Branding: Defining Your Salon Personality
Having a salon personality is really important. Have you ever heard your marketing consultant telling you that you need an identity for your brand? Chances are that this has happened a lot of times.
Creating a strong brand identity takes critical thinking and creative work. Branding is not just about creating a colorful logo with a fancy font for your salon. It goes a lot beyond that.
The beauty industry particularly is facing a branding problem. Brands appear lifeless and flat, and often lack personality. What is the ‘X factor’ of your salon that should drive people to it?
Not having a brand identity and personality can be hugely damaging to your brand.
It’s all about gaining perspective on your business. Once you do so, there’s no stopping.
Importance Of Branding And Creating A Solid Salon Personality.
What is a brand?
Before stepping into the nitty-gritty of branding, every salon and spa must understand what a brand is made of. Of course, it is more than a logo on a business card or a sign in front of your salon. It is an identity that makes your business different from your competitors and is a promise your business makes to its customers and potential clients. Simply put, a brand is the essence and soul of a business.
Your brand is expressed through:
➢ The way you communicate with your clients
➢ The way you allow them to schedule appointments
➢ Your style of writing and talking
➢ Your name and logo
➢ Your colors and fonts
Using bold colors in your logo or writing something creative and witty does not shape the personality of your salon. You only become a strong brand by your actions. For example: Taking appointments on the telephone is something of the past. If you still follow this, your prospective clients look at you as a poor brand. On the other hand, if you are using salon scheduling software to take daily appointments, your clients look at your brand as strong. You come across as a business that is receptive to new ideas, technology, and change.
As they say ‘actions speak louder than words’. If you do want to come across to your clients as a strong brand, you have to work towards creating that personality.
Why having a strong brand is necessary?
Today, competition in a large number of industries is fiercer than ever. It is only because of your brand you are able to sustain. Your brand identity gives you a chance to identify your ideal client. It helps you attract the right people who identify with your brand values.
Through your salon’s branding and marketing, you can enforce positive perceptions of your business and influence their decision to visit your salon.
The secret to building a stellar brand is to determine your brand message.
Identify how you can relate to your target clientele, and once you do so what do you want them to associate with your business?
To create the most recognized and liked brand, you must tell your potential customers how you are different.
Some of the most successful brands sell more than merely just their products and services. Beauty brands that relate to a customer and offer hope are the ones that truly succeed. For example: When you send out marketing emails from your salon software that read something like ‘10% discount on a manicure’, there won’t be much of a change in your clientele. That’s because your marketing message is plain and dull.
To attract clients and implant your brand in their minds, your marketing communication has to be vibrant. Give your clients a moment to focus on themselves. A spa marketing message should read something like ‘Unwind from the stresses of everyday life by indulging in our hot stone spa treatment at a special price only for you’.
Salon culture
Even though your salon is successful in giving clients the perfect hairstyle, the key to client retention is the people and culture of your salon. People prefer companies that give them top-notch service.
Your salon culture must resonate with your mission and vision statement and brand objectives. Your vision should tell your clients what you want to achieve over time while your mission should work towards achieving that goal.
Your salon brand is not just determined by potential clients by what it looks like on your free salon software, on social media, or on anywhere else online. Visual imagery is not the only aspect of a brand.
It is the voice and tone of your brand that determines your salon personality. It can go a long way to help you engage with your ideal clientele.
If you want your clients to relate to you, you will have to shape your communication accordingly. For example: If your marketing messages are for a millennial, try and adopt an upbeat and casual tone. Instead of we are, use we’re. For more professional and senior clientele, use a formal tone with proper punctuation and grammar.
Your salon’s personality is not just restricted to your marketing messages. It should be consistent throughout your salon interactions – when you are greeting a loyal client, responding to a client’s feedback on your salon software, engaging with a potential client on Facebook, or while interviewing a stylist for a vacant position.
The way you present your business to the outside world defines your personality.
When you construct and implement your brand correctly and consistently, you guide your clients to think about you in a certain way.
When creating a brand identity and personality for your salon, make sure it is realistic and a perfect reflection of what you do. Always set goals that you can meet and accomplish.
The best way to improve your salon brand and marketing efforts is by using MioSalon, salon software. The software gives you the ability to tailor your marketing messages with innovative templates. E-newsletters and promotional emails are the best way to engage with existing as well as potential clients.
To start your FREE trial of the best salon software in India, schedule a free demo today.