Client: A Salon for Men and Women
(Cambridge, MA)
Inspiring Vision
Corner Salon has a lot to offer its clientele: a wealth of hair-cutting experience, a warm and welcoming environment, and a fair market price. Yet, seems to have trouble attracting the largest group of people in Cambridge (25-34). Rather, Corner Salon seems to draw the stay at home mothers and the middle-aged professionals/professors.
This in part due to 2 issues:
– Corner Salon may seem just right for a slightly “older” crowd that wants a more relaxing experience versus a “trendy” one and more of an “escape” than the limelight.
– Corner Salon is a relatively “new player” compared to the other area salons in Cambridge MA. Case-in-point, Corner Salon’s customers will on occasion mention that they visited Corner Salon’s local competitors before learning about Corner Salon.
Corner Salon’s inspiring vision is to effectively and efficiently increase its sales revenue – in turn, appeal to and attract a younger demographic (25-34).
Brave Your Standard
At the time of doing our research, we found the 25-34 year old generation to fall into the “you are what you look” (amicability, intelligence, and trustworthiness are inferences based on “looks”) stigma. They are aware of it and in a lot of cases perpetuate this stigma. Thus, the younger consumers take an active role in shaping their possible hair-cutting experience and subsequent outcome:
- Many customers bring along magazine clippings of models and movie stars to imitate their hairstyles without considering the texture, strength or length of their own hair.
- Customers are more discerning and demanding, and almost everyone is more attuned to what’s happening in the media scene.
Corner Salon, compared to the other nearby salons (granted their competitors are located in a more concentrated and “hip areas”) has both a bigger space and innovative stylists (individually possessing 20 plus years of experience) compared to that of its local competitors (with younger hair stylists with much less experience). Whereas, our research showed, that ideal stylist and consumers relations meant:
- An experienced hairdresser to interpret what a customer really wanted.
- An experienced hairdresser knows to always put their customers’ opinions before their own, but at the same time they should know to and subsequently make their clients aware that the outcome will depend on the type of hair they have
The standard we want to brave is to leverage Corner Salon’s collection of personnel. Their desire to serve and superior listening skills, and, above all else, a wealth of experience will build trust with the upwardly mobile, single professionals (25-34).
Trust, so that this particular group of professionals who usually know what they want in terms of a hairstyle can trust that Corner Salon will align with their motivations ranging from hiring decisions, promotions, performance appraisals, and other critical work outcomes with the “just right” haircut and style. For example, the right-balance of femininity and attractiveness, that boosts their customer’s confidence/self-esteem, yet not too feminine to not be taken seriously in the workplace.
Corner Salon is a salon where you can relax and trust that as a client you will get exactly what you want – every time – not the trends that most stylist’s may be following or “cuts” based on the limited repertoire of the stylists.
Advance
While Corner Salon has since closed their doors, our Brand Identity allowed their promotions to capitalize on the fears and motivations of the younger (25-34) demographic in thinking that the “wrong look vs. the right look” can directly impact their career trajectory’s positive / upward momentum.
We leveraged Corner Salons stylist – not playing down their age, but rather, espousing it as a their wealth of experience, a desire to serve, and superior listening skills. These are all attributes that this demographic is seeking, as well as, their current “older” (35-54) demographic.
The combination of Corner Salon’s location, its competitor’s noted weakness, in-store environment, personnel, core beliefs/intrinsic strengths, customer’s motivations, and immediate and close-by demographic, makes the following differentiation strategy a strong, relevant and desirable fit:
Building trust with an upwardly mobile generation
Living in a “you are what you look” world