Fusion Marketing – A strategy to grow your customer base and increase business

As we face tougher economic times, using creative marketing strategies play a key role in business success. One of these strategies is Fusion marketing, which is the collaboration or aligning of businesses that have similar target markets but don’t compete against each other. Fusion marketing alliances can be powerful partners. Examples of these are: an estate planning attorney and a life insurance salesperson; a graphic designer and a printer; a real estate professional and a mortgage broker; a wedding photographer and a disc jockey.

As a spa owner, you may choose to partner with a local gym or fitness facility. Take a look at your neighboring businesses and determine if a health food store or restaurant is the right partner for you. Talk to your vendors, sometimes, the best partners are the ones you have been working with for years.

Incorporate your Fusion marketing strategy that fits you:

Coupon sharing with your partner
Developing a plan to trade discount coupons with your chosen partner can expand your customer base, ultimately increasing sales. Think of a reasonable incentive to give to prospects and create marketing material in the form of a coupon and trade them with your partner. To bring costs down, try an electronic version of the coupon on their website.

Joining Mailing lists with your partner
When you have decided on whom you will partner with for your fusion marketing strategies, you may choose to take advantage of their customer base as they will with yours. Setting up with a joint mailing strategy will introduce their customers to your business and vice versa. This strategy is an easy and effective way to increase your customer base.

Incentives to your corresponding resource partner
This process may be the most complicated, but could be the most lucrative for your business. Providing an incentive to your resource partner to push your product or services can bring your more customers and sales. Essentially, this process is like paying your partner a referral fee or commission for business they bring in for you or the other way around. The complication in this comes in the legal attributes that are associated with it referring to contracts and agreements. But, getting paid, will incentivize anyone to help expand your business.

Cosmeceuticals: ‘Beauty from within’ market grows in the US and UK

The word ingestible cosmeceutical is a relatively new word, which describes an ingestible product that supports internal health and outward appearance via food, beverage or supplementation. The ‘beauty from within’ concept has been around for centuries, from ancient Egyptians to Asian and Indian cultures, held the believe that eating certain foods had a direct correlation with their outward appearance and their health. Today’s buying trends show that the consumers are well aware of the beauty from within concept. According to a the January 2008 report from Mintel stated that though Asia continues to be the main launch for cosmeceutical products, the latest market movements show that the UK and United States are catching up. “In fact, one in eight global cosmeceutical launches was made in the UK and United States in the past three months,” said the report.

Show me the money
The Mintel report stated the market for ingestible cosmeceuticals is on the rise. Though the overall cosmeceutical market is relatively small, Datamonitor reports that US market grew at a 15.7% between 2001 and 2006, and is predicted to reach a market value of $1.3 billion by 2011.

Who’s buying?
As the consumer interest in ingestible cosmeceuticals increases, as a business you want to know who is buying these products? For the most part, the baby boomer is the dominant market. However, the Gen-X consumer is realizing that the fountain of youth is shortly going to dry up for them.

According to the 2007 Trends Report from The Natural Marketing Institute found that men’s personal care is the fastest-growing segment in bath and body-care category. More and more men are realizing their health and appearance can enhance their success in many aspects of life. Men are primed for easy-to-use, multifunctional food and beverage products that address their health concerns as well as appearance.

Emerging Ingredient Trends
Ingredients such as acai, gogi, mangosteen, pomegranate, green tea and coenzyme Q10 are just a few of the notoriety popular ingredients in ingestible cosmeceuticals. These nutrients target an array of health conditions ranging from promoting heart health to immunity and anti-aging. Though clinical research is still fairly new these nutrients have shown very positive results for good health.

Keep an eye on:

• Omega-3 – A great anti-inflammatory for joint and skin health
• GABA – Gamma aminobutric acid helps nourish skin and is traditionally used for stress relief.
• Botanicals – Botanical based cosmeceuticals can help detoxify, release stress, promote healthy heart function and help skin appear brighter.
• Probiotics – An optimal functioning digestive tract can keep a healthy immune system as well as diminish the signs of aging.

Spa Nutrition: Functional Spa Beverages
When you think of spa nutrition, you may think of many different things. For Sequence XO, Spa Nutrition is approaching nutrition like a spa treatment. Take a quality nutritional supplement; add innovation, a little sexiness and luxury to it and you get the Spa Nutrition product line. By creating products that fit within the spa atmosphere, they help enhance the spa experience of your guest to achieve pure relaxation, beautiful skin and healthy aging.

Spa Nutrition Product Line

• Radiance is our beauty and sun care beverage. Formulated with green tea, acai, gogi and mangosteen berry; plus vitamins A, C and E, and amino acids to help rejuvenate and protect the skin. (Radiance comes in a 16-oz powder jar. Just add one tablespoon to your favorite spa smoothie or simply shake it up in a water bottle for an instant facial).

• Calm is our most relaxing energizing effervescent tea on the market. Formulated with Ashwanganda, a vitamin B-complex and a clinically tested milk protein to relax any spa goer. (Calm comes in a 8-oz jar. Just drop one effervescent tablet in either warm or cold water to re-energize your senses).

• Fusion is our antioxidant solution for turning back time. Fusion combines the most innovative antioxidants on the market for great skin, healthy immune response and promotes energy and a healthy heart. It’s everything you need, everyday. (Fusion comes in a 60-tablet bottle. Just take two tablets daily with either your morning or afternoon meal).

What are your thoughts on the 'Beauty From Within' concept? How is your spa adapting? We want to hear from you. Please post your comments by clicking on the comments tab or you can email us at info@sequencexo.com. Live zenfully spalicious!