Spa Balance

43. Crafting Irresistible Offerings – Why Market Studies Fall Short

Today is a controversial episode .

Here’s the curveball I’d like to throw out there:

When it comes to creating truly irresistible wellness offerings (that is offerings that your guests absolutely love), how important is it to have detailed market studies?

Now, I’d like to clarify that I’m NOT saying that market studies do not have value and that we should not do them. They are important and valuable – of course.

What I’m offering is another perspective.

I’m asking you to think about how useful the ‘data’ in these comprehensive market studies are when it comes to designing the truly irresistible offering of the right, most profitable wellness concept for your particular property.


Because having ‘data’ (no matter how ‘amazing’ it is), for the sake of having data, is not always useful.

Let me explain.

I’ve been part of projects where tens of thousands of dollars have been spent in commissioning quite elaborate market studies – truly impressive. These studies had the entire ‘kitchen sink’ of the wellness industry (size, segments, trends, growth predictions, etc.). They were encyclopedias of information.

But, rarely did these market studies give useful information to help me create a truly irresistible offering. Because their core focus was the market – what is happening in the market, what are competitors doing, where do the key players think the industry is headed.

However, very little information was about the customer. What are their wellbeing problems? What are they doing to solve their wellbeing problems? What is working for them and what isn’t?

So it’s no wonder these projects didn’t manage to create truly irresistible wellness offerings; they were missing the most important part of the study – the ideal guest.

In today’s episode, I’d like to share a clip of a LinkedIn Live session where I talked about the myths around market studies and what we as wellness leaders can do to ensure we get the information we need so that we can create the right, most profitable wellness offering for our particular property.

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