Category Archives: Branding

Two Kinds of Salons

29 Wednesday Nov 2017

Posted by in Branding, Developing talent, Management, Shared values

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If you have young children, or if you know someone who has, you are probably familiar with this experience. Let’s say mom and dad need to drive a couple hours to help an old friend who is moving from her apartment into her new home. Mom and dad tell the kids, “We’re going in the car to visit Lauren. Grab your toys and let’s go.”

Unless you are blessed in a special way, not long after you get in the car the kids start to fidget. They get easily bored and you immediately begin entertaining them, playing with them, distracting them, bribing them, and eventually sometimes we get mad at them. If we step back, it’s easy to diagnose the situation. Young children are not ready for confined spaces for long periods—especially when the endeavor has nothing to do with them or their interests.

Now, let’s think about a time when you and your friends decided to do something together. Insert your own example, but let’s say you and three of your besties decide to go to the beach for the weekend. Someone says, “You wanna go to the shore this weekend?” and those who make the choice say, “Oh heck yeah!” That’s kind of it. In an instant everyone realizes where they are (inland), they know who’s going (people who they have something in common with), and they know where they’re going (to get sand between their toes). Everyone makes a choice. Everyone wants to switch it up. Everyone understands the beach is fun on weekends. Everyone is onboard. No one needs to be convinced to go and no one needs to be taught how to have fun.

  • 90% of the salons I have known operate in what I call, “The kids in the car seat” world.
  • 100% of us should strive to make the “Weekend at the beach” our reality.

So, how do we do that? It starts with your True Brand Story.

When you strap the kids in a car seat they have little understanding of why you’re taking away their personal freedom for two hours. When you invite your friends to the shore, everyone already knows the “story” and if they want to go they buy in naturally.

Your True Brand Story has several chapters but here is the bottom line: You need to be able to describe to your team, and your job applicants, Who you are (your purpose), What you stand for (your values), and where you’re going (your vision). Children won’t be able to understand what you’re saying but young adults with a true passion for our business and their potential careers will.

Your job is to develop your story into a compelling tale that captures the imaginations of the professionally-minded and attracts them to come with you on the journey of a lifetime. As the saying goes, “Your mom doesn’t work here,” let’s just make sure she leaves the car seats at home too.

One Delightful Thing

21 Tuesday Jul 2015

Posted by in Branding, Concentrating effort, Customer Experience, Customers, Innovation, Retail

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NewHorizonsPlutoCharon-1-582x753
Around 500 BC a Greek philosopher named Heraclitus said, “Everything changes and nothing stands still.” Today, we are more likely to hear, “The only constant is change,” and feel like it’s a new idea. The truth is that change has always been, and always will be, regardless when we discover it.

When Henry Ford introduced the automobile he was amused by the idea that people really only wanted faster horses. When your grandmother drank coffee she was, at most, looking for cream and sugar not Butterbeer Frappuccinos from the Starbucks Secret Menu. When the Wright Brothers invented flight they didn’t quite imagine the International Space Station.

Recently, I attended Raylon’s 14th annual Art of Business symposium where I caught Josh Hafetz’ talk. Josh is the 3rd generation President of Raylon Corporation and he made a compelling argument. Like hair that is always growing, salon owners and managers must constantly grow, adapt, and remain relevant. Josh cited several very real examples of changes that are happening—right now—and why many of these changes cause salon professional product sales to remain flat, put pressure on salon service pricing, result in fewer appointments per year, and impact the loyalty of our clients to our salons.

After following Josh on a visual tour of the new ways our clients obtain information on beauty and style (social media, YouTube beauty tutorials, and mass-customization of consumer beauty products) another time-tested truism came to mind.

Consumer expectations are always growing.

The Kano Model (Google it) is a trendy way to understand changing consumer expectations but it too is based on an age-old truth. In a nutshell, what Kano says is this. There are three kinds of things consumers want at all times from any business:

  • Basic things: For example, A salon that is open, furnished, clean, with plenty of parking.
  • Expected things: Great haircuts, artistic hair color, and nice blowouts.
  • Delightful things: Complimentary finishing touches, outrageously good consultations, luxurious washbowl experiences, etc.

Kano also points out that, over time, things that were once “delightful” eventually become “expected,” and ultimately “basic.” This creates one of two situations for every salon owner and manager A) tomorrow we invent something new and delightful, or B) we stop inventing and start going stale.

This presents each of us with a bold and never-ending challenge: Change or go stale. Innovate or die!

I encourage you to sit down tonight, with at least one other person on your team, and list out all the products, services, and experiences your salon provides. Sort your list into Basic, Expected, and Delightful. Then look at your list and push one thing from Expected into Basic. Push one Delightful into Expected.

And then invent one new Delightful thing

Instant MBA

19 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by in Branding, Concentrating effort, Customers, Management, Results, Shared values

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Printing Money
Every new salon is created with a “License to print money,” because the money making potential in our industry is virtually unlimited. To use your “license,” you need an activation key but only 5-10% of all salons know how to obtain it. What is this secret activation key? It is:

Knowing the difference between running your salon and managing your salon.

Here is how you can start managing your salon today.

Create a Customer

Every institution must create certain benefits. The role of business—your business—is to create a customer. No matter if you’re a creative, a geek, a hipster, or just a regular person, your only concern at work is delivering what your customers value. Everything else is either secondary or an outright distraction.

Communicate Your Vision

Your first priority as a leader is to constantly communicate and reinforce the values, purpose, and vision of your salon. The time you currently spend on everything else must come after you describe what you stand for, why you’re here, and the future you are creating.

Develop a Shared Understanding

If there is a trick between Running Your Salon and Managing Your Salon it is to create a shift in thinking from “I” to “We.” No one is exempt from this rule of management. If effort in your salon is individual, energies will be scattered. When effort is concentrated you will make a powerful impact together.

Understand Your Guests

Recognizing is not understanding. Know specifics for every guest. Name, age, significant other, children, visit frequency, likes/dislikes, recent issues or triumphs, satisfaction/trust level, income, job, upbringing, etc. To create a customer you must know who they are and why they want what they want.

Write Job Descriptions

Describe every job in writing and include at least: Job Title, Results, Measures, and Behaviors. Provide performance feedback on these topics during every one-on-one before addressing anything else.

Hire Good People

In addition to skill, talent, and artistic ability you need to identify, select, and retain good people. “Good” people have solid values, a strong work ethic, and good intentions. Remember, it is far easier to teach a good person how to be a better hairdresser than to teach a better hairdresser how to be a good person.

Train as Well as Educate

Continuing education is proven for success in our industry. What 90% of salon owners overlook is training employees to succeed in living out their values, sharing a common purpose, and creating a better future together through service to their guests. Model this behavior and communicate it too.

 

What is Management?

25 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by in Branding, Concentrating effort, Continuous improvement, Contribution, Customers, Developing talent, Effectiveness, Management, Results, Shared values

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Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done.
Peter F. Drucker

Because few of us have had bosses who were trained managers, and because few of us have received specialized training in management, we tend to think management is some kind of gut-feel thing. In fact, there is much that is known about management as it has been defined, studied, and systematically improved over the past century. Management is endlessly fascinating and, at the same time, it is not rocket science. For our mutual benefit, and so we have a shorthand way of understanding what we’re talking about when we say “management,” here it is on one page. Again, thanks and props to Mr. Drucker.

ROLE OF BUSINESS

To create a customer.

ROLE OF PROFIT

To serve as validation that customer needs are being met.

ROLE OF THE EXECUTIVE/LEADER

To know the Purpose, Vision, and Values of an organization and to constantly communicate them.

ROLE OF THE MANAGER

To make our work productive and to help workers achieve results.

There is a lot of study and discussion about how our memory works. Authors such as Malcolm Gladwell and Daniel Kahneman talk about the concept of “The availability heuristic.” Availability describes what’s happening when, “Something just ‘pops’ into our heads.” In the hustle-bustle of daily management, how we respond to (or lead) a situation is often determined by what pops into our heads. The results can be pretty random. Instead, I ask you to train your memory until the following model of how business works pops into your head. That will help you put things into perspective, help you lead for results, and solve situations in more effective ways. For every business situation you face it’s far better to rely on this model than to just wing it.

HOW BUSINESS “WORKS”

  • There is a customer need.
  • There is a better idea to satisfy the customer need.
  • Values, Purpose, and Vision concentrate the effort of multiple people.
  • An organization is formed to divide the work.
  • Each job is described so its contribution is clear.
  • People who share in the Values, Purpose, and Vision are hired.
  • Employees use self-control and contribution to guide the work they do and how they do it.
  • Customers are satisfied.
  • The business earns revenue, and eventually profit, as validation of its success.
  • The business shares their monetary and other success with employees.
  • The business invests so that meeting customer needs can continue.

The Power of the Branding Framework

23 Tuesday Jun 2015

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Framework
A branding framework, “brand DNA,” or “brand book,” is essential knowledge about who we are as an organization, where we’re headed, and what we stand for. A proper framework invites us to think deeply about our business and then puts us in position to communicate our brand to any audience. Example audiences include internal ones like our employees and managers; external ones like advertising agencies, web developers, and other suppliers; and above all it lets us communicate effectively to our customers, “clients,” or “guests.” A branding framework covers a lot of territory from internal strategic intentions to external marketing messages and, therefore, is one of our organization’s most important documented knowledge.

BRANDING DEFINED

It is very common for people to use the word “branding” and for it to mean different things to different people. It is natural for an advertising agency to say the word branding and for it to mean an ad campaign. To a graphic artist, branding usually means a logo or other symbol they designed. We are going to define branding as something much bigger than an advertisement or a logo. For us, branding is:

The total impact of the organization on our clients and the marketplace.

A brand is composed of hundreds of little fragments of client perception. Our logo, our website, the retail products we carry, the way we dress, our salons’ interiors, the way an individual client was treated by a receptionist and then how she described that to a friend. Every little interaction and every way our clients come into contact with us, our staff and our salons comes together to create an image. It all builds up to create our brand. Stated another way,

Our brand = what we stand for; but not just in our minds: Primarily in the minds of our clients.

WHY A FRAMEWORK?

The most practical reason we want to invest time in creating a branding framework for our organization is because no two people are alike and it is very rare for any two people to describe the same company the same way. The more “technical” reason for our framework is to create continuity in our brand story and to connect all those little fragments of perception in the minds of our clients in just the right way so they choose us instead of our competition. That also goes for attracting talented people who want to come to work for us. They need to know who we are, where we’re going, and what we stand for because we want to work with people who value the same things we value and want to be part of a journey that is bigger than any one of us. Finally, it also goes for those of us currently on the team. We want to make a difference. We want to make our mark. We want all our hard work to mean something and to pay off. Pulling our branding framework together will bring us together in old and new ways.

By taking the time to get clarity about what’s important, to document it in a way that creates a common understanding among us, and then to communicate what we believe to our clients with one voice has the potential to be one of the most powerful things we do.

Don’t Let Diversion Divert Your Attention

23 Monday Mar 2015

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Oribe

Chances are you can describe your preferred type of client, you have a pretty good understanding of her needs, and you offer her services and products at fair prices. When clients spend money on what you offer, they are validating you as a business. Money is revenue. Enough revenue, combined with responsible financial management, becomes profit. Profit is, a sometimes rare, validation.

  • New clients validate your offering, your space, and your marketing. It’s good enough to try once.
  • Returning clients validate your total experience. It’s worth trying again.
  • Loyal clients validate your total experience. It is better than your competition.
  • Clients who are your advocates validate the presence of a strong emotional bond.

Usually salon owners I meet spend most of their time thinking about getting new clients—and then their attention is diverted. It is the owner’s responsibility, and opportunity, to create a deliberate plan to move their clients through each stage of Client Maturity.

New=>Return=>Loyal=>Advocate

Clients at each stage are open to different messaging and capable of different behaviors. For example, no one would expect a brand-new client to refer all of her friends to you—but for a Loyal or Advocate it would be natural. I argue, “Why do so many salons hand out referral cards to brand new clients?” I don’t think they are capable of “hearing” that message when they are still deciding about you themselves.

Client Maturity planning helps you focus energy to achieve specific results rather than throwing the kitchen sink at your entire client base and seeing what happens. Relating this to our topic of Diversion (and your need to grow your retail sales)

I urge you to first focus 80% of your attention on creating solid populations of clients within each stage and the retail problem will partially solve itself.

The converse is obviously false since focusing 80% of your attention on selling retail will not create Return, Loyal, or Advocate clients.

For any problem you encounter, ask yourself, “What is it about our offering, our price, our experience that is the root cause here? What can we do better to keep this client firmly in the Return stage and potentially grow them to the Loyal stage? If you’re not sure of that, no amount of asking them to buy your retail will help. From the time a new customer starts looking for a new salon, to the time they return, to the time when they rely on you to satisfy more of their needs, to the time they refer their friends; you are in relationship with them. The more responsibility you take for how they perceive and experience your salon, the more opportunity you have to make a good impression, satisfy their needs more deeply, and develop positive lasting relationships that translate into more sales of everything.

Shift Your Thinking about Diversion

22 Sunday Mar 2015

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MoroccanoilWhen it comes to selling professional hair care products, every competitor thinks about how to exploit her unique advantage.

  • Big box retailers take advantage of their location, their ability to offer a wide assortment, their purchasing power, lower pricing, etc.
  • Specialty retailers take advantage of their location, their appeal to a niche—or a specialized assortment, their product knowledge, etc.
  • The Internet takes advantage of convenience, low price, low overhead, high volume/low price, etc.

The salon distribution channel has powerful advantages too. Think of it like this. Imagine yourself talking with one of your good clients—not your best client because she already buys her product from you. To your good client imagine yourself saying this,

“Instead of giving your business to them, what if you let me earn it?”

This question is designed as an in-the-moment tactic to help you start a conversation with a good client. It is also intended to be strategically helpful as way to start a conversation with your staff.

As a salon owner, this is your tremendous advantage:

 “You have a personal relationship with your client and you, uniquely, have the expertise to diagnose her hair.”

Getting your staff to use this powerful advantage is more about shifting their perspective than it is about sales commissions or training. They need to shift their idea from “Just doing hair,” to “Serving their whole client,” and respecting their own work. Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computer, famously said,

 “When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.”

Only a true professional hairdresser says, “I’m not going to allow someone to sell my client random hair care products she doesn’t need and that won’t solve her problems. She is my client before, during, and after her appointment and I’m going to make sure she buys the right products so she can feel as good about her look at home as she does when I do it here.”

Yes, sales training is important too. It is. But this single shift in perspective will help your staff grow into their potential, develop their professional status, serve your clients more deeply, and ultimately earn more retail sales.

Why Customers Buy into Diversion

21 Saturday Mar 2015

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Pureology DuoIf you ask me, “Why do my customers buy their professional hair care products from big box retail, drug stores, specialty retail, or Internet distribution channels instead of buying them from me?” I have a pretty simple answer.

The first purpose of any business is, “To create a customer.” Doing that successfully usually means:

  • Precisely identifying your target customer
  • Understanding her needs
  • Having an insight into how to meet her needs better than the competition
  • Putting the right product within reach, at the right time, in the right quantities, and at the right price with the right support.

The fact is you already understand this. Think about it. You already create customers for professional hair care services. You have a salon. You have a staff. You have a list of services with prices. You have clients. However imperfect it may be, you have figured out how to create a customer for a hair cut, a hair color, a blow out, and so on. My educated guess is that you spent a lot of time thinking and dreaming about owning a salon. You studied and trained for years. You had your ups and downs but you stuck with it. You thought of nothing else but “doing hair” for decades. Some people have thought about it their whole lives.

Well, as it turns out, retailers spend the same amount of time thinking about how to sell retail product to consumers. In fact, some of them have been doing it for generations and others have been doing it long after their companies’ founders retired or went to the “big box in the sky.” In other words, they got good at because they focused on it. And guess what? It makes your job harder. But, guess what else?

They have not made it impossible.

Diversion!

20 Friday Mar 2015

Posted by in Branding, Contribution, Customer Experience, Customers, Product, Retail

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Enjoy DuoManufacturers of professional hair care products are not restricted to a single channel of distribution. Historically, brands have established their reputations and built their images through the salon distribution channel. Today the salon distribution channel moves an ever-smaller portion of a brand’s total volume. Other channels such as big box retail, drug stores, specialty retail, and the Internet make up the bulk of all sales volume and growth. You might consider this diversion but it certainly isn’t the grey market. Most manufacturers are well established in several legitimate distribution channels. You are not alone if you feel they unfairly exploit the salon channel and leverage their own success at the salon owners’ expense.

When I think of diversion I think, in particular, of the unscrupulous brand who has pressured a salon to take on too much inventory—more than they can possibly sell. Or, on the other hand, an unscrupulous salon owner who intentionally buys too much knowing she will offload some of that product in the grey market.

One of the biggest grey markets of professional hair care products operates completely in the open. Amazon.com. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Amazon is a bad company at all. And, frankly, they are at least three degrees of separation away from the real problem, that is, too much inventory getting stuffed into channels beyond their normal business capacity.

If you haven’t already done it, then look for yourself. There are many examples of hair care brands who purposely do not distribute their products through Amazon.com—and yet there they are. Why? Because some salon owner, or middleman, has the ambition to buy up excess inventory and resell it below “retail” (and “at or above” in some cases) directly to consumers. This, of course, offends the brands themselves, but more to the point, injures salon owners who play by the rules. They are the ones who build the customer relationships, diagnose individual needs, recommend effective products—while their customers often buy hair care products on line, or from other channels, to save money.

The Real Ryanair, Please Stand Up

23 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by in Branding, Customer Experience, Customers, Management

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Ryanair

Mike and the Customer is a very good blog about how to improve things for the customer. One of Mike Bird’s recent posts caught my eye: Ryanair: kings of the customer experience. I prepared the following as a bit of conversation between Mike and me. If you’re interested in following along, please read his Ryanair article too. Ryanair is a low-cost Irish airline.

Mike, I really enjoyed your post and I’ve reread it a few times. Considering solely what’s in it, something seems a bit off to me in terms of emphasis. I don’t think the most interesting observation is, “Customer experience is not about being nice, it’s about meeting strategic goals.” Rather, I prefer something closer to, “Ryanair succeeds precisely because it is one of the few companies to have understood exactly the customer experience that it needs to compete strategically…”

My take is it’s about Ryanair understanding what its customers consider value. As you say, they value, “…Low cost, on time, with bags, that’s it.” From this perspective I read the story as a triumph of understanding the customer and driving the organization to deliver what they value without compromise.

To me, Ryanair hasn’t, “…Designed a customer experience to compete strategically.” Their customers don’t care about it and they know it. Instead Ryanair has chosen a low-cost, high-efficiency strategy vis-à-vis their competition to meet the needs of the utilitarian traveler. In that space customer “service” is all that is required and an experience isn’t a consideration. That being said, I do love the Michael O’Leary quotes you use (CEO Ryanair). He obviously knows how to promote his brand through the Press. Making fun of “Mother” is much more memorable than some dry statistic about on-time rates for take offs and departures.

Jim

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