The male wig was pioneered by King Louis XIII of France (1601–1643) in 1624. Perukes or periwigs for men were introduced into the English-speaking world with other French styles in 1660. Late 17th-century wigs were very long and wavy, but became shorter in the mid-18th century, by which time they were normally white. Short hair for fashionable men was a product of the Neoclassical movement. In the early 19th century the male beard, and also moustaches and sideburns, made a strong reappearance. From the 16th to the 19th century, European women's hair became more visible while their hair coverings grew smaller. In the middle of the 18th century the pouf style developed. During the First World War, women around the world started to shift to shorter hairstyles that were easier to manage. In the early 1950s women's hair was generally curled and worn in a variety of styles and lengths. In the 1960s, many women began to wear their hair in short modern cuts such as the pixie cut, while in the 1970s, hair tended to be longer and looser. In both the 1960s and 1970s many men and women wore their hair very long and straight.[2] In the 1980s, women pulled back their hair with scrunchies. During the 1980s, punk hairstyles were adopted by many people.
Who are the competitors? What are they doing?
The business' competitors are 1.2 million in number (Soble, 2013). It faces greater competition from the businesses within its location inclusive of unisex salons. It also faces competition from other well established businesses such as Salon Centric (IBIS World, 2014). Such large businesses influence many consumers due to their established media presence through Face book and Twitter. Posh Salon will be launching a Facebook account as well as an app for all smartphones where they can schedule their appointments in which will go right into our system. Special discounts will be offered as well as specials in order to stand out from other salons in the area.
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Healthy competition is achievable through diversification of the products and services that the company offers. For example, identifying the kind of products not sold in other salons and the services not offered by its competitors can boost business. This will enable the salon to sell unique products and services to their clients. In so doing, Posh Salon will be able to compete well with the rest of the salons within its vicinity. This issue of uniqueness is achievable through employing creative and knowledgeable workers who will introduce new styles and designs.
The company will also open branches in other areas that do not experience a lot of competition. For example, in remote areas, which salon business is assumed not to thrive well. This will enable the salon to enjoy monopolistic market with limited or no competition at all. This is a strategy that needs effective leadership and management to plan well for the development of other branches.
What are they doing?
The competitors have achieved its recognition and popularity due to the well-maintained communication, such as Facebook accounts, web sites, advertising their products on radio and TV. They have also enabled their clients to book appointments online, without having to go physically to the salon. It is effective enough, and clients will prefer such salons because they make work easy for them, as well as save their time and money. Posh Salon is planning to adapt these techniques to be able to compete healthily with the rest of the salons within its vicinity and beyond.
These competitors are also offering extra customer care services for free: for example, doing their nails for free once a month, offering them with coffee, tea, wine or any other refreshment, etc. Such customer care services aim at enhancing the comfort of the customers and making them feel valuable to the salon. The results of such treatments include increase in the number of customers, increased profits and achievement the salon's both short- and long-term goals.
Their position in the market
The competitors have a large share in both the local and international markets. This is because they are able to attract clients from within their locality, as well as from everywhere. Their strategies and their management plans are the key instruments towards achieving their success. Posh Salon, in its plan, is aiming at development of strategies that will enable them to compete with such salons in the market. Nevertheless, these strategies are aiming at putting its products and services at the top in the market.
How do they compare?
Posh Salon will offer products and services that are unique and, therefore, will not be similar to the products offered by its competitors even as much as they relate to beauty. Its services, for example, styling, will base on creativity and innovativeness of the stylists and, therefore, will result in unique and high quality styles. It is achievable through promoting creativity and innovations among employees and training them on how to be creative and apply it to their daily work in the salon.
It is, however, important to note that Posh Salon will be a starting business and, therefore, will experience problems of getting clients in the first days of business. Posh Salon will need time and additional costs to familiarize itself with clients through advertisements and other forms of communication in order to make it well-known.
2.4 Product Service Offering
What needs does the product or service fulfil or what problem does it solve?
Although the trend in the market is having personalised services, the market is not yet saturated with the same. If anything, there is a huge gap that is yet to be filled in as far as personalised services are concerned. This business aims at playing a role in filling this need for personalised care. This will be met when providing services to both male and female clients. Posh Salon will have a record keeping system where client's information will be stored from all their services and they will be rewarded for their loyalty, for instance on client's birthdays we will send them personalized emails with discounts attached.
What is the product offering?
The product/service offers the client a chance to explore and express his/her personality, as well as physical appearance. Clients are in need of expressing themselves in a unique in the way they appear for the diverse seasons, moods, trends, occasions, amongst others.
What are the features, advantages, and benefits?
The key feature and benefit offered by the business relates to services that allow an individual to be unique even in the way he/she looks. The business has a dedicated team that aims at being creative as well as innovative in the services and products offered to customers. By this we will be open long hours starting 6 am until 10 pm, this will allow the clients to get services at Posh salon before, during, or after going to work or going out for events.
2.5 Keys to Success
What are the most important factors to making your plan successful?
Customer service is one key to success, businesses revolve around the customers/clients. If a customer feels unappreciated or dissatisfied, he/she will take her business to the competition and will leave a bad reputation about the salon which will lead into bad word of mouth marketing tactic. Customer services are conjoined to offering quality services. If a customer appreciates that the employees are friendly but fails to appreciate the hair cut, this will lead to loss of business. The other key relates to excellent management (Pride & Ferrell, 2008). This includes treating the employees in the best way possible, excellent accounting and operations and marketing as well as other areas that need managing. This business aims at observing and fulfilling these key issues.
2.6 Critical Issues
The salon needs to keep up with the changing trends in the industry. This includes keeping track the type of services the customers want, changing hair and beauty trends, and competition changes, amongst others (Soble, 2013). Identifying these changes will allow a business to form its strategies with consideration of these changes.
The business also needs to consider avenues of marketing and distributing its services and products. The business will use the internet and traditional forms of advertising inclusive of word of mouth. The business also aims at cutting costs while raising more capital to make sure that it is in accordance to customers' expectations.