2007 Marketing Ideas

[Alan @ TanToday]

What do you have planned for January-June 2007?

Now is the time to start laying out the advertising dollars to lock in customers to tan at YOUR salon and not your competitons.

He/she who gets the 1st tan and WOWS them wins the season.

What crazy, insane and over the top ads will you run to GRAB their ATTENTIONS????

[Din]

FREE Tanning

We will barter our tanning services for your services (either product, services or Gift Certificate towards your services) In return, you will receive that value in bonus bucks to use towards single sessions. We will then raffle off their services or products to customers that have memberships or give them away as gifts to other businesses that we do cross promotions with and their employees as they send us lots of customers. Give them as gifts to top customers as a thank you. Give them to customers that refer lots of people to us. And it only cost us a couple sessions.

just a thought.

[DarkStar]

Here's a radio ad we developed for November and December. It has been absolutely sensational.
This was done as a purely marketing exercise and to remove competitor advertisng from the phone book.
Caused a few issues for our competitors.

WOW!! Can you believe this deal !!

Grab your 2006 L - Z yellow pages, tear out all the solarium pages ,

take them into DarkStar Tanning Studio in Broadbeach

and we will give you 5 solarium sessions in any machine for $15

SAVING YOU 50 bucks

offer closes 31st December 2006, one per customer.

5538 2thousand

DarkStar, voted Australia's Best Tanning Salon 2006

Always copied NEVER EVER BEATEN

[BigTodd]

Whatever . . .

[enuf]

My single sessions in a base bed has been $10.95 for the past 4 years.

[Mr. Brown]

hire the mob to blow up the salon that don't follow. form an organization to set a state minimum pricing across the board. regulate tanning price like beer and cigaret. everyone win!

[nebtans]

I want some of what they smoking!

Yeah right! when chain with several salons in area are all over radio with unlimited year for 99no sign up fee and no session add on fees.

OR better yet.... just show up at a popular nightclub and be first 100 thru the door to get 6 months free tans at xyz salons.

$13 per tan or year at 79-99 for YEAR?

[Din]

Nebs,

That is when you go high end tanning. High Pressure tanning.......screw competing with franchises. We have the same thing here with franchises...but only the cheap ppl go there. They want good tans they come to us. When only the best is good enough for them.

[W8INLINE]

Nebs, do this

Go to your cometitors and ask them to give you their business cards so you can refer people to them. Get rid of your base beds. Advertise TOP OF THE LINE EQUIPMENT with MOST FREQUENT LAMP CHANGES!!!!

on your ad say TOP OF THE LINE EQUIPMENT AT COMPETITIVE PRICES - FOR LOW BUDGET BASE BED TANS WE CAN REFFER YOU TO REGULAR TANNING SALONS WITH CHEAP EQUIPMENT AND PRICES!

WHEN SKIN CARE AND TREATING YOURSELF TO ONLY THE BEST TRY US OUT FOR THE BEST EQUIPMENT THE INDUSTRY HAS TO OFFER!

and when they come in and ask how much are your unlimiteds hand them over a bus. card from down the street.

[BodyGlow]

love it, danggirl!!

And how about we add the marketing campaign/promotion of promoting smart tanning and getting former 'non-tanners' to try tanning and then wow them with our great service and value so that they continue to tan, experience outstanding skin results with lotion, tell their friends, etc....

how's that for a promotion!

[Din]

Body Glow, you should be wowing and educating new customers and current customers everyday....that shouldn't be a promotion. That should be in all your marketing and advertising always.

[nebtans]

The chains are high end also. Now called Sunspas in their ads.

Aqua Massage, Hydration Station and Lumiere now being offered... Still $99 for year on radio so far 6 times this morning that I heard.

[nebtans]

The chain owner, Nightclub owner I am referring to is multimillionaire. Has owned nightclubs for years and tanning salons before that.

He is a great marketer He will not close due to selling to minors. He just buys more clubs. And now more businesses of other types.

All I was saying is that some of you will have your pricing structure challenged in the future.

[Tanning Queen]

Nebs,

Have you gone in and found out exactly what is being offered for $99? Could it be that it is for the base equipment only and the rest is upgrades? Or that you can only use the equipment every other day or some other restrictions?

[Din]

Giggidy Giggidy.....invetigate it further.

[cannie]

Originally Posted by danggirl

I got a good promotion:

Im having a Tanning Salons Stop Have Prices Like Its Still 1983.
On a serious note why promote anything when we still have salons selling $5 sessions or even $8 session. The price of sessions havent changed in 23 yrs.

This is the part I've never understood....I've read this from more than one person on boards. We are not the only industry that has gone down in prices. First of all, beds have gone down in prices (other than HP and such). but, even with HP most of us still get top dollar for them ($30-45 per session). Look at the computer industry, 20 years ago they were the size of rooms and no one could afford them....now you can pick them up for 300 bucks at Walmart. I can also go on dell.com and build one the way i want it for 3k. All industry's have their high end and low end...I don't care how you swing it, base beds are low end...we price acordingly.

If you have a high end salon, you pretty much have a niche and work it in such a fashion. And, if base beds were 10-13.75 a session now do you really think HP would look so "high end" at $30-45 a pop. We would have have walk in's on Hp's near 100 bucks if we were to follow the price changes that "should" have happened since 1983. Also, if you look at the franchises and pay close attention to the 99 a year mess...trust me, they are getting WAY more per customer than most average salons out there. Look at the pricing structure of most franchises, its all based on getting them in upper end equipment at reasonable upgrade fee's.

I would say anyone with the intetion of actully NOT upselling someone when they get in the doors from a "low low amazing super duper deal" really shouldn't be in any sort of business.

It's all marketing...none of it should really be about a 10 dollar base session. We don't want them in those beds anyways.

[W8INLINE]

nebs, be unique.

Charge DOUBLE what he charges.

Your sign outside should read. "1YR. $190 with us $95 with them"...."WANNA KNOW WHY???? COME IN AND SEE"

FAKEM UP man..... do you think your beds are worth more than $95/yr? get your customers to see it that way.

[W8INLINE]

on second thought....screw it charge $400/year....that'll show em

[cannie]

I'm not trying to argue with you, just making a point. And really you can get computers cheaper than $600. My point was just that nothing is ever a steady price increase of any amount, even if it is just .25.

7 years ago I would order a steak at o'charlies, and today I'm barely paying a dollar more. but on that note, 5 years before that it pretty much stayed the same. Econmy dosn't work that way, not everything...especailly such a new industry is just gonna stay on a path of price increases and super high demand. And, as a whole...the tanning industry has had amazing growth. Some good and some bad. More types of beds, lotions, all that good stuff. and a lot more competition b/c it did become a lot more afordable for people to get into it. Its such a young industry, in the 80's when it was so new it was a rare thing to come across. Anything rare gets more money. Now its on every corner...heck, 3 per corner in some places.
It would take more leaps and bounds than possible to change this industry back in the direction of typical price inflation.

But if you figure out a way to make it where EVERY tanning salon has that base price and no one has to compete on price (the american way in business)...send me a line and I'll gladly be a part of it. But until then, the industry and we see it right now has made its circle; its kind of feast or famine. Like all things, from the mom and pop restraunts to the mom and pop computer stores; in some areas, it will always work. In most places, unfortunatly for most of us...the big boys will start to cover the market. I can't really think of an industry off the top of my head that hasnt made itself "one in EVERY TOWN".

I even have to look into myself for the fact that I shop at department stores, walmart, and eat at restraunts I just know of. Every now and then in Atlanta I'll hop into a small botique and pick up some clothes, but have yet to make a habbit of shoping with the little guys. (even tho I am one)

And to end a long post, I don't think we'll ever see those 1980's days again. (not that i ever did, but I've heard the stories ) Simply because we've moved past that point as an industry in itself, we have no forced ourself to be like the rest of the economic population; and compete with the sales, internet, quick paced livestyle of todays consumers.

[Din]

Great in theory but will never happen. I'm in a very high end, high income family neighbourhood. Townhouses START at $300k, average house for 2000sqft with 2 car garage which is the norm starting in this area costs close to $400k....most houses are selling for $450-$500+ in my area. However the dollar store 2 units over from my salon is packed.

Why are the high income ppl shopping at dollar stores and walmart???? People don't get rich by spending money. Remember that. So there goes your theory out the window too. But i still agree with you on raising prices.....but you will never get anyone to agree. Cuz everyone will raise prices and there will always be those ppl that lowball to get all the customers coming in, then everyone else follows and back to square one.

will never end.