THE HOT TUB INDUSTRY has faced many challenges over the years, but at least most people recognize a spa when they see one — unlike the steam showers sold by Soak Luxury Bath Products that were often met with a quizzical look.
“We definitely had a little bit of work ahead of us because it was a unique product, not something that you saw very often seven years ago,” says Brad Kilkenny, who heads up the marketing for the franchise. “[The steam showers] sold themselves once [customers] understood it wasn’t a time travel portal or anything like that.”
The steam showers sold by Soak are self-enclosed and work like a normal shower, with the addition of a steam setting, turning the shower into a relaxing steam room.
Soak is the brainchild of Louis Csaba, who originally worked in the home-building industry. Csaba ran across steam showers during his travels and felt it was a product he could sell in North America. Kilkenny’s company, Pin Point Marketing, helped Csaba come up with the logo and branding for his store, and Kilkenny became a partner. Now, there are six franchised locations across Canada, with more coming soon.
“Our goal is to try to put a franchise in every major city across North America,” Kilkenny says.
The idea of Soak started with steam showers, but the company now also carries jetted bathtubs, porcelain products like sinks and toilets, bathroom cabinets, hot tubs, swim spas and patio furniture. They carry several brands of hot tubs and swim spas along with their other products, but everything is repackaged under the Soak name.
As a franchise, consistent branding and marketing is of the utmost importance. Since Kilkenny’s background is in advertising, it’s not surprising that he has strong feelings on the subject.
“You can hold your breath for awhile, but sooner or later you’re going to die,” Kilkenny says, referring to companies that cut back on or altogether stopped marketing during the recession. “Advertising scares some people. If they’re not seeing an immediate return on it, they feel they’re wasting their money.”
Instead of pulling away from advertising, Soak brought in entry-level products and
“started doing more loss-leader advertising,” Kilkenny says. They advertised in publications and other media that targeted the income and age brackets for the lower price points. “People said we were crazy having a loss-leader product in something you’d only buy one of.” But the entry-level prices served as a vehicle to get people in the door. Once they came in and saw all that Soak had to offer, it became an easy upsell. Kilkenny estimates that out of the traffic the advertising brought in, 10 percent purchased an entry-level product while the rest moved up to something with more bells and whistles.
Another big form of advertising for the company is trade and home shows.
“I wouldn’t say [shows are our] strongest advertising key, but strongest moneymakers per dollar,” Kilkenny says. For Soak, attending shows is twofold: It increases brand awareness by getting the company in front of many people at once, bringing in leads and sales, and it gives them an opportunity to train new franchisees.
“They can get a feel for the product and questions,” Kilkenny says. “They get a lot of experience quickly from a whole lot of people.”
It’s also a great introduction to the systems Soak has in place.
“I think Louis would agree: The thing that has been most beneficial to us is building an idea and a system and sticking to it,” Kilkenny says. From the franchise model, independent retailers can glean the importance of consistency.
“People who don’t have a system burn out,” Kilkenny says. “They’re spending too much time trying to figure out how to do something. Build a system, then spend time tweaking that system and less time trying to figure it out every day. If you have a good system and everything is consistent, your company will thrive. People appreciate consistency.”