What's the spa product trend in COSMOPROF, Hong Kong?

Actually, it's quite a while that i was back from Hong Kong. This year was the first year which i have attended COSMOPROF which is the biggest spa exhibition in Asia. I had beed there for 4 days but i need to spend at least 2.5 days to quickly look for the whole exhibition. There were lots of stuffs to source and look around. They will separate halls into major of business such as retail, salon, packaging, and manufacturer. It really depends on what you are looking for. I started to walk from hall by hall. There are some products trend which i noticed that many people still keep advertising such as Organics or BB cream(which i have no clue :P) but there are something which i felt like attract my attention such as: stem cell cosmetics, micro needle therapy or phyto cosmetics.

Stem cells products' research seems to be the new products for many companies. Then i would say this trend is coming. I will talk about stem cells with spa later on because i am doing some research about this.

In term of spa equipment, who knows American will produce Electronic Herbal Hot Compress or Luk Prakob in Thai. Hmmm, should i be proud of that? I don't think so. The reason that they gave me is the consistency of heat release from traditional compress couldn't really release the benefits from herb.

Many of Thai spa suppliers have shown there and i could feel that our Thai spa products are quite exotic and we still have a lot of ways to present. I felt we are unique from the market 'cos we have culture in our products. This event, i notice Divana spa get a very well response from the clients who walked by. They had set the corner for guests to try their body scrub in the wooden trunk which looked so nice. And i guessed they should have a lot of sales on those day. Proud of Thai spa ^^. Even the booth from Wat Po also got packed with clients who come to try Thai massage and bought some products. Even their packaging wasn't so attractive but the smell of herbs were so beautiful.

Anyway if you are the one who interested to join COSMOPROF next time, my recommendation is
- pre registration long time in advance via website then you won't need to pay your registration.
- List out the products or companies which you are looking for and then will save your times to wander around if you don't have much time
- If you stay in Kowloon area, it will save your money if you go to exhibition by ferry and you will get the different mood...^^
- If you plan to collect a lot of brochures, bring the small suitcase with wheel. Then you don't need to carry on your shoulder. But be careful about the limited weight when you take back home. I would prefer E-Brochure rather than printed one.

Loy Krathong @ Ampawa

Let't take some break to see some beautiful pictures for the Loy Krathong festival in Thailand

What are important for new Menu Design of new spas?

Below is a list of questions that will help us to design menus for new spas,  that takes a number of factors into consideration. It is important to be noted that the more variations in menu do result in extra training of therapists, receptionists and spa managers. Anyway, creative is need to be used here as well. You should be better to understand who are your real customers. Then you could design which treatment they should be interested. 

Brand

Which standard treatments will we offer in the new spa for our brand?

What is the number of standard treatments for this spa?

What is the ratio of non standard treatments vs. standard treatments?

Location

What indigenous treatments can be found in the region or country our spa is located?

How could we use these treatments in our spa?

Who can train us locally in how to use these treatments?

What legal/medical/cultural/religious/spiritual procedures are attached to these treatments?

What products (oils, fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices, nuts, etc.) are used for medicinal purposes?

How are these products applied?

How could we use these products in our spa?

Where can we find these products?

Who long can we store these products?

Who can train us locally in how to use these products?

Competition

Who is our competitive set (5 spas of same standard) serving the same market?

What treatments do they offer?

What products do they use?

What is their pricing structure?

What are their strengths?

What are their weaknesses?

Owners

What special requests for treatments or products have the owners voiced?

Why do they request for these treatments/products to be added?

What spa/treatment/product experience do the owners have?

Hotel Operator

Same questions as for owners

What minimum standards of performance has the hotel operator requested?

What certifications has the hotel operator requested?

Guests

What information do we have regarding the treatment and product expectations from potential guests?

Where did we get this information from?

Legal constrains

What legal constrains exist in the country and state where our spa is located in relations to:

o         Spa facilities (male-female separation, water features, visibility inside treatment rooms, etc.)

o         Treatments (Brazilian waxing, Watsu, medical titles, etc)

o         Products (FDA, halal, free of specific substances, not from Israel, etc.)

o         Therapists (certifications, cross gender, age, etc.)

Where did we get this information from?

Religious/cultural constrains

What religious/cultural constrains exist in the country and state where our spa is located in relations to:

o         Spa facilities (male-female separation, water features, visibility inside treatment rooms, etc.)

o         Treatments (Brazilian waxing, Watsu, medical titles, etc)

o         Products (FDA, halal, free of specific substances, not from Israel, etc.)

o         Therapists (certifications, cross gender, age, etc.)

Environmental concerns

What factors could have an impact on the guest experience?

o         Noise from hotel facilities (Fitness center, disco, tennis court, etc)

o         Noise from buildings surrounding the hotel (Factory, restaurant, street, etc.)

o         Smell/pollution (Hotel restaurant, toilets, incinerator, garbage storage, etc.)

o         Water quality (Colour, smell, harmful contents, i.e. bacteria, metals, etc.)

What detergents are we using to clean our facilities?

What detergent does our contract laundry us to clean our linen?

Spa Novator Profile Presentation

This is my personal Project profile

Spa Novator Profile Presentation

View more presentations from Sunai Wachirawarakarn.

How to start up successful spa business!

 

How to start up successful spa business! 

Before you are going to start up your spa business, you
have to really understand yourselves from what really inspire you to start this business. If you think you could run successful spa business because only  you noticed your neighbor could do so or your friends told that it;s very high profitable business or there are many media talking about this as a trend. Then you should change your mind. I noticed a lot of spa closure due to these reasons.That is not the right way to start up the business, you really need to spend sometimes for  preparing your real business plan. But before doing those seriously, there are some questions which you need to question yourselves:

1. Who is your real clients who are willing to spend money in your spa? Many of you may wish to start up the spa business because you are a fan of spa, then you think if you open spas that you like you will be successful. That may be partly true. Firstly you really need to understand who is your really clients which will spend money in your spa. Their purchasing behavior or lifestyle may be totally different from you. Or you may think some people will be your clients. However have you ever ask them whether they are willing to be your clients?  Otherwise you would have to open spa to wait for clients walk in. 
2. What would be your competitive advantage of your spa which make you distinguish from the others? If you notice your surrounding, you may found a lot of existing spa or massage shop nearby you. Then you have to really know how you want to compete with them. What would be the reasons which your clients will switch to use you instead of them on long-term basis. You should be very careful not to be bias, then it may mislead your business. If you think you are going to offer a cheaper price to attreact from your competitors, have you consider whether they could do the same to you? Then you will enter in the price war or red ocean which everyone will suffer from the major drop of spa profit.  Then you have to be very creative in this area to really prosper your business in long term. 
3. What is your area of improvement which you need to be aware of? You should be aware of nobody is perfect even ourselves. We must have some weakness which may make us being inferior than our competitors. You need to identify those clearly. Then you will be able to get yourselves ready to find the ways to improve or prevent those.  
4. How are you ready to take risk in either profit or loss? Every business need resources in operating and start up. You have to know what is your status? How much resources in term of money, time or expertise, which you already have? Then you would be able to estimate how much risk you could take to ensure the success of your business. Som of you may need more expertise or some may need more financing support. Then you will know how much risk you could take? Sometimes, the second chance is not existing in the real world of business. Then take your times to really understand those before really investing in the spa.  

Enjoy your business start up! ^^

What is creative spa management?

What is creative spa management?

From my working experience many years in the industry, I have seen lots of spa success and failure. Especially in this economic crisis, lot of spas are facing a lot of challenges in gaining the profit from operation. Their revenue seems to be continuously dropping whereas the cost & expenses of the spas seems to be fix. Then what should be the solutions for surviving? Cost controlling? Lay off? or Revenue driving? I knew we have tried many different ways. One of my style of working which i always believe to survive from any crisis are being "Creative or Innovative" that will add values to your business and make you in the blue ocean not the red ocean.

Then I decided to create this blog just to share my experience, my success story or sometimes even my mistake which you could learn from. There is no rules which is going to tell you what is right or wrong in my blog. It's just a matter of what is the real experience happening in the industry.

I wish my blog will be the source of information for many of you who are interested in the spa and wellness industry where we could share and exchange our experience.

Thank you for being in a part of my wellness world! ^^