salon owners - think like a brand not just a hair salon

This blog is for other salon owners or aspiring salon owners out there. We recently were invited to be part of the salon business marketing 100 podcast. You can listen to it here:

marketing 100 - the salon business episode 66 featuring portland hair salon, yello

We wanted to share something we are passionate about that maybe other hair salon owners can gain value from which is "how to think like a brand, not just a salon." This has been our mindset from day one in our efforts to make a space that our clients are proud to be a part of.

Here are some key takeaways from this episode:

1. Think like a brand not just a salon.
2. Know your value.
3. Don't be afraid to say what you want.

A Brand Mindset

At yello we’ve come out with products, done pop up shops, brand collabs, events, all things that normal retail brands do all the time but for some reason it feels sort of against the rules for salons. It made me think, why is that? And more importantly, we can’t be the only ones feeling this way so we made it a point to break the rules a little by coming up with brand collabs that overall add value to our clients and our brand. For example, we are able to offer premium beverages to our clients during their hair appointment because we have partnered with local beverage companies.

Value yourself

This is so important. When you know your value and the assets you have to offer you can use that to get creative with partnerships with other like minded brands. For example, we have an amazing young clientele (mostly young women ages 18-25) that are all trendy and that drink companies would kill to have drinking their beverages. We used this to leverage deals with local premium beverage companies to give us drinks for free. This was a win win for everyone and it allowed us to offer a first class experience for our clients and it allows drink companies to get their product in the ands of their key demographic.

Say what you want

It may sound simple, but we were often scared to dream big and say what we want. Maybe it was the fear of rejection, but regardless you'll never get what you want if you don't at least ask. Whenever we want to do a big brand collaboration now we start by giving our big idea and going from there to figure out the details.

One of those big brand collaborations that we are doing will be announced this summer, so follow us on instagram at yello.salon or book your next hair appointment with us!