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Show me the franchise
LA Sunset Tan brings reality to the industry
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The Numbers... LA Sunset Tan Productions Franchise fee: $40,000 Royalty: 6 percent Ad fee: 2 percent Total investment: $247,900 to $652,500 Offerings: |
"Do you enjoy tanning?"
That's the first question LA Sunset Tan Productions asks prospective franchisees in its sales brochure survey, and while some people -- OK, we admit, we're that person -- may find it amusing, there's a method to that seemingly madcapness.
"If you're not part of the lifestyle, you probably won't move forward (in the franchise process)," explains Marc Kiekenapp, vice president of franchise development. At least that has been his experience over the years selling concepts such as Max Muscle. "Fat guys won't buy a Max Muscle," he points out.
So because I'm not a tanner, Kiekenapp says he wouldn't sell me a tanning salon even if I had the money and begged him. Mercifully, he doesn't add that he wouldn't sell me a Max Muscle franchise either.
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Franchise Consultant Marc Kiekenapp has been charged with launching a franchise that airs on the E! network as a reality show. |
It's Kiekenapp's breadth of franchise knowledge and experience honed over 25 years, along with experienced franchise attorney Lane Fisher of FisherZucker and Larry Rudolph, an entertainment lawyer who launched Britney Spears' career, that is keeping LA Sunset Tan Productions from being a runaway train -- or as one franchise pundit commented at the West Coast Franchise Expo where the concept was launched, a "train wreck waiting to happen."
Fortunately, the white-haired, tanned Kiekenapp is well grounded. He's not a kid who has just been handed the keys to the candy store. The affable franchise veteran has a steadiness about him that gives him an air of trustworthiness. He's not flash, he's not fast-talking, he untucks his shirts one tail at a time. And, he's actually a little in awe of the opportunity -- and the responsibility -- that's been handed him to sell this latest addition to the tanning industry.
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Marc Kiekenapp's 25 years of experience is being tested in his latest endeavor as VP of franchise development for a tanning salon chain featured in a reality TV show. |
But before we talk about LA Sunset Tan Productions, the franchise, we really must visit "Sunset Tan," the reality show.
The reality behind the reality show
After deciding the life of an engineer wasn't for him, Devin Haman left Indiana to seek his fortune on the West Coast. En route he heard an interview on the radio where actor Robert Redford said he always had a tan and white shirt for interviews. Haman, who was on his way to Fresno, California, at the time decided he, too, would need a tan if he was both looking for a job and hanging out at the beach. (And, yes, he was a bit surprised to find there wasn't a beach in Fresno, he says, laughing.)
He made his way a little further west, where there was a beach and where he sold more than $10 million worth of residential real estate in the Hollywood Hills.
Meanwhile, California native Jeff Bozz didn't know what it was not to have a tan. He studied business at USC, but dropped out to pursue a career in professional beach volleyball. In 1992, he traded his swim trunks for a real estate license and became a top producer at Coldwell Banker.
The two met while doing promotions for nightclubs in L.A., and decided to team up in the tanning business. They weren't content, however, to merely open a salon and pray the sunless worshippers would find their door; both wanted to launch a tanning salon chain that would become a "lifestyle aspiration brand."
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Three cast members, plus two models, joined the founders of Sunset Tan, Jeff Bozz, center, and Devin Haman, right, to sell the concept at the West Coast expo in Los Angeles. |
While building his salon empire, Bozz was approached about doing a reality show. The plot was the day-to-day, unscripted workings of a tanning salon. And what better vehicle than a location where beautiful, scantily clothed women both visit and work? Because it's a business, it's rife with ambition, jealousy and human pathos. Add to the mix two colorful owners with opposite personalities and two goofy beauties who share one brain and it's a blockbuster waiting to happen.
After one season the show surpassed "The Simple Life," Paris Hilton's star-sustaining vehicle, as the No. 1 show for E! Network. "Seventy percent of tanners are women, most like reality TV," Bozz said during an interview at the West Coast Franchise Expo. "To get a show with your (company) name is unbelievable."
Viewers of the show started requesting information on how they could open a Sunset Tan. "We were getting franchise requests in 12 languages," Haman says.
The owners decided to franchise during the filming of the first season of the show. Kiekenapp, who appeared in one of the episodes, was brought in to set up not only the franchise sales program, but also operations. Lane Fisher has the enviable job of keeping everything legal.
The next season
Most franchise companies are in a constant struggle to get publicity to attract both consumers and franchisees. LA Sunset Tan has a leg up in that department since its show will air a second season and most likely enough seasons to make it fodder for endless reruns on E! It's a double-edged sword, however.
Having the cast members and models in the booth at a recent expo, attracted wanted attention to the booth, but was it the right kind of attention? "Our biggest problem is going to be the trust-fund baby," Kiekenapp said at the time. The drawback of a 20 or 30 year old with more money than experience is that they tend to be "a legend in their own mind," Kiekenapp adds. And unprecedented in franchising is that most of the leads are "TV leads," although that's changed now that they've started exhibiting at expos.
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The cast of the E! Network show Sunset Tan deals with the day-in and day-out workings of a tanning salon in West Hollywood. The show will be adding its franchise endeavor to the story line in its second season. |
In October at the L.A. expo, Kiekenapp talked about taking it nice and slow. Over the years, he's developed a six-step process where prospects eliminate themselves, and he planned to call every lead personally. But by early December, momentum had shifted. "We're 45 days into this and we've had three discovery days. I've never done that before in my life," he says during a phone interview on his cell phone. "This is everyone's dream, and my nightmare."
While Kiekenapp's normal modus operandi is to talk to every prospect, he's now found that's not reality. "I'm living on my cell phone, in hotelsÉworking 10 percent of the leads. I'd be fired (on any other job)," he said, laughing.
What's surprising him is the caliber of the prospects. They're not star-struck women or men looking to buy a social life. Instead, the players are multi-unit franchisees with solid experience.
For instance, one prospect was a woman who owns a day spa in New Jersey with 400 to 600 customers a day. She wants to open the tanning salon in the space next door. Her fiancee owns 24 60,000-square-foot grocery stores, along with some accompanying property. He was also interested in opening the salons, but couldn't get away in time for the initial meeting. Not one to pass up a business opportunity, he flew his private jet out to catch up to their discovery days.
Kiekenapp laughs -- but it's partly from exhaustion, partly from disbelief. It's almost too easy. "I have blisters on my hands from pulling back on the reins," he says.
I'm ready for my audition, Mr. Kiekenapp
In keeping with the TV show theme, discovery days are called "auditions." Serious prospects are picked up from the airport in a stretch limo with Nick and Ania from the show (they may be cast members, but they also manage and work in the salon). Once inside the limo, Kiekenapp slides in a DVD of the show to watch as they tour Santa Monica on their way to the original salon. They then have a two-hour power lunch with the owners at a trendy restaurant. More cast members show up for a power dinner.
The first "audition" was filmed for the second season of the TV show, but subsequent prospects can't be guaranteed any air time.
Kiekenapp, like Haman, Bozz and Rudolph, realizes there's a short window of opportunity to roll out the concept while the TV show is still a hot commodity. The show is likely to have a couple more years on the air, but the free publicity won't last forever.
But that's not a problem, Haman and Bozz say because the concept is solid. It's a business first and a reality show second. The concept will work as well in other areas as it does in California, they contend. And while franchises in mid-America may not have the same celebrity draw as the coasts, the concept gives customers a celebrity experience, Kiekenapp says.
At press time, LA Sunset Tan Productions had area representative agreements issued for Orange County and San Diego County in California and multiple counties in South Florida. It also had multiple-unit agreements for five areas in California and one in Bergen County, New Jersey.
Franchisees will benefit from not only the show, but from the cast members, who will show up at their grand openings. There are also a clothing line and product line that can add another revenue stream. And, in case you're wondering, the earnings are based on sales before the show hit.
Sunset Tan is trying to do for tanning what Starbucks did for coffee- -- make an emotional connection to its customers, Larry Rudolph says. Tanning can be generic, one place is pretty much like another, he contends. LA Sunset Tan Productions is creating a buzz, a megabrand, a reason to choose it over the tanning salon closer to home.
"It's glitz and glamour, not smoke and mirrors," he says.
