Web 2.0 lernt laufen

Website-Ersatz? Wellness-Pauschalen jetzt auch auf Facebook buchbar.

Also auf zu neuen Ufern – nutzen Sie die Kommunikationsmöglichkeiten mit Fans und Gästen.

Hausaufgaben gemacht?

Aber vergessen Sie dabei nicht das Web 1.0 und lassen Sie Ihren Internet-Auftritt nicht ins Hintertreffen geraten. Denn in einigen Punkten wird die eigene Website auch zukünftig im Mittelpunkt stehen: Nirgends kann man so gut mit SEO punkten und der eigenen Marke Emotionalität und Wiedererkennungswert verleihen, als auf der eigenen Website. Und außerdem: Möchten Sie Ihre komplette Internetpräsenz der Willkür eines externen Anbieters unterwerfen? Wer diese Verantwortung aus der Hand gibt, hat das ganze Internet noch nicht wirklich begriffen.

Zeit ist Geld

Außerdem gibt es bei all dem Hype eines zu bedenken: Auch Web 2.0 kostet Geld. Das glauben Sie nicht? Wurde Ihnen Social Media als schönes, neues, kostenloses Marketing-Instrument angepriesen? Unsere Erfahrung ist eine andere!

Was Sie investieren müssen, ist Zeit! Auf den Aufwand angesprochen, scheuen sich Experten leider oft genug, ehrlich zu antworten. Wir nicht: Ein erfolgreiches Social Media Projekt sollte mindestens mit 1 Stunde Zeit am Tag je Kanal ausgelegt sein. Die wird benötigt für: Beobachtung, Mediarecherche, Ideenfindung und Konzeption, Redaktion und Themenplanung, Bearbeitung, Kommentierung … und natürlich für den Dialog mit Gästen und virtuellen Freunden. Diese Arbeitszeit, also mindestens 60 Minuten täglich, nicht nur werktäglich, muss finanziert sein. Und sollte aufgrund von mangelnder Social Media Kompetenz ein Image-Schaden in diesen Netzwerken aufkommen – dann wird´s richtig teuer.

Unsere Aufgabe liegt meiner Meinung nach in Zukunft darin, Ressourcen für Kommunikation zu schaffen und eine Balance zwischen Website und Social Media Strategie zu finden.

Daher meine Frage an die Runde: Wieviel Zeit investieren Sie in Facebook & Co., um Ihr Wellness-Marketing erfolgreich nach vorne zu bringen?

Ich freue mich auf Ihre Antworten und Anregungen!

Ihr Swen Laempe

Don, you are perfectly right: the fact that the spa industry has been encouraged and even directed to promote wellness is a good thing. The astonishing thing is that this change of mind has happened within a year or two. We here in Europe are used in using the term “Wellness”, apart from the fact that it is abused a lot. Therefore, it has been interesting to hear the increased usage of the word “Wellness” in English language when attending Global Spa Summit last year. The most important thing is, that the STR study “Spas and the Global Wellness Market” is not only based on an industry research. Two surveys were distributed to spa stakeholders as well as consumers around the world. Regarding the industry survey, with a few exceptions, there was little evident variation across responses from different regions or from different types of business. The consumer survey is not large enough to provide a representative sample of consumers and has a high focus on the US market (63%), followed by Europe (20%) and Asia-Pacific (15%). Both groups were asked to define wellness as an open ended question, using their own words. Top 1 amongst 10 terms frequently associated with “wellness” in both groups: “Quality of life”.

People want to live healthier lifestyles, but as Don is saying, they need help to understand not so much how to do it (the facts of exercise and nutrition and the rest) but rather how to sustain good intentions to do so. The solution could be the creation of “Wellness Concierge Service”, as Philippe Bourguignon pointed out at GSS as one of the keynote speakers. The men who had been responsible for the successful turnaround of Club Med and rescued Euro Disney, is CEO of “Revolution Places” Today, he is busy with developing new touristic concepts, which will help to implement healthy lifestyle, like the Miraval resort in Tucson, Arizona.

The Global Spa Summit officials have done a great job to encourage STR International to do this study (and to find Murad Inclusive Health as sponsor to pay for it). The SRI report is a not only a broad endorsement for wellness – it can be a “kick-off” for the whole industry. But even with the personal help of pioneers like Don Ardell, there will be never a worldwide granted definition of “Wellness” just because of one reason: there is too much money involved in this market. STR is mentioning 2 Billion US $! Therefore, everybody will grap its piece and make it suitable for his individual profit and share of the market.

Let’s meet at the Top Wellness Event “Deutscher Wellness Gipfel”   in August in Düsseldorf, where people from different parts of the industry will meet with philosophers, journalists and a lot of other interesting people. We will have a lot to discuss about how we can catch the ball and face the challenge to help spa leaders, spa operators and consumers as well understand “that wellness can be all that SRI says it is – and a great deal more.”

Philippe Bourguingnon, Keynote Speaker GSS 2010

Die Lösung wäre die Erfindung eines „Concierge Service“, über die sich Philippe Bourguignon als Keynote-Sprecher auf dem GSS Gedanken machte. Der Retter von Euro Disney ist vor allem für den gelungenen Turnaround von Club Med, aber auch als Gastgeber beim Weltwirtschaftsgipfel in Davos bekannt. Der CEO von „Revolution Places“ mit Sitz in USA entwickelt heute neue touristische Konzepte, die helfen einen gesunden Lebensstil zu implementieren, wie beispielsweise im Miraval in Tucson, Arizona.

Es ist eine tolle Leistung, dass die Verantwortlichen des Global Spa Summit gemeinsam mit STR International diese Grundlagenstudie auf den Weg gebracht haben, ganz zu schweigen davon, mit Murad einen Sponsor zu finden. Die Untersuchung ist ein klares Bekenntnis zu einem ganzheitlichen Wellnessverständnis und kann als Anstoß zu weiteren Taten dienen. Daher sollte man nicht darüber meckern, wo noch Defizite sind und was man hätte besser machen sollen.

Eines wird aus meiner Sicht rund um den Globus nicht wirklich gelingen: eine weltweite, verbindliche Definition für WELLNESS zu finden, auch unter aktiver Hilfe von Vordenkern wie Don Ardell. Dazu ist der Kuchen schon jetzt zu groß, STR spricht von einem Marktvolumen von 2 Billionen US $. Da kann es nicht ausbleiben, dass jeder sein Süppchen kocht und sich seine Auslegung passend zum jeweiligen Geschäftsinteresse zu basteln.

Ich lade Sie ein, die angestoßene Diskussion auf dem Deutschen Wellness Gipfel im August diesen Jahres in Düsseldorf fortzusetzen und gemeinsam nach Lösungsansätzen zu suchen. Sie treffen dort auf Philosophen und Praktiker, Journalisten und Querdenker und sicherlich auf ein interessantes Publikum. Ganz besonders freue ich mich auf das Wiedersehen mit Don Ardell.

Die Defizite sind hauptsächlich Liebes- und Anerkennungsdefizite. Diese Defizite formen das Leben nachhaltig. Nach Aaron Antonovsky, dem Vater der Gesundheitsförderung, können sie in einigen Fällen auch zur Höchstleistung anspornen.

Mich interessiert das Thema sehr, denn oft steht es hartnäckig zwischen dem Menschen und dem Wohlbefinden. Was sind die nachhaltigsten Wege daraus? Müssen wir eine Schule für werdende Eltern einrichten und sie über diese Dinge besser aufklären? Müssen wir Schulen für alle Menschen einrichten, die systematisch ihre Defizite angehen und ausgleichen möchten? Oder sollen wir die Angebote, die wir haben, besser bündeln und nach Art des Defizits ausrichten? Müssen wir mehr nach dem Sinn einer Erkrankung als Botschaft der Seele und Hinweis auf ein Defizit forschen? Brauchen wir eine Lebensschule?

Sicher können wir hier mehr tun.

Schöne Grüsse vom Isartor,
Zarmina Penner

To what extend do these core segments of what SRE sees as the spa industry’s “integrated cluster” comport with, reflect or otherwise encompass what those of us who favor a quality of life-oriented form of wellness call REAL wellness. Does it fit with a philosophy of wellness that is founded on reason, exuberance, athleticism and liberty – the REAL in quality of life wellness?

Let’s look at the report more closely. Let’s start with a bright side perspective and grant that most of SRI’s core segments at least resemble what wellness promoters might consider adaptable to a REAL wellness approach.

As visitors to this site know, the term wellness is currently applied so broadly, in Europe and American and elsewhere, that it cannot be a surprise that SRI would include disparate markets under the single category. For wellness promoters, there are many reasons to being enthusiastic about this internal spa industry document. Overall, it offers a golden opportunity to channel openness to wellness along what can be REAL wellness directions.

To appreciate why this is the case, look more closely at the content of the “Spas and the Global Wellness Market” reports. Begin with the trends identified
as driving the growth of the wellness market. Four that caught my attention are:

1. An aging world population.

2. The failure of conventional medical systems. Consumer, healthcare providers and governments want more cost-effective, prevention-like alternatives to the Western “sickness” model that relies too much on trying to treat medical problems and too little on preventing them.

3. Increased globalization, with consumers more aware of alternative health approaches via the Internet.

4. The influence of celebrities who address health topics.

These are trends justified by the data and trends that support greater attention and acceptance of what wellness promoters have to offer – education in how to manage a high quality life physically and mentally. Tragically, I was not mentioned as one of those celebrities described in the fourth trend! That’s bad enough but, Holy Horrors – SRI mentioned Deepak Chopra, Oprah Winfrey and Jamie Oliver. There is no justice, it seems.

Of course, this simply shows how important it is to promote a closer look at what wellness is and to define the concept in rational, evidence-based terms that relate to advanced quality of life.

The report claimed that there are “289 million active wellness consumers in the world’s top 30 industrialized nations alone.” The SRI authors acknowledge that “wellness has proved exceptionally resistant to definition,” which might explain how Oprah, Deepak and Jamie got to be leaders of the movement. They acknowledge that the wellness market has not been well researched and little or no consensus exists on key definitions and benchmarks.

For wellness promoters in Europe, this absence is fortuitous. If definitions and benchmarks had been applied to the undisciplined mix of all that is considered “wellness” by one odd group or another, the final report might not have been such an enthusiastic endorsement of this market’s potential.

To better understand how SRI came up with a figure of nearly 300 million “active” wellness consumers (who, pray, are the “inactive” or “passive” wellness consumers?), consider the categories of activity SRI placed under the wellness banner.

1. All multidimensional and holistic activities that integrate physical, mental, spiritual and social approaches.

2. All complementary and proactive treatments and modalities.

3. All approaches that seek to prevent sickness and improve overall quality of life.

4. All consumer driven initiatives that are choices, rather than medical necessities.

Interestingly, the beauty, anti-aging and fitness markets are still seen as separate and distinct from the amorphous wellness spa market. One official at the Istanbul Global Spa Summit, where the SRI report was unveiled last month, declared, “consumers already associate spas with wellness. Increasingly modern spas are expanding far beyond traditional pampering. They are integrating fitness, complementary/alternative medicines, preventive health, advanced beauty/anti-aging, and weight loss/nutrition. They are becoming key players in medical and wellness tourism.”

People want to live healthier lifestyles – but they need help to understand not so much how to do it (the facts of exercise and nutrition and the rest) but rather how to sustain good intentions to do so. SRI found, for example, that:

* 81% of consumers are more than just mildly interested in improving their personal wellness – this very much interests them.

* 82% of people who have visited spas did make changes, at least in the short term.

* Those spas that invested in new wellness initiatives profited from doing so.

* Medical tourism has proven lucrative for spas (estimated $50 billion market); wellness tourism represents a market more than twice as large ($106 billion).

It may be time for wellness promoters in Europe and elsewhere to assist spa leaders to separate the proverbial apples and oranges for spa wellness purposes. Let’s assist the industry help their clientele to appreciate the nature of REAL wellness. No harm in offering all manner of activity and programming in all the rest, but the industry might benefit from becoming the leader in the next generation of wellness education – spa visits that enhance the quality of life. Spas can do more than offer stress relief, weight loss, facial beauty enhancement, imaginary anti-aging and a pleasurable experience and a good time – though all of these are well and good. Spas can offer an environment and educational programming that leads to an outcome that, until now with the advent of the SRI report and the growth of a wellness marketplace, has never be imagined, dreamed or spoken of – helping visitors to become better human beings. That and nothing less is the promise of the highest form of wellness envisioned so far – REAL wellness.

Offering REAL wellness will be a nice complement to the anything goes mish-mash of activities under the current wellness banner and the nine core segments described by SRI. Doing so would, in my view, be more profitable for spas and more consequential to the spa-going public.

In summary, the fact that the spa industry has been encouraged and even directed to promote wellness is a good thing. The likelihood that doing so will prove highly rewarding for the industry is also a good and welcome development. The SRI report is a broad endorsement for wellness. Now the challenge is to help spa leaders understand that wellness can be all that SRI says it is – and a great deal more.

The spa report provides a revealing picture of what wellness enthusiasts might expect of this industry and, most important, clarifies the challenges ahead if we are to succeed in guiding spa leaders to a fuller appreciation of the best kind of wellness philosophy, lifestyle and marketplace. A prerequisite to doing so is to clearly describe the differences between the form of wellness we have embraced and how that form of wellness differs from but complements other important spa initiatives. The latter might include such areas, all noted in the new spa industry report, as primarily medical, beauty, prevention, holistic, spiritual or single focused, such as exercise and nutrition.

This commentary and one to follow describes the report and offers suggestions for spa leadership to seize upon opportunities inherent in the unique and transformative advanced wellness concept promoted by DWV as REAL wellness. The issues related to developing an awareness of and support for this, what we view as the highest, most consequential and least developed variant of the wellness philosophy, are seen as critical both for the spa industry and all who support the wellness movement in Europe and elsewhere.

REAL WELLNESS AND THE BIG PICTURE

In ten or twenty years time, plans and commitments being made now could prove crucial both for the spa industry and the wellness movement. One shared challenge is find best ways to attract new business for spas while while at the same time shaping the evolution of the public understanding of genuine wellness. This must be done in a manner that not only attracts a dramatically wider audience for spa offerings but also boosts quality of life for all who participate.

I want to sketch a role for spa leadership that will help shape the wellness movement for decades to come – one that I believe can be both positive and transformative for the public and profitable and energizing for the European spa industry.

There are many factors that will affect the direction and impact of the wellness movement. The role of spas in one such factor, one I believe could be paramount. Others include but are certainly not limited to the following:

* The strength of the European Union and the global economy.

* The general quality of life that most citizens in Europe and elsewhere are able to realize.

Our individual fates are in our own hands, to a considerable extent. However, no harm comes from a little humility. Thus, we might want to recognize and be grateful for our good fortunes if certain events do not come to pass. We will remain vulnerable to forces and random events beyond our control, factors that could affect our ability to remain free to live in peace and enjoy life, liberty, wellness and the pursuit of happiness. To fully enjoy what will be described as REAL wellness, we require continued social tranquility, safeguards for human health and not too many Eyjafjallajökull-like volcanic disruptive eruptions. Or other totally capricious acts by Zeus or other gods, like the asteroid visitation that ruined things for dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

But, no point worrying about possible cosmic-scale misfortunes – we have enough troubles with man-made calamities to keep us fully occupied while efforts are made to advance the best future for the spa industry, the wellness movement and the people of Europe and beyond.

THE SPA INDUSTRY DECLARES A COMMITMENT TO WELLNESS

The spa leadership recently offered a partial sense of the industry’s wellness vision. In late May at the 2010 Global Spa Summit (GSS) in Istanbul, Turkey, an SRI International (SRI) report was unveiled. This report identified wellness as “a vast, mainstream and very real industry with an extraordinary global ancient and modern history.” Spa leaders were urged to view the wellness concept as a philosophy that should be adopted, celebrated and promoted by spas everywhere.  This industry report represents a major endorsement of the idea that spas must develop programming for wellness education, products and services.

Wellness promoters everywhere, especially in Europe, should welcome and support this commitment.

That’s the good news.  There really isn’t any bad news but wellness promoters should now devote a great deal of attention to assisting spa industry leaders appreciate a full and progressive view about what wellness can and should be for maximum effectiveness. It is time to identify the nature of REAL wellness, separate from the sissy stuff that is woo woo, insubstantial, lacking in nutrients and unworthy of any association with the term wellness.

There are many reasons for spas to take a leadership role in REAL wellness promotion, besides the obvious fact that there is a lot of money to be made from doing so.  The latter incentive is a very good reason, but additional justification will affect the success of individual spas and the industry as a whole. The larger goals might be nothing less than revolutionary lifestyle changes for an expanded spa clientele.

I’ll write more on this topic soon, including a summary of the trends identified in the spa report, the economic and other factors that led the industry’s best minds to promote wellness as the wave of the spa industry’s best future and the nature of serious concerns about the incomplete picture of wellness reflected in the spa report, which by the way is entitled “Spas and the Global Wellness Market.”

All the best.

Schöne Grüße vom Isartor,

Zarmina Penner

Es gibt einen Buchladen und eine Galerie. Sophie Howarth, Kuratorin der Tate Modern, gründete 2008 zusammen mit namhaften Autoren, Künstlern und Wissenschaftlern dieses Projekt, das kürzlich von Morgwn Rimel, einer cosmopolitischen Kreativen übernommen wurde. Für nur 30 Pfund kann man Kurse belegen in Sachen Liebe („Wie notwenig ist eine Beziehung“), Arbeit („Wie findet man den Job, den man liebt“), Politik („Wie geht man weise mit Geld um“), Selbst („Wie wird man cool“) und Familie („Die Kunst, gute Eltern zu sein“). Viele kluge Köpfe stecken hinter Angeboten wie Abendkurse, Ferien Retreats, Predigten, Conversation Dinners sowie Psychotherapie jenseits des Klinischen.

Es wäre eine Aufgabe par excellence für die Wellness-Branche, etwas Ähnliches auch hierzulande ins Leben zu rufen.

Dem Wellness-Pionier Don Ardell müssen die Ohren geklungen haben: auf dem Global Spa Summit (GSS), der vom 16. – 19. Mai 2010 in Istanbul stattfand, war sehr viel von Wellness die Rede. Nicht nur, dass der Begriff „Wellness“ den Einzug in den englischen Sprachgebrauch gefunden sein. Nein, viel mehr: es geht um „High Level Wellness“, wie Ardell dies schon in seinem gleichnamigen, 1977 veröffentlichten Buch propagierte – ein schlaues Lebenskonzept, das jedem hilft seine eigene Gesundheit selbst in die Hand zu nehmen und damit glücklich zu werden. „Die moderne Medizin ist wundervoll“, so Don Ardell, „aber es gibt zwei Probleme damit: die Menschen erwarten zu viel von ihr, und zu wenig von sich selbst.“ Eine globale Definition von Wellness zu finden, gleicht einem Spagat, so der Ungar Laszlo Puczkó, wo doch schon die Pioniere der Wellnessbewegung jeder seine eigene entwickelt hätte. Während es in manchen Sprachen gar kein Wort für „Wellness“ gibt, geht in vielen Teilen der Welt geht der Begriff Wellness mit dem Attribut „Medical“ einher, auch wenn wir eigentlich bei vielen Modellen von Präventionsprogrammen bzw. Gesundheitstourismus sprechen sollen.

Eine umfängliche Studie zu Synergien und Chancen im globalen Spa- und Wellnessmarkt wurde auf dem GSS vom Standford Research Institute (SRI) vorgestellt. Katherine Johnston betonte, dass sie auf den Anspruch einer neuen Wellness-Definition ganz bewusst verzichten wollte. Viel wichtiger wäre ihr, wenn die „gute Nachricht“ eines ganzheitlichen Wellness-Verständnisses bei jedem einzelnen Mitarbeiter ankommt und verständlich gemacht wird. Nur so kann er die Philosophie den Gästen und Kunden kommunizieren. Wie diese dann auch am Ball bleiben, darüber sinnt Philippe Bourguignone nach. Er war unter anderem durch seinen erfolgreichen Turnaround von Club Med bekannt geworden und sitzt heute in der Denkfabrik von „Revolution Places“ in den USA. Seine aktuelle Vision: ein Concierge-Service für gesundheitsbewusste Menschen, damit die Motivation steigt und nicht nachlässt.

Wir sind schon sehr gespannt, Don Ardell zum Deutschen Wellness Gipfel im August in Düsseldorf zu begrüßen.

Mehr zu den spannenden Themen auf dem GSS bald auf diesem Blog.

Don Ardell’s ears must have been burning: “High Level Wellness” proclaimed in his book published in 1977, has arrived in the heads and minds of the Spa Industry – the shift from pampering to healthy and sustainable living. This became clear at the occasion of the Global Spa Summit, which had been held May 16^th to 19^th, 2010 in Istanbul. To find a global definition of “Wellness” is a difficult task, as some of the speakers expressed and much too often it is linked to “medical” which has not been the intention of the founding fathers of Wellness like Don Ardell: “Modern medicine is a wonderful thing, but there are two problems: people expect too much of it, and too little of themselves.”

A new study, conducted by the Standford Research Institute (SRI International), has been presented at the GSS in Istanbul: “”Spas and the Global Wellness Market – Synergies and Opportunities”. Amongst the recommendations given by the study: “Teach spa therapists to understand and promote wellness!” A prominent keynote speaker in Istanbul was Philippe Bourguignone, well known for his successful turnaround of Club Med. In his “think tank” as CEO of Revolution places, he has the vision of a concierge service for healthy living.

We are looking forward to welcome Don Ardell at the occasion of the 20^th anniversary end of August in Düsseldorf.

More interesting things to learn from GSS keynote speakers later on this blog.

Würde mit diesem Wissen unser Wohlbefinden dann automatisch steigen? Wären wir dann weniger krank?

Ich denke schon. Noch muss sich  jeder von uns alles selbst zusammen suchen und einen Reim draus machen. „Trial and error“ wie es so schön heisst. Sicher gäbe es viele, die sagen würden, dass ein Teil des Lebesnsinnes und des Lebensgenusses es ist, das Leben einfach zu leben und nicht zu studieren. Das wäre doch langweilig. Sicher, das kann ich verstehen. Mir persönlich erscheint eine Art Führerschein hilfreich zu sein. Die zunehmende Alterung schenkt uns eine Menge weise Menschen, die wir zum Thema Leben interviewen könnten und daraus lernen könnten,  besser zu leben, d.h.  konkret das Leben besser zu verstehen, besser in Gang zu kommen, mehr Möglichkeiten zu nutzen und sich dabei  immer wohler zu fühlen.

Schöne Grüße vom Isartor,
Zarmina Penner