Should professional product makers decide which side of the professional/consumer fence to play on?
This topic was discussed in length at the seventh Professional Beauty Industry Roundtable – The Inspired Salon – where suppliers and salon professionals joined forces to confront industry challenges in the modern era.
In attendance was Dermalogica general manager Kristie Millgate, Dermatonics co-founder Donna Lee Marcal, awarded salon owner and educator Gay Wardle, Bohéme Skin and Beauty owner Kim Baker, Endota SON Group owner Sally Cantwell and Heavenly Retreat Skin Correction Beauty Spa owner Helen Gerasimou, who all shared their collective knowledge on challenges faced and successful strategies for the beauty professional.
Our guests weighed up the prods and cons of being an exclusive professional partner and discussed how private label and building a salon’s own brand was now a viable alternative.
All attendees concluded your brand was your best asset.
They explained the importance of building and protecting your brand, and choosing suppliers who shared similar values.
Donna said Dermatonics had just switched to being on the professional side, and were now a clinic-exclusive brand, which all of her clients appreciated.
Kristie said Dermalogica were happy to follow the therapist wherever she or he may go on their journey, and it was important to support them in all areas and not limit them to where they could work with the brand.
Gay said everything should be about your clinic or salon’s name and you had to focus on building your own brand name.
Sally said as a business owner it was important not only that she identified with her brand, but any other brands that she worked with, that they had great integrity.
Kim said private labelling had a massive benefit for well-established clinics and salons as nobody knew your client base and needs better than you did as a salon owner.
Helen said she didn’t stock brands that sold online as clients would coming to her for her expertise and knowledge, but then hop online and purchase the products at a fraction of the price that she was able to do it.
Watch the video below to see the full discussion and make sure you visit our Roundtable hub to see what else our industry experts had to say on the inspired salon.