Guerilla Marketing

When times are tough, businesses tend to cut costs where they are most expensive. Usually, this means marketing and advertising. What this eventually leads to is no marketing and advertising at all. This is a common mistake that most businesses make. Why is it a mistake? If you are not out there promoting and marketing your business, how will customers find you? Rather than stopping all marketing efforts, why not attempt Guerilla Marketing.

Guerrilla Marketing is defined as an unconventional system of promotions on a very low budget, by relying on time, energy and imagination instead of big marketing budgets. There are many guerrilla marketing techniques available. Finding the one that fits your business is the tough part.

Which guerilla tactic works for your spa business?

1. Demonstrations
Allowing new clients or even established ones an opportunity to see and experience what your spa has to offer will entice them to want more. Giving them a taste of the vast array of services you offer will give them a chance to try new things without much risk. Set up an evening of demonstrations at your spa and invite your clients for demonstrations.

2.Hold a Contest
Everyone loves the opportunity to win something. Try holding a monthly raffle drawing giving away a complimentary spa treatments. Join up with another local business and set up a ‘drop your business card’ bowl or give away raffle tickets based on money spent during visits. This will give your customers another reason to come in for regular treatments.

3. Put a new twist on old treatments
Take a look at the services your spa offers and put some twists on old treatments. Add a hint of anti-aging or other trends to the treatments you have to market a “new” type of treatments. Try incorporating internal wellness products to help enhance your external treatments.

4. If you have a web presence……
If you have a web site already in place, use it to draw your customers in. Create a website that is more than just your address and what you offer. Create an experience for your customers when they visit your website. Educate them on your treatments and why they are good for them. Provide incentives specifically for when they visit your website. Try providing an “e-coupon” for them to print and bring in for a discount.

5. Establish a referral incentive program
Having an effective referral program has two advantages: it provides an opportunity for existing customers to be part of your business and it brings new business for your spa. Start to keep track of customers who are referred and who referred them. Then give an incentive for the referee as the referral brings in more business.

Get to know the ‘good’ parts of red wine!

When the “French Paradox” first aired on 60 Minutes back in 1991 it began opening the eyes of both consumers and researchers across the U.S. on the health benefits of red wine. So much, that red wine sales quadrupled. The “French Paradox” outlined how the French outlive Americans and suffer 40 percent fewer heart attacks despite their tendency to smoking and consume a diet rich in fat. What’s the secret? It boils down to wine, food and lifestyle.

What’s in the wine? Grape Seed Extract and Resveratrol
The interest in both Grape Seed Extract and Resveratrol originated from the “French Paradox” theory. Due to the way red wine is fermented, using both the grape’s skin and seeds, it increases the antioxidant activity in red wine versus white wine.

To put into perspective the antioxidant power of grape seed it has been found to be 20 times more powerful than vitamin E, and 50 times greater than vitamin C. Grape seed is an excellent free radical scavenger (scavenges molecules responsible for premature aging and disease), and even referred as the “secret anti aging vitamin”. Grape seed extract also strengthens the lining of the heart and blood vessels contributing to a healthy functioning heart.

Grapes also have a naturally occurring compound within the skin of the grape to help protect the plant from fungal infections, injury, stress and UV radiation. This powerful compound is called Resveratrol. It’s considered a part of the plant’s natural defense system, protecting the tissues from illness and disease. Resveratrol has shown to provide these same protective features on human cells and tissues, making its effect on human health a popular ingredient to supplement with.

Each of these ingredients can be obtained by drinking a glass of red wine or in concentrated doses without the alcohol by choosing a quality nutritional supplement. Sequence XO Spa Nutrition products such as Radiance Age Less Formula and Fusion Antioxidant Formula. To find out more on Sequence XO’s Spa Nutrition product line please visit our official website at: www.spanutrition.com.

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!

Spa-ing is estimated to be a $255 billion dollar economy

The spa concept once thought only for the pampering of the rich and famous has become a global phenomenon. According to the first-ever Global Spa Economy Report – the spa economy is estimated to be over $250 billion annually. The findings were unveiled at the 2008 Global Spa Summit in New York reporting the latest trends and numbers from 2007.

Beauty, nutrition and fitness increased the total revenues to $1 trillion
The spa industry brought in more than $60.3 billion in core spa industry revenues, such as spa facilities, capital investments, education, consulting, media, association, and events, plus another whopping $194 billion revenues in spa-related hospitality, tourism and real estate.

When broader spa-related industries such as beauty, nutrition, and fitness were factored in, the market exceeded $1 trillion. The global spa study from SRI International reports the spa sector is one of the first industries to organize at a global level and have a worldwide impact.

The study also split the total generated revenues by nation, the United States came on top with more than $12 billion, followed by Japan at $5.7 billion and Germany at $3.8 billion. The study included data from over 210 countries, ten times more than in previous reports.

To find more about the Global Spa Economy Report please visit Spa Trade at www.spatrade.com. Have any questions or comments please click on the comments tab below.

Dealing with Stress at the Work Place

Please visit www.sequencexo.com for more information

Job stress has become a common and costly problem in the workplace. According to a study, 40% of the American employees feel that their job is very stressful. As the issue of job related stress persist so will the employees work habits – ranging from extra sick days, decreased productivity, to even increased management problems. The cost of stress related problems to employers are estimated at about 150 billion dollars in the U.S. and 700 million pounds per year in the U.K.

Steps to relieve stress at work:

Step one: Practice non-attachment: Focus on the things you can change; distance yourself from those you can’t.

Step two: Cultivate an open mind and heart: Understand that you have strengths and weaknesses, and you will mistakes. When you do, take them as opportunities for learning, not a sign of incompetence or failure.

Step three: Balance realism and optimism: Distorting reality, either positively or negatively, can impede your ability to cope with change.

Step four: Develop confident humility: If the task is yours, act decisively; if it has been delegated to others, trust them to perform them task without interfering. This leaves both manager and staff to worry about what they are working on and not what the other person is doing.

Step five: Be constructive and impatient at the same time: Risk taking and urgency are important, but make sure staff feel safe when doing so by celebrating successes and dealing with failures constructively.

Have questions? Want to learn more about SXO's Spa Nutrition products? Please feel free to contact us via email at info@sequencexo.com or directly at (949) 608-7112.

Is your spa water aging your clients?

There are many different forms of water available for your drinking pleasure. It’s important to understand the benefits of each to ensure that you and your clients are drinking and topically using the right type of water for healthier skin and body. According to Dr. Dennis Gross, tap water contains heavy metals that can act as free radicals, which can destroy collagen. Even by washing your face with tap water can lead to impurities and heavy metals to cling to your skin, creating a breeding ground for damage to occur throughout the day.

What kind of water is best for you?

Ionized water
What is it?
Water treated with electrolysis to remove acidic particles, such as sodium, calcium, iron, copper, chloride and bromide. The water has been purified from most impurities except organic compounds.

Benefits:

• Acts as a natural antioxidant
• Helps with the body’s natural oxygen production
• Stabilizes body’s acid/alkaline balance – balancing the body’s pH
• The molecular structure of ionized water is smaller, which allows for easier passage into the cells and tissues
• Used externally, ionized water is beneficial for healthy skin, hair and scalp

Distilled water
What is it?
Water that has been heated to a boiling point eliminating impurities from the water as it vaporizes. Through a distiller, the vapor water is then cooled to become pure liquid water while the impurities such as the metals, ions, minerals, and contaminants are disposed of.

Benefits:

• Helps to flush out impurities from the body
• Allows the proper “flushing” of the blood through the kidneys, not having to have to deal with other impurities found in un-distilled water.
• No impurities, just pure H2O
• Acts as a solvent in the body by dissolving nutrients so they can be assimilated by the cell
• Collects “rejected” minerals and flushes them out as waste

Filtered water
What is it?
Water that has been filtered through a carbon based filter to remove chemical agents such as chlorine.

Benefits:

• Ensures that only organic minerals are retained in the water
• Helps to remove synthetic compounds, which turn into vapor at relatively low temperatures leading to toxins in the body if not removed

Have any comments or questions? Please email us