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
Tag Archives: spas
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