How a Strong Brand Can Elevate Your Salon’s Success
A strong brand can elevate your salon’s success. While a business can get started overnight, a strong brand takes planning, focused implementation, and years of consistency. However, the payoff of a strong brand is well worth the time and effort put into building one. Your customers will be more loyal. They will spread the word about your business and provide referrals. Best of all, they are often willing to pay premium prices for the customer experience you provide. So, if you want to build a strong brand and boost your success, read on.
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Pro Tip from Tim
When deciding how to brand your business, think about what sets you apart from other beauty professionals. Think about how you’d like to be known in the community and build your brand around that.
- Is your happy place when you’re giving that perfect cut that helps your client feel great about herself when she leaves your suite? Then focus your brand around being a “cut artist”
- Are you really good at making curly hair look great? Then focus your brand around being a curly hair specialist.
- Maybe you’re great at color or fixing what someone else messed up. Then maybe that should be a part of your brand.
When we started bello Salon Suites, we knew we wanted to set our community apart from other suites in the Sacramento area. We spent a lot of time listening to what beauty professionals want and need in their salon suites, and then we designed bello and our amenities around what we learned. That’s why no other salon suites in the Sacramento market offer what bello offers. “Nothing Compares” to bello! To sum it up: Decide how you wish to be known, then build all your communication around that message.
What is a Brand?
The American Marketing Association states, “A brand is any distinctive feature like a name, term, design, or symbol that defines goods or services.” A brand makes a business recognizable, sets customer expectations for quality and experience, and can drive sales.
A brand is not one thing, like a stylish logo, a catchphrase, or a tagline. Instead, a brand is a collection of tangible things, like a logo, and intangible things, like how customers feel when consuming a product or experiencing a service. Additionally, a brand can include the values that guide a company through daily business.
How a Strong Brand Builds Your Business
One of the most important things a brand can do is to showcase the unique experience the business provides. A unique experience is really important. You want your clients to recognize you offer products and services that your competitors don’t. If you can’t show how your salon is special and different, you are just another salon. If you are just another salon, your services become a commodity, and your customers will not be as loyal. Worst yet, they will be more price-sensitive, and you will never be able to command premium prices.
Attracts and Retains Customers
Having a strong brand attracts and retains clients. You build loyalty with a consistent customer experience, unique products and services, and values that resonate with clients. Loyalty means clients will tell their friends about your business and provide referrals. It also means clients will be less price-sensitive. In some instances, clients become so loyal to businesses with strong brands are willing to pay higher prices than those charged at competing businesses.
According to an article published on Frontify, a brand-building platform, “A strong brand with a loyal following builds a consistently positive customer experience. Of the customers surveyed who had a “very good” customer experience, 94% are more likely to purchase again.”
How Can You Develop a Strong Brand?
1. You Already Have a Brand
The first thing to understand is that you already have a brand, whether you know it or not. As a salon owner, you already provide a customer experience, products, and services. If you are not defining your brand, then your customers are. You don’t want that. You want to define your brand, set expectations, and control your customer experience. Over time, your brand and your business will get stronger. If you just opened your salon, you have a clean start. If you have an established salon business, it’s never too late to take control of your brand.
2. Define Your Current Brand Identity
The first step is to assess your current brand. Review your salon services, the products you offer for sale, how you communicate with your clients, and your personal style. What do your customers expect from you? How do you want them to feel when they leave your salon? You may want to ask some of your clients. Honest clients can tell you things about your brand you missed.
3. Define Your Brand’s Future
Now that you know your brand, it’s time to visualize what you want it to be. Keep in mind that there is no “right” brand. You control your brand and can make it anything you want it to be. For example, you may want an upscale brand that attracts an upscale clientele. Others may prefer a casual brand that’s funky and fun. Whatever brand you choose is fine. Just make sure your brand aligns with you and your core values. After all, you and your salon business brand are closely tied together.
Jot down ideas as they come to you. Post in notes are a great way to organize your iideas.
4. Create a Brand Strategy
The next step is to create a brand strategy based on your vision for your brand. That means writing down everything you need to turn your vision into reality. For instance, if your vision is to have an upscale brand, you will need an upscale logo and a sophisticated tagline. You will want to dress professionally and have quality appointment cards for your clients. You should send signals to reinforce a unique and upscale customer experience every time you interact with your clients. That includes how you greet them when they arrive, the furnishings in your salon suite, the amenities you provide, and how you send them off.
5. Design Your Visual Elements
You can design your logo if you have some graphic arts talent. If not, a small investment in professional graphics design is worth the cost. Your illustrations, images, colors, and typeface choices should all reflect your brand strategy.
6. Implement Your Brand Across All Platforms
The colors, typeface, and images you choose should be consistent and used in every aspect of your marketing, including personal communications with clients, salon suite décor, salon website, and social media posts.
Brand cues don’t have to be visual. Some salons burn a scented candle or use a scented plugin. As long as the scent is consistent, it will become part of their customer experience and your brand identity.
Consistency is critical because it establishes expectations and delivers brand identity. It also speeds up the branding process. Visual and non-visual cues provide customers with the necessary elements needed to reinforce your brand, provide proof of delivery, boost loyalty, and build your business.
Conclusion to Creating a Strong Brand
A strong brand can elevate your salon’s success. Whether you are starting a new salon or have an established salon business, branding is critical to making your business stand out and building a book of customers. To create a strong brand, first understand you already have a brand and honestly define it. Then, decide what you want your brand to be. Develop a plan to turn your vision into reality and create the elements you need to implement your new brand.
With consistent use of branding elements in your customer experience and across all your marketing platforms, your brand will grow, and your business will be more profitable. bello Salon Suites has done the work to create a strong brand. And those salons lucky enough to call bello home have a great opportunity to extend the bello brand into their salon brand. bello already provides all the amenities needed for an upscale experience, so using them as a base for your Salon’s customer experience creates a natural flow. It’s one of the many reasons salon businesses love calling bello Salon Suites home.
bello Salon Suites is a collection of 78 custom, private studios for hairstylists and barbers in Sacramento, California. Our private suites are also ideal for estheticians, nail techs, and permanent makeup artists. Privately owned and locally based, our facility features four stylish lounges and an outside garden for a truly zen-like experience. On top of that, we offer more amenities and support than any other salon suites company in town. Take a tour today and see for yourself. For income potential, perks, and value, nothing compares to bello.
