Despite a lot of negative coverage of the tanning industry in the news and all the constraints imposed over the last year such as the tanning tax and the teen tanning bans, tanning remains a fashionable activity among teenagers and young adults.
That’s mainly because popular culture still holds tanned skin as healthy-looking and attractive. If people aren’t in the booths tanning, they are applying tanning sprays and creams to get that bronze skin color.
Many kids and young adults like to tan before Spring Break so they can look good and not have to worry as much about burning during their vacation. Many tanning salons get a surge of business right before Spring Break with students looking to get a base tan before they go on their sunny vacations. These students like to tan and workout for an improved body image and a chance to show off for their peers during the break.
Even during the off seasons, younger adults and teens like to come in for a tan because they like to feel warm and many report that it makes them feel good not only while tanning but in terms of state of mind. Tanners get their doses of Vitamin D and feel happier even during the off days.
Given these ongoing trends, the tanning industry should be doing okay for some time to come.
We hit this topic a lot. Tanning salons everywhere are fighting for market share in a saturated market that is increasingly regulated. And we also say, don’t despair! There are plenty of ways to make your salon more competitive and stand out in the crowded market, such as developing your brand, offering a wide array of products, providing a unique tanning experience, and more. Here are a few more tips to keep you on your toes.
If you’ve been paying attention to the news, you know that airbrush tanning is getting more and more popular, with salons everywhere investing in their own airbrush stations, and there are even entrepreneurs trying out mobile tanning service now as well. We came across a few articles that have some useful information to get you started if you are interested, all of them on a useful tanning industry site, “Looking Fit.”
This article offers an in-depth look at the airbrush tanning business
This short article offers a few tips on what to buy if you are looking into getting started with airbrush services.
And here is some useful advice from a veteran salon owner as well on tanning businesses adding airbrush tanning to their services. All good information if you are looking to add those services.
Finally, here’s another article that nicely sums up some of the strategies to increase the competitiveness of your business: offering unique products and services, experiences, price structures, and etc. All definitely worth a read.
We would recommend browsing some of the additional article links under the articles you read. There’s a lot of great information in there. Anything that you can use to give your business the edge over the competition is worthwhile!
Businesses everywhere were hit hard by the recession; many are still struggling. The tanning industry has especially felt the effects of the weak economy, considering all the hits it has taken in recent legislation. First it was the tan tax, now it is legislators around the world considering age-specific tanning bans.
So how are tanning businesses getting by? Many salon owners have gotten creative, adding services they didn’t offer before and trying new marketing techniques.
Spray tanning is getting very popular very fast, and many tanning owners are jumping on board and are adapting spray tanning services of their own to supplement their incomes. One salon owner offers his advice on starting a spray tanning service and his take on the industry is optimistic and encouraging. Definitely worth a read.
Other owners are offering other services like red light therapy, and even body wraps in order to offer more variety for their customers. Who knows, you might find a new niche to take advantage of; it never hurts to get creative. Think about what the customer wants: to look good and feel good. Tanning helps your customers achieve a favorable body image for your customers, and in turn they feel good about that, while enjoying some endorphins along the way. Think about what you can do to supplement that.
Other salons are engaging the community. This salon for example is offering free tans for anyone who brings in canned goods. Charity drives like this may not get you as much revenue in the short run, but they also build rapport with the community and bring in more customers, which not only being good in itself, could get you more customers and revenue over time.
Salon owners everywhere are doing their best to make things work. It takes some creativity and perseverance, but owners are definitely making it happen.
Looking great at Tantalizing Skin tanning salon!
This month’s Salon Showcase, a salon called Tantalizing Skin, is a strikingly sleek and contemporary salon located in Kansas. When you walk into this salon you realize right away that the place has style!
The walls are done in our new Metallic Silver finish and they are matched with our elegant silver framing. In addition, the owner decided to upgrade the doors of their showpiece bed-rooms to our modern diamond plate doors. The end result is a steely, modern design scheme for a hip salon that is ready to take in some hip customers.
This salon looks truly fantastic and it is definitely one of our all time favorite Salon Showcases! We are excited for all of the savvy tanners that are going to get in some great tanning sessions in our Salon Showcase of the month!
For past Salon Showcases click here.
The tanning debate continues on with one group stressing the benefits of vitamin D and another group stressing the dangers of UV rays. We’ve talked about these issues before, and the arguments are constantly coming up. Definitely a big issue having to do with the tanning industry.
Here is a well-balanced article that tackles the issue and lays out the pros and cons of both tanning and sunscreen. The article definitely seems favorable to getting some rays here and there, as it mentions that we are seeing new breakouts of vitamin D deficiencies that could be very costly to our health.
So again, we have two main sides to the debate. One side stresses that we need sun and the vitamin D that comes with the UV and then the other side stresses that UV rays are carcinogenic and that we should avoid them at all costs.
In the end, moderation is the answer. We don’t want to fry in the sun all day – this leads to sunburns and possibly other future complications such as skin cancer. But we also don’t want to avoid the sun all day either. We’ve lived with the sun for a long time and there’s no reason to abandon it now. A fearmongering sunscare message is not going to get us anywhere except perhaps a low vitamin D level.
After all, UV rays give us our much needed vitamin D and even fight depression. Knowing to moderate and live a healthy life is key to a long and happy life.
