As I was flipping the newspapers today, I spotted this pair of uncannily similar advertisements from two beauty establishments. See if you can spot the difference between these pair of “identical twins”.
New York Skin Solutions touting miraculous cures for all kinds of skin ailments.
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The more famous twin Yun Nam Hair Care offering all manner of panaceas for the follicularly challenged.
There are a few elements in both ads that are similar:
1) Both have exactly 8 “before and after” testimonials.
2) Both have “Beauty Experts 2 Success Stories” – whatever that means.
3) Both have a starburst offering a FREE gift.
4) Both allow you to call or SMS to book your spaces.
5) Both have treatments have offers “exclusive for new customers with skin/hair problems” that costs only $18.
6) Both establishments have 5 outlets at various shopping malls in Singapore.
Upon further investigation, I found out that both companies belong to the same HQ company which is Euro Group. There were also lots of online chatter about them which you can read in some of the forums here and here. Most don’t seem to be very flattering, unfortunately, and hard sell tactics seem to be a common problem. I don’t think its unique to these establishments though as the beauty trade in Singapore is a hyper competitive one.
What are your experiences like with beauty salon treatments? Do they live up to their promise on advertisements?
I’ve no experiences with beauty salons but with your postings, I’ve got to know their advertisements did change over just 1-2 yrs.
And hey, I think the New York Solutions target the “English” market and Yun Nan targets the chinese crowd. I don’t think if I were a non-chinese, I would step in a beauty salon named “Yun Nam”, vice versa. What a tactic to use!
Heard from my dad’s friend, he spent 3k on YN but no effects at all. I dunnoe whether this is a special case or the treatments only effective on certain types of hair-fall.
Reminds of the pther beauty salon advertisement, those slimming centre are always the big customer of TV commercial and magazine advertisement. however, most of the feedback from my fren’s aint very encouraging. The prices shown on the advertisements often do not reflect the real cost. Or the sales person will try to hard-sell more products/treatments to u and customers always end up spending few time more than they actually willing to spent in the first place. The result?? i would say it still deps on the self-discipline of the customers.
Conclusion: i hv long stop believing in these type of advertisements.
Hmm I’ve never been to these beauty treatment place before. But it is an interesting find that these 2 companies are from the same HQ! That explains the suspiciously identical advertising design!
My first reaction was, “Oh dear… someone immitate the oher” Haha!
tigerfish,
Honestly I find that both advertisements are more catered to the “aunties” and heartland crowds as opposed to the yuppies and PMEBs (Professionals, Managers, Executives, Business owners). The use of New York Solutions itself doesn’t really mean anything if it advertises in such a manner.
Brand perception is more than name-deep. Just look at the number of outlets here with the word “Le this” or “De that”, despite having absolutely no French flair whatsoever.
zeezee,
Thanks for sharing the often sordid truth about such treatments. The use of high pressure hard sell techniques in the beauty industry has been a major cause of complaints to CASE over the years. When I spoke to beauty salon owners in my previous job in enterprise development, they often cited that merchandising is the most lucrative arm of the business.
natasshea,
Yeah, they are spitting images of each other. This led me to do some investigative work and come up with the conclusion.
Probably, both advertisements are produced by one advertising agency. The parent company owning these two businesses possibly paid less that way (package price).
Hmm… noticed that Yun Nam and New York have the same initials, only reversed.