Soakinuptherays

How to Fight Back from Tanning Product Diversion!

Diversion Sucks!

Indoor tanning products should only be sold by tanning salons!

Diversion is when indoor tanning products are sold at WHOLESALE PRICES directly to tanners from beauty suppliers, retail stores, beauty salons without tanning beds, flea markets, over the Internet, or anywhere else other than a tanning salon!

How many times have you been accused of ripping off your customers or been embarrassed to have a tanner say: “I
saw that on the Internet, beauty suppliers, flea market or retail stores for 1/2 that price!”

What can you do to stop or limit your lost profits from “diversion” of indoor tanning products .

1) Exclusivity:
Sell only indoor tanning products that do not sell to beauty suppliers, retail stores, home tanners, or discount Internet sites.

* By you stocking brand names that do allow “Diversion” or are available elsewhere then you are simply validating the quality and effects of those brands of products to your customers. So if they see it elsewhere, they do not hesitate to buy it some where else for a lower cost.

* Private labeling your own line of indoor tanning product assures this but some lines like Soakin’ Up The Rays (R)and a select few other lines of indoor tanning products also have these policies to protect your profits by controlling diversion of their products.




2) Lotion Discounts:
With the heavy discounts below wholesale for most product lines often you can identify potential buyers of “diversion” items and offer them a deep discount for buying from you. You will make less money but some is better than nothing!

* Be careful, you do not want other customers knowing that some tanners receive deeper discounts that others.

3) Add Lotions to Tanning Packages:
Offer tanners a “ special deal” when they are buying or renewing a tanning package. That way you can make it seem like the customer is getting a deep discount of the lotion, when in reality you are cost averaging between the tanning and the lotion.

* Some salons offer a “FREE LOTION” to every new tanner. You may also consider that on every package renewed giving a $15.00 bottle as credit to the product they want. If you buy a 60.00 retail product for $18.00 then adding credit for $15.00 means you sold it for $45.00 but to get the credit they must buy their lotion from you!

4) Lotion Storage For Your Tanners:
Offer tanners to storage their lotion in between visits so they do not have carry it their car, purse, bag or worry about forgetting it. BUT!, You will only store products that have been bought in your salon!

* Be careful, tanners may accuse you of losing their bottle or letting others use their bottle and demand a new bottle. Little lockers, individual zip lock bags with their name with a sign in/sign out sheet, or filing system may help solve these problems. Test it on a few and work out the kinks to the program before doing it for everyone.

5) Warning about using indoor tanning products purchased elsewhere:
You will want to have tanners you see using a product that you do not sell sign a release of liability for you and saying they are responsible for any damage that “foreign” lotion does to your beds.

* Yes, this is a scare tactic! It just may work!

seeker

...or you could sell wholesale yourself to your customers, over the internet, flea markets, etc.

Your customers might just love you for it and you may just be better off. Walmart didn't get to be the top retail chain in the world with one of it's owners the richest person in the world and basically bankrupting their closest competition in America, Kmart by jacking up the prices and trying to stop diversion.

If you want to sell lotions, sell them at the lowest prices possible and you will sell more. If you can't beat them (and you won't), you might as well join them. Besides, why would one want to rip off their customers just for higher profit margins, especially with all the competition out there getting stiffer each day. Unethical business practices will only bury you in the end.

Luv2BTan

There are times that I wish all tanners could read posts on these boards. Geez... this actually suggests lying and deceiving your customer. I hope that no decent salon owner will do these things. Seeker is right, honesty and integrity will get you further in the long run.

I realize that most, if not all, salon owners disagree with droping their lotion prices. However, these same owners must also know that many of the online sites are run by salons. You want to make a bigger profit. In America, that's your choice. Just as it's the other salon owner's choice to sell it for less.

Soakinuptherays

My advice is for salon owners to protect their profits from the lotion diversion.

Shaping or spinning the truth is done everyday in this world for people to protect themselves and their businesses.

I am sorry if you see that as being dishonest. I the companies allowing their products to be sold on the internet, at beauty suppliers, at retail stores, at resorts, or anywhere that does not have tanning beds for commerical use as the one screwing and being dishonest to tanning salon owners.

Not tanning salon onwers for working to protect their familiesand businesses. Reality is cold like that!

seeker

The reality is that expanding your sales elsewhere beyond the salon and selling at competitive prices is far from being dishonest. There is no golden rule that says products should only be sold in one place. If that were true e-commerce which is revolutionizing business would be dishonest, mail-catalogs like the Sears catalog that revolutionized business in the early 1900 would be dishonest, and certainly any one of us who have boughten something from the internet, mail-catelog, flea market, etc would be helping dishonest people do business. Truth is as long as you have competitors you can't change business trends by "bending" the truth to your customers or using anticompetitive practices, you do what every top business there is that has competitors have done, you adapt.

Trying to stop competition is anticompetitive business practices and is so dishonest the U.S. and most other civilized countries have laws against it.

Decieving and lying to your customers is not only dishonest, it unethical. And once your customers figure out what's going on, they will be upset or gone. When you realize your customers are your livelyhood and keep you from going bankrupt, you realize jacking the prices up and screwing your customers over for more profit margin, decieving, and lying to your customers to try keeping others from selling lotions to them at reasonable competitive prices is no way to run a business.

I see far too many salons that push the lotion that they get the most profit from instead of the lotion that will be best for their customer. Soakinuptherays seems to cater to these salons. This does nothing for quality of the lotions being used in the industry and these such salons rarely become the top salon in their area. And lotion companies that cater to such salons become second rate lotions. This is reality. Diversion can be your friend instead of your enemy.[ This Message was edited by: seeker on 2002-08-15 14:03 ]

Luv2BTan

Seeker, You won't gain any friends around here with these views but you are so right. I have said many of the same things on other posts. Diversion is free enterprise, plain and simple. And I love the free enterprise system in America.

I've also asked these same salon owners if they have ever shopped around for a better price on something. They know they have. Heck, I suspect that most of them shop around for the best deal they can get on salon supplies. If they aren't, they are pretty foolish. I believe that my shopping around for lotions is the same thing. The online sources for lotions are legal and there is nothing wrong, in our American system, with them being there. That's the fact. Stop complaining about them, figure out how they do it, and join them. If they can do it, so can you.

wendage2

Luv2BTan wrote:
"There are times that I wish all tanners could read posts on these boards. Geez... this actually suggests lying and deceiving your customer."

I am a tanner and I read this board and others often.. After spending some time on this board and another, I noticed that the owner of the salon I went to was a frequent poster. (Hint: I live in southern california and his login is ALSO the name of his salon)

He was abusive to other posters and talked freely about his distain for customers. He is a real a&&hole and I can happily say that I have stopped going to his salon and so have about 4 of my girlfriends.

My advice is that if you are going to be rude and dishonest dont use your salon name as a tag because you never know who is lurking around!

Soakinuptherays

This topic is the prime example why indoor tanning industry discussion boards need to exclude the general tanner.

I view these boards as communication between indusrty professional not between the industry and tanners.

Diversion is wrong becuase it hurts the income of tanning salon owners. Indoor tanning products that sell to diversion sources like The Internet, Beauty Suppliers, Resorts, Retail Stores, Home tanners and other non-tanning business are not doing the right thing for salon owners.

TanInCA

Quote:Diversion is wrong becuase it hurts the income of tanning salon owners. Indoor tanning products that sell to diversion sources like The Internet, Beauty Suppliers, Resorts, Retail Stores, Home tanners and other non-tanning business are not doing the right thing for salon owners.

But this really is silly. There are so many examples of this in normal everyday life that it makes me wonder to think where the reality check in this industry is. Do you believe that EVERY industry looks out for the small business owner? Do you think that the gas station that gives free car washes away with a fill up is "diverting" sales from full service car washes?

I understand, Greg, that this pitch is excellent for YOUR sales because you are small enough to keep an eye on what is sold to whom - but face it, big brands are what sells and internet "diversion" will never be able to be stopped. If salon owners want to keep their lotion sales in-house, they are going to have to come up with creative ways of doing so. ******ing about diversion isn't going to fix anything...it's been going on for how long now?

I know it sounds harsh but I just wonder when the light bulb will kick on. Beauty salons had to do it with hair products, tanning salons will have to learn to adjust in the same manner.

Back to Reality Check 101...

njchica

Quote:
On 2002-08-15 10:00, Soakinuptherays wrote:
Shaping or spinning the truth is done everyday in this world for people to protect themselves and their businesses.


I worked for one of the biggest retail clothing companies around for years. Ran a $3 million dollar store for them for awhile. We received marketing and merchandising suggestions all the time-- both via email for management eyes only and via posters to be viewed by the entire staff of the store. Not once did they tell us to "shape" or "spin" the truth in an attempt to increase or protect sales. The products were sold based on their quality, value, and style with excellent customer service.

Sure, someone could have chosen to go to a cheaper store to buy similar merchandise but they did not receive the same product information or assistance from the staff there! Our company did extensive advertising and marketing and ran numerous promotions and specials that kept our customers loyal to us, rather than cheap discount stores. Yes it was expensive and hard work but I am proud that they never suggested that we mislead the customer. They valued the respect given them by the customers and were very careful not to ever give them a reason to lose that respect.

Sounds like some people could take a page or 2 from that company's book.