Honor Roll

ESSpa Kozmetika co-owner Eva Sztupka

Scott Kerschbaumer
Co-owner
ESSpa Kozmetika Organic Skincare
Pittsburgh, PA
2008 DAYSPA Top Promotion

Scott Kerschbaumer and his wife, Eva Sztupka, opened ESSpa Kozmetika in 2002 based on Szuptka's Hungarian spa background. Since then, they've created an oasis of sorts in the midst of Pittsburgh, where they operate the industrial city's only organic spa. Last year, the Green Spa Network (GSN) invited ESSpa to join as one of its cultivator-level members. So far, there are only five spas in North America to attain this honor.

ESSpa's success, though, can also be attributed to its unique ownership. While Sztupka infuses her skincare expertise into the spa's services, Kerschbaumer takes care of the technical details that keep the business running smoothly, including managing the staff and creating client promotions.

With Father's Day this month, and as a male spa owner, how do you approach marketing to men?

Our big push around this time of the year is a direct mail piece sent to families. We direct it toward mom, dad and the kids, rather than specifically at dad. Guys in Pittsburgh are blue-collar—even if they're executives, they still have that mentality—so they're not the metrosexual types. They're beer-drinking, watching-the-Steelers types who say, "Spa? What spa? I don't even know what a spa is!" Getting over that hurdle is the biggest issue we have, and that's why we approach it from the family angle.

Once we get them through the door, they understand that it's not some kind of pink princess-y thing. It's neutral and just a nice, relaxing, calming environment. That makes a big difference and allows them, perception-wise, to get over whatever might be holding them back. And then, their wives, sisters, daughters will say, "Oh, have a manicure! Have a pedicure! Have a facial!" Once they do, they're hooked.

It's funny because our most regular clients are guys. We have at least a couple dozen guys who are in every week for a 90-minute massage—we can't get rid of them. It's interesting to see—the gentleman clients are much more loyal than the female clients, at least as far as major spa treatments go.

We also feature the Steel Toe Pedicure and lots of email promotions. I am a guy, so I did a lot of tie-ins with March Madness and the NCAA tournament, and I'm always running specials for the Steelers. We probably sold $20,000 to $30,000 in gift certificates from sending out those March Madness emails and running that special.

So, despite the economy, things seem to be going well for ESSpa right now?

Oh yeah! Our numbers for February were up 10% over this same time last year. I'm sure there are people hurting, but we're not seeing it too much. There've been a couple of spas and salons that have closed in Pittsburgh, and some of them were our direct competitors. We've gotten a lot of calls from their former clients.

What types of promos attract the most clients for you?

Without a doubt, clients respond best to the "free" offers. The bigger the deal, the greater the number of responses and amount of purchases they make. People in general are underwhelmed by 20-30% discounts because that's what everyone offers. Our promotions start to cut through the clutter when we get to about 40% off.

How do you discover and create unique treatments/services?

We create them by taking ancient treatments passed down to Eva from her Hungarian grandmothers and combining them with the latest technology. We accomplish this through product ingredients, such as peptides and hyaluronic acids, and equipment, such as ultrasonic scrubbers and microcurrent technology.

What are your latest initiatives?

We spend a lot of time creating more "separation" into our treatments with the addition of a tea ceremony to the beginning of each service. This allows our guests and therapists to spend some time together to discuss what they want and expect from each other over a healthy cup of our fresh-brewed organic tea, which we also offer for sale.

In addition, we're moving quickly on implementing new non-traditional marketing campaigns across all social media sites. We want to expand our client base to a younger demographic.

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