For many years, most people probably thought that one hotel or day spa sure seems a whole lot like any other: the same beige, Zen look, the same menu of treatments and homogenized experiences. But now spas are really piling on the “wow” factors, serving up both big and small wows (and true surprises) in a quest for individuation. “Wows” and efforts towards greater differentiation are rising now, as a countertrend to the strong spa branding/franchising trend we identified for 2011. And given the fact that, if once upon a time, conformity helped the budding spa-goer know what to expect when stepping into the spa realm, now spa-goers are far more seasoned, and they crave truly new “aha” experiences. Continue reading
Category Archives: Spa Trend
Spa Trends 2012 Revisted: Spa Evidence – Showing the Science Behind Spa (Grade “A” for right on prediction!)
In 2011, SpaFinder named “The Science of Spa” a top trend, forecasting a new era where more questions about the proven, medical effectiveness of spa therapies would get asked, leading to new visibility for the growing archive of clinical evidence that exists for approaches like massage, meditation or acupuncture. Continue reading
2012 Spa Trends Revisited: Wellness and Beauty Coaching (gets an “A”)
The Coaching Trend was one we predicted for our top 10 spa trend list for 2012 and indeed it turned out to be a big one. In fact, I just received an email from my colleague Kathryn Stolle referencing that trend and I thought you might enjoy some of what she said. Here is her introduction (you can read the rest in the comment after this blog post): “Ideas can be life changing – we all know that. But sometimes an idea or concept can have a profound impact on not just a single life, but in a chain reaction, on a number of lives. A year ago, Susie Ellis’ 2012 Spa Trends introduced a concept/trend that would change my life forever: wellness coaching.” So if I was to grade us on how we did on this trend prediction….I will take a modest A.“Health coaching,” “wellness coaching,” even “eyebrow coaching” — coaching is a concept gathering steam at spas, with new approaches ranging from the very serious…to the simply engaging and fun. Continue reading
2012 TREND PREDICTIONS RE-VISITED: Spas Become a Family Affair (Highest Grade A+)
It’s that time of year when I am busy writing up my trend predictions for the New Year. But before I announce them (the week of November 26th) I always like to do a quick review of the past year’s predictions and give ourselves a grade (A, B, C, etc.) as to how we did. This year I decided to try something different. I am going to review them in order of which ones I think ended up resonating the most with consumers, the media, and the industry and end with the trend I think we may have missed on a bit. So here is the first one where we hit it out of the ballpark – we get an A+ for predicting that “Spas Become a Family Affair” would be huge. Continue reading
Back to Ranting and Raving
Hi Everyone,
Hope you had a good summer (or winter for my friends in that part of the world). Apologies that I have been remiss in keeping up my regular blogging these past few months, however am gearing up to begin ranting and raving once again! Continue reading