From Price Wars to Brand Power: The Key to Store Transformation

In the massage, beauty and wellness industry, many owners share the same frustration:

“If I don’t run promotions, no one comes. If I do, there’s no profit left.”

Endless discounts, group-buy deals and flash sales bring some traffic, but rarely bring loyal, high-quality clients. Everyone is fighting a price war, but the stores that really survive and grow are already shifting to a brand war.

Moving from price-led to brand-led doesn’t mean never doing discounts. It means: stop relying on price alone to do business.

1. Why price wars are getting harder to win

1) You train clients to “only care about cheap” If you rely on discounts all the time, you slowly train clients to ask only one question:

“Any promotions right now?”

No promo, no visit. Promo on, they come once and disappear. It’s very hard to build real loyalty.

2) Your profit gets eaten by your own campaigns Rent, payroll, platforms and products are all getting more expensive, but your average ticket is going down because of constant discounts. In the end, your team is busy, but the bank account isn’t.

3) Competitors can always go a bit lower Today you do 199, tomorrow someone does 189,and the day after another store shows 179.Price is a race you can never fully win. There’s always someone cheaper.

2. What is a “brand war”? It’s more than a new logo

For massage, beauty and wellness stores, brand is not just a glossy image. It’s about:

• Can your clients describe what’s unique about you in one sentence?

• When they need to relax, recharge or improve their skin, do they naturally think of you first?

• Is price just one factor among many – experience, trust, results –instead of the only factor?

You can think of it this way:

Price war: clients think “It’s cheap, I can try it once.” Brand war: clients think “I specifically want to go to that place.”

3. Three keys to shifting from price to brand

1) Positioning: who do you really want to serve?

Trying to serve “everyone” often means you stand out to no one.

For your massage/beauty business, ask yourself:

• Who do you most want to keep?

  • Office workers? Night owls? New mums? Busy women 30+ who want results, not routines?

• What do they care about the most?

  • Speed of relaxation, professionalism, quiet environment, visible results?

Give yourself a clear positioning label, for example:

• “Recovery station for overworked office workers”

• “The go-to spot for shoulder & neck relief”

• “Skin rescue base for women 30+”

Once your positioning is clear, your decoration, service menu, campaigns and content all have a clear direction.

2) Design the experience: from “doing a treatment” to “being cared for”

Your clients are not just buying a treatment. They’re buying how they feel – relaxed, understood, looked after.

Think about key touchpoints:

• From entry to exit: greeting, slippers, tea, storage, small gestures of care

• How therapists communicate: brief consultation, explanation of skin/body status, practical aftercare tips

• What happens after the visit: SMS follow-up, reminders to rebook, birthday and seasonal care

Often, what clients remember is not “essential oil 250”,but that sentence: “Your shoulders are really tight, try this stretch at home.”

That’s how brand translates into a feeling of being seen and cared for.

3) Use data and systems to make brand-building sustainable

Moving away from price wars isn’t just about creativity –it also needs data and systems.

For example:

• What is your repeat-visit rate?

• Which services get booked consistently, and which only sell when on discount?

• When you send a campaign SMS, how many people actually come in?

At this point, a good booking and marketing system is no longer a “nice extra”. It becomes part of the foundation of your upgraded store.

4. How BookRelax helps you compete on brand, not just price

At BookRelax, we focus on massage, beauty and wellness businesses. We’ve seen many stores successfully shift from “discount-driven” to “brand-driven”. Here are some of the key things a system can support:

1. Make booking feel professional

   • Online booking and multi-store management make your store look organised and reliable

   • Less time on the phone, less confusion – more time on service quality

2. Turn marketing from “last-minute rescue” into a steady rhythm

   • Use client tags (new vs returning, visit frequency, favourite treatments)to send targeted SMS campaigns

   • Promote “experience packages” instead of pure price cuts, so clients feel they’re getting value, not just a cheap deal

3. Let data guide your business decisions

   • See clearly: bookings, show-up rates, repeat rates, service contribution

   • Use data to decide which promotions to continue, and which ones are just burning profit

4. Standardise good experiences

   • Store client notes, preferences and contraindications in one system

   • Even new front desk staff or therapists can quickly understand each client, reducing “hit-or-miss” service levels

5. From “surviving” to “thriving”

In today’s more rational consumer environment, it’s hard to build a long-term, healthy business with price wars alone.

The most resilient stores usually have:

• A clear positioning

• Experiences clients love to talk about

• A system that supports repeat visits and operational efficiency

If you want to move from “keeping traffic alive with promotions” to “being the brand clients remember and willingly pay for,” you can start today by:

Fighting a little less on price, and investing more in your brand and systems.

BookRelax is designed to be part of that system, and we’d be happy to support your store on this journey from price war to brand power.