Mystic Tan, Inc.

by Wendy Craft

Mystic Tan promotes its quality equipment and technology through a radical marketing and public-relations approach.

During the spring of 1999, prior to Mystic Tan’s official launch and when the booth still was in the prototype stages, a televised news story about the equipment aired in the Dallas area. In the three months following that initial story, two Mystic Tan booths in two different salons generated $125,000 in revenue, the company reports.

“We discovered very early with this product and this concept that you can generate lots of publicity,” says Troy Cooper, Mystic Tan, Inc. president. “We plough most of our marketing money into promoting the booth through public relations. We’re educating the public to the availability of the technology and the booth itself, and the Mystic Tan name.”

For example, Mystic Tan booths are shipped to national events such as the Academy Awards® and the Miss Teen USA® pageant to tan celebrities and contestants during pre-shows.

“We’ve been on lots of talk shows like ‘Ryan Seacrest,’ and we’ve actually tanned people live on ‘Live with Regis and Kelly’— so we’ve gotten a lot of exposure that way,” Cooper says.

The publicity prompts people to seek out salons in their area that carry Mystic Tan booths. The company’s Web site can direct consumers to particular salons through its search function.

“The site has been driving a lot of business into the stores,” Cooper says. “We not only sell salons the unit, but we try to deliver the customer, too.”

Last year, Mystic Tan presented a new model with hopes of benefiting from the sheer amount of media coverage the company receives. The latest model in the Innovation series, the MTI-5000, debuted at the Las Vegas Tanning Expo in June 2004. The MTI-5000 was designed in response to the success of the original MTO-3000 booth and feedback from clients.

The sleek MTI-5000 is touch-free and equipped with voice instructions that guide the tanner through the entire process. Available colors include Chromium Silver™, Rubium Red™ and Aquium Blue™. Decorative light kits on the top provide a soft-light effect inside, and its Euro-style door has a frosted look with the Mystic Tan logo etched into it.

“Everybody loves the new design, and all of the features make it more user-friendly for the customer,” Cooper says.

The Innovation series features the same MagneTan™ technology used in the MTO-3000. MagneTan technology puts a negative charge on the droplets of Mystic Tan solution as they pass through the nozzle, which causes the mist to attract to areas of the body that have a positive or neutral charge. The result is an even, all-over tan.

The Innovation series models utilize the Mystic Tan Multi-Myst System™. Tanners can choose between two Mystic Tan tanning mists: ClearMyst™ goes on clear for an even, natural-looking tan, darkening by the hour; and BronzMyst™ contains Insta-Color™ bronzer for a more immediate tan.

A one-year warranty is provided with the MTI-5000, which covers labor and parts. Extended parts agreements also are offered, where salon owners can purchase discounted parts for two years following the warranty, Cooper says.

The booths were designed to identify and address troubles quickly, and most problems can be handled over the phone, he says. In most cases, salon owners can change parts themselves.

“In our mind, we’re selling the end result, which is the tan,” Cooper says. “When we talk to the salon owner, we explain that we have a reliable unit that delivers a consistent, very good tan and is easy to maintain and fix if there are any problems.”

Coupled with an innovative approach to marketing, the company’s Mystic Tan units provide consistent results to create the perfect formula to further consistent success.

“The PR not only helps Mystic Tan, it helps the industry overall,” Cooper says, “because we’re getting this tremendous exposure for a method of tanning that’s being used in more and more tanning salons.”