Marketing Concept in Marketing of Hair Dressing Services

Marketing Concept in Marketing of Hair Dressing Services

Quite a lot have been written and said about the marketing concept in the Hair Dressing Services.  Customer satisfaction is said to be the head corner stone of the marketing concept.  Marketing concept is a marketing management philosophy that directs the consumer as king.  Service is any act that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything.

At this stage, the researcher wants to review related literature in this study area.

In a research carried out in t his topic by Nwachukwu J. (1995) using the questionnaire method on a sample size of 350.  the increase in consumer sophistication of the Nigerian populace especially the educated.  Nigerian women shows that people involved in the beauty industry tries to meet up with the upsurge and in doing this they need to introduce marketing concept in delivering their services.

She found out that those salons that applied marketing concept in marketing their services were able to satisfy the customers better, had increase sales and had a competitive advantage over their competitors while those that did not, suffered sales decline, clown growth and an increasing sales expenditure.

Another research conducted on the topic “Marketing Concept in the marketing of Beauty services (A case study of the Beauty Homes in Enugu Urban) by Ani, E.U. (1996) using both questionnaire and interview method on a sample size of 300 people identified that business that are derived by marketing concept based their segmentation analysis on customer differences that have implication for marketing strategy.  They also know that their products and services are being evaluated against competition. They understand the choice criterion that customers are using and ensure that the marketing mix marches those criteria better than the competitors.

However, a marketing oriented company display customer concern throughout the business.  All departments recognize the importance of the customer to the success of the business.

This was the view of Igwe, C. (1997) who during a research on the above topic sampled 300 people using the questionnaire method.

She went further to say that marketing plays an important role in economic activities, increases the standard of living, creates employment and encourages specialization.

One can understand this need better when you recognize the fact that marketing is a cornerstone of policy and practice of such giants as General Electricity, Procter and Gamble Seams and IBM.

Ugwu, A. (1997) in his research on this topic in which 280 people were sampled he discovered that this concept that might still be used in the marketing of other services.  In marketing oriented businesses, innovation is rewarded while the others, it is punished.  He also writes that “marketing oriented business search for latent markets, market that no other company has exploited but the others (production, product, selling and societal marketing concepts) are happy t stick to their existing products and markets.  He also advises business people in the beauty industry within this metropolis that since most developing nations are examining marketing principles to see how their domestic distribution system can be improved and how they can compete more effectively in the world markets.  Socialist nations are also studying how they could use marketing research, advertising and pricing to increase their effectiveness in planning and distributing their services and goods.

“The place of marketing in Beauty Services” (Ene, Patrick, 1996) using observation and questionnaire methods says; “there will always be need for some selling practice, but the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous.  The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that he product or service fits him and sells itself.  He went further to say that one of the major challenges facing beauty provider is how to build and maintain viable businesses in a rapidly changing market place and business environment.

While contrasting selling and marketing concept, Philip Kotler (2003; p.19) quoted professor Theodore Leavilt of Harvard “selling focuses on the needs of the seller, marketing on the other hands focuses on the needs of the buyer.  Selling is pre-occupied with the sellers needs to convert his product into cash”.  He went on further to enumerate the benefits of the marketing concept over the selling concept.

Marketing with the idea of satisfying the needs of the customer by means of the product and the whole cluster of things associated with creating, delivery and finally consumption.

He shows that the concepts rests on four pillars, target market, customer needs, profitability and integrated marketing.

Adirika E.O. (1997: p.48); in the bit to solve the problem consumers not being able to articulate their need states that “a creative marketer discovers and produces solutions that customers did not ask for but for which they enthusiastically respond.  It means proper co-ordination, interpretation and control of all management activities in a way as to achieve the set objective of customer and company mutual benefits.  They should go beyong just asking consumers what they want.

According to Ijezie, A. (1990; p.7) “A sound goal for the marketer is to aim at maximizing satisfaction of the ultimate consumers”.  This idea suggest that he marketer has to keep scouting the marketing environment to see whether its product still satisfies the needs and wants of its target market and then influences the company to adjust its mix of goods and services to those that are needed in this way, the marketer guarantees the firms continuous existence by making sure that he firm continues to produce value for the target consumer market.

As for back as 1963, Drucker Peter, a world leading writer in the management field said that “Because the purpose of business is to create and keep customers, it has only two central functions: marketing and innovation”.  The basic function of marketing is to attract and retain customers at a profit.

In 1997, Chime, conducted are search with sample size of 370 people employing the questionnaire method came out with the opinion that Dark and Lovely, a foreign made product is preferred to Venus by most Nigerians because its producer made use of the marketing concept.  They are viable to identify the needs of its customers, produced their relaxer to ensure pain – free period of retouching a permed hair or at first perming which was their desire.  They properly packaged it and through an effective distribution made it available to all potential users anywhere in the world.  The study showed that most Nigerians wish their price will be reduced to an affordable margin for low income earners and if this  should happen, Venus will loose out a reasonable percentage of its customers.

A similar research by Anazodo (1996); sampled with 200 people among whom were customers and personnel’s of Diamond Bank she found out that this bank through proper research identified that most of its customers complain about long hours of waiting before they could get their services they need, they also complained about an unhappy feeling whenever they got home only to found out that the money was not complete.

The bank then employed professional bankers and sophisticated equipment to take care of this problem and since then, their customers patronage has increased to 75% from the previous 25%.

However, Ejike (1995); using a sample size of 250 people with both questionnaire and interviews discovered that coca-cola had to launch diet coke into the Nigerian market to take care of diabetic consumers and adults who preferred a little lighter tasted coke.  They equally reduced the carbon content to suit the Nigerian market.

They were able to do these because they made use of the marketing concept in marketing their product which involved first of all finding out what consumers actually need providing it and ensuring that they are satisfied with it.

During the year 1993, Akuabata C. in his work noted that the constraints to the effective application of the marketing concept in the marketing of salon services in Nigeria as a whole and Enugu metropolis in particular can be attributed to relative scarcity of essential commodities in the country, inadequate infrastructural facilities relatively high level of illiteracy, inefficient complex and un-widely distribution channels, unscrupulous middlemen and lack of appreciation of the marketing concept in the service marketing, particular in the marketing of hair dressing services. Marketing research is a fundamental aspect of marketing but as far as this metropolis is concerned, beauty providers keep having these problems of attitude of respondents to questions, poor communication system, lack of the basic infrastructural facilities and dishonesty, o the part of employees.

According to Offor (1994); :for a business to be effective, it should ensure that personnel from other departments spend some time in marketing department”.

It should introduce new products to the market through terms of personnel drawn from marketing, design, finance, production etc.  It should be arranging that managers attend meetings in other departments example marketing at production meetings.  He went further to say that in introducing marketing concept to a business that is concerned with the marketing of services, the organization need to hire lectures and consultants to explain and illustrate what the introduction of marketing means to a business.  Good foresight and ability to envisage the future correctly but not necessarily accurate always are qualities worth possessing.  A true businessman does not always have a gambling mind.  He has a scientific mind.  His decisions and actions are based on understanding and not on chance.  In business, things are not taken for granted.  Any dubious or doubtful happenings in the business need to be verified.

Success Digest (1997; p.21) suggested ways to win customers and keep them for as long as the business lasts.  This includes: –

–       Customers satisfaction: The most important goal of any employee is to create and keep customers, this is contrary to widen belief that the primary.

Job is to make sales, but the focus should be on keeping customers satisfied than on making the sale.  There is a big difference between selling and helping people to buy.  It’s not just to play on words.  The difference is one of attitude.  Traditional selling is manipulative.  It takes the approach of lets take what we have and talk somebody into it.  But the correct approach should be helping people get what they want/need which creates customers.

–       Good Impression: People love to buy and hate to be sold, they believe that they “buy” when the service turns out to be good and “sold” when bad.  In actual fact, they love to own, acquire and spend money.

It make them feel important and successful.

They will buy much when they buy.  The people who deal directly with the customers can make or break the business, make a good impression and the customer buys, multiple and come back, make a poor impression and they run off.

A management consultant Steven Covey, writes that with each new relationship we open what we can make deposits and from which we can make withdrawals.

When we help others log at what they want and feel better about themselves, we are making a deposit that will likely pay big dividends in the future. But when we call on others to help us or make them feel worse, we are making a withdrawal and with too many withdrawals we run the risk of becoming over drawn and losing account.  The one major difference between final and emotional bank accounts is that and emotional bank account usually requires continual small deposits in order to maintain its presents balance.  Every time you boost a customers self image, you make a significant deposit to the emotional bank account and increase the odds of wining and keeping it.

He continued by suggesting five specific ideas to help a firm towards the end: –

1.     Develop a genue interest, and admiration for your customers.  To quote IBM founder Tomas Watson “if you don’t genuinely like your customers, the chances are there that they can’t buy”. The more you love and admire your customers, the easier it is to make deposits to the emotional bank account in a  way that is meaningful to them get then to talk about themselves and listen with your undivided  attention.

A good rule of this is to let them do 80% of the talking.

2.     Recognize and praise people for they want to be recognized and be praise for with a little observation and common sense.  It’s easy to spot what people want to be complemented for being tactful.  These compliments must be sincere, people know when they are being conned and sincerely faltered which is a very good way to ruin off a customer.  They should also be specific, if possible find a way to compliment the customer for something they derive as a result of having used your product or services in the past.

3.     Put them at ease and establish report, we all prefer people who make us feel accepted and relaxed and not rejected and worked up.

4.     Use humour where it is relevant and appropriate.

5.     Let them know what you are thinking about them

Emebo P.C. in her articles titled “reproving productivity of services” observes that service firms are great pressured to increase productivity since service businesses are highly labour intensive, costs have been arising rapidly.  Quating Philip Kotler, “There are serene approaches to improving service productivity:: –

1. Is to have service providers work harder or more skillfully.
2. To increase the quantity of service by surrendering some quality
3. To industrialize the service by adding equipment and standardizing production
4. To reduce or make obsolete the need for a service by inventing a product solution.
5. To present customers with incentives to substitute their own labour for company labour
6. To harness the power of technology.

Having gone through these research works, there is no doubt that

they are related to this research.  They have all shown that here is a great need for the application of the marketing concept in businesses.  It has shown that its application in marketing of hairdressing services ensures consumer satisfaction, sales growth, profitability, identity latest needs and demands, gives an organization competitive advantage over its competitors.  All these and more will a beauty provider enjoy if he starts to apply marketing concept in rendering services to its customers.

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This article was extracted from a Project Research Work Topic

“APPLICATION OF MARKETING CONCEPT IN MARKETING OF HAIR DRESSING SERVICES

(A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF MAGIC FINGERS BEAUTY HOME AND ULTIMATE BEAUTY SALON)”

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