7. Promotion
Incentive for customers
who promote positive
feedback on social
media
Google Adwords
Keywords:
“Hair salons”
“douglas j salon”
“Spa and salons michigan”
“pedicures”
“manicures”
“spa services michigan”
Douglas Weaver is the man behind the Douglas J company. Opening his first salon with wife Sharon, in 1967, Douglas focused on simple things. He wanted to “provide unbeatable services to guests, create career opportunities for aspiring professionals in the salon industry, and give back to the communities that supported his vision.” With a Douglas J salon recently opening in Tennessee, it is apparent that his company that started just based in Michigan is expanding successfully. What first began as a sole salon in Lansing has reached south as a salon has also opened in Chicago. While the company has grown and expanded over the years, the core factors Douglas Weaver based his company on are still in place. Each location is founded on the very same ideals that originally sparked the creation of Douglas J all together.
Douglas J’s new digital strategy will mainly focus on males and females 16-40 with an emphasis on females 18-35. As most salons do, Douglas J will need to appeal to the trendy and stylish type. Their target market are the type of people who love to experiment with hairstyles and who love to feel pampered. This strategy is aimed at those who enjoy getting a manicure or pedicure, who love the occasional pampering. The type of person who not only likes to build a relationship with the people at the salon but who look forward to each and every visit. Customers who come to the salon for advice from their trusted hair dresser, or a great massage after a long week at work up the road, are the type of people this digital strategy aims to reach. They regularly use salon products and purchase their Aveda necessities in store during their visits. Douglas J customers live in decent sized cities that often still possess a slightly small town feel which is why this digital strategy is so crucial, aiming to make each and every customer feel like they are a part of something that knows them as more than just a head of hair to cut, or set of nails to paint.
Shifting the focus from celebrities and models in the salon advertisements to local customers and how they feel about themselves, the main idea of this digital strategy relies on ensuring that local customers have nothing but the best experience when they visit Douglas J for a service. This concept is based on an idea of building. As one customer visits Douglas J and has a great experience, they will spread the word. As word is spread, more and more customers will visit. As customers continue to share their visits on social media and as interaction grows, so will the cliental. A company cannot grow without satisfied customers, so ensuring that customers are not only satisfied but that they will share it is the big idea. Spread the word! Share with your friends!
This new digital strategy will mainly rely on twitter and instagram for its social media. Encouraging each and every customer to tweet about their visit on twitter and to share pictures of their service on instagram both using “#douglasj” will spread the company name and give Douglas J a chance to interact directly with its customers. Maintaining both a twitter and instagram account, a media expert will be responsible for replying and connecting to customers who have reached out to the company. These social media outlets will work best because they are quick and to the point. Instagram is perfect for posting a post-Douglas J ‘selfie,’ while twitter is a great way to tag the brand as you tweet about your new haircut. As both of these outlets are users with followers, any post or tweet with a tag or hashtag for Douglas J is free advertising at its finest. Signs will be posted around each location asking customers to connect with them, to follow their social media outlets. “Follow us on twitter and Instagram @DouglasJ”.
Measuring the success of this digital outreach will be based on numbers. What is the growth in twitter and instagram followers after this new media is promoted in Douglas J salons? How many new customers have visited Douglas J after the strategy is in full effect? How have profits been effected overall from this new strategy? Ideally, there would be atleast a 20% increase in profit. Followers on both twitter and instagram would increase by 40% and the social media team could then expand and grow. Overall, success for Douglas J would start with acquiring customers and then making sure their salon service was satisfactory. Next, they would need to retain the customer and keep them returning for the service. Once the customer has become loyal, a relationship between Douglas J and its employees and the customer can really begin to take deeper roots and build. By maintaining this relationship, Douglas J should then begin to acquire new customers as their loyal ones begin to spread the word via social media and word of mouth, thus beginning the cycle again.
Promotion will be based on rewarding loyal customers and using them to bring in new customers. Loyal customers will be encouraged to “send a friend,” this will be a friend of the customers who will, upon referral, receive 10% off their first visit. Not only will the new customer enjoy 10% off but so will the loyal customer who sent them, thus encouraging both loyal and new customers to come visit the salon. There will also be twitter/instagram raffles where followers will have the chance to win discounted or free services by means of retweeting, regraming, or tagging Douglas J in their posts. Google Adwords will be used as well starting at $50/day on 2 targeted google ads, the cost per click will be $1.50. Starting with $10,000/month for social media marketing groups to utilize, this will be used towards creating the media and promotions shared on twitter and instagram, and also towards the googleadwords.
Arguably the most important factor in the salon business is the setting and atmosphere. In this sense Douglas J’s environment is crucial. Creating an open feel in the salon and encouraging positive energy will be a main focus point in the campaign. Centering around the basis of making customers feel at home and really great about themselves, this new digital strategy will step away from a focus on purely outward beauty. With many salons using models and famous people on their social media to promote their services, Douglas J’s promotion will use your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers – to promote their company. This will further instill the idea that Douglas J is a comfortable, relatable environment. By identifying easier with local customers instead of models and people who are in the spotlight, this will encourage more and more locally based potential customers in the area. All social media forums will be outlined with this is mind as well. This full brand strategy is designed to feel like a close-knit family. You should feel like you are communicating with your friends and family, not just an empty online social media website.
As Douglas Weaver stressed in the core values of the company, giving back and supporting the companies that have supported Douglas J in each location, is very important. Each location reaches out during community events and steps up to the plate when the community is in need of more support. They also frequently participate in organizations such as Susan G Komen, Juvenile Diabetes, Random Kindness, Donation requests, and Event requests. Again, standing out from competitor salons by focusing on more than just outward appearance, Douglas J goes further by becoming deeply involved in community outreach groups. Ensuring that they give back to each community is a huge part of why Douglas J is successful. Documenting these community efforts on twitter and instagram is another thing this digital strategy will focus on. Spreading the word of events and organizations they are involved in and promoting their customers to become involved is great press for Douglas J.
One of the big parts of this campaign is the launch of a new Douglas J app! This app will keep track of your visits and appointments, even giving you reminders for when you are overdue on a haircut. It will feature an area where you can upload a picture of yourself and try on different hairstyles. Based on your visits, you will be eligible for points. As you earn more points as you continue to receive services at Douglas J you will earn free things. These points can also be tracked by use of the app and easy to read. Going even further, your hairdresser will have their own profiles on the app making it easy to connect to them and see the latest of their work and professional life. With apps being all the latest rage in technology, creating a Douglas J app is a huge step for their company. It is one more feature to set their salon out from the competitors.