From the Editor's Desk

Offering retail products is a growing trend for massage therapists. Our recent reader survey proves that out!

If you are one of the growing number of massage therapists who sells products in his or her practice, I would love to speak to you for an article I’m writing for MASSAGE Magazine. Please send me a message here, or at kmenehan@massagemag.com, or call me at 831-338-3434. If you prefer, answer the questions below and email your answers to me. Thanks!

- What products do you sell in your massage practice?

- How do you inform clients that you have products for sale?

- What is some general feedback from clients, when you offer products to them?

- Why do you sell products in your massage practice?

- What are the benefits to clients of being able to purchase products from you?

- What are the financial benefits to your practice, of product sales?

- Your name:
- Your city and state
- Number of years as a massage therapist:
- Massage specialty/focus (Swedish, Rolfing, etc):
- Massage school graduated from:

I just bought my first half-price facial. For the low price of $37, I’ll soon be slathered in a glycolic peel product, and I can’t wait.

I have gotten quite a few offers from what I’m calling mass-marketing services, or local-deal websites, lately, things like Groupon and Living Social.

These companies, and others like them, offer a deal of the day that members can purchase. At the end of the day, the deal is no longer available, and whoever purchased the deal has a certain time period in which to use it. The company that offered the deal – in the case of my half-price facial, a day spa in the San Francisco Bay Area – is obligated to fulfill all the pre-paid services.

I’m really curious whether this model could work for massage therapists. I am starting to see massage sessions posted as deals of the day lately, but would fulfilling, say, 100 half-price massages be worth the potential new clients garnered by participating in such a deal?

How many massage therapists would a business need in order to make this worth its while? If you or a colleague is participating in a site like Groupon or Living Social, please let me know how that’s working for you. Leave a comment here, or contact me at kmenehan@massagemag.com. Thanks!

A friend of mine suffers from fibromyalgia, and I don’t use the word “suffer” lightly. Her body oftentimes feels like its in a vise, she’s told me. She is stiff, fatigued and in pain much of the time. May is National Fibromyalgia Education and Awareness Month. You can use the publicity in place for this event to inform fibromyalgia patients about the benefits of massage to their condition. This link to the MASSAGE Magazine article about this event includes links to research on touch for fibromyalgia that we’ve covered.

In consumer-research news, academic researchers have found that purchasing a massage brings more satisfaction than buying products.

But then, we already knew that, right? Perhaps this report can be spun in massage marketing materials, to help confused clients know where their money is best spent.

A new report out of Cornell University shows that consumers found that satisfaction with “experiential purchases”—from massages to family vacations—starts high and increases over time. In contrast, spending money on material things feels good at first, but actually makes people less happy in the end.

This is according to researchers Thomas Gilovich, Cornell University professor of psychology, and Travis J. Carter, Cornell Ph.D. ’10.

“When it comes to material things, Gilovich and Carter found shoppers often second-guess their original buying decisions, comparing what they bought to other people’s purchases or to better deals they missed,” according to a Cornell press release.

“But buying experiences provides greater satisfaction as time goes on, in part because of selective memory and because a consumer’s experience is highly subjective, making it much harder to make negative comparisons. Consumers also find it easier to decide on experiences, spending money on the first option that meets a set of expectations rather than painstakingly comparing all options.”

I am seeking massage therapists to interview for a feature article on green/environmentally friendly practices. To participate, send me an email at kmenehan@massagemag.com. Thanks!

I feel inspired and touched, as I so often do, by the caring people in the massage profession. I just posted a news article about the outreach underway to help the people of Haiti. “Massage therapists are traditionally quick to help people in need. The tragic events in Haiti, following a 7.0 earthquake, are no exception.” Read the article on our homepage: www.massagemag.com

It often feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day to keep up on all the news and developments in the massage field. Still, our editors often take time to reflect on the jobs we’re doing and how we might do them better.

Today we each created two New Year’s Resolutions: One specific to MASSAGE Magazine, and one of a more personal nature.

I’m sharing them (with Stanford and Jen’s permission!) with you here, and also want to invite you to share your resolutions with me. What do you resolve to do in the New Year? And how can MASSAGE Magazine help you keep your professional or personal resolutions?

Stanford Erickson, editorial director:
1. I will interview a massage therapist who not only is operating her/his own practice but also contributes constructively to improve the professionalism of the massage community.

2. I will keep my office organized and neat.

Jennifer Whalen, managing editor and associate editor of integrated media:

1. I will seek out additional experts in the massage and bodywork industry to either blog for www.MASSAGEmag.com and/or write articles pertaining to topics most important to massage therapists and the challenges they face.

2. I plan to eat healthier in the new year, choosing nutritious foods and snacks to help recharge throughout the day.

Karen Menehan, editor in chief:

1. I resolve to continue to seek out many sources of information in order to present the massage field with a wide variety of topics, experts, advice and ideas.

2. I will meditate for at least 15 minutes every day.

I’ve just begun researching an article on how social networking can help massage therapists (market, reach clients, connect with colleagues). If you would like to be included in the article, please send me an email at kmenehan@massagemag.com and we can set up an interview.

Whether you’re already a social networker or not, be sure to check out MASSAGE Magazine’s Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/#/MassageMagazine?ref=search&sid=795283418.1015148408..1

I just wrote up a news story for our website, and wanted to give it an extra push out to the massage-o-sphere. Here goes.

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) at the National Institutes of Health is inviting input from the public to assist the creation of its long-range plan. This input “will provide guideposts for future scientific direction, a useful framework for priority setting, and continue the internal efforts to advance the organization,” a statement on NCCAM’s website reads.

I’d love to see massage therapists, en masse, provide NCCAM with some solid information and ideas about massage therapy and the clientele that can benefit from it. The site below covers NCCAM’s plan and includes a link where you can comment.

To comment on the NCCAM Strategic Plan: 2010, visit http://plan.nccam.nih.gov.

In my years reporting on this field, I’ve learned about massage and spa therapies done in at-first-unimaginable venues—from airports to backstage at circuses. I used to react with no little amazement to these stories. But now I realize: Wherever there are people, there’s a need for healthy touch.

So it was with surprise tempered with an “of course!” that I read a new article from Newsweek—posted online today and to run in the Nov. 9 print edition—that describes a new fusion: the spa-fari.

It entails spa treatments provided to people on safaris.

“Safaris can be seriously hard work,” the article notes. “The dedicated animal voyeur needs to be up at the crack of dawn, bumping over rough dirt tracks in jeeps and scouring the thicket for rhinos and giraffes.”

In this economy, it’s essential for massage therapists to think outside the usual word-of-mouth box. So, tell me: Shat is the most interesting or unusual place you’ve seen massage offered?

Read the complete Newsweek article here: www.newsweek.com/id/220754.