If you’re specialising in a niche area and you do it really well, you become a destination for that particular service and in turn, this brings a steady, loyal customer base. For MANKiND, this has meant we have been able to address the wants and needs of a really specific target market and have focused our resources on investing in our team’s skillset to ensure that we remain leaders in the industry.
On my early career, I couldn’t have been further from the beauty world. Until 2004 I had been a Grip in the film industry for twelve years. It involved camera movement, lots of rigging, scaffolding and heavy lifting. I was getting facials in more female orientated venues and I always felt like my experience was being swayed by what women wanted.
I felt that as a representative of the male market, I had a better understanding of what was required for a male salon. I also thought that men were an untapped clientele and that the competition for the business was minimal. My current role is Managing Director of MANKiND Sydney. I have two stores: MANKiND Melbourne and MANKiND Sydney. I am the owner who does every aspect, except therapy. Early on, I went to every training put on by my suppliers and immersed myself in the beauty world to learn as much as I could. MANKiND has now been open for 16 years.
The advantage of specialising in one, niche area was that to begin, we stood out from the crowd. Getting press at the start was so much easier because of our story. Obviously as a man it is super satisfying to be able to open a business that I am the target market for. When I opened MANKiND I really had in the front of my mind what a dream salon would be that I would love to visit, so to be able to open a business that would meet my specific needs if I were the customer is pretty cool.
When we first opened we were only seeing men and that has now changed. We now have a neat, loyal female clientele that pretty much consists of locals who want to see us because we are not only good at what we do, but conveniently located. Despite this, we will always design our treatment menu with the man in mind because to be a small business that is thriving just shy of 16 years is no small feat, so we know that what were doing works!
We watch the industry and are ever evolving our offering to keep up. We are actually in the process of expanding our treatment menu to include more cosmeceutical treatments. Our clientele is savvy and we always want to be able to offer what they’re looking for.
Being able to recognise what men want has always been the reason we have done so well for so long, and we know straight from the source that guys are looking for more results- driven treatments. We are upgrading our machinery and looking at new brands that will enable us to grow and continue to provide amazing treatments that are up-to-date with the forever-evolving world of beauty.
This article first appeared in the August issue of Professional Beauty magazine. Download the issue here.
Visit the #BEAUTYSTRONG hub at https://professionalbeauty.go-vip.net/beautystrong/
For more news and updates, subscribe to our weekly newsletter.