What’s in a Salon's Name? Everything!

by Greg Milner   

Ray Kroc, the visionary who founded McDonald’s at the age of 52, battled constantly with his franchisees to get them to ‘see’ what he saw.

Kroc was a marketing fanatic, and saw almost everything as a function of marketing.

“Clean toilets,” he would tell his staff and everybody else who would listen, “is marketing.”

Truth is, almost everything about your salon or spa is related to marketing.

Even – especially – the actual name of the business.

And yet so many business owners waste so much of their energy and time dreaming up names for their businesses that would be better used as a clue in a crossword puzzle.

Names that are so obscure as to be incomprehensible. Yet the name of your business is often the very first thing your prospective customer sees. Why make it complicated?

The name of your business should leave the prospect in absolutely no doubt as to what you do.

Take a trawl through any Yellow Pages directory and you’ll get the picture.

I just did a search online and came up with some wonderfully obscure monikers.

“Emma’s Secret” certainly leaps out at me. Not. Why on earth would you want to keep what you do a ‘secret’? Is it some kind of trick? Is there some kind of morally-bankrupt activity going on behind those purple velvet curtains?

“Madame Korner” invokes a whip-wielding dominatrix rather than what it could possibly be; a skin care clinic.

“At Jai’s Place” sounds more like a squat for crystal-swinging hippies, and you have to read down to the sub-head before you find out what it actually is: ‘Fast And Effective Treatments For Hair Removal’. Surely that should be the name of the business.

Here’s one in Dallas, Texas: ‘Mane Event’. Is it about horses?

Another, in Los Angeles: ‘5th Element’. Is it a revivalist Motown singing troupe… or a hair salon? Mmmmm.

And one in Sussex, UK: ‘Uniquely You’. Well, as some wag once said, ‘be yourself. Everybody else is taken.’

Here’s one that proclaims it won UK Salon of the Year. But with a name like ‘Zen Lifestyle Bruntsfield’ the accolade appears to have been awarded in spite of the text on the shingle above the door.

When your list of services reads ‘IPL Laser Hair Removal • Eyelash & Nail Extensions • Brazilian & Hollywood Waxing • IDMinerals/Jane Iredale Makeup • Extensive Beauty Treatments’, why on earth would you pretend to be a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism?

(And it should be said right here that among our own Worldwide Salon Marketing Inner Circle Members, many are guilty – through ignorance, I’ll grant – of owning businesses with names that are not only obscure, but in some cases almost unpronounceable. Thankfully, most are now taking action to rectify that.)

Here’s the thing:
If you confuse your prospective market, they won’t buy

They’ll move on to something they understand instantly. People do NOT want to have to think when they’re looking for something. Having to analyse, speculate, wonder or think about what it is that you do is an instant turn-off.

Make it simple. Tell it like it is.

Being cute serves nothing but stroke your own ego as the business owner. Gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling, and demonstrates to your friends what a clever linguist you are. But it does nothing to sell.

Example: If you’re a hair salon specializing in hair extensions, a simple “London’s Best Hair Salon – Specializing in Hair Extensions” would be sufficient, if not brilliant.

If you own a Sydney skin care clinic and you want to target single upwardly mobile working women, you might want to call it ‘Sexy Skin for the Single Woman’ and then perhaps a sub-head, ‘(And Even Sexier for the Not-So-Single!)’

Remember, the purpose of the name of your business is not to make YOU feel good. It’s to sell.

And if your prospective client has to think about what the name means… well, throw it out and start again.

Here endeth the lesson.