On the Internet, you can find a lot of texts on the topic of competition in the beauty business. Some of them are approved, some are rejected. But in general, most authors agree on one thing - only a beauty salon can be a competitor to a beauty salon. Is it so? We invite you to think ...
Wikipedia provides a well-known definition of competition:
Competition (lat.concurrentia, from lat.concurro - to run, flock, coincide, correspond, equal, be equal) is a struggle between economic entities for the most efficient use of production factors, with uniform rules for all its participants.
Many coaches, business trainers and, as it is fashionable to say now, mentors agree that a beauty salon competitor is a beauty salon that provides approximately similar services at approximately similar prices. Some also add that the competitor is the salon that is located nearby geographically. All of this is absolutely fair. But here, as often happens in a highly specialized professional environment, the expert's gaze is somewhat "blurry". And that's why.
Let's imagine that there is a certain girl from 20 to 35 (for example). Let's call her Elena. Income allows Elena to visit a beauty salon 2-3 times a month. She can easily afford coloring, manicure, pedicure and any cosmetic procedure. Everything seems to be perfect, most representatives of the beauty industry will say, Elena is a wonderful client for any salon, almost a dream. But...
Let's think a little more broadly.
Elena baptized the child with a friend - a hairdresser. Where will she go to do the coloring / haircut / styling? Right. That is also correct. that homeworkers, or as they say now - "freelancers" - are direct and invincible competitors for beauty salons. However, I would like to focus on a more serious idea.
For this we will not settle Elena in the capital, and not even in a large city - not in the regional center. Let her live, for example, in a city with a population of 70 thousand people. Let's call it Gorodok. Residents of Gorodok are used to spending their leisure time with barbecue, visiting friends or in a few local cafes. Their main occupations are: work (when they are lucky in life), a vegetable garden (if they are a little less fortunate), fishing / hunting, handicrafts, etc. - in a word, life is quiet, even to many it will seem boring.
Such realities definitely do not stimulate our Elena to spend her hard-earned money in a beauty salon. This is the first situation in which, albeit indirectly, but a conclusion suggests itself - competitors of a beauty salon "sit" not only in the beauty sphere. They hide under the signs "Cafe Gorodok" (grill and shashliks for every taste) "," Shop "Everything for fishing (hunting)", "Shop" Knit / Sew and pore ". And yes, all the representatives of such necessary businesses in small towns and villages will forgive, but they were the ones who stole our client Elena from us. Because in order to lure her into a beauty salon, we will need to nurture self-love among the entire female population of Gorodok, and this is not a task for every advertising budget.
Of course, the reader may be indignant and argue, they say, but in big cities everything is different. Yes. It's even more dangerous in big cities. Because here, to the above-mentioned "cute lazy hobbies" are added the direct competitors mentioned above (they are our colleagues), but that's not all.
Just imagine if Elena, having moved to the capital, suddenly realizes that she no longer wants to look the same as before and wants to win the fitness bikini competition ... She goes to a fitness club. Oh, horror, her money went to the rocking chair (((And if she starts saving for plastic, and carries the accumulated money to doctors? Or suddenly she does not change her habits even in the capital, and continues to carry money to cafes / restaurants, supermarkets, gives it to shops on interests or spends on all sorts of courses for lovers of needlework ...
That is why I would like to note that, having conceived a competition analysis, if you are opening a beauty salon or are just dreaming about it, please do not forget to think about such scenarios too. This will greatly help even at the stage of thinking through a unique selling proposition, it will allow you to better understand who they are - your “Elena” - and how to explain to them that it is best to spend your money effectively in your beauty salon.
Regardless of where the decision is made to start a beauty business, only the knowledge of your client can help to create a cool "trick" beauty salon. This knowledge is achieved at the moment when there is a confident answer to the question: "Who is my client?" But how to understand this is a voluminous topic, worthy of a separate series of articles. The main thing is that now we have been warned that not only the direct competitor in the industry is the “gray wolf” that needs to be avoided, but also studied, but also everyone who can interest our client faster than our beauty salon.
And in the end, how about the idea - to defeat idleness in the regions and become an all-Ukrainian network of beauty salons for real, and not just a network of the capital and millionaires? ..
ISMIe