REVITALIZING THE SALON CHANNEL TO BENEFIT ALL.
The age-old relationship between hair/beauty product companies and salons has the potential to reshape the landscape if astutely leveraged and reimagined, or risk becoming irrelevant and lost to a disengaged generation.
Tech entrepreneur & industry commentator, Jenene Crossan delves into the transformative power of collaboration, illustrating how it can breathe life into the salon experience and navigate today’s evolving dynamics.
Learning from Olaplex: A Cautionary Tale of Disconnection
Olaplex’s recent experience stands as a stark reminder of the repercussions when the connection between professionals and consumers falters. The company witnessed a dramatic 61.2% sales decline within the professional channel last quarter, and whilst “normalized marketing” costs were cited as the underlying reason, it hints at the dire consequences of under-valued relationships. Plenty of chatter can be heard amongst the stylist community that they felt superfluous to Olaplex’s strategic requirements.
That’s not lifting them up, it’s cutting them out.
Understanding the Profound Role of the Hair/Beauty Professional Channel
The hair/beauty professional channel should be a cornerstone of the premium value in the hair services industry, beyond simply being a transactional conduit. By design it should offer unparalleled trusted product knowledge and personalized consumer experiences that other channels simply can’t replicate — no matter how cool their try-on augmented reality tech is.
That strategy should be rigorously inspected to ensure it’s still holding up.
Salon professionals are supposed to act as curators, sharing insights into product efficacy, personalized recommendations, and meticulous usage techniques. With fierce online competition trying to replace that job, there has to be a level up and “more”. Is it the bond formed (still one of the most popular reasons given to stay loyal to a stylist), where bespoke guidance extends beyond their hair and also enables consumers to navigate their hair care journey with confidence?. The beauty of the tagline, “like she just stepped out of a salon” is that the truth is nothing quite beats it. This knowledge and tradition has the potential to be lost if an entire generation bypasses the salon experience.
The TikTok Influence and Industry Dynamics
With salons shut through lockdowns, a seismic shift in consumer behavior occurred, empowering everyone to DIY their hair and / or ‘embrace the gray’. This phenomenon redefined how individuals engage with hair services, with tools acquired to craft their own hair experiences, time on their hands to learn and many wondering why they might bother going back (or ever start) going to a professional.
The hair content trend exploded, even after salons reopened, with more than 209 billion views of #hair. Rather than cannibalizing the industry, this spike in category engagement has the potential to elevate the entire sector by igniting stronger demand for hair care and inspiring skill acceleration among industry professionals. This should be lifting everyone up, generating more category excitement, desire, product engagement and, in turn, profits.
Embracing a Collaborative Approach Amidst Challenges
The hair services industry navigates a landscape marked by shifting consumer behavior, the exponential reach of platforms like TikTok and YouTube, and the residual effects of a global pandemic. Salons, traditionally seen as pillars of the industry (but by an aging fan base), face challenges in creating and sustaining relationships with younger consumers. In the midst of this adversity, however, lies a pathway to revitalize the model and capitalize on the insatiable content appetite of the “DIYers”.
Data, data, data. Gazillions of data points.
What’s not talked about enough (nor harnessed), are the impressive performance metrics within hair salons. My hypothesis is that “data collection” is seen as a task that only a product company should care about and foster, but in reality their disconnect from the salon’s software means total data blindness. Most don’t realize the professional channel boasts an exceptionally high acquisition rate, often reaching 40–50% in high-performing environments (with a benchmark industry average of 30%).
Can you think of any other sector that can compete with those rates?
I’ll wait.
This conversion phenomenon really underscores the transformative influence of professionals. There are quite literally hundreds of data queries, generated from billions of data points that could be put to incredible use to spark sector re-engagement.*
Lastly, and arguably most importantly, the hair/beauty professional channel sets the pricing precedent for other distribution avenues. Salon professionals’ endorsement imparts a sort of ‘seal of authenticity’ to the products they recommend. This validation justifies the premium associated with salon-recommended products, helping consumers buy into their quality and efficacy. Therefore a straight-line can be drawn from investing in professionals to keep accelerating their expertise, and the profitability of the channel.
Harnessing Potential: Crafting a Collaborative Future
The strong bond between customer and professional is hardly new news, it is what has kept the industry going for a millennia. Now, however, the scope of the relationship must triangulate and collaborative strategies between product companies, consumer and salons must emerge and be informed and joined by data. By aligning their efforts, and looking at the intel (via data), product companies can play a pivotal role in providing comprehensive next-generation training and educational resources to professionals — not just in delivery of in-chair services, but in the entire consumer experience. Starting with matching bookings to the right customers, at the right time, with the right hook and using service “merchandising” to reinforce the credibility of professionals. Temptation marketing, content strategies, consumer data journeys, segmentation — all the cool stuff. Beyond this exists a future that includes SalonGPT where salons are guided to customers who are looking for a “hair outcome” and are automatically matched to the best aligned pro.
The innovators have proven that digitisation of booking and loyalty programs and the emergence of the ‘ecommerce of hair services’ can foster a loop of returning customers to the professional channel (increasing frequency of booking and average booking size). Now that discipline needs to be normalized and scaled. This reciprocal arrangement benefits both salons and product companies, creating an ecosystem where clients relish tailored experiences, and professionals thrive with increased engagement and less empty chairs (and threat of annihilation).
Win-win-win.
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About Powered by Flossie:
Founded and headquartered in New Zealand, Powered by Flossie is a ground-breaking technology that addresses a pivotal industry challenge. The platform empowers multinational hair and beauty product companies by granting access to and aggregating distribution network (salon) data. Pulling billions of data points together, this innovative solution enables multinational hair/beauty product companies to digitize, merchandize, and track the customer data journey on behalf of their salon network (all without requiring changes to existing software providers). With 12 years of focused technological investment and a specialized founding team, Powered by Flossie pioneers a world-first-and-only solution for the hair and beauty sector.
