How Hand & Stone Created a New Spa Customer

Over the past decade, the health-and-wellness-services segment has expanded rapidly, finding eager new consumers in millennials who are now flexing the full might of their buying powers. But there’s one subcategory of the segment that has long remained a stubbornly niche industry: massage, facial and hair removal services. Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa was designed to open the health-and-wellness market to a wider audience. And it’s doing just that.

In just over 15 years, the franchise has expanded to over 450 locations across the U.S. and Canada, the vast majority of which were established over the past decade, when the brand saw an astounding 1,300 percent growth rate.

Hand & Stone has found unprecedented success in its segment by making massage and facial services widely available without sacrificing quality or the exceptional personal touch associated with the services.

The brand accomplished this feat by recognizing a crucial, unaddressed discrepancy in the market. Not only were consumers eager for widely available mainstream massage and facial options, but massage therapists were stifled by limited employment options.

Market Discrepancy

Hand & Stone Canada President Gigi Harding says fitting those two pieces together was the key to the franchise’s success.

“For so long, the only places people could get a decent massage was at high-end luxury spas — which were, for many people, cost-prohibitive — or in a chiropractic or physiotherapy clinic setting. Not only did that limit consumers, it meant that so many talented massage therapists were frustrated with a lack of ability to be completely booked,” Harding explained.

By bringing luxury spa services into the mainstream, Hand & Stone has established a broad and growing base of loyal patrons. And the brand is continuing to leverage its unique position in its segment by rolling out new products and services, like flexible, low-cost membership options, gift cards and new massage modalities and facial offerings.

New Products and Revenue

The brand has also carved out a lucrative additional revenue stream by offering retail products at its spa locations. Hand & Stone has partnered with a number of spa-product brands, including Dermalogica, whose top-of-the-line skincare products are used by Hand & Stone’s estheticians and offered for sale in the front of the spa.

That ongoing dedication to the democratization of exceptional massage, facial and hair removal services and products has not only made Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa one of the most popular new brands in the segment, it has introduced an entire generation of consumers to services previously considered off-limits to all but a small subset of wealthy consumers.