Yes, Paris Hilton IS Useful for Some Things…

by Greg Milner on 14/05/08 at 9:37 pm

I’ve been particularly grumpy this week, due to a combination of factors, one of which has been a particularly painful eye infection. As I write this, at 10.30am Thursday morning, I look forward to the charming prospect of visiting an opthalmologist friend of mine later today to have him lance my eyelid.

(And for no other reason than it makes me feel better, I dug out this picture of me in another life, having fun on my motorcyle. I’ll think of that when the needle goes in.)

But that’s not the main source of my annoyance. I don’t mind it when people complain that they don’t have the knowledge to solve a particular problem. That’s just a matter of education, which is why salon & spa owners join the Inner Circle in the first place.

What gets my goat is people who boast that they have the knowledge, and still don’t do anything with it.

If YOU had cut Paris Hilton’s hair, wouldn’t you want to tell everybody about it???

Every day as I talk with salon and spa owners, my ‘radar’ is constantly searching for even the slightest hint of what might give this business its ‘edge’, it’s ‘Unique Selling Proposition’…. anything which might help this business owner differentiate herself from her competition. And to be sure, sometimes it takes a heck of a lot of searching, drilling down to uncover that tiny kernel of information that can be turned into something extraordinary.

But now and then, it’s so obvious that you’d need to be deaf, dumb and blind before you’d risk getting hit by the oncoming train.

Take one of our Inner Circle members (un-named, for reasons which will become obvious). He owns a successful, up-market salon. His website speaks of glamor and class. (Although as a marketing device to actually make sales, collect names, it is typical of most salon & spa websites – completely hopeless. See Strategy #56/3 below.)

But here’s the thing: In an email to our office recently, this member revealed some stunning information which could skyrocket his business into the stratosphere – and astoundingly, he’s simply failed to use this millionaire-making info!

Here it is:

“I have worked on New York Fashion week, Melbourne fashion week. Done shows for Intercoiffure Paris and Melbourne. Lots of photo shoots magazines and hair mags. Done Paris Hilton, Jordan, Nicole Hilton,Lindsay Lohan (!!!) Billy Cross, Jamie Dury, Pauline Lesley, Saffron, and so on Lots of local models, Dont know where to start naming as most people wont recognise them unless involved in the industry…”

Good grief. Isn’t Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan enough???

Personally, I think Paris Hilton and her ilk are vacuous airheads with no redeeming attributes…. except the ability to sell magazines by the million.

But isn’t that enough? If I was a hairdresser who’d so much as swept Paris Hilton’s off-cuts from the floor beneath her chair, I’d be shouting it from the rooftops. But I checked this member’s website – there’s not a single mention of him even breathing the same air as Hilton & Co. And presumably, not a single skerrick of it in any of his other marketing pieces either.

(A photo while doing Paris Hilton’s hair? Mmmm, now that’s an original thought…)

Frankly, this is criminally-negligent. It’s akin to being offered a guest spot on Oprah, and knocking it back because you’ve got to walk the dog that day. Aaaaargh!

Now, very few salon owners can bathe in that kind of celebrity afterglow. But when you can, and don’t use it, that’s just plain dumb.

Strategy: Who do you know who might be ‘famous’ for any reason? Doesn’t have to be Paris Hilton famous (famous for being famous), but somebody who might be well known in a ‘niche’ market. Who have you ever provided a service for who might be well known among his or her peers, work group, industry or profession? Who might be regarded as a ‘celebrity’ of some kind.

There is much to be said for ‘celebrity’ endorsement. People believe your customers a thousand times more than they’ll believe you. And the more ‘believable’ your customer(s) are, the more credible and believable you are.

Rating 3.00 out of 5

A post by Greg Milner

The odd idea, a bit of prodding, a nudge here and there, a little fun, and the occasional dose of brutal reality. Greg is co-founder and CEO of Worldwide Salon Marketing, a writer, direct response marketing consultant, specialist marketing systems adviser and coach. He (sometimes) accepts private consulting clients.