Hair Salon Marketing Strategies:The Mortal Danger for Franchised Salons & Spas
Mystery Inner Circle member reveals she’s broken the chains of franchise marketing holding her back….
Hair Salon Marketing Strategies:The Mortal Danger for Franchised Salons & Spas
A glowing testimonial from one of our freshly-minted New Zealand members this week made me laugh out loud, but under that laugh were some warning bells.
It came via our New Zealand franchisee Chris D’Aguiar-Sanders, from a salon owner who, for reasons which will become clear, doesn’t want to be identified – yet.
If you are you part of a franchise network, thinking about buying a franchised salon, or joining a franchise, then listen carefully, ‘cos you could be buying trouble. Now, that is not to say that franchising per se is a bad idea. There are many excellent benefits to being part of a franchise network, but in our experience – and that of many of our Inner Circle members – the ability of the franchisor to provide effective and efficient marketing copy is NOT one of them.
(And before you go all smarty-pants on me, Worldwide Salon Marketing is an exception to the rule!)
In general, the hair salon marketing strategies provided by the typical beauty industry franchise is, frankly, hopeless – the standard ‘branding’, imagey kind of marketing that looks pretty, doesn’t sell. Worse, in most franchise agreements, the franchisee salon is forced to not only use this ineffective marketing material, but pay dearly for it.
This salon owner – we’ll call her Jennifer – is part of a large franchise network, and suffered greatly because she has been forced to use the marketing provided by the franchisor. (And rest assured, I have seen this franchisor’s advertising. It is unutterably dreary. Little wonder it hasn’t worked for ‘Jennifer’.)
‘Jennifer’ joined the Inner Circle program in late March, and writes:
“After 3 years of struggling to get my revenue up in my medispa, and having a small client base, in desperation I madly grasped at the flyer from Worldwide Salon Marketing, offering a FREE DVD, that other salon owners had used and had literally doubled their sales and profits by changing the way they marketed.
“This I thought was for me, what else have I got to lose except my business, so I needed to act now especially in these times of recession.
“After watching the DVD, I thought this is for me so became a member, and I have had fantastic results! I have never had this type of over whelming response from any advert I have done previously (who said flyers don’t work!)
“Very simple but very powerful marketing tools, that have convinced me. So upward and onwards to grow my business, I feel I am now starting to take control of my business as I can see it already has started to grow. The support and encourgement , and feeling of working in a strong supportive team, leaves me with a very motivated fantastic feeling.Thank you Worldwide Salon Marketing.”
Jennifer’s story is not an isolated one. All over the world, salon owners who are part of franchise networks are using the tools, ad templates and sales strategies in the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit to double, triple their sales and profits in spite of the marketing ‘rules’ imposed on them by their franchisors. Many are doing it without the knowledge of the franchisor, and in several documented cases, our Members have ‘seen the light’ and fired their franchisor.
The are two points here: 1) franchisors would actually make more money if only they got out of their own way, swallowed their own egos, and allowed their franchisees to market themselves with the best tools at their disposal. And 2), the last thing the owner of any business should do is delegate their marketing to a third party, e.g., a franchisor.
Marketing IS the business. It’s the only thing that brings in the money. By accepting without question the marketing knowledge, experience and most importantly of all, the actual marketing material the franchisor insists you use, you effectively abdicate from responsibility for the results.
