Sunless In The Salon

Sunless In The Salon
Salon Owners Discuss Complementing Services

by Jenifer Hunt

“I believe sunless tanning will continue to play an important role in generating revenue for my salon. Sunless services currently are down, and I attribute this to the relative newness of the service. The number of people falling in love with sunless tanning continues to grow, and as confidence in the service grows, so will demand.

We promote sunless tanning to our UV customers by suggesting that they ‘have a tan while you get a tan’. We point out to each new customer that the ideal time to get a sunless tan is when their skin is warm and supple. We suggest they receive a sunless session immediately following their first UV tanning session.

We remind them to refrain from wearing tight clothing, showering or engaging in any activity for six hours because it may cause them to perspire. By following these simple suggestions our UV tanning customers can achieve a sunless ‘Golden Tan’ that will look great as they work on getting a base tan.

We also tell customers that if they are in a hurry to look good for a special occasion, sunless is a time-saving alternative to traditional indoor tanning. In addition, we offer customers in our membership program a reduced price on sunless spray sessions.”

—Rocco J. Viele, president
Golden Tans of Rochester, Inc.
Rochester, N.Y.

“When sunless tanning exploded onto the market a few years ago, I felt it had the momentum and consumer demand to take the tanning industry in a completely new direction. Naturally, I didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to begin providing a new, instant way to let customers get healthy-looking bronzed skin.

While the sunless services have proven to be a beneficial ancillary addition to our business, I don’t think sunless tanning generates enough revenue to survive as a stand-alone service. The best thing sunless does is help UV tanners even their skin tones to enhance the appearance of tanned skin. Sunless is ideal for customers who have a difficult time tanning problem areas such as their faces and legs.”

—Danie Benson, owner
Simply The Best Tanning Salons
Hampton Falls, N.H.

“Sunless tanning definitely needs to be a on a salon’s menu of available services, even though it’s not usually a key revenue generator. We do print advertising for our sunless products and services and provide free sunless trials to every new club member. This increases awareness that sunless tanning can be used as a quick alternative to traditional tanning for getting beautiful skin.”

—Dave Lengel, president
Baja Beach Tanning Clubs
Reading, Pa.

“As soon as our sunless spray booth arrived in 2003, consumer demand for the service took off, averaging 15 to 20 customers per day. That high demand remained steady in 2004, and we were able to cover the cost of our $30,000 investment in less than six months. Comparatively, sunless revenues in 2005 and 2006 have been a bit lower. However, sunless services still are profitable and remain a viable segment of our salon’s business.

Our promotion strategy is simple. We prominently display our attractive sunless stand-up booth and that captures customer attention and translates into a valuable conversation piece. It invites curiosity that allows for increased sales.We also offer great sunless tanning packages and always promote both our UV and sunless tanning services in all our advertising.”

—Marc Schultz, co-owner
Sunglow Salon
Stamford, Conn.

“Profits from sunless tanning have been down over the past four to six months due to market saturation. Competition for the market has heated up, and that has resulted in a diluted customer base. For example, our salon was the first in the area to offer a Mystic Tan booth, but now several other salons also provide sunless stand-ups and airbrush services.

We offer sunless services to attract tanners that want an alternative to UV tanning and as an additional service for UV tanners who get sunless tans to even out skin tone or as a faster way to get golden. I find there is plenty of crossover demand in our customer base for sunless services. The market for sunless is still strong, but so is the competition.”

—Grant Miller, co-owner
Sun Your Buns
Erie, Pa.