DWhite6872

We have a lot of work to do with Sunless. Sunless is a huge opportunity for us. The Sunless market is here to stay...we need to learn how to work with it..we need to understand the sunless customer better.

ALOHATANCA

Well said D..

Jeni and Mike

There are two problems that effects the price… the first is the fact that it does not last long enough, sure you hear people talk about it lasting a week, these people do not BATHE. For the average person its 4 days at best for good color. And don’t tell me how this solution or that lasts longer it’s just not true. Has nothing to do with the solution brand it has to do with human skin and the natural exfoliating process. Clients have to care for their sunless tan to make it last and that takes time and money for the right products.

Second problem is there is no way anybody is going to maintain a sunless tan for long. You can’t stain the dead layer of skin for an extended period of time with out looking very, very strange.

It is what it is, a quick tan the only thing that has changed is the color is better and the process is faster. The market will grow. The high pricing of sessions and equipment was never going to last simple economics supply and demand. You have salon owners tanning people on 15K tanning beds for $5 a session, same thing.

The salon owners who have figured this out are cranking them through as $15 and making good money doing it. Market it right and it’s a real winner. But you have to know how and who to target.

Tanfaker

Jeni & MIke:

I bathe every day, and normally I am in and out of the shower quickly, using Aveeno shower stuff...Lavendar label, can't remember what the specific name is, really. If I need to, I use an extender to prolong my color, and I've had my tan up to 11 days without looking freaky.

There are a lot of tricks involved, bar soaps should be avoided, I only shave my legs every other day, using good lotion, etc. When I went to the Mystic YEARS ago, the only information I was given was, "Don't shower for four hours". I had used Caress bar soap my whole life, and voila! In two showers, the tan was gone - except on my feet and hands, which of course, looked ridiculous. So I went back, bought another session, and another. I spent $75 in a matter of about seven days to try to get this thing down. Didn't happen. Very frustrating, and of course, I couldn't maintain a tanning budget of $75 per week to have color.

Sunless can be good, I promise. But there is maintenance to it, and I agree as far as marketing and pricing, it is very individualized as to what one's specific market will bear. In NY, an airbrush tan can run you anywhere from $65 to $100. At a hotel in Jamaica, it is $180 because they insist on a salt scrub to accompany your ab tan. Here, I charge $22 for a single session, and I have packages that allow me to charge as little as $16 per tan. I want to make this available to as many pocketbooks as possible. I am still finding new things every day that assist in keeping sunless color longer. Sunscreens that are labelled, "sport" for one. It's incredibly hot here, and these sunscreens work wonders. Even if folks aren't interested in the SPF factor of the lotion, it's the other active ingredients that make it sweatprrof and waterproof. This is huge for the folks that I spray who are leaving on vacation the next day. I can't imagine forking out $ for a sunless tan only to be told, "You can't swim or it'll be gone". That sucks!

Jeni and Mike

Jen

I am talking about having your tan for up to 11 months not 11 days. I am talking about maintaining it once a week. How long have you done that for? And like I stated about maintaining a single tan it takes time and products, you make my point.

By the way I like sunless and have had a unit for 4 years.

DWhite6872

There is the sunless unit...but what about everyone who buys the products? We have not even begun to tap into the true "Sunless market"

Jeni and Mike

No doubt more people use these products at home. That is the real push for tanning salons to get the public to come to them for tanning products. Problem is these products are sold everywhere.

Think about all the "low carb" stores that went in and out of business trying to market something that any grocery story would and eventually did carry.

Marketing to people who do not come into tanning salons is a tough sell. Marketing to people already there is easy.

Tanfaker

I guess I'm confused here...Is there a tan that lasts 11 months? Any kind of tan? I'm assuming you are talking about a UV tan, which once a base tan is achieved, can be maintained with one session a week? I'm not trying to start an argument, by any means - at all, so please don't take what I'm about to say as such. Sunless tanning was borne from the need in the market for those who cannot or choose to not get their tan from UV beds or the sun, for whatever reason. The sunless market is another method, that's all. I'm not sure how tough a sell sunless is, there's a lady I know who owns three tanning salons who incorporated airbrush tanning and is doing quite well with her sunless business. She realized it had the possibility to bring people into her salon that wouldn't have otherwise come in.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think sunless products on the market today have went as far as they can go, but I do believe they've come a LONG way from the days of QT being the only thing on the shelf. Until there's a tan tattoo, that costs around $10,000 and is extremely painful, we'll have to make do with what is available, and they are getting better every day. Lots of competition, and that breeds (hopefully) better product quality.

Jen

And while sunless products are available everywhere, the tanning solutions I use in the studio are not sold at drugstores or big boxes.

Jeni and Mike

Jen,

Ok, I will ask you this question again. How many clients do you have that maintain their sunless tan for long periods of time i.e. come to be sprayed once a week for say a month or two? Repete business in a fashion tanning salon owners are a custom to with say an HP unit or a Vhr bed is non existent. Sunless tanners are “event” tanners.

Now as I have stated sunless “spray tanning” has its market and every salon should offer it in one fashion or another. What Jim was asking I believe was not how popular is “sunless tanning as a whole” but how popular is sunless as a “service”.

Do the numbers if the “average” sunless client uses the service say 5 times a year which I believe is a good figure according to our records over the last several years. (Actually since inception we have averaged 2.7 per client over a 4 year period.) To achieve the numbers the vendors suggest one would have to have about 400-500 repeat clients after the initial “first timers” have given it a try.

Now what this states is EVERYBODY tries it once hence the inflated numbers salons in the beginning were experiencing. In many areas the majority of curiosity sales has fallen off so the numbers have also. Second the service is changing in its perceived value. It would seam in upscale areas an “air brush” tan has more value than a “automated spray tan” in much the same way a Massage by a certified tech has more value than a massage with a water massage table. The reality is it must because of the labor factor.

Again I would never open a salon with out the service it’s a must for a full service salon, one of the things sunless brings to the table is “additional product sales” Sunless tanners are product freaks to say the least.

dcjjp2

Well said.