high as 55% in Europe. If you want to
tap into that ever increasing market, there are a number of things you can do
to capture and retain that clientele.
1.
Weigh the pros and cons of doing so.
a.
Will the potential increase in client base justify the expenses and efforts
that will have to be produced to attain that objective?
b.
How many female clients will you lose when you allow men to come to your salon
or day spa - because you will? On the other hand, you will attract some
professional women that may not be patronizing your business because it is
"too feminine" oriented.
c.
Will your present staff be able to handle this new market? Will they be willing
to train to acquire the new skills necessary to serve a male clientele?
d.
Is your spa big enough to handle a bi-gender clientele, or will you have to
allocate specific hours for men and women?
e.
Are you ready to invest in some decoration modifications necessary to make sure
male clients return after their first visit?
f.
Will this move be well perceived by your local client base?
2. When
you feel that there are more positives than negatives and you decide to go for
it, what should you do? If it is a new project, following are some guidelines
that will lead you in the right direction.
a.
SITE: Location, location, location is the secret of success in
business. There are few if any "men only" spas in the United
States today, but there will be many in the
future. You may not want to be a pioneer, so the next best thing would be to
create a "Professional People Spa," catering to professional men and
women. By identifying your target clientele, you are both sending a message and
setting the mood and style of your future operation. In any case, the location
of your spa will need to be close to business activities, business parks,
and professional buildings, rather than in a residential area. The spa will
need to be accessible by as many people as possible with a five or ten minute
walk and/or the availability of ample parking.
b.
In the creation of the spa, MENU comes next after site selection
has been made and both are done with the same objective in mind: to serve a
specific client's profile. Creating the right menu will enable you to design
the layout of your spa efficiently. To do that and everything else that will be
needed, you need a good consultant. Start Looking. There are many consultants……..very
few good ones.
c.
Design and Decoration will come next. Since you are looking at
creating what is relatively new in the industry, what you will need to do is
more what you should not do that has been done before! Forget the
Grecian Doric columns, the marble statues of nymphets and goddesses. Set aside
the pinks and fuscias, the frills and ribbons. Go for solid woods, warmer male
colors, coarser fabrics, develop Asian themes or a "British University
Club" atmosphere. In fact, one of the best ways to market a men's spa
would be to promote it as a V.I.P. Club. Men like that concept as it makes them
appear less vain.
d. Equipment
for the spa should also reflect the ambiance and philosophy of the place.
Massage beds should be the larger kinds. Colors should be shades of brown,
beige or white. The entrance and front office should be neat and business like
- no frills, no clutter of products, and no posters. Workrooms should avoid
very feminine colors, curtains and valences. They should be more neutral with
artwork or decorative elements that are non-gender associated. If space
permits, the creation of a traditional health club type of area with steam
and/or sauna, Jacuzzi, and relaxation couches for men, and a serine nature
oriented relaxation/meditation room for women. These features would be nice
additions.
e. The most important
element in the creation of a male oriented or male friendly spa is to put
together a Team of Technicians that are male friendly and male
compatible. This phase of the preparation might be the most difficult, but it
is the most important because it is your staff that will carry the ball and
make the touch down! They will make or break you.
f. Marketing: After you
have created the ideal spa and are ready to go, you have to make sure that now
that you have built it, they will come!! To create a club means going out and
soliciting membership. I so doing, the advertisement for the club will in
effect also advertise the future opening of the spa. Direct mailing, radio, and
cable television are usually better than print for this sort of thing. The
focus of the advertising should stress the difference between that spa and
existing ones. Originality and a not too serious approach will be best. A good
advertising agency will have a ball with a project like this. As always in
advertising, it is important to subliminally address the unmentionables.
The message needs to emphasize:
· Just
because you take care of your appearance does not make you a sissy!
· Appearance
is just as important for a man as for a woman. Macho men need to look good.
· Men/professional
people need more relaxation because they are more stressed.
· Men
deserve to be pampered.
· With
a better and more youthful appearance come the bonuses of less stress and more
balance.
· Less
stress and more balance create better performance in personal and professional
life.
Many
men today feel that the feminist movement has castrated them. They will be very
sensitive to the attitude and demeanor of female staff. Depending upon the size
of the spa, having a male presence on the staff, perhaps at the front desk,
might help generate that confidence factor that a man will need in order to
patronize a day spa.
The
vocabulary of the spa should be made more male friendly. Do not offer a
"Men's Facial." Propose a "Detox and Rejuvenation Treatment of
the Face." Do not offer a "Wrinkle Elimination Treatment," but
rather a "Stress Relief of the Facial Muscles!" Do not try to sell
men wraps or exfoliation treatments. Include them in packages, along with
massages, which make up 92% of the treatments requested by men worldwide.
Massages will be your number one seller to men. Make sure you market those
treatments well - they will be your bread and butter. Understand the underlying
problems linked to massage with men. Do not put your head in the sand - address
the issues unemotionally and with honesty and sincerity. What is it that is so
problematic? In fact, there are no more problems dealing with men that there
are with women. Difficulties are technical. They essentially have to do with
nudity and sexual stimulation.
Ideally,
a massage is best received in the nude or with minimal draping. Clients will
feel more comfortable if they can express a preference, usually as part of the
pre-treatment questionnaire. The spa needs to be neutral on this subject and
certainly not judgmental. Once that is clear, the problem is eliminated.
Indirectly,
most massages are sensual and stimulating. Touch, the viscosity of the
lubricant, the ambient temperature of the massage room, the aromas of the
essential oil, music, etc. contribute to physiological, sexual stimulation in
both men and women. Of course, it only shows on men! It is important to relay
the message that this is a natural reaction that will take place when a massage
is well executed and that in no way does it imply that the client is a sexual
deviant because of his or her reaction. So much has been made of prostitutes
that hide behind massage to in fact offer sexual services, that for fear of
being put into that category, therapists have terrorized their clients and made
them feel guilty over a benign situation. Women can pretend not be stimulated,
men cannot. So, it becomes more a male problem than a female one. This needs to
be aired in the open. Whether in the menu or in a pre-treatment consultation,
it should be addressed and in this way, any misunderstandings will be
eliminated without the loss of face of those involved.
Staff
must be trained to handle these situations professionally and not as
Kindergarten school teachers. Remember that if you embarrass a client by making
a judgmental remark, or a sarcastic comment, you will have lost that client
forever.
Men
love to have manicures, pedicures, facials, as well as hydrotherapy treatments,
but it is entirely in the delivery of these treatments that resistance or
opposition may occur. If you already have a spa that does not cater to men and
you with to do so, the approach will be different. Before seeking a male
clientele, you need to evaluate the feasibility of doing so within the context
of the existing physical structure of your spa. Is the space large enough to
allow bi-gender service simultaneously? If not, what can be done to accommodate
male clients without subjecting them to female confrontation? Start with the
entrance to the spa. Many day spas are an offshoot of a hair or nail salon and
as one enters the premises, there often are hair or nail stations in the
perimeter of the front desk. Women love see who is coming in and overhear what
they want. Most men would be petrified to enter such a spa unless hours of
operation for men and women were different. If this is your situation, you will
have to find a way to isolate entry and the front desk from the rest of the
salon, or find another entrance for male patrons.
Your
menu was designed to serve a female clientele, so you will need to create a new
menu for men. They will appreciate the attention and will not have to sift
through 80% of your menu to find what they are interested in. Receptionists who
handle a bi-gender clientele need to be trained to address male clients in a
different way than they do female clients. Until it gets to the point that
men's participation in spas is as vernacular as going to the supermarket,
attention will have to be given to the psychological ramifications of the
experience. One of the great weaknesses of spas in general is to have a
"weak link" at the front desk. A receptionist is the most important
employee in your operation. Most owner/operators assign this job to a retired
grandmother or a just out of high school teenager because they can get away
with paying them minimum wage. It is the most incoherent decision that is made too
often in spas. With male clients, the first contact is vital. It must be
friendly and attentive. The receptionist needs to be more than just someone
taking reservations for appointments. He or she needs to be a counselor. First
time clients should always be received in a consultation room, away from
earshot of others. A male client will probably have a number of
"stupid" questions to ask and will feel embarrassed to ask them in
front of an audience. On the other hand, once a male client has been well handled
from the start, he will remain loyal to the spa. If he is well treated, he will
not look elsewhere.
To
attract the male segment of the population in an existing spa also has its
advantages. Reach the men through their women. Create invitation packages
involving your female patrons. For example: Bring your spouse or male friend
with you next time. With a spa package for you, your male friend will get 50%
off a similar package. You can also give gift certificates to your best female
patrons valid for use by "men only." A well established women's spa
should first try to serve its clients' male friends or spouses. Let them be
your sales force. Special occasions like Valentine’s Day or Father’s Day are
ideal opportunities to bring men into a spa. Remember that with men, the
hardest thing is to get them in the first time. After that, if the experience
was pleasant, they will more likely come back. Although, make sure not to miss
the mark that first time and use that initial encounter to make it easy for
them to come again.
Attracting
men to spas is not difficult, but the few adjustments necessary to insure that
they will come and come back are imperative. If you make that move, do it all
the way or not at all.