Making Wellness Fun
Can fun be a key factor in selling wellness?
Unlocking the Fun Factor: A New Way to Make Your Wellness Stand Out
What’s your perception of wellness? Or what’s the first word or image that pops into your mind? It’s probably something sincere or calming like this picture below.
This perception comes in part from the shared language many of us in the industry use to describe wellness products and services, marrying the concepts of self-help with sports psychology and performance. But I rarely see the word “Fun” vis a vis wellness.
I’m just as guilty of writing copy within a similar rubric of problem, science, and solution so I was delighted to discover some examples of wellness copy and program design that turn the standard approach on its head because isn’t fun an important part of self-care?
An example:
The Meditation Party: Reckless Conviviality with Mindfulness Superfriends.
Although this retreat is similar in many ways to other group meditation retreats, calling it a party and using words like “reckless” and “superfriends” in the title leverage the desire for connection and fun, which makes it original and appealing.
Although I am still a sucker for titles like “Cultivating Presence” and “Opening to Wisdom and Love”, there’s so much of that out there that this approach stands out because the promise in the title has such a sparkly vibe.
Another example:
Haute Dokimazo’s Secret Family Reunion
Haute Dokimazo is an event-planning company run by
and this was a retreat for event planners in 2019. Participants didn’t know where they were headed until just before boarding the plane. I understand this is not for everyone and as they said in their marketing, “Control freaks need not apply.” But doesn’t that make you want to go, to prove you’re not a control freak? What a fun twist on the corporate event. It’s full of surprise and delight, obviously in the design of the event, but also at the level of the copy - I mean, what’s a “secret family reunion”?One more…
Echoes of the Mystic: a Kabir Musical Retreat
At Six Senses, we have an incredible slate of retreats planned for 2024, and one of my favorites is at Six Senses Vana, our property set in a forest just outside of Dehradun, India.
As wellness topics continue to evolve and morph, wonderful hyphenates are emerging where wellness mixes with other modalities bringing multiple worlds together. For example, I’ve seen experiences that combine reiki and drum circles or empowerment practices and gut health.
Echoes of the Mystic does this by bringing music and the poetry of Indian mystic and poet, Kabir, together with world-class wellness elements like ayurveda. The combination of these elements brings a quality of joy and artistry to the retreat that amplifies the effects of each - the ayurveda amplifies the music and the poetry amplifies the self-care. The end result is an experience that goes far beyond just wellness.
Titles and language distinguish your offerings and highlight their unique qualities. Layering words and ideas not normally associated with wellness is a way to surprise your customer, make it sound more fun, and help it stand out in a wellness-saturated world.
You can do this by highlighting the “party” elements of social and group experiences, leaning into “surprise and delight” with an element of the unexpected, or even layering music, poetry, and the arts into your offerings.
The bottom line, though, is that it starts with not taking ourselves in the wellness industry too seriously. The more fun we have in creating, designing, and describing our creations, the more fun our guests and customers will have. So let’s play, your mental health will get a boost too.
