FaceBook, MySpace, YouTube, Google, Yahoo… what do these names all have in common? We all know these are internet sites and to ‘google’ is now a noun listed in the Modern Oxford Dictionary, but that’s just a small part of their higher meaning. In short, names like Google herald the establishment of a true cultural revolution as profound as the industrial revolution in re-shaping society as we know it (just without the smoke stacks and sweat-shop floors). So why is it that this power and potential that is shifting the way people live and go about their business has not yet been realised by our industry? Hairdressers, as an industry, are probably the most low-tech of all service sectors, and with a take-up rate in-salon of only about 25% computerisation, salons have a long way to go. Paradoxically though, a huge majority of individual hairdressers and apprentices are IT savvy with their own FaceBook accounts and the like. So why are salons in the main so tech poor and almost wilfully resistant to the power of this new wireless revolution? culture investigates.
Computers in salons are often seen by management as nothing more than tricked-up tills. In spite of the enormous take-up of everything IT as we reach the end of the first decade of the 21st Century, hairdressers still persist in not seeing a cyber-experience as having relevance in their day-to-day lives. As any salon software supplier will tell you, propriety salon management and front-of-house programs have the power to drive a salon's business sky high through effective data management of the client base and the subsequent direct marketing that this then offers them. Yet traction for these new marketing opportunities is yet to take hold for all but a trickle of forward-thinking operators. However, it's not for this feature that we wish to focus on the management side of IT for salons, but more the burgeoning opportunities for salons and individual hairdressers through the vast new social networking that the internet offers.
So what's out there to bridge the cyber gap and provide hairdressers and their clients a portal to the virtual world of hair?
Industry session legend and salon owner Glenn O'Reilly with his wife Karen are two people who are having a crack at bridging the gap between stylists and clients via their new www.myhairdressersearch.com website. "myhairdressersearch.com relies on hairdressers and salons that are proud of their staff, their skills and what they do - and want to tell that to the world!" said the O'Reillys. "As we are ourselves hairstylists and salon owners, we have a commitment to build Australia's most up-to-date and best online community that will help grow, promote and innovate the hairdressing industry. We are all becoming aware of the power of the internet, so by putting together the existing community [of hairdressers and clients] and the web, a salon owner and/or hairdresser can not only rapidly expand their client base but also engage, contribute, influence and innovate their skills and businesses with all their peers and thereby benefit the whole industry."Another new site, www.locatemyhairdresser.com has been founded by Zoe Yelds, with a mission to integrate all aspects of hair, thereby bridging the gap between the hair world and the consumer world.
"My website is for clients to keep in touch with their hairdressers, to find a specialist salon, to find specific products and for salons to promote themselves to raise their profile," says Zoe. "I hope the site will also help salons find staff and for hairdressers to have a platform to promote themselves."
It seems clear there is a huge un-serviced chunk of the community (including hairdressers) who currently use the net for a vast array of life's essentials, but up till now have had a limited opportunity to communicate about hair matters. So why have hairdressers been slower to adapt to using the internet to create their own PR and friendship circles?
According to Glenn O'Reilly, a good salon and its hairdressers by definition is already a great community - so they haven't needed a Facebook or a MySpace because they are working and living in their own version everyday. We think that's perhaps why they have been a little slower than other industries to use the net to sing their praises to the world. Ken Hobson, from the more business-oriented www.salonbiz.com, thinks the problem may be that the industry up until now has been left to its own devices and has had no real leadership or industry support. No national body to assist with business development, growth and especially the adoption of new technologies just might explain the paradox of individual hairdressers being IT literate, but the business of hairdressing lagging behind.
"To assist in changing this scenario, we are creating a ‘Salon-Internet Service Provider', specifically designed to assist salons and suppliers with the internet and also help the industry leverage the internet to its advantage," explains Ken.
"Our industry can look at change as a danger, a challenge or a huge opportunity to create value. It wasn't very long ago that we thought we could to do business without technology such as fax machines, EFTPOS, mobile phones and email. So whatever one thinks of the internet and ‘e-Business', the internet is not going away - and as most industries have found, they need to take full advantage of new technologies if they want sustained economic success over the long term."
Zoe Yeld also believes the net should be fun and not intimidating.
"The challenge is to get hairdressers to play online and experience how easy and how fun it can be," she says. "The internet can be scary - I always used to say that I have an energy field around me that makes computers break - but I've just spent an awesome 18 months developing a website even I can't quite believe. Hairdressers are creative souls and I believe when we all see how much fun it is to create online, the world of hairdressing as we know it will change and a new era will begin."
Apart from the community effects of interconnectivity via the worldwide web, what are some of the specific benefits, both business and at an individual professional level, that the internet can provide hairdressers?
"myhairdressersearch.com has developed a unique approach to provide the industry with some powerful promotional tools, starting with an interactive directory and portfolio gallery and, in the near future, other interactive capabilities that will benefit both the industry and clients alike," says Glenn. "In addition, our site has some of the best online hair and beauty education and industry writers in the country contributing stories on our industry and creating brilliant content for all things to do with hair."
Ken Hobson takes a slightly different tack with salonbiz.com.au.
"By leveraging advantages of the internet, both salons and industry suppliers will increase sales, cultivate closer relationships, attract new clients and instill loyalty," he comments. "Moreover, you can use the web to train salons in the best use of products, drive extra sales of your products whilst improving margins due to the lower cost structures of e-Business, generate new leads, create interest and increase the productivity of your team."
Okay, this all sounds brilliant but what about the manufacturers? How are they using the net to create some kind of dynamic interaction?
"Schwarzkopf Professional has launched ‘ASK-Schwarzkopf', the online site (www.ask-schwarzkopf.com), to make information about hair and hairdressing accessible to everyone," explains Bianca Panozzo, Schwarzkopf Marketing Manager for Australia and New Zealand. "It's not just for hairdressers and salon owners, but also for consumers. For far too long, hairdressing companies have been trying to keep this information secret in an effort to protect our industry. However, all it has done is make us inaccessible. There are numerous company websites out there, so we are not claiming to be the first, however, this site offers so much more than just Schwarzkopf Professional product information - it's a one-stop shop for the hair enthusiast. We believe that the better informed people are about hair products and hair services, the better the decisions they will make, and that goes for everyone. It is a bold position to take, but it is time."
Sexy, fashion-driven brand Redken 5th Avenue NYC has taken a direct consumer approach to the web with the launch of the online arm of its ACCESS REDKEN program (www.redken.com.au), the first consumer loyalty program of its kind for the Australian salon industry. It enables consumers their own personal access to all of the latest hair styles and trends from the red carpet and the runway as well as featuring step-by-steps, how-to hair tips and comprehensive, professional styling advice that includes ‘Celebrity Style', an on-going feature from renowned New York hairdresser, Rodney Cutler. And the take-up to date has been great with more than 10,000 members already signed. Global colossus L'Oréal Professionnel has constructed a website that is tailored to Australia (www.lorealprofessionnel.com.au), with the information being specific to the Australian market. The website has a strong education role, as it also caters to students as well as salon professionals and the end consumer. Salon professionals and trainees register a username and password, which allows endless access to the latest information and developments at a professional level. It seems the recurring theme for all of these new websites is interactivity. A site that just provides information is not going to cut it in today's rapid eye movement world.
"What makes YouTube and FaceBook so huge is the instant gratification that comes to the user," says culture publishers Anthony and Susa Wynne-Hoelscher. "Having observed our own kids' use of the internet and the incredible volume of SMS and internet chat with their friends, it's clear that Gen Y in particular has a new vernacular when it comes to their regular world. This has lead to us looking at our own readers and their ambitions and aspirations - and it's caused us to totally revamp the culture website. With our new culture Online partner, Ian Golding, we've taken the it from a passive experience to something active and instantly exciting for the user.
"In other words, the website should serve the user - not the host. To this end, culturemag.com.au will be a place where hairdressers at a professional level can enjoy their own ‘15 minutes of fame' by uploading videos or galleries of their work and interfacing with hairdressers across the globe. They may not always get their collections in culture Magazine, but they'll always get their pics onto culture Online!" says Anthony.
On empowerment, Zoe Yelds concurs. "The difference on locatemyhairdresser.com is that we are making the website fun so the clients can interact with the hairdressers," she adds. "That way, the hairdresser gets a little bit back and it's empowering to have your clients finding you. Once hairdressers experience how good this feels, the online hair revolution will begin."
So will the hair industry having a stake of this new cyber world also help pull in Gen Y to consider a career in hairdressing, which would help address the current skills shortage?
"Absolutely," says Bianca Panozzo. "Our site has been designed for the Y generation. "When you first visit the site, you quickly establish that it has been designed by young hairdressers for young hairdressers. It works through a unique mind-mapping layout, which makes it easy to navigate and to get where you want to go in less than four click-throughs. So you don't run out of patience waiting for the information to download.
Ah, patience - the foe of all web users...
Anthony Wynne-Hoelscher agrees that you not only need rapid navigation and easy click-ability, but also adds that websites need to have architecture that doesn't grind away whilst you wait for the page to load. "Users just won't stick around," he says. "Sometimes the cool architecture of the site, which might give the designers their jollies, conspires with speed and ease of use - and one thing we've worked very hard to achieve with culture Online is quick and intuitive usage in line with the headspace of Gen Y."
Cool street brand that always keeps Gen Y front of mind - Fudge - has also just launched a new interactive site.
According to NZ and Australian Marketing Manager, Kylie McLeod: "The web is to Gen Y what books and TV were to Gen X - the ‘norm' or just an expected part of their everyday lives, in everything they do. The hairdressing industry will gain more involvement and connection from Gen Y the more the industry embraces the web as standard practice.
"I am also sure salons' Gen Y clients would be grateful and responsive to any web-based communication from their hairdresser - on-line bookings, newsletters and special offers for example - anything that extends the personal relationship they share with their hairdresser when they are physically in the salon environment."
The road ahead is clear then - adopt or perish. But words are cheap. What are the challenges in getting hairdressers to adopt the internet as a tool, just as important to them as the right scissors or products?
"This needs to be, at least in part, lead from suppliers and product companies to provide some of the online services that salons need to take our industry forward," says Ken Hobson.
"e-Business technology goes far beyond enabling salons to research the benefits of products. SalonBIZ is looking to provide a total ‘Industry One-Stop Shop' that will bring salons and suppliers much closer together and facilitate greater research, interaction, training, convenient ordering facilities and providing a platform for the industry to work together and collaborate in a real-time online environment."
Redken believes that by inspiring clients to visit salons, ACCESS will address one of the major concerns of the Australian salon industry today: how to expand their client base. Therefore communication to support their online ACCESS program is vital and will include online and print advertising campaigns with major publications such as Vogue, Madison, Harpers Bazaar and Shop ‘Til You Drop. Rewards and incentives are also crucial to engage the consumer, such as ‘Win the ultimate style make-over in New York'. Members will receive a bi-monthly newsletter updating them on the key trends and fabulous competitions such as shopping sprees, stylist makeovers and tickets to Fashion Week, as well as being able to download vouchers and discounts against their next salon visit and other goodies.
On the other hand, Schwarzkopf's online offer is more oriented toward the hairdresser, with such things as an online newsletter that allows members to be the first in the world to find out about new product innovations, new techniques and the latest hair articles. Already the site sports more than 200 articles covering a huge range of topics, including three-step consultation and active listening, right through to aging hair, step-by-steps, Schwarzkopf Professional product information and the latest Essential Looks collections. In L'Oréal Professionnel's case, their salon clients can gain an immediate promotion via the website's Salon Locator, which reflects consumers' massive usage of the internet for quick access to their service providers. If you go to the web to find a plumber, why not do the same to find your favourite hairdresser?
We'll leave the last words to Glenn and Karen O'Reilly. "Hopefully when a salon owner or hairdresser gets online at myhairdressersearch.com they'll begin to get an inkling of what we can do for their businesses and careers," they say. "And once new clients begin to make appointments, the penny will drop. Of course this will take a little time as we develop more effective online tools and applications, however as people and salons begin to register, we're extremely optimistic that people will realise we're here for the long term.
"Hairdressers have always loved to be on the cutting edge of hair fashion. So we firmly believe it follows, that if hairdressers can have access to the relevant and accurate information, that along with the existing industry pillars such as culture Magazine, the industry will be quicker than most people give it credit for to innovate and improve their businesses and the services they provide."