We live on a planet that's 2/3 water and we don't have gills; we live on a planet full of consumer choices and we don't yet have the faculties to choose well.
Adam Werbach
This week's Splash e-newsletter for the aquatics industry addressed the topic of 'Attracting Patients in a Down Economy' and suggested that it would be beneficial to look at how other aquatic disciplines are approaching this concern. Particular reference was made to the spa industry and a recent blog post from Susie Ellis (spa guru) of Spa Finder giving her top 10 list of new spa trends for 2009. I too had seen the list and have been thinking about what it might mean in the context of 'economy' and 'choice'. What might spas and aquatic therapy clinics, both service-oriented, have in common when it comes to attracting custom?
As a member of the professional social network LinkedIn where I belong to a number of groups concerned with spa and the health marketing community, I have been following the discussions about the economic situation there too. I've come to the conclusion that many people are still holding on to a familiar paradigm that is dependent on a consumerist culture. The greater part of the spa industry seems fully invested in this, as reflected in the tendency to seek to wrap the same concepts in ever more enticing or intriguing packages. Top spas continue to boast of 11 000 square foot of high-technology treatment options.
Simple and sustainable
How many ways can you cook an egg? How many ways can you wrap a body? How many ways can you spend a health dollar? What if such an approach only takes you further away from the fundamental needs people are seeking to meet? Sometimes simple is best and small is beautiful. When I was establishing my first spa-retreat, I looked at what the most popular treatments offered by spas were, and noticed that by a long streak this was plain old massage. But I wanted to focus on aquatic bodywork and to show people that this had value too. So I decided to offer table massage and aquatic bodywork, and keep the 'menu' at that.
A stay at our retreat always included both land and water sessions in the daily rate in such a way that people could decide how they wanted to combine them, when, and with which practitioner. Simplicity and flexibility. No-one ever asked why we didn't have more options or more staff or more rooms. The treatments offered were assessed top rate, and each guest got personal and individualized attention. I came to the conclusion that what people truly want is something that, with little fuss and trouble, takes their particular needs into careful consideration, and then makes use of a few simple, appropriate, and flexible tools to meet that well.
Low-budget operations have to do this of course but the outcome need not mean that the client or patient or guest loses out. Perhaps it doesn't take a billion dollar renovation to provide the best of service. Perhaps what it takes is our deepest and truest sense of our humanity and our connection with each other and with the planet upon whose resources we ultimately depend. Spa and aquatic clinic visitors are seeking greater health and wellbeing. In the long run, neither quality can exist independent of the community and environment in which we all live. That is what a downturn reminds us about - sustainability for all is ideal.
The luxury market, as exemplified by spas, does not seem to be being slowed at all by the economic downturn. However, these venues are for a small elite. Relatively few people can afford the services of the ecoluxury destination spas springing up in exotic locations all over the globe now. Many appear to be leading the way regards environmentally and socially conscious operations but they are still for the few, and their acquisition of prime land stands in danger of looking like a new form of colonialism.
Could we look behind this to ask what people (rich or not) are really seeking and what is truly sustainable over time?
Seeking inspiration
I've just finished reading a controversial article by Adam Werbach called the 'Birth of Blue' in which he is making a case for a new marketing drive based on 'Blue' rather than 'Green'. As a water-lover, the blue theme immediately attracted me to read on. Many of those who commented on the piece were suspicious of Werbach's motives since he was certainly not advocating the end of the shopper as we know him or her, and perhaps it was just a clever twist of novelty rhetoric. However, within his argument was a clear recognition of needs and values that are worth taking into consideration. Here's his rousing introduction:
As vast and common as the ocean, BLUE is a platform for sustainability that goes beyond the deep, beautiful green of environmentalism. Green puts the planet at the center of the dialogue. BLUE puts people at the center.... Green is the beating heart of the emerging BLUE movement. Green represents the simple and inarguable wisdom of ecology: that all things are connected. BLUE brings together a broader set of human concerns, from practice to price, from nature to society. BLUE integrates all four streams of sustainability: social, cultural, economic and environmental.
BLUE puts the way we treat ourselves and each other at the center of our focus.
That last line is a mantra for the healing professions too. Werbach contrasts the focus of conventional psychology on human maladies with the research in the field of positive psychology to establish positive interventions that would proactively make us happy rather than treat us when we are sad. The results showed that once basic needs are met, four things increase people's happiness:
being of service to something larger than ourselves; experiencing "flow," or full engagement, on a regular basis; showing gratitude to the people in our lives; having at least three people emotionally close enough to share our lives with.
What might this mean for a service business?
Putting price in context
All four happiness factors would be appropriate foundations for making health service providers, like spas and aquatic clinics, more sustainable in terms of human satisfaction (that of the staff and that of the customers). Werbach then talked of the economics of sustainability, and the need to replace the four Ps - Price, Product, Place and Promotion, as taught in most marketing classes, with three Ps - Price, Process and Purpose. (I guess People is a given in this argument.) Like the happiness factors, consideration of these Ps in the context of your service organization might provide some valuable insights and ideas for action.
In Werbach's words, the new Ps of economics ask us to consider this:
PRICE: First, we need to democratize sustainability and make it available to everyone. You shouldn't have to be rich to be sustainable.
PURPOSE: What's the purpose of what you're buying? First, do you need it? Does it fit into the healthy practices in your life?
PROCESS: What was the process to make the product? Was it energy intensive? Did it use pesticides or petroleum? Were the workers paid a fair wage? How will it be disposed of?
These are the deeper questions that lead to greater authenticity and transparency in practice. Perhaps the downturn in the economy is an opportunity to look far more closely, personally, and locally, at how and why we do our work whether as spas in the leisure sector or aquatic clinics in the medical sector. To ask if we are really meeting the needs of those we hope to serve might just be key to our success. And we may find that we can do less but do it better, spend less but spend more effectively.
Are you meeting people's needs?
What can you do to work together with your staff and customers to improve the effectiveness and availability and sustainability of your services. Or following the mantra I like to use for my vision of spa-retreat, what can you do to be more 'soulful and sustainable'. In the end it is not the words that matter - though they may help to inspire us - but what we actually do and what that conveys to those we want to serve. People who are watching their health dollars want to know that their real needs will be met.
Vision Spa Retreat is linked with another weblog on aquatic therapy: for more on this please visit Aquapoetics: Creative Aquatic Bodywork.
