Centre Aveda World Class Salon & Spa

How to identify a significant consumer insight in a “generic” category

Challenge: Develop and execute a strategic marketing plan to set the chain of Centre Aveda Salon & Spas apart from the competition and drive both salon & spa services as well as Aveda product sales.

Solution: Develop brand positioning by leveraging a major identified consumer insight: women love the way their hair looks when they leave a salon but are disappointed when they cannot replicate the look themselves at home. With this learning, we introduced a new salon technique (Style & Learn™) as a component of the point-of-difference. Each guest receives a personal in-salon “Style & Learn™” video which allows her to replicate her new look at home and then to share her video with friends via social media about her special Centre Aveda Salon & Spa experience.

Additionally we created a new corporate identity, offered a custom gift bag filled with Aveda products as a gift with purchase of new salon services, and utilized phone tracking and recording of customer calls for training purposes. 

Rationale: Solving the need identified by a major consumer insight was a motivating factor in creating a willingness to try a new salon. Offering major savings on Aveda products allowed prospective guests, unsure of switching salons on a blind basis, to visit the salon before committing to an appointment.

Results: Drove almost 500 incremental guest transactions in a single location over a three month period. Increased conversion rate of inquiring-new-guests to booked-new-guests.