Be the Brand and Sell Yourself Michael Suba, President, Continental Hair, Toronto
Many years ago there was a moderately funny movie called “Caddyshack” starring Chevy Chase, who was funny for 15 minutes. He was probably upset that although he got top billing, the movie was stolen by funnier actors like Bill Murray, Ted Knight and Rodney Dangerfield. But he did have one bit of advice that was worth noting. “Be the ball, Danny. Be the ball.” And no, its not the same as “Use the Force.” For business, it translates into “Be The Brand, Danny. Be The Brand.” You are the brand. Be it. Own it. Jealously guard it. My first exposure to this angle of marketing goes even farther back. In the 1970s there was a phenomenally successful men’s hairpiece wholesaler called New Man Hair. My father was the distributor for them in eastern Canada. He also retailed them in his Toronto salon, Continental Hair. I remember he had a large sign in the front window with their logo. It lit up so there was no way you could miss it. I still remember the names of the synthetic stock units — The Adolfo and The Triumph. It was a great time to be in the business as these things were flying off the shelves. But I remember when my father got a visit from someone from the head office. I was only about 15 at the time but my dad would insist I sit in on these business meetings. I guess he thought
I would absorb something through osmosis. These guys knew their stuff. More pointedly, they knew my dad’s stuff. They had his sales figures for every month since he signed up with him. They were pleased at the initial sales growth but his performance had plateaued (their word) at 400 units per month. They wanted to know what could be done to help him do better” Then my father realized that he was not working for himself. He was working for them. He had taken the bait that there was easy money in selling their brand, and now he was hooked. If he wanted to keep those easy sales he had to concentrate more on selling their brand, not his own. He had clients that had grown accustomed to seeing the New Man label in their Triumphs and he had grown accustomed to the extra markup he got as a distributor. He was stuck. He had to spend more time and money doing “educational” seminars and visiting other studios to keep those numbers going up. He had less time for the other lines that Continental Hair carried with his own labels. The other side of things is that actual clients can play dealers off against each other. “Oh, I can get it $X.00 cheaper over at Whathisname’s Place.” So suddenly you are not just competing with your competitors but your “partners” as well. This is natural because the client is doing what the client has been told — to buy this brand. CONTINUED ON PAGE 7 THE LINK MAGAZINE
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