From Exposé Magazine   Triceuticals. . . Hair Care Gets Serious By David Pollock

  For years, the word spa, invoked an image of a mystical place of luxury and pampering at a level reserved only for the elite, jet-set crowd.  Today, day spas are popping up all around the country with a monumental level of success.  Let’s face it. . . in today’s hectic world, everyone needs a chance to escape.  Yet, we are pulled in so many directions, the word vacation sounds almost foreign to us. Day spas are delivering this once only dreamed about experience to the everyday consumer.
     There is no question that women need a little time to themselves.  They want to be pampered; they want to escape. . .even if only for a few short moments.  Drug stores, grocery stores and mass market discounters have offered a variety of bath gels and body lotions, but have missed the mark in presenting these products as the tools shoppers need for a mini-vacation in the privacy of their own homes. 

Buyers are commenting:
• “As popular as this category has been, why aren’t my stores’ sales higher?”

• “I carry a number of different bath gels and body lotions.  There really is nothing new a manufacturer can show me.”

• “There are so many different manufacturers offering bath gels and body lotions, there is no room for any new manufacturers.  I mean, a bath gel is a bath gel, right.”

    WRONG. Thinking like that will limit a store’s sales in this category.  Shoppers are not making the trip to your stores to purchase a specific bath gel time and time again.  Body care is NOT the same as hair care or skin care.  A consumer’s decision is based first on an emotion or experience that this product will evoke, while functionality and value are secondary.  What store managers and category managers must realize is that the consumer is purchasing an escape or vacation in a bottle. Increasing this category requires innovative thinking. 
   Alternative channels of distribution, like Bath & Body WorksTM and the Body ShopTM, are providing all the tools a woman needs for her own spa experience in the privacy of her own home.  The Body Shop created a total shopping experience, offering a variety of colors and irresistible aromas to entice any female shopper.
   Bath and Body Works, a division of Intimate Brands, has taken the concept to a new level.  Along with other niche marketers, such as Garden Botanika and Crabtree & Evelyn, these specialty bath retailers are challenging traditional mass market channels for body care sales.

The key factors contributing to their success are:
• Creating an overall shopping experience

• Offering a product mix presented in a variety of colors and fragrances

• Organizing products by color and fragrances to create an eye-catching appearance that draws consumers

• Arranging products in warm displays, such as baskets, rather than on pegs or plain shelves

• Changing constantly

   Walk through the doors of any Bath & Body Works.  You pass through a lattice entry way woven with vines of ivy and sounds of birds chirping.  You instantly see a rainbow of colors, with each color given a few feet of store space.  The irresistible aromas capture your attention.  Fruity, floral, spicy or any other type of fragrance you fancy, will be found at Bath & Body Works.  Consumers get caught up in the experience and can’t resist purchasing a variety of products featured in their favorite colors and fragrances.  To go even further, Bath & Body Works relies on a variety of manufacturers to provide a constantly changing product mix, so with each visit, a shopper has something new to experience. 
   Now, this is not a commercial for alternative channels of distribution, but information to consider implementing in order to capture a stronger body care customer base and ward off the cannibalization of your customer base by these alternative channels of distribution. 


IMPROVING PRESENTATION
• Treat the department or even that limited amount of shelf space as a department within a department.

• Create a relaxing experience.

• Consider playing soft, relaxing music in this department.

• Utilize more testers to increase trial rate, in addition to generating a variety of aromas to improve the shopping experience.

• Store shelves need to be eye catching, products need to be organized by color and fragrance, not product type.

• Utilize baskets and warmer displays, rather than pegging the merchandise.

     Fred Meyer recently launched a bath shop, called Splash, within its own stores.  Splash utilizes 56 linear feet to present a variety of private label and national branded bath and body therapeutic products.   In addition, Fred Meyer rounds out the experience with bath accessories, pedi-care products, etc. 
    The key message for retailers is to work with manufacturers to develop new product ideas, introduce new fragrances and colors based on the season and the latest trends, and to create a constant freshness or newness to the bath and body care department.
    In doing so, drug stores, grocery stores and mass market merchandisers stand to gain increasingly larger and more loyal shares of the thriving bath and shower care market.