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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

No Such Thing as a Typical Customer

We set out to do a story about a “typical” Valley cosmetic procedure consumer but found out that there really is no such thing. Patty Gamba, co-owner of Dermix The Medical Spa in Toluca Lake, said the one thing most of her patients have in common is their ethnicity. Her husband, Jairo, is from Colombia, as is one of her doctors, and Patty is from Ecuador. “Eighty percent (of our customers) are Latinos,” said Gamba. Interestingly, of those 80 percent, “probably 40 percent are males,” she added. The men, Gamba said, come for treatment of scars and acne primarily. Because of her specialty in problem skin, Gamba said her patients are as young as 10 years old. Victoria Valencia, 21, has been a customer of Dermix for about three years. “Patty has been the only one who I trust enough to touch my skin,” said Valencia who has relied on Gamba to rid her of troublesome acne. At the other end of the spectrum, over at Blue Medspa in Sherman Oaks, co-owner Ronda Hawara-Nofal said the majority of her clients are between 35 years old and 60 years old. “Those are really the clients I want to target,” she said, “because they’re the ones that need everything.” They’re also more loyal. “Most of my clients come in through word of mouth,” said Hawara-Nofal. “I have people who drive in from all over the place from San Diego, Bakersfield, Long Beach all over the place.” One of Blue’s customers was so happy with the results of her laser hair removal, she referred both her teen-aged daughter and her husband. Granada Hills resident, Rose Rahal, 43, had her first treatments done back when Blue first opened. Since then, she’s had a wide variety of procedures including, “IPL, that’s a photo-facial and I also do regular facials there,” Rahal said. “I’ve also done Genesis,” a laser treatment that purports to increase collagen in the skin. She even gets eyebrows waxed there. Rahal’s husband was treated for hyperhydrosis, or excess perspiration. “He got Botox for that,” she said. The first treatment lasted about nine months and after having a second treatment, “he’s very happy with that,” said Rahal. Dermatologist Gene Rubinstein in Studio City said a lot of his patients are younger people who are getting acne treatments or having tattoos removed. He’s even set-up a MySpace page as part of his marketing program and has a video on YouTube. “It’s a very interesting way of marketing, very different than we’re used to,” said Rubinstein. It doesn’t bring in a lot of patients, per se, but it is a way to communicate with the younger crowd that they appreciate.

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