For The Love Of The “Brand By Gary Latham

Around the turn of the century it was all about branding. It wasn’t enough to be a company or to have a product you had to be a brand. The best reason not to do something was “it’s not on brand” the only reason to do something was to “build the brand”.

The brand got to mean so much people stopped referring to the name of their product or business but instead constantly called it “the brand”. It was ridiculous. If the brand was so important why not actually use its name every chance you get. I’ve always tried to insert Wild Life into any sentence in place of “the brand”.

I think hairdressing has fallen into a similar trap, or should I say “our industry” has. On a one-to-one level there a few businesses to client conversations like those in the salon but as a collective we tend to lose the thread. I don’t know of any industry that uses the word industry to describe itself as much as “our industry”. We even just use “the industry” not even qualifying which industry we actually mean. It’s not the “hair industry” as you may hear of the “fashion industry” or “automobile industry” we just go with the “industry”. We are proud of our industry; we support the industry, and we give back to the industry. It’s like we wanted the world to know that Hair is actually an Industry. OK the job done let’s aim higher. Let’s use its name and be proud to promote that, trouble is we can’t agree on a name. Hairdressing, Hair Styling, Hair Cutting, Hair Colouring, Haircare etc. I’d settle for The Hair Industry or even the Hair Profession.

Unfortunately, the Hair Profession can be its own worst enemy at times. We struggle to attract staff and battle against those who are trying to under cut the Hair Profession. Passion is a huge plus for the Hair Profession, but it is a double edge sword. Just because you love what you do doesn’t mean you don’t charge for what you are doing. Actors and sportspeople always talk of doing what they love but at the same time draw in some of the world’s biggest pay cheques. The love of the job alone won’t address the skill shortages. You can’t tell me that the reason the trade attracting the most apprentices is plumbing because people love s-bends and sewerage. We need to be more to get more. If given the choice between a long lunch at Bondi Icebergs or a ham toastie at home I’m going to Bondi every-time.

Hairdressing markets to itself beautifully but to the consumer poorly. Run your eye over the collections that are sent into the many hairdressing awards and ask yourself if this would attract a new client? Social media was to be the saviour and, in many ways, its helped greatly in talking to clients although it again seems to be talking to other hairdressers more than the public. The ratio of followers to clients is often staggering. Call me a dinosaur but if some kid in Buttfuck USA wants to follow my salon than why should I care. As I said earlier the client hairdresser relationship is one of the most special going. How do we recreate that on social besides showing the backs of people’s heads. Is it just as simple as talking to them like we would in the salon? Are we just too busy convincing other hairdressers, or ourselves how wonderful we are. In short clients want to be beautiful, hairdressers want to be creative, for that to work we need to be creating beauty.

*FYI the numbers on this dinosaur are I have over 40 staff who I respect and cherish, 280 follows who I mostly know personally and 12554 customers none of which live in Buttf*@k USA.