Testing the Hypothesis -- 7A

1. Opportunity: Express facial bar/experience

2. Who: Marketed toward women of all ages

What: Capitalizes on the demand for express services in a trendy, accessible and luxurious environment creating an experience comparable to the extremely popular Dry Bar, but instead of blow outs and hair styling, it offers facial services.

Why: Most women love pampering but do not necessarily have the time for a whole facial at a full-fledged spa, thus the express element

3. Testing the who: Women would be the targeted demographic, not limited to a specific area or age, but I think men could also have the need for express facials.

Testing the what: One question to ask is, "Would people value the express facial or feel it would not be a valid service to provide and spend their money on?" This is an important question considering the fact that should potential customers not see value and worth in the service then the business idea is essentially defunct.

Testing the why: I feel as though there is an opportunity to capitalize on the demand of "express services." As a girl, I love pampering myself and when pairing the idea of glamour and luxury with access you end up with a model that has been tried and true as a hook for the female demographic.
The idea of "express services" relates back to the idea of access and pairing it with the luxury and glamour of a speedy, but effective facial could create an experience that is useful and worthy for consumers. In this age, so much of our generation makes decisions based on instant gratification and an experience factor to rave about to others, both of which I think will be touched on in this opportunity.

4. Seeing as my targeted demographic is mostly women, I decided to focus my interviews on them, however, I still asked one male what his opinion would be. Overall, the interviewees were interested in the concept of an express facial bar with a similar tone and concept to Dry Bar, though there were concerns. Interviewees 1, 3 and 4, all female college students, thought the idea was strong but their willingness to actually (in theory) go to the facial bar for a service all depended on how much the service would cost stating that the price would determine if they could spare the money on a quality service as well as how often they would be able to get the service. Additionally, interviewee 2, a female in her twenties said the idea had great potential as she was familiar with these type of express service businesses, like Dry Bar, supporting the idea of creating an overall experience that will help define the brand and business. She also voiced concerns similar to interviewees 1, 3 and 4 though about having reflective prices to make the time allotted to the facial deemed worthy of her money. Interviewee 2 did have an interesting suggestion of combining walk-in services with membership services of a flat fee for a certain amount of facials, perks, drinks, etc. at the facial bar. My only male interviewee is a college senior who has gotten facials before. While he could not personally see himself going into an express facial bar, he pointed out that many females love having spa services and having more access to them would probably increase the pool of females wanting to go to a business like this. He also pointed out that the experience side of social media could skyrocket this type of idea, capitalizing on the uniqueness of doing something others could see as "exclusive."

5. After conducting interviews and working through the who, what, why specifics of this opportunity and business idea, I definitely see more potential in an express facial bar than I did prior. The feedback from the interviews really made my thought process dart toward how crucial pricing is and got me to wonder how I could concoct a menu of prices for the services of the facial bar that is both profitable but also deemed appropriate for the customers. This could be one of the biggest challenged of any business really as the pricing really dictates consumership. Each of my interviewees also alluded to the fact that it could be limiting to only target women but that it would be the most obvious and attainable demographic to market toward, given the obvious that men typically do not frequent spas, though I would not rule them out of my demographic completely and perhaps specials for couples or males-only could widen my target audience. To conclude, this activity and my interviews gave me a lot of insight and inspiration for my opportunity and potential business idea, highlighting holes in the concept as well as noting the hole in the market for what could be an express facial bar.