Salon Top Tips

Creating a consistent, memorable and lasting brand is essential to attracting clientele, creating customer loyalty, and standing out from your competitors. However, establishing a brand is about so much more than deciding on a name and designing a logo.

First and foremost, you need to identify the qualities, values, experiences and standards you want your clients to expect from your business. Before you can meet these standards and offer these experiences you have to be clear on what they are. Branding goes beyond your name, your logo, your product or service. Every part of your business builds your brand – from your staff and your business partnerships to your geographical location and social media activity – and sends out a message, so deciding what this message is, is crucial.

Once you’ve determined the image you wish to portray, aim to keep your message consistent. Think about every element of your business and make sure the message you portray is the same. When we developed our 360 Salon concept, this was our greatest concern. 360 Salon business packages give select salons the chance to be fully partnered with the Kebelo brand. Every element of business is covered and fits the Kebelo model, including marketing, business development and retail. Kebelo covers 360 degrees of a 360 Salon’s service and retail business.

However you position yourself in your market, it’s crucial that you stand out from competitors. This means going over and above what other businesses are offering in your local area. In an industry where clients are inundated with choice, you need to offer something unexpected or something that others can’t or don’t. Partner with a haircare brand that’s not available elsewhere, or send your staff to train at prestigious academies. Offer clients a complimentary head massage or glass of champagne with their blow-dry. Great or small, it’s these points of difference that will result in clients choosing you over your competitor.

Make your clients feel good and you’ll tick that standout box too. If a client has to choose between two hair salons offering the exact same services at the exact same price, they’ll choose the one with a better client experience. Clients want to feel special, so treat them as an individual, listen to their needs, remember their preferences and always tailor a service to their needs. Client consultation cards are a key part of making sure you understand and stay on top of what your clients want.

Reward client loyalty: this is a huge part of making your clients feel special. Run loyalty schemes, with special offers for regular clients. Make a note of birthdays and send out Christmas cards with special offers. Don’t just get hung up on the big stuff: remember it’s often the little things – like remembering how a client likes their coffee – that can make a huge difference to a client’s overall salon experience.

Whatever your point of difference – whether it is your award-winning staff or your impressive retail line – make sure you let everyone know about it. Make full use of promotional materials to let everyone know and exploit social media, which is a quick and effective promotional tool.

To gain respect in the industry, enter trusted awards. In an over-saturated market, winning awards distinguishes you from competitors. Additionally, awards can generate press coverage in local and national news and in trade publications. Make relevant media outlets aware of your competition success and show off your press coverage in salon and across all of your salon’s social media channels. Award wins also boost team morale, encourage high standards among your staff, and this, in turn, has a positive effect on business.

Develop a distinctive visual brand. This must reflect your overall identity. If necessary, seek professional help from designers and then apply this to all visual elements of your brand: from packaging and visual merchandising to signage and your website. Consider legal protection for your visual branding, any logos or distinct slogans.

It’s also important to evolve. To be a lasting brand, as well as a consistent one, you must adapt over time. Nothing in life is stagnant: economies change, clients’ needs change and fashions change, so your business should evolve with these. There are several ways of developing your brand: keep staff up to date with training; stay on top of trends, new retails lines and new techniques; and over time, consider expansion.

Don’t build false hope. If the promises you make to clients and the messages you send out about your brand aren’t met in reality, customers won’t return. Make sure you can live up to the expectations you build, before building them.

Finally, remember everything you do is linked to your brand – right down to the images you post on Instagram and the way your staff dress. It’s often these finer details that are forgotten about, but these are the things that will set your brand apart from your competitors, and that will truly reinforce a consistent brand message.

8/10/2016

Creating a niche product or service that will also cater to the needs of a broad range of people is the key to success for any business. By targeting your offerings in this way, your company will be able to capture a wide client base and, as a result, continue to grow and thrive.

When it comes to your offerings, the sky’s the limit. Everyone has to start somewhere, but once you have established your area of expertise, or the product or service that your clients favour most, begin to think about ways in which this can be expanded to suit both client and business needs. When my brothers and myself founded Kebelo in 2010, we launched with a unique concept in the haircare industry, Kebelo ADVANTAGE, which provides smooth and frizz-free hair in one hour. As the brand went from strength to strength, we saw the opportunity to capitalise on this success and offer our loyal clients and salons something new, which perfectly complemented our existing offerings. This led us to introduce an innovative colour service, Kebelo BONDAGE, and today we now offer these services alongside a collection of four prescriptive retail ranges. While our products and services offer something for different client’s varying needs, we wanted to make sure that all of these concepts were united in theme – that of creating beautiful, smooth and healthy hair, and that this was clear to every single one of our clients and the salons we work with. If you’re looking to expand your offerings, find a common thread and make sure that everything links together to ensure that you don’t confuse your clients and create a strong, recognisable brand with clear intentions and purpose.

To appeal to the greatest number of potential clients, make sure that you educate your customers about the many benefits of your product or service, focusing on the areas that appeal to a particular client’s wants and needs. Start by making a list of everything that your product or service offers and think about the people who be most receptive to these points. If your product uses only natural ingredients, look to engage with audiences that favour a more natural approach to their haircare routine. People on a budget may be interested to know if a service you offer is more affordable than it seems, and clients with a particular hair type or texture will want to hear all about a product or service that will bring them one step closer to achieving their ideal style.

After you have identified every potential customer base, make it your mission to reach them. This could be through a consultation or chat with a stylist at the salon (after all, a client knows that their stylist is the best person to educate them about what it best for their hair) or through online engagement, such as social media channels or regular e-newsletters. If your clients don’t know about the many benefits of a product or service, then they can’t get on board with it, so look for opportunities to share information that will encourage them to find out more.

While you should always aim to promote your product or service to the many different customers that will benefit from it, it’s also important to recognise that no business can be all things to all people. By trying to appeal to absolutely every market, your brand message – which is essentially the very thing that will work to gain your clients – can become diluted and potentially lost, leading to the reverse of what you are trying to achieve. Concentrating your efforts on the customers who will be most receptive to your message, rather than trying to appeal to clients who are less likely to fall into your target market, will ensure that you are spending your valuable time on the clients who will be most likely to become loyal in the longer term. Essentially, using the very core of marketing practice – recognising a customer need and finding a way to fulfil that need – will ensure that you appeal to the broadest possible client base and reap the subsequent rewards.

6/2/2016

Quotes from Benjamin Shipman, Marketing Director, Kebelo

You only need to look at the shelves of products lining the walls of salons across the country to see the abundance of retail ranges available to consumers. With so many brands on offer, customers can often be left wondering why they should choose one brand or product over another. Yes, simple factors such as availability and price can often sway a decision, but ultimately a client wants to invest their money in something that is going to work well for both their lifestyle and their hair. So many people complain about the dozens of hair products that they have purchased yet barely used, simply because they ended up being unsuitable for their hair. This is not only disheartening for the customer, but will also likely mean that they don’t buy from that particular brand again when, chances are, it’s just that the product they have chosen is simply not right for their hair type or style and they did not have the knowledge needed to make an informed purchase. Very few brands focus on only one hair type and most have something that will work for everyone, so it’s your job to communicate to clients what will maximise their hair to its full potential.

For hairdressers, one of the most important things is taking the time to effectively use your knowledge and expertise to deliver a ‘lesson’ on the best products for each individual client. This starts with deciphering their hair type, texture and desired style; is the client’s hair naturally frizzy, but they want more of a sleek look? Do they often wear up-dos and therefore need extra hold? Is their hair dry and damaged and needs bringing back to life, or does it become greasy very quickly and requires something that will maintain a fresh appearance for longer? By discovering what the client’s current hair condition is, as well as their desired outcome, you will immediately instil a sense of confidence and trust in you as a specialist in your field. As a result, clients are more likely to take on board any recommendations you make. Once you have invested time in really understanding the client and their hair, you can begin to suggest products based on what you have learned.

If you’re looking to put extra focus on your retail ranges, it is well worth considering introducing offers, promotions or loyalty schemes to really highlight everything you have to offer. Try to target your promotions to new clients as well as existing ones, to encourage some new faces through the door. A competitive offer on a popular product or service may just inspire a new client to give you a try. Bundle together products that work for a particular hair type and offer a discount on multi-buys, such as a shampoo, conditioner and serum for frizzy or dry hair. Price can often be the ultimate deciding factor for a client, so if they know they are getting value for money this could certainly influence their decision to buy. ‘Buy one get one free’ deals, money off promotions and free gift offers are all great ways to entice customers to buy, particularly at this time of year when clients are thinking about buying presents as well as their own festive wish-lists.

Ultimately, when it comes to retail ranges, everything begins with education. Use this as a foundation to impart your expert knowledge, and clients will look to you as a welcome source of inspiration and guidance when choosing from the wealth of products on the market.

1/7/2016