135: Your Brand Identity (Series 1 of 4)

If you’re having trouble figuring out who exactly you are, don’t sweat it. Sometimes, all you need is a simple brainstorm to help you get clarity on who you are as a brand.

Ask yourself:

·       Why did we start this business?

·       What are beliefs and values that are important to us as a company?

·       What do we do better than anyone else?

·       What makes us special?

·       If we could describe our brand in three words, what would they be?

·       What are the three words we would want our customers to use to describe us?

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Website: www.danisekeilitz.com
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Transcript

1:32

Well, hey there. This is Danise. And this is the Salon Ownership Made Easy Podcast for salon owners who are searching for simple solutions to their everyday challenges. I've owned several six and seven figure award winning salons in my 30 year career. With so many changes happening in our industry these days, it seems like salon owners need a shoulder a hug, and a big dose of reality. Think about it. We didn't learn how to be successful salon owners in beauty school. So why don't you let me share what has worked and what hasn't worked for me over the years, you do have what it takes to be amazingly successful. So let's do this. I'm excited. You're here. Okay, so let's, let's talk about who you are, when you first became, or even had the idea of becoming a salon owner? You had it in your mind, kind of why is that? What are you going to provide? What services? What do you want it to look like? That's all part of your brand, right? You got to think like that. So let's think about what is your mission. My why when I had my salon was I wanted to create a salon space that was safe for stylists to grow their career, and a space for clients to feel like they could be trusted and heard. Meaning that they knew that we had experience that our skill set was there that we were being trained in all of the things that it took, my mission was to provide that space, whatever that looked like, what whatever that meant to people, that's what it was going to be. So along with that I needed to establish some values, some value systems. And you can do this, in fact, I'll create a whole thing on how to do this. We did it in our salon as a team. Because when I first started, I didn't realize that values were so important to the whole brand identity, I had to learn that too. I think we're in business for about two or three years before we even came up with our value system. But we did it as a team. It makes it a very, it makes it a stronger value system. However, if you're just now starting out, you can create your value system before you even start. I mean make that part of who you are our value system and create a they came up with. We came up with teamwork. That was very important to our team because we all work together. Integrity, you know, always taking the high road, always doing what's right even when it's hard. Growth. Everybody wanted that growth opportunity. Everyone. Everyone who was there in our salon space was there because they wanted a career. They didn't didn't want to just do hair. They wanted a career. And then creativity we all I mean, oh, that's that's a given. We always improved. I loved it when I would walk into the salon and stylists would be talking to each other. Hey girl, did you see that new Malia's technique on Instagram or something new to wear or whatever. And then our last value was awesomeness. And this kind of just covered everything that we stood for. We wanted to be better than any salon in the area. And I think we achieved that. Especially at our our peak. So your brand, your values, your mission, your why, okay, and your personality. So if your brand was a person, what kind of personality would they have? Would they speak loud? Would they whisper? Would they be luxury? Would it be budgeted? If you wanted your brand to talk to your customers who have never walked in your door before? What would you want it to say? That's what you have to convey? You have to convey that in which I'm jumping ahead. You have to convey that in on your website before they even walk in your door. On your Yelp channel. You have to convey it on your business cards on when you walk into the door on your front door. All this it's a personality. Is it snarky, is it luxury, is it? Will people know if they belong there or not? You also want to know what kind of voice does it have? What do you want it to communicate? Is it professional as a caring? Is it fun? Is it loud rock and roll? Because that's going to give the vibe to are people coming to your place to get big vivid fun, shaved head color blah, blah, blah. Are they coming in to get beautiful, believable hair? Are they coming in to get hair extensions? Are they coming in? Because you're the hair loss expert? I don't know. That's all part of your branding. And then how do you position yourself in the community? I've even thought about it. What makes you different than the salon down the street? It could be anything. It could be how you treat people, it could be that you offer fresh brewed coffee daily, it could be that you recycle everything you use green circle, and you recycle all your hair and, and you're very concerned about the planet, because that's going to attract people who are concerned about the planet. You know, do you offer ongoing education to your staff, people want to know that, I mean, I've talked to clients who don't want to be involved in that they will just want to come in, they just want the stylists that they're paying for to do their hair. That's what I want. That's it. That's their expectation. So if you don't set it up, that you actually train people, and part of the client experience is going to be having an assistant there because you're training them to touch the hair to be involved, do all that if you don't set that up, you're going to have a disappointed customer because they don't understand what you're doing in your space. We were an education salon, we yelled it from the rooftops, we were very proud of that. That's what made us different. We told everybody about it and our clients knew that they actually loved to be part of the process didn't mean that they were coming in and getting a non experienced stylists and meant that they were actually getting a seasoned stylists or a master stylists along with an assistant, double the duty. It's like bam, Beyonce in the chair, right? You got more hands on you, you got more attention going towards your head. And they loved listening to really what it took the chemistry the thought process behind the look and how to do their hair. So it is more than that. So going back to what makes you unique. Do you offer consultations? Or do you not offer consultations? Do you price quote beforehand? These are all part of the expectations that clients and stylists need to put up front. So these elements all combined, define your brand. And a lot of us in our industry, we just started out as hairstylist, right? And somebody said, Wow, you're so good at this, you should be a salon owner. And oh my gosh, I think you're right. I think I want to be a salon owner. And never really thought about all it takes to be a salon owner. And sometimes I just think that we're just getting by on a wing and a prayer. Oh, and then we wonder why we're not making money, or why we aren't successful, or how come everybody's quitting. It takes so much to be a successful salon owner. And it starts with your identity, your brand identity, who you are what you are as a salon environment that's going to create your culture, that's going to be why stylists want to work with you. That's going to be why clients want to come in to receive your services from your team. And you, it all starts there. And most of us haven't thought of that. Right? If you want more information about this, I have a lot of information about this, I would love to share it with you. My next video, my next podcast is going to be going into fonts and your like fonts, what what the heck. Now we need to learn about why fonts are important and your brand identity that leads us into creating your logo, creating your color palette, have you thought of that colors are huge, they make such a difference? You know, depending on if you pick yellow or purple, every color has a personality. Anyway, jumping ahead, I just think that we need to start from the very, very, very beginning. And that just is your brand identity. If you need help with us, reach out to me, I would love to help you with this. I would love to have a conversation, just maybe pique your interest. Just start the conversation rolling. That's all it is. Make you think of things that maybe you haven't thought of before. You've already got your brand identity, and you want to come up with your value system reach out, I've got that whole list of how to do it with your team. It's a lot of fun to do it your next huddle. Fun, fun. That's what we're about, right. We want to make salon ownership easy, because it is easy. Kinda. It's a lot of work, and it's showing up consistently. But it is easy. You just got to do all the things. Oh. Anyway, I'll see you guys next time. Thanks again for tuning in. And until next time, stay awesome. Hey there thanks so much for listening to the salon ownership Made Easy podcast today. Would you do us a favor? If you got value out of this week's episode? Will you share it with your friends? And while you're at it go Go ahead and leave us a review. That way more business owners like yourself will find us and we can help them with the challenges they may be facing too. Thanks again, and we'll see you next week. Take care