Project 2.2 by anns123

Barber Shoppen

Table of content Problem statement ............................................................................................................... 4 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 4 Delimitation .......................................................................................................................... 6 Methods ............................................................................................................................... 7 Participants: .................................................................................................................... 7 Procedure: ....................................................................................................................... 8 Discussion of method ......................................................................................................... 10 Mission, vision and values .............................................................................................. 12 TOWS analysis of Barber Shoppen ................................................................................ 18 Hofstedes 5 cultural dimensions ..................................................................................... 20 Schein model .................................................................................................................. 24 Kotterʼs 8 steps ............................................................................................................... 27 Target Audience Segmentation ...................................................................................... 31 Persona segmentation .................................................................................................... 32 Storytelling ...................................................................................................................... 33 Concept .......................................................................................................................... 38 Marketing Campaign ...................................................................................................... 39 Design Report ................................................................................................................. 47 Idea development ........................................................................................................... 47 Design concept ............................................................................................................... 47 Design Style.................................................................................................................... 49 Colour ............................................................................................................................. 50 Typography ..................................................................................................................... 50 Logo ................................................................................................................................ 51 Visualization of message ................................................................................................ 52 Navigation Considerations .............................................................................................. 53 Gestalt laws .................................................................................................................... 54 Usability Design .............................................................................................................. 54 Developing our website .................................................................................................. 56 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 63 Appendix 1: ..................................................................................................................... 65 Appendix 2: ..................................................................................................................... 67 Appendix 3: ..................................................................................................................... 71 Appendix 4: ..................................................................................................................... 72 Appendix 5: ..................................................................................................................... 73 Appendix 6: ..................................................................................................................... 74

Barber Shoppen

Appendix 7: ..................................................................................................................... 75 Appendix 8: ..................................................................................................................... 76 Appendix 9: ..................................................................................................................... 77 Appendix 10: ................................................................................................................... 78 Appendix 11: ................................................................................................................... 79 Appendix 12: ................................................................................................................... 80 Appendix 13: ................................................................................................................... 81 Appendix 14: ................................................................................................................... 82

Barber Shoppen

Problem statement How can we ensure Barber Shoppenʼs financial security by increasing the number of yearly subscription to Barber Shoppenʼs different services through a marketing campaign and a digital product?

Introduction Here is the introduction to our project. The labor of hairdressing has long been can, with the means of a subscription looked upon as being a rather feminine offer (1 year of a service every third field of work. The general consensus week), stabilize their financial status. suggests that masculinity drowns in hair Since an increasing number of products, girly-talk and fashion. Barber barbershops are emerging, having a lot of Shoppen does not support this subscribers, and thereby loyal customers, stereotype, and whole-heartedly believe Barber Shoppen can secure a certain group of people on whom they can rely. in their enterprise. Recently, society has opened up to the traditional barbering Nevertheless, Barber Shoppen still has a phenomenon, which represents desire to get more subscribers. Currently, considerably different values from that of their online appearance does not exactly hairdressing. Barber Shoppen yearns to provide a lot of information about their change the public perception towards this subscription. Neither does it motivate the particular labor. It is their ambition to visitor a whole lot other than including a normalize the concept and make it a discount. And the internet is nearly the natural part of life that a woman goes to only channel through which Barber the hairdresser; the man to the barber. Shoppen communicates to their current and potential customers. We believed to have found an area, which could be optimized within our framework.

Although Barber Shoppen is on a quest to integrate this attitude within society and to properly convey the values on which they embark, its progression is somewhat feeding on itself. As a result of that, Barber Shoppen does not put a whole lot of effort into advertising or marketing. As of now, Barber Shoppen seeks to strengthen the customer relations, which they already built. By establishing a solid customer community, Barber Shoppen

In this paper we have displayed what we found the most ideal way for Barber Shoppen to increase their sales of subscriptions. After acquiring the necessary background knowledge, through research and various analyses, we learned from which angle to promote it, how and to whom. By conducting a more holistic online identity (social media

Barber Shoppen

and official website) and putting more emphasis on their subscription offer, we sought to create a feeling of "membership" around it, motivating people to explore. By weaving company values, such as manliness, quality and community into our visual identity as well

as the presented content, we mimicked some essential company beliefs and created a more consistent identity for them. A great part of the deal when buying a service at Barber Shoppen is the experience linked to it, and so we aspired to mirror that onto our site.

Barber Shoppen

Delimitation In our persona, as well as target group segmentation, we only put focus on 50% of their actual target group (students), as we had to narrow our focus in order to make a coherent project. We used jQuery library in the development of our product, as we simply did not have the time or knowledge needed to create our own. We wanted to get more information on Barber Shoppenʼs competitors; however, due to time issues and poor online information, we only managed to attain a limited amount of material on this matter. Our website has not been tested on actual, potential users. Only us, as a group, has tested it, but with our personas kept in mind. In the report, we have not included anything about the other platforms to which our website fits. Included here are platforms such as tablets and mobile phone. Initially, it was our intention to include sitemaps, wireframes and

mockups of the other platforms, but did not have time to. The website is, however, responsive and applies well to all platforms. The content of our website only appears in English. We wanted to include a button for switching language between Danish and English. It is primarily Danish people who are within their target group, but since our project group consists of international students who do not know the language, we had to go with English. In many parts of our project we mention how we take Barber Shoppenʼs Facebook and Twitter account into play. Nevertheless, this is more to support our concept than it is something we actually do. This is due to fact that we do not have any authority on their social media. Great parts of the marketing campaign are based on the overall concept that we had thought through. Printing posters, business cards etc. simply wasnʼt within our range of neither resource nor time.

Barber Shoppen

Methods In the following section we have outlined the methods used in this paper. It is structured as Participants, Materials and Procedure to make it appear organized. • A qualitative interview containing Participants: various business-related Barber Shoppen was our chosen questions. company, and has collaborated with us • A quantitative survey including a throughout the project. Barber Shoppen mix of open and closed questions consists of 6 employees, one of which we regarding customer behavior and have been interviewing (see appendix). desire. Moreover, a small shoot of 22-year-old • A small interview with focus group Hasse being asked a few questions was of Barber Shoppen, consisting of done. Lastly, several pictures of both customers. store and crew were taken. Desk research: Danmarks Statistik, Domain specific websites, Facebook developers page, Barber Shoppenʼs Facebook page, Chrome SEO toolbar.

We constructed a survey (see appendix) and handed it out through Facebook, all females sorted out by the introduction question of the survey. All participants were anonymous; however, the survey was dealt amongst our own acquaintances and on Barber Shoppen's official Facebook page.

Business: Business model canvas Two models dealing with organizational culture, Hofstedes 5 Cultural Dimensions and Schein's Cultural Model.

An interview (see appendix) made with a small focus-group of 5 customers, hanging around Barber Shoppen.

A SWOT analysis with an appertaining TOWS analysis.

Materials: Development method: • SCRUM, planbox.com1

Kotter's 8 steps/change theory Communication: Core story theory and storytelling, laboratory test Marketing Campaign (SMART Objectives, Marketing Mix, Social media strategy) Target audience segmentation

Research:

1 https://www.planbox.com/initiatives/687 42#story_pane_tab=details

Barber Shoppen

Persona segmentation

After acquiring a good bunch of information on the company we were dealing with, we commenced to do a target audience analysis. Having learned a good deal about Barber Shoppen's customers from the interview with Hasse we could now start to form an idea of who we were dealing with. Nevertheless, to gather extra, valid research to base our analysis on, we made a survey to unveil some useful learning about our potential audience and their behavior and goals. As we had segmented the target audience by goals, we could move on to creating our personas. Once this was done we were now confident about our target audience and had in turn created relevant user scenarios for later usability testing on our site. Additionally, we now had a starting point for the development of our design identity, as we now had an impression of who to target and how. Initially, we made some brainstorming on how to properly convey the company message we had identified through our analyses, in a design context, and how to most optimally reach our targeted audience. It was important for us to spend time on developing the proper guidelines for us to follow throughout the development. We discussed some different themes/styles and eventually came up with something we thought encapsulated Barber Shoppen and what they represent, while keeping the customers in focus. We wanted to take an innovative approach, without breaching their current image. In order to most optimally create our visual identity for Barber Shoppen, we used various design

Design: Brainstorming, mind mapping Color, Gestalt law, Style and Typography theory Interaction: HTML5, CSS3, PhP and JavaScript Jquery Modernizr

Procedure: We decided to start off from a business point-of-view in order to learn more about our company. After having a 1-hour interview (see appendix) with one of the employees at Barber Shoppen, we could carry on filling in our business model canvas. After doing so, after getting an idea of which approach to take, we started doing some more in-depth analysis of Barber Shoppen. Using a pair of organizational culture models, we were able to collect plenty of information on their internal culture, and on how this comes to show in public. By using the SWOT/TOWS analysis we learned more about how Barber Shoppen is situated amongst its competitors, and how potential threats could be eliminated, as well as opportunities seized. This, for instance, included an understanding of the importance of the community that Barber Shoppen represents. In addition, it gave us an impression of where to put focus in our concept, such as on the atmosphere of their shop and the community they represent.

Barber Shoppen

related theory. Included here are theories such as Gestalt Law, contrast theory, color theory, typographical considerations and so forth. By taking this theory into practice, we enabled ourselves to more accurately reach the people we wished to, since the theory provided information on how people visually interact with a website, what to avoid and what to emphasize. From an interactional point of view, we made sure to use both server and clientside skills. Included here are HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript and PhP files. To create navigation, which our target audience would feel comfortable around, we used our user scenarios from our personas. Since a lot of our content is repeated throughout all subpages, we used OOP (Object-oriented programming) to structure our programming and to easily reuse code. Moreover, we used the MVC-pattern (Model-view-controller) for the project structure. In order to ensure that our site would fit into all browsers, we

used Modernizr CSS3 feature detection tool. Additionally, we used JQuery, a JavaScript library, to ease the development process. Finally, we validated all of our code using the w3c standards. The entire project has been done using SCRUM as developing method. By utilizing this tool, we were able to keep a constant overview of our working process. We used www.planbox.com for us to define our tasks and keep one another updated. Additionally, we made a hand drawn burndown-chart to remind ourselves of the separate deadlines to be met. Although in a seated manner, we held a daily meeting on which we shared our findings and work with each other. Afterwards, we worked our way through the backlog by creating sprints to be done throughout the day. Then, once again, individual tasks for the next day were assigned and so forth.

Barber Shoppen

Discussion of method The methods used in this project consist of a combination between mandatory methods, required to appear within the project, and self-chosen methods, which we picked, based on relevance. In order to argue why and how our project adds value to Barber Shoppen, we decided to utilize two different cultural models. Although these are quite similar, they still serve different purposes, and we found both relevant to answer why our concept would create value for our chosen company. In addition to this, SWOT seemed like an evident choice for us to figure out how to add value and which angle to start from. These models helped us to further paint an image and define the identity of our company. We could, however, have made our SWOT analysis after holding the interview with Barber Shoppen rather than before, since we had to update it as parts of it were based on assumptions.

To base these analyses on valid research, we made the interview with Hasse. Doing so was vital to us, since it was the only way for us to get to know our company more deeply. Additionally, our survey gave us some significant information; however, we could have reconsidered the way in which we distributed it, as many participants were female and therefore useless to our project. In order to identify the core store of Barber Shoppen, we applied some storytelling theory and a laboratory test. We used storytelling to define our company and its core story, rather than as a communication tool. To use it as a communication tool, we thought it was necessary to include Barber Shoppen since they are the ones to tell their stories. This could be done through a blog and on their social media.

Barber Shoppen

Business

In this part of the report we used different analyses to get to know Barber Shoppen better as company. We found the mission, vision and values, we made a SWOT and TOWS analysis. We used Hoffstedes and Schein model to get to know the cultural side of the company, and for the change theory we used 8 kotters steps.

Barber Shoppen

Barber Shoppen want to normalize that men go to a barber instead of a hairdresser.

Good quality, old barber theme, loose atmosphere, good relationship with customers and good service.

Mission, vision and values

Having a vision and/or a mission helps a company separate them from other similar companies.

A company develop core values to define its basic philosophy, principles and ideals and also set the ethical tone for the company. The core values of Barber Shoppen are the following:

Mission: A mission defines a companyʼs purpose and the primary objectives. It is the start of a companyʼs strategic planning and goal setting process. The mission of Barber Shoppen is to become the most popular barbershop in Aarhus.2

• Good quality • Traditional barber theme • Loose Atmosphere • Good relationship with customers • Good service From these core values we can understand that Barber Shoppen really wants to give their customers a special experience and also that they want to have loyal customers who they can establish a relationship with.4

Vision: A company vision defines where the company see its self in the future. Barber Shoppenʼs mission is to normalize the concept of the man going to a Barber and a woman going to a hairdresser.3

Values: 2 See appendix 1 3 Same

4 Same

Barber Shoppen

Business model canvas Business model canvas allows us to sketch and develop a new or existing business model. Barber Shoppen is a relatively new company, which offers quite usual services, but brings extra value to their customers through socializing and good quality.

customers and the loyal customers, all though their goal for now is to sell more subscriptions and grow the number of loyal customers.5

Customer Segments Barbers Shoppen is creating value for a niche market in the hairdressing field focusing on men who want to get qualitative haircuts, but also get an experience of socializing, and interaction without “girl stuff”. Customers age varies, from 1 year olds to older men around 65+, who cares about their look /image. Barber Shoppen's most important customers are men who are students and have alternative lifestyles. In fact 50 % of their customers are male students. They are interested in both new

Value Proposition Barber Shoppen is delivering qualitative services – good haircut and shaves, with adding extra value on the experience. Their brand brings extra value for their customers, such as self-esteem.

Channels 5 See appendix 1

Barber Shoppen

For Barber Shoppenʼs communication plays a significant role in the store. “People are just stopping by to make an appointment or drink beer”, says Hasse one of the Barber Shoppen employees. Word of Mouth is the there strongest promotion tool.

The customers can also pay the yearly subscription in the store, which allows customers to visit the store every third week for a shave/haircut or both. No matter the service free beer, wine or coffee is served. Barber Shoppens employees explained that although financially, it would be more profitable if their customers pay as they go, they still prefer to sell yearly subscriptions, as it gives them financial stability.

Usually the costumers are calling to the store to make appointments. Also there has been made a website, by one of their customers (http://www.barbershoppen.com/ 2009) which is not updated often.

Key Activities Barber Shoppen is directed to keep highlevel quality of barbering, at the same time maintaining their special atmosphere, by delivering unique customer experience. They will keep using the “word of mouth”, social media and website but with more consistent messages and more company information.

Barber Shoppen is present at social media - Facebook page (608 likes) and Instagram account.

Customer relations Professional and personal input in services is crucial for Barber Shoppenʼs employees. “Each of us tries to interact with our customer and make him feel relaxed, maybe he will have some drink after work” shares Hasse.

Key Resources Barber Shoppen has only one store in Aarhus. They have beer for customers, which underline their message. Barbers have to go through barber apprenticeship to improve their professional skills. The costs on marketing materials are very low; the only had some costs on business cards. Of course they have costs on professional tools for barbers.

Barber Shoppen wants to make their interaction between customers and employees more like “a friend visit”. That is why the company is very much interested to sell more year subscription for men who want to get a haircut or a shave in the atmosphere where only men are allowed to be.

Revenue Streams Currently Barber Shoppen has a fixed price-list of services. These services are paid fore in the store.

Key partners Barber Shoppen does not have official

Barber Shoppen

partnerships with other companies. They do corporate with the business school here in Aarhus, the students who will purchase a year subscription will get 20 % off, but they are sometimes helping each other with small tasks. Like, spreading business cards in bars, events.

Cost Structure Barber Shoppenʼs fixed costs are rent and salary. Variable costs are barber conferences, beer for customers and tools for barbering. Canvas6

The owner, The boss and the developer of Barber Shoppen

6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tdpNK dH7sM

Barber Shoppen

SWOT Analysis of Barber Shoppen To get to know Barber Shoppen better as a company, we made a small SWOT-‐analysis with some main points.

Strengths:

Weaknesses:

Barber Shoppen has a lot of strengths because they are a very unique and a modern company. Barber Shoppen has a unique product because of the experience the customers will get when they visit the store. They also have a very good location, which is right in the centre of Aarhus and therefore is easy to access. They are very popular and have very good reputation so the word of mouth is a very big strength for them. The quality of their work is very good and they have really good skills. Which adds to their brand.

There are not as many weaknesses as strengths. One of them is that they do not allow women in the store and only do menʼs hair so their target audience is in that understanding, quite narrow. They only have one location/store, which is a weakness because some of their competitors have more than one location/store. It is a weakness because they have less capacity for customers. The booking time is a weakness because you have to call and wait for them to look through their calendar and see when they have time and if the have a customer they

Barber Shoppen

will have to stop their work to answer the phone. Barber Shoppen do not have much advertisement actually they only have their website and facebook otherwise they are only using the word of mouth. This is a weakness because by the word of mouth they only reach a certain amount of people.

Barber Shoppen is very popular barber and therefore they also have the opportunity in the future to expand. If the company offers more to the loyal customers they might spread the word and the company will get even more loyal customers. Although gender separation was mentioned within the weaknesses, it could still be perceived as an opportunity for Barber Shoppen. Putting more emphasis on this, and therefore the masculinity they represent, more men might find their store appealing.

Opportunities: It is an opportunity for Barber Shoppen that they give a very good experience when the customers visit the store. Some customers are coming to Barber Shoppen mainly because of the experience. This makes them differentiate from their competitors, because similar stores do not provide such experience. They are open for corporation and that gives them a lot of opportunities to get free PR and expand the company and spread the word of mouth. They do not use technology beside the phone in the store, but if they learned some simple technology so they would be able to give updates on the website and be more informative would be a good opportunity to keep a good contact with their customers.

Threats: In Barber Shoppen there is a very big gender separation; saying that only men are allowed that can be a threat because some might be offended because in a modern world it is very important that women and men are equal, so if their message comes out as misogyny, it is dangerous to their brand, as even men favour equalization. As mentioned in the opportunities they do not use much technology in the store that is threat because the world is turning more and more towards technology and efficiency.

Barber Shoppen

TOWS analysis of Barber Shoppen We used TOWS to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that we found in our SWOT-‐analysis. In this analysis we will compare the strengths and opportunities, the weaknesses and opportunities, the strengths and threats and at last the weaknesses and threats. opportunity of learning simple technology, then they can use social media to be in contact with their customers, and get the word of mouth online. The strength that they have a unique product and that they are consistent and have good brand all maximize the opportunity for expansion.

Strengths vs. opportunities: The strength that they have a strong brand maximizes the opportunity of gender separation because there will be more focus on the man than there is at a normal hairdresser. The strength that Barber Shoppen is a popular place maximizes the opportunity for expansion because they have many customers and a good reputation and that could help to a future expansion. The main advertisement for Barber Shoppen is the word of mouth and to strengthen that they can use they

Weaknesses vs. opportunities: The opportunity for expansion will minimize the weakness narrow target audience because if they expand they can have more customers and if they

Barber Shoppen

expand to other cities they will have more customers. The weakness of their booking time can be minimized by some simple technology for instance they can get an online booking system that would make the booking time shorter for the customer but also for the barbers in the shop. The opportunities that they are open for cooperation with other companies, get simple technology, experience vs. product and loyal customers all can minimize the weakness of their advertisement being poor. Because they are open for cooperation with other companies can help get advertisement with other companies or events for instance. Getting simple technology in the company as well, then they could update their own website etc. Their loyal customers will also help because they do not need advertisement for them and they are also helping with the word of mouth concept. Because they give such a good experience contributes to their good reputation and therefore the word of mouth is very strong and they do not need much advertisement.

unlikely that some people will be offended by it. Because they have a very strong brand and they can still keep up with their competitors even though they do not keep up with the technology. All the strengths will minimize the competition because they are providing unique product and everything they do are helping them differentiate from their competitors.

Weaknesses vs. threats: Barber Shoppen already in some way has a narrow target audience and they will have to be aware of the threat that they have to keep up the technology because the competition is keeping up. Therefore they will have to keep up so they do not lose their potential customers through poor online communication and a problematic booking system. Even though they do not have much advertisement they have to be aware that the message they send out that “no women are allowed in the store” should be polite. They have to be careful not to discriminate women too much so both men and women would get offended. They also have to be aware that they only have one location and their competitors might be bigger so always have to be on their toes to be better than their competitors.

Strength vs. threats: The strengths consistency and brand will minimize the threat gender separation because if they are consistent in what they do and keep the brand and get the message out in a good way then it is

Barber Shoppen

Hofstedes 5 cultural dimensions

Barber Shoppen is quite an unusual company put in comparison to other Danish businesses. After reviving the almost extinct phenomenon of barbering, Barber Shoppen has to adjust to the development of society in order for them to remain capable of competing. How do you combine the values and beliefs of the early/mid-‐20th century with a modern society, and what is the cultural outcome? In order to more accurately determine these tendencies, Hofstedes 5 cultural dimensions is an evident choice of approach, and aids us on our quest to unveil some of the cultural aspects of our chosen company. Great parts of this section are based on our interview with Hasse.

on which their success rely heavily. Therefore, the tendency points more towards collectivism, as their actions are in the interest of the entire group. That being said, the service carried out by the employees is done in an individual manner, not requiring further interaction with the remaining employees.

Power distance: Like a typical Danish company, there is only a vague hierarchy to be found within Barber Shoppen. Although there is a boss who makes the final call on businessrelated matters, the employees within Barber Shoppen feel equal to one another, thus suggesting a hierarchical order, which is not very steep. Additionally, on a social level, all of the employees feel included in the community and jargon of their co-workers. The power distance is therefore fairly small, which suits the western-world standards of free will and democracy.

Masculinity vs. femininity: Barber Shoppen yearns to optimize relationships between themselves as colleagues as well as to their customers. In general, the company aspires to create a harmonious atmosphere within their store, welcoming new as well as returning customers. Barber Shoppen consists of a single store exclusively, which does not imply a very ambitious expanding strategy. However, Barber Shoppen does seek to expand in the future, but more as a natural result of societyʼs integration of the ʻbarbershopʼ phenomenon, than as that of an enforced progression.

Individualism vs. collectivism: The employees of Barber Shoppen are all individuals, each representing a unique personality. To Barber Shoppen it is important to uphold variety within the staff, allowing them to satisfy a wider range of customer needs on a social as well as professional level. Nevertheless, each and every employee is responsible for Barber Shoppenʼs public reputation,

Barber Shoppen

The in-‐side of Barber Shoppen

Barber Shoppen

annual subscriptions, which implies a more far-sighted strategy. By doing so, they wish to secure their profits and establish stronger relationships to their customers, thus ensuring that customers return in the future. Additionally, Barber Shoppen would like to normalize the whole ʻbarberʼ concept, making it a natural part of society. Although this is the case, they believe that pushing this tendency too much themselves might jeopardize its survival. Therefore, a sense of ambiguity arises as to whether they are long or short-term oriented. Intuitively, though, since they do have plans for their future as a company, and are to a larger extend focusing on their annual subscriptions, it is fair to say that they are indeed long-term minded.

Uncertainty avoidance: The overall theme on which Barber Shoppen embarks is rather tolerant and easy-going. There is no strict set of rules to be followed, rather a sense of mutual trust and responsibility for one another. They do, however, have a couple of rules, which they do not compromise: • Do not bring any women to the shop. • Trust your barber. As these may seem more like ideological rules that apply to the customer rather than the employees, these regulations are crucial to their brand and reputation. This is due to the fact that Barber Shoppen serves men solely, and that a man has to be able to feel masculine when within the store. Conclusively, Barber Shoppen has a low degree of uncertainty avoidance and expects a free working environment in which they can unfold as individuals as well as part of a group.

Conclusion: Expectantly, Barber Shoppen roughly fits the stereotypical, Danish company. Although Barber Shoppen is in no rush to expand, they still vouch for the common values of a Danish business; democracy, free will and a tolerant behavior. Barber Shoppen boards the laid-back, easygoing theme, which would be contradicted, had they had, letʼs say, a long list of rules to be followed. Therefore, the culture within their shop and its appertaining crew very much suits the message they wish to convey, and the atmosphere they wish to conduct and display for their customers.

Long-term vs. short-term: To judge from Barber Shoppenʼs current business strategy, one feels entitled to state that they are short-term oriented. As a company they are quite straightforward; they serve a customer and move on to the next. They do not put a whole lot of focus on advertising, as they believe in the word of mouth and their public reputation to carry out this job. As opposed to this, Barber Shoppen has a great desire to increase their sales of

Barber Shoppen

Schein model

In our previous analysis we were able to paint a nice picture of the internal culture of Barber Shoppen. With this information in mind, it is interesting to investigate how Barber Shoppen displays this culture within their company, be it visually identifiable or deeply embedded within the employees. Schein’s culture model provides a nice framework for us to unveil and answer some of these questions. Similar to our Hofstede’s analysis, this section is also broadly based on the same interview.

Rock nʼ Roll theme they wish to convey. The general jargon is based on a lot of joking around, both between colleagues and customers, which supposedly helps the customer relax and enjoy the moment, rather than sitting tensely in a chair, talking about the weather. Lastly, the façade of the store leaves no doubt that it is in fact a barbershop, due to the traditional barber poles painted on the entrance walls.

Artifacts: Barber Shoppen is very conscious about its visual representation of its store. With a combination of Rock nʼ Roll, retro, traditional barber values and a touch of modernity, Barber Shoppen has created a pleasant atmosphere for its customers; masculine men. Within Barber Shoppen one can find a lot of signs, posters and ornaments that support their theme of Rock nʼ Roll and the easy-rider kind of lifestyle. Simultaneously, the chairs, tools and interiors of the store depict a traditional barbershop where the customer can travel a bunch of decades back in time and experience an oldfashioned store, although with a modern feel to it. Barber Shoppen serves beer to their customers, which is also an immense attribute to their store. What makes a man feel more masculine and relaxed than beer? Barber Shoppen wants their customers to feel relaxed and as though they can be and act as themselves. To support this, employees wear casual clothes and speak in a manner, which is welcoming and humorous. Most of the employees are tattooed, which puts emphasis on the

Espoused values and beliefs: As mentioned above, Barber Shoppen puts much emphasis on developing pleasant and appealing surroundings for its visitors. They yearn to make their store appear very masculine, allowing men to be what they truly are: Men! Apart from what can be observed within their store, Barber Shoppen has a website on which they have put a very modest amount of information about themselves as a company. However, one can get a slight understanding of what they are about; barbering, for men exclusively.

Assumptions:

Barber Shoppen

ʻNo women in the storeʼ may seem like quite an offending regulation. Nevertheless, the employees of Barber Shoppen all adore women, and the customers entering the store might even do so to look better in front of the opposite sex. However, they do believe, that in a world which to a greater extend blurs the line between masculinity and femininity, a man has to be able to embark on his gender and differentiate himself from a woman. The rules listed within Hofstedes 5 cultural dimensions are not written or stated anywhere, but serves more as a guideline or a “barber-code”. Generally speaking, Barber Shoppen wants to establish a nice frameset for men to feel

relaxed, masculine and have fun at the same time.

Conclusion: By making this analysis, we learned that the connection between what Barber Shoppen communicates and what they actually stand for is very clear. They harness the casual style, while upholding a sense of gender separation, which strengthens their brand. Visiting the store gives one a great impression of what is to be expected, both socially and professionally. However, this is more or less the only way to uncover their identity, as other channels (social media and their website) are rather inconsistent and only holds a limited amount of company information.

Barber Shoppen

”Nice guys don’t finish last!” QUOTE FROM BARBER SHOPPEN

Barber Shoppen

http://www.leadershipthoughts.com/knowledge-‐articles/kotters-‐8-‐step-‐change-‐ model/

Kotter’s 8 steps For us to organize the changes we have made for Barber Shoppen, Kotter’s 8 steps is an evident choice of approach. It provides a good impression of the efforts required from Barber Shoppen to create a proper environment for change to take place, be implemented and embedded within the staff and finally; to plan its future development and ensure the change preserves. Once again, this section is based on our interview with Hasse. of customers, Barber Shoppen can secure their financial stability. Through 1: Create urgency our SWOT and TOWS analyses we were While Barber Shoppen is a fairly strong able to identify both threats and company they can't deny that more stores opportunities within Barber Shoppen. of similar nature emerges, and thereby After knowing more about their current additional competition. Since they do not situation, we figured their subscription have any current plans to expand, Barber offer was the key. In order to promote the Shoppen needs a different approach to subscription properly, we concluded that maintain their competitiveness. By Barber Shoppen could use a change in focusing on creating a sustainable group

Barber Shoppen

terms of promoting their subscription and an improved online identity, and that failing to do so might jeopardize their success.

On this step, a solution could be for Barber Shoppen to assign 1-2 people who frequently update their online media, while simultaneously briefing the remaining staff.

non-strict, relaxed mentality, where many topics can be discussed. Through this communication, Barber Shoppen has to include stories that relate to their online identity, in order to underline the importance and to keep everyone updated. Since the vision is to maintain and improve their current success, it is crucial that Barber Shoppen puts effort into communicating where they see themselves in the near future.

3:Create a vision for change

5:Remove obstacles

Barber Shoppen is currently one of the most popular barbershops in Aarhus. Their ambition is to uphold this status, and gladly sees themselves even stronger in the future. The values, which Barber Shoppen currently represents, would be the foundation for their success, as it is what differentiates them from their competitors. Amongst these are their unique and welcoming atmosphere and laid-back attitude, which creates a solid ground for a strong community. Farsighted, Barber Shoppen could undoubtedly continue dominating on their area, if they properly communicate what makes them conspicuous to similar companies.

As the change includes a more communicative approach between company and customer, such as through a newsletter and various activities on their website, it is important for Barber Shoppen to remain active and to frequently update their media. An ideal solution would be to employ company staff to manage their social media and website. In addition, it would be important to brief everyone within the company of their online status, the content and to generate further content. If the staff is reluctant to partake in the progression of their online identity, the change would fail, since the companyʼs contribution and initiative towards the community is vital.

4:Communicate the vision

6: Create short-term wins

Since Barber Shoppen's employees are all gathered throughout the workday, communicating with one another is vital. Through the cocky, humorous jargon, which Barber Shoppen uses, a great part of their core values are disseminated. They all yearn to sustain an atmosphere for their customers, which represent a

A way to visualize the success of the change to the remaining staff, and thereby maintaining motivation, is to simply show statistics on their increased sales of subscriptions. Additionally, since Barber Shoppen's employees highly appreciate their customer relations, the process would become a natural part of

2:Form a powerful coalition

Barber Shoppen

their work, as these relations would be strengthened. Another way of measuring their success could be through observing customer activity on their online entities. Getting an impression of customer satisfaction and participation might add motivation to the company staff.

number of loyal customers, on which their future success relies. For them to properly implement this change, which lies within a new online identity that more extensively underlines their subscription offer and focuses on a sense of membership, Barber Shoppen needs to manage these media and brief everyone within the company of its status. Making the change stick lies within keeping these media updated and to improve them. If Barber Shoppen fails to include everyone in the change, staff may become reluctant to fully adapt to the new strategy, thus diminishing its chances of survival.

7: Build on the change To add to the change, Barber Shoppen could create a blog and synchronize it with their website and social media. Doing so would give the customer/visitor an even clearer impression of the company. Moreover, returning visitors will continuously have fresh content to view. Another option could be to take the community to the next level, and start hosting events for their customers, maybe through a boys-night-out concept or workshops.

8: Anchor the changes It is important for Barber Shoppen to maintain the feeling of community and membership within their customers. As this is already taken care of within their store, their focus should be directed towards their online identity. They have to continuously update their online entities and brief everyone within the company about its status and progression, so that the remaining employees can continue to feel motivated and tell stories that relate to their change. To sum up, Barber Shoppen is required to put more emphasis on their subscription offer. Doing so would increase their

Barber Shoppen

Communication In this part of the report you will read more about the communication part. It contains research on target audience, target audience segmentation, persona segmentation, marketing campaign, core story analysis and storytelling

Barber Shoppen

Target Audience Segmentation To get to know Barber Shoppen’s target audience better we made a segmentation because their target audience is very broad. In the segmentation we looked at these three points: Profile, psychographic and behavioural.

Looking at the target audience from a profile perspective we have settled that, geographically, men should be from either Aarhus or the vicinity of Aarhus. Since Barber Shoppen is mainly advertised through word of mouth, it is mainly people who live within Aarhus whose attention is caught. The men targeted should be socio economically positioned in the middle class. Moreover, after holding the interview with the Barber Shoppenʼs representative, we concluded that, demographically, our target audience should be students between the age of 18 and 27. This is do to the fact that customers are served beer (18+) and that few people above the age of 27 are studying. Therefore, after the interviews and the surveys, we can state that from a profile point of view our target audience is focused on male students between the age of 18 and 27 that are living a frugal life.

likes to differentiate themselves from their peers) and to those who have an image they care for. Furthermore, we are emphasizing the goal perspective as it is the most vital decision making factor amongst our target audience. Conclusively, after conducting the surveys, we have observed some common patterns as it follows: Our targetʼs group expectations were mostly the atmosphere and experience connected to the service, but also the quality and performance was favoured;

On the other hand, from a psychographic angle, we determined that the target audience should have a hipster or hipster-like kind of lifestyle and personality wise they should be somewhat social and self-conscious. The general style of Barber Shoppen appeals to people of this mentality (those who

The survey results clearly stated that the most common reason towards why our target audience purchases their services is to improve image and to get a good experience.7

Most of the results showed that the purchase occasion isnʼt a special one, but more of a usual one (as it would be when paying monthly bills); Behaviour wise, we have noted that most of the target audience use the Barber Shoppenʼs services occasionally, though an increasing percentage drifted to a yearly subscription;

7See appendix 2

Barber Shoppen

Persona segmentation For us to properly create a website that would not only appeal to our target audience, but also aid in the selling of subscriptions, we established three personas from which we took our starting point. All of our personas were segmented on goals, rather than lifecycle or behaviour/attitude. We chose to do so mainly because of the survey on which we based our segmentation. Our survey was designed in a manner which gave us a good feeling of what the customers sought when doing business with a barber shop in general. Although we obtained some useful information on their behaviour (in terms of domain specific attitudes), we still found their goals more relevant to our project, as we wanted to ensure that the customers actually found the offer attractive, and the way we intended to promote and communicate it. Generally speaking, our participants highly prioritize the atmospheric aspect of going to a barber. By defining their goals and using those as guidelines, we enabled ourselves to take the most optimal approach.

By doing so, we gave ourselves a good outline of whom we were dealing with, and how these people could potentially interact with our website. These scenarios were comprehensively taking into practice as we developed our site, to maximize the user experience and the likelihood of convincing them to purchase a yearly subscription.8

Since Barber Shoppenʼs majority of customers are students (50%), we chose to create our personas based on this segment exclusively. All of our personas include a persona profile and an appertaining user scenario.

8 (Mulder, 2007, ch. 6)

Barber Shoppen

Storytelling To get to make the core story of Barber Shoppen we used Laboratory test, which we used to create a strong solid framework for the brand. We are using storytelling in the marketing plan to find the message and to identify the company and the brand and to find the message of the company.

Obituary test: We use the obituary test to identify and formulate the companyʼs reason for being. If Barber Shoppen did not exist the customers would miss the special and unique experience they get when the visit the store. They would also miss the whole concept of Barber Shoppen, that men can go down and have a manly conversation and drink beer while they are getting a good haircut and/or a good shave in this “old barber shop” theme. Besides the atmosphere and the store the customers will also miss the good quality haircut buy professional barbers who really care about their customers.

The vision of Barber Shoppen is that men can go to a barber and be men, they will get a “manly” experience with out “girl talk”, also to normalize the whole concept of men going to a barbershop instead of going to the hairdresser.

Screening of basic data:

Employeesʼ stories: The employees at Barber Shoppen think it is a cool and fun place to work. They are entitled to have their own opinion and do not have do care about if it is not same as the other employees or customers. All the employees have a really good relationship and they also hang out and do non-related work stuff when they are not working.

• • • • • •

Overall Barber Shoppen is more than just a Barbershop for men.

There is internal and external data that we have to know when we are developing the core story for a company. The internal data is what characterise the companyʼs identity and the external is the image of the company. Internal data: The mission of Barber Shoppen is to normalize the concept of the man going to a Barber instead of going to a hairdresser.

The core values: Good quality The old barber theme Loose Atmosphere Good relationship with customers Good service

Barber Shoppen

because Barber Shoppen do not have much advertisement where they explain that you will also get a social experience when you visit the store. Also some people in the target audience might think that it is too much of an experience. We made the gab model like this; the image and the identity of Barber Shoppen fits each other very well but not completely because of the small conflicts as we mentioned above.

External data: The image of Barber Shoppen is very good because they have a very good reputation. They are very popular and some of their most effective advertising is the word of mouth and that proves that it is a very good company. During the 5 years the store has been open they only have had two complains and that also says a lot about them. We had a small focus group of some customers at the store, who already have a year subscription. They are all very satisfied with Barber Shoppen. Some of the things that they mentioned were the atmosphere there is in the store and the social aspects of their visits. They think the barbers at the store are very skilled and they are good at making the customers feel welcome.

Formulating the core story: To formulate the core story we will have find the message, conflict, characters, plot, acid test. Message: The message that Barber Shoppen wants to give is when the man wants to get a haircut they can go to a place where men can go an get the a manly experience where they drink beer and talk about women and other stuff that they will not talk about when women is present. Additionally, Barber Shoppen wants to convey their traditional approach and uncompromisable quality.

Distilling the basic data: Now that we know the internal and external data it is important to identify the differences and the similarities between the two. To illustrate this we used the gab model. The identity of the company and the image actually fits very well for Barber Shoppen. They want to send out the image that they are place where men can come and be men and that is also what the customers get. From the knowledge we got from the customers also shows that the image the got of Barber Shoppen fits the identity that Barber Shoppen has. Off cause there is a small conflict

Conflict: To find the conflict we used the black and white test, where we found the opposite of what our company stands for. The conflict in the core story of Barber Shoppen is that women hairdressers are taking over and that is threating the store. The women atmosphere is also starting to get in to the barbershops and men will have to go to the hairdresser and listen to

Barber Shoppen

women talk etc. because the barbershops are slowly disappearing.

Support: To support the hero in wanted a good manly haircut and experience the company support with good quality hair cut and also for the manly experience they will serve beer and talk “man talk”.

Characters: We used the fairy tail model to roughly find the key characters of the core story; with this model we found the goal, the adversary, the hero, the support, the benefactor and the beneficiary.

Benefactors: The benefactors of this story would be Barber Shoppen and also the employees there. It is the store and the employees because the hero need a barber shop where he can get a manly experience and he also need the barbers to do the job and give him the experience as well.

Goal: The goal is to make a place where can go be men while they are getting a haircut. A place where there is no girl talk and girl hair products. They want to defeat the hairdresser concept and normalize the barber concept again so men do not have to go to a hairdresser. Adversary: The adversary is that they want to change the perception of a male hairdresser. The perception is that a men hairdresser is either homosexual or metrosexual.

Beneficiary: The beneficiary will be the customer and also Barber Shoppen because the customer gets his manly haircut but he also helps the company to keep their manly theme in the store and help them survive.

Hero: The hero is customer who is looking for a barber where he can go and get a quality haircut and a place where it is a manly experience. He does not want to go to a hairdresser where the majority of the employees are women, he does not want all those hair products the typically use at a hairdresser, he just want a barber where men can be men. The hero of the core story is a mix between the rebel and the creator. Because he want to express himself in a knew way and he is also going against the others and kind of breaking the “rules”

Plot: Once upon a time it was normal for men to go to the barber and get a shave and a haircut but as years past by the women hairdressers took over and the men started shaving at home and getting their hair cut by women. Barber Shoppen fought to keep the old barber theme and the manly atmosphere in store but the women hairdresser is taking over and Barber Shoppen do not know if they can beat it. But then there was a guy called Mathias who really wanted a good haircut and also a shave. He did not want to go a

Barber Shoppen

women hairdresser where they are women “talk” and the use of many different hair products. He once heard about this barbershop that kept it old school and had an unwritten rule saying “no women allowed” and that was what exactly what he needed. So he started searching in the Internet and talked to different friends and hairdresser he finally found them and wanted to visit them so he could get his haircut and shave. The employees was just hanging around, trying to get customers in their shop and do everything they could not to get the women atmosphere in the store. One day all the employees were sitting around talking about what would happen to them if nothing would change soon, but then a customer came to the door. He ask if he could get a haircut and a shave without women talk and a lot hair products the employees jump up sat him in a chair and gave him a beer. While he was getting his hair done they were talking about how their situations was from the customers view and also for the from Barber Shoppens view. When Mathias heard about Barber Shoppens critical situation he wanted to help so he immediately decided to purchased the yearly subscription that they offer where he can go every third week to get a shave or a haircut. He also started to call all of his man friends and other contacts that could spread the word of this Barber Shop. Some of Mathias closet friends came by the shop the following days and they also purchased this yearly subscription to support Barber Shoppen and they also

helped to spread the word about the shop. The word spread quickly about Barber Shoppen and their bad situation turned in to a really good one fast. Therefore decided Barber Shoppen to use the word of mouth as their main advertisement. Barber Shoppen became a very popular place because of Mathias and he is getting his hair cut there for free because he helped them get on their feet while keeping their manly concept and without getting the women atmosphere in the store. And they lived happily ever after!

Acid test: We will use the Acid test to determine if the core story is unique in relations to the competitors. The core story of Barber Shoppen is unique because Barber Shoppen is unique because they really emphasise on the man theme and that going to the barber is manly. They also emphasis a lot on the experience and the social aspect they want to give the customers.9

9 (Fog, K., 2010. ch. 4)

Barber Shoppen

Concept Our main idea for this assignment is to make a new website for Barber Shoppen where we will emphasis on the year subscription that Barber Shoppen offer to their customer where they can come every third week and get the services that Barber Shoppen offers. To promote the year subscription on the website we made a video about a contest where they customer have to give their opinion of a manly man and upload to Barber Shoppenʼs Facebook page and the winner will get a year subscription for free and the contest will run for 1 month and there will be 2 winners. On the website there will a subpage called membership where will explain if they purchase a year card they will become loyal customers and therefore establish a relationship with the barbers

in the Shop. We will also make some benefits that the customers will get if they purchase the year subscription. For instance get invited to parties that Barber Shoppen throws. Moreover, we have added an extensive about page for the visitor to get to know Barber Shoppen and its crew more deeply. The visual representation of our product is has been carefully considered, and is ought to help the visitor navigate, and in turn create a pleasant setting in which the visitor wants to stay. Barber Shoppenʼs most efficient advertisement is the word of mouth and therefore we will spread it on the Internet through social media; Facebook and Twitter

Barber Shoppen

Marketing Campaign and Hofsted models made the clear principles of Barber Shoppens organizational culture.

Where are we now and how did we get here? Our marketing campaign plan was developed using Marketing planning (page 54, figure 2.4) the model, which was depicted in Jobbers book “Principles and marketing”.

Where are we heading? Barber Shopper SWOT analysis (page 19) revealed us that even though they are a small and young company, they have developed a strong identity which is capable to compete, by offering qualitative services and unique experience. It directed to use the “word of mouth” as the strongest tool of creating campaigns channels - social media strategy development.

The model suggests starting with analyses of company, which we did for Barber Shoppen in the Business part (Chapter XXX), by defining company mission, vision and the core values. In business canvas model we made short marketing audit – which gave us an overview of the current marketing activities. SWOT and TOWS helped us to understand the company potentials of developing and opportunities. Scheins

After an interview with Hasse (see appendix 1); employee of Barber Shoppen, we concluded that the most

Barber Shoppen

important issue which they are interested to improve now: is sales of subscription, which goes together with output of TOWS that company would benefit from making emphasis on customer relationships, and make their customers became loyal.

To shape objectives more concrete SMART tool was used 10 by specifying who is involved, what do we want to accomplish, identifying location, establishing time frame, identifying requirements and reasoning the purpose of goal.

Furthermore we will explain Barber Shoppens marketing plan objectives, defined core strategy, and explain marketing mix tool decisions with accent on social media strategy.

How do we get there? Before the core strategy is set, target audiences segmentation and personas analyses (see page 31) where reviewed, and concluded in features, which will be addressed, setting Barber Shoppens marketing campaigns target market and communication tools.

Marketing campaign objectives At the moment Barber Shoppen has over 700 hundred subscribers, but they are eager to get more. Three new employees just started working at Barber Shoppen and they are ready to have their own loyal customers. Though Barber Shoppen is willing to get new customers, they are more interested in loyal customers, who purchases a yearly subscription.

We based our product development messages in a web site, social media after Barber Shoppens target audiences segmentation and three personas creation. Our primary persona - Mathias (see appendix) was the main criteria of making decision about marketing media usage (how and where). Though we always considerate prosperities off all personas and target audience over all.

To reach the goal more effectively, specific objectives were made. Promotional objectives Create awareness about Barber Shoppen's yearly subscription will be made through a new website with a competition, membership and about page which will take 1 month and get the website 1500 visitors.

Also, storytelling analyses helped to shape consistent branding through out the campaign, sending messages to audience. Core Strategy

Marketing objectives Target Market

They want to double sales of Barber Shoppens Yearly Subscription so they will have approximately 700 new subscribers in 6 month.

10 See bibliography 18

Barber Shoppen

Students in the age between 18 – 27, who live in Aarhus and its vicinity, who are hipsters, who use Internet on different platforms, who are active in social media, care about their look/image and appreciate quality. Additionally, the targeted people are those who seek to optimize their life style and socialize even more.

Cut 2500 Dkk Shaving 3500 Dkk Cut & shave 5000 Dkk If we put Barber Shoppen in perceptual map, we determine that it is a high quality product with medium price, and contains extra value in delivering experience while providing service. If we compare Barber Shoppens services with other similar provided services, they are little more expensive. Though Barber Shoppens services includes free drink.

Competitive advantage Barber Shoppen has a strong brand, a unique approach to their services and offers a yearly subscription, which others does not (source: desk research). Due to these factors, Barber Shoppen is currently superior to its competitors.

Place – Barber Shoppen has only one store where their customers can get their services. Since it is located in the city center, and therefore Barber Shoppen is easy to access.

After going through five Aarhus barbershop web sites we concluded that not one of them offers year subscription, what makes Barber Shoppen yearly subscription unique offer. Also in interview Hasse, Barber Shoppen employee, (see the appendix 1 and the interview in the CD-ROM) pointed out that yearly subscription is their own idea, how can they make their customers more loyal to their shop.

Marketing mix We used 4 P's Philip Kotler model to learn more about Barber Shoppen and its market position. Price Season passes:

Barber Shoppen

”Kald mig frisør og du dør!” CALL ME A HAIRDRESSER AND YOU’LL DIE! QUOTE FROM BARBER SHOPPEN

Barber Shoppen

them to interact with Barber Shoppen. The video contest would, in turn, add value to the page in terms of amusing content, which makes people linger and participate.

Promotion Membership refers to friendship. Our promotional message for the campaign is developed from our interview with Hasse11 and the core story message, which we created in our core story analysis, it looks as follows: “Join our brotherhood. Enjoy its benefits now!” The reason why we chose to write “Benefits” is simply because Barber Shoppen's subscription offer entails a wide range of benefits that can not all be listed within a catch-phrase. See Product for elaboration on benefits.

Product The subscription is easy to purchase as it consists of a one-time fee. It lasts for one year where the customer can go every third week and get the different services that Barber Shoppen offers, depending on their choice of subscription. Barber Shoppen holds three different kinds of subscription offers, one for haircuts, one for shaving and one for both services.

Barber Shoppen already has a strong public reputation. They are promoted exclusively through the word of mouth, which they find it important. However, as a lot of communication takes place online in our contemporary society, putting more focus on social media would undoubtedly help spreading the message of Barber Shoppen and what they can offer. Additionally, Barber Shoppen seeks to update themselves technologically in order for them to follow the tendencies of society and their competitors.

All of the benefits of the subscription will be included on the membership page of our website, and are listed here: • Great service quality • Feeling of membership • Discount • Easy payment • Image/lifestyle

Key promotional tools The following are the mix tools that we found relevant to our campaign.

By the contest for the target audience, about Barber Shoppenʼs theme, there will be 2 winners and they will get 1 subscription for free each. There will also be some advertisement in schools in terms of different posters. This contest is intended to strengthen the relationships between company and customer, and it is a great tool to involve the user and allow

Advertising: In order to reach the people we wanted to, we hung up posters on schools and universities (where most of our targeted audience are). Doing so would create awareness of Barber Shoppen and their subscription. Internet promotion tool: Barber Shoppen have developed a very strong “word of

11 See appendix 1

Barber Shoppen

mouth” communication channel, which could be transferred into social media. By creating a united message and sending it in all medias, more people could not only become aware of the interlinked media, but also getting a feeling of membership when not at the store.

3. Identity – membership – people wants to become one of their members (design and content) 4. Barber Shoppen does not currently have social media buttons on their official website, which we will include.

Direct marketing: We made it possible for the people visiting our website to subscribe to a newsletter. In this newsletter, which is dealt on a monthly basis, the subscriber can see upcoming events, benefits, discounts and other relevant information.

Research According to Chrome SEO Toolbar at the moment Barber Shoppens web page ranks are 2 (in scale 1-10), which is quite low. At the moment Barber Shoppen have Facebook account, which have low activity from their followers (10 talks).

Content

Social media strategy

To fit the content to our personas, we followed these 5 steps12:

For our social media strategy we used 7 steps to a successful Social Media Strategy (reference).

Promotional media

goal

for

1. Most important issues to focus on Facebook and Twitter

social •

The objectives listed below are based on the SMART objective tool.

• •

1. Create consistent visual identity in social media, by creating web page and twitter account, improving Facebook page account. 2. Promote year subscription by creating video-contest on the web page and social media. Additionally, a comprehensive about section with company and staff information, and a membership page with relevant information.

•

Subscriptions benefits and discounts; Competition announcement; News and updates about Barber Shoppen activities; Photos of barbers work, nice haircuts and shavings;

2. Barber Shoppenʼs employees usually keep their Facebook updated, so they would keep doing that by sticking to very easy plan. One of the barbers - Rami ElDaoud is doing updates for Barber Shoppen Facebook page 3. Plan: 12 see 19

Barber Shoppen

Twitter is frequently updated (once a day).

enhance the emphasizing.

Periodically (once a week) content for Facebook would be updated with new information, to maintain the interest of returning visitors.

Measure results

are

Below we have listed some the measurements we are estimating the successfulness of our campaign on: At least 20 videos submitted for contest. 30 comments in Barber Shoppenʼs Facebook page 15 retweets in Twitter Web page ranking 6 (in scale of 1 -10) 500 newsletter subscriptions. 500 year subscription cards sold.

1 newsletter created and distributed each month to all Barber Shoppen newsletter subscribers. The contest video is promoted through both facebook, twitter and the website. Keeping track – Google analytics and Facebook developer page will be used to track intensity of visitors on all Barber Shoppen Social media.

Analyse, Adapt and Improve. When our social media strategy has been conducted, it is our intention to analyse the measured results. Doing so will give us an impression of how successful the campaign has been, and what can be improved. Since our measures are fairly easy to analyse (they consist mainly of numbers) we will put these numbers in relation to Barber Shoppenʼs current statistics, and juxtapose it to where they see themselves in the futures.

Join the conversation to develop relationships Barber Shoppen makes some comments on Facebook pages and follows on Twitter, which relates to them, like Aarhus alternative pubs (Headquarters, Herr Bartels, Le Coce), Aarhus band pages (Federal Unicorn), Festivals, other small events.

Strengthen relationship To strengthen relationships between customers and Barber Shoppen, a contest will be made to involve people, by creating a video, which encourages people to upload their own. The intention of this contest is to increase user activity (currently, they do not have much activity on their Facebook page) and by that

community

1 see 18

Barber Shoppen

Design In this part of our report you can read more about our design.

Barber Shoppen

Design Report The following section contains our design report. The report is based on various theories, all to be found in the bibliography Idea development For us to properly develop and organize our ideas, we brainstormed on almost every topic necessary, such as logo, style, colour choice etc. Furthermore, to ensure that we would properly convey the message of Barber Shoppen, we made some desk research (checking out their site) to get an idea of their current visual identity, and what to improve. By looking at their official website and social media pages, we concluded that their overall identity was rather inconsistent. They have different pictures throughout all entities, and the same goes for their logo. By looking into these matters, we established an idea of how to make their online identity more recognizable and consistent. All of our mindmaps appear in the appendix.

For us to properly develop and organize our ideas, we brainstormed on almost every topic necessary, such as logo, style, colour choice etc. Using a software program (reference), as well as paper and pencils, we made several mind-maps for us to easily recognize our ideas and for further association. (see mind-maps appendix 6).

Design concept From sketches to Mockup To develop our Design concept, we once again kept our personas in mind. From the start, we had a solid idea of how our site was going to turn out, as we already knew which styles to deploy and who to

target. After knowing what content to put on our site, we began by creating sitemaps to figure out how many pages were needed to hold our content, and to get an idea of the navigation

Barber Shoppen

Home

Facebook & Twitter

Membership

Services

About

Gallery

Contact

After doing so, we made wireframes to see how the concrete positioning of the elements/content should be.

Lastly, when we had that figured out, we made a mock-up for us to follow as the design began. We tried with different mock-ups to see what would look better.

Conclusively, we chose the b/w over the retro one, as it once again suited our project better. See all wireframes in the appendix. (appendix 8+13)

Barber Shoppen

Design Style Although Barber Shoppen may seem like they have a specific style, it was not easy to identify. Retro? Vintage? Rock nʼ Roll? Although the latter may not be an actual style, we still considered it, along with masculinity, as a crucial attribute to Barber Shoppen and its identity. So how do you combine all these elements without being redundant and leaving a messy design behind? We tried our way around, making a few mind-maps and considered pros and cons on each one of the styles, juxtaposed them and compared. Since we wanted to please our primary persona (See appendix 3), we decided to go with a masculine site with retro elements. However, it was important for us to also incorporate the quality of Barber Shoppen's services, as it is one of

their strongest values as well. To meet these requirements, we decided to make our website based on a black and white foundation, with retro elements and colouring. As the rock n' roll mentality comes to show in different variations in the design (such as the logo and photos) it is, however, still most visible in the content. We figured that combining too many styles in the visual identity itself would become inconsistent and clumsy, so we focused mainly on the things that we thought would support our goal; to increase the sales of subscriptions. Our choice of style does so, as it appeals to the interests of our personas, as well as having a welcoming and simple feel to it, which makes visitors linger and explore. .

Barber Shoppen

Colour It was important for us to emphasize the barbering aspect of Barber Shoppen, such as through the traditional barber pole (red, blue, white). Taking a starting point in these, we found some colours with a retro nuance/tone because itʼs part of their theme. In order to uphold a sense of masculinity on our site, which is also an important attribute of Barber Shoppen, extensive parts of the design includes black and white. Using the B/W theme

makes it easier for us to put emphasis on the quality of Barber Shoppen, as it is more neat and clean. Simultaneously, black and white is, generally speaking, a rather masculine style as it is not too colourful.

For instance, we initially wanted to create a site full of retro colours, but figured that this would not properly disseminate Barber Shoppenʼs company values, because they like the manly, rock nʼ roll theme too. Simultaneously, a completely black and white website would relate more to a vintage style. By having the

black and white theme, we can successfully add colors to our advantage. On the things that we wish to put emphasis, such as on the subscription offer, we can add colors to make them come out more conspicuously (such as the blue ribbon on the frontpage).

Typography As for typography, we wanted to find a font, which was easily read and in turn supported the overall theme we had chosen to display. Since the on-going style is black and white, combined with retro elements, we decided to use a font both with and without serif, within the retro category. The serif font was intended for texts of larger size, such as

headings. The sans serif font is for longer texts, where readability is more important than design.

Museo MUSEO Museo Sans Serif MUSEO SANS SERIF

Barber Shoppen

Logo Barber Shoppen does not have one logo that they're sticking to. On their website, one logo appears, whereas on facebook a completely different one does. To add to the consistency we aspired to deploy, we wanted a solid, easily recognized logo which in turn was unique to remaining barber shop logos. The process started off in the retro area, where we wanted to put a lot of emphasis on that particular style.

Satisfied as we were with the elements included, adding the barber knifes and a retro banner, not to mention the inclusion of a barberʼs pole, we still didn't find the logo satisfying. Although the colours matched the ones we use within our overall web design, it still looked more like a logo for an event in an amusement park that for a professional barber shop to whom quality is vital. We figured we needed a different approach, and attempted to create a slightly less colourful logo with less detail and more text, and different shapes. Doing so would make the logo appear more clean and competent, while still preserving the retro and masculine characteristics.

While including some of the retro elements in terms of font, trim and colours, it still had the rock n' roll and masculine touch. Nevertheless, we thought the logo seemed a tad too universal and did not really say much about what it represents other than the text and a skull with hair. To eliminate this problem, we wanted to add some more Barber related elements.

While confidently feeling as though we were on the right track, we proceeded to add to the new logo to fully optimize it. We especially liked the simplistic shapes combined with a single colour, which made the logo appear conspicuous without too many details. Easy to recognize, while including important elements to convey what Barber Shoppen seeks to. The logo did, however, still look at bit too minimalistic and modern, which

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in some ways were good, but we still wanted the traditional look emphasized.

smaller, it still looks more like a logo and is easier to use in other contexts (such as different platforms and in different variations). In addition, since we went with a single color, our logo can easily be used on a theme color background. Moreover, the font size is larger here, which increases the readability. All of the logos included in the process are to be found in the appendix. (appendix 9 + 10)

Changing the colour to black made our logo appear a bit rougher, while complementing the remaining design concept pretty well. Adding some more text, in a traditional manner, redeemed the retro aspect and somewhat removed the minimalistic feel, although it still appears in a neat way. While still testing variations of our logo, we ultimately concluded that the circular logo was better. Although some elements appear

Visualization of message

In our core story analyses, we concluded that the company message is somewhere around 'Barber Shoppen is more than just a barber shop'. Even though this is a rather broad and ambiguous statement, it is still thought to tell something about the great community that Barber Shoppen represents, and that they can offer more than simply a nice haircut/shave. To show this in our web design, we put a big ribbon on our front page, which comes out strongly in contrast to the remaining content. On this ribbon and surrounding it, appealing text has been applied to

create an inviting feeling. The ribbon redirects the visitor to the membership page, which is where we put information on the subscription offer. Moreover, since masculinity was important for us to communicate, the color choices (b/w) support this. Part of what Barber Shoppen stands for is also their outstanding quality, which we have woven into the site through the simplistic, neat appearance. Lastly, it is worth to mention that we have created the whole site with the subscription offer in mind. The message lies within becoming a

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member of something great, therefore we thought the content and the way we designed it should relate to this, but still

contain all the other things that Barber Shoppen entails.

Navigation Considerations To support our choice of style, we decided to create a website with subpages. Having the logo in the centre, rather than at the top left corner which is very common, was a deliberate choice as we wanted the menu to appear on both sides, which makes up a typical retro menu and in addition looks neat and is

easy to comprehend. When hovering on a navigation button, we made sure to enable a hover effect in order to allow the visitor to find his way around with more ease. Additionally, depending on which subpage the user is viewing; the respective menu fan is highlighted.

Since our site focuses a lot on the subscription offer Barber Shoppen holds, we made a conspicuous Ribbon on which the user can click to navigate directly to the membership page. It was important for us to emphasize this, since it is what we are truly promoting.

of the separate platforms, and creates a more holistic identity and a good foundation for consistency.

Since Barber Shoppen does not already have links to their social media on their official website, we wanted to include this on our site. Doing so creates awareness

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Gestalt laws In our menu, all gestalt laws apply. Closure can be seen in the thin lines surrounding the menu buttons. Not closing them as boxes makes a nice look and a more holistic feeling. The buttons are of similar style, size and color, which makes it easy to associate them with one another. On our loading screen we have

added a barberʼs pole which is also partly left open. In the gallery, all of the pictures are of same size and color, until hovered upon. In the footer, the social media buttons are of same style and placed closely to one another, which adds to the proximity and similarity.

Usability Design Since great parts of the website are based on our personas (mainly our primary personas) it was important for us not to make a too complicated design, with too much noise to disturb the user. By keeping it somewhat simple, we do not only disseminate their value of quality and neatness, but in turn we generate a

site, which is easily explored by the visitor. Our primary persona (Mathias, see appendix) is not very experienced neither with computers nor the Internet. We felt entitled to match our website to his abilities, to prevent losing him in the middle of a messy, crowded web design. .

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Interaction In this part you will read about how we developed our website.

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Developing our website

Developing the website for Barber Shoppen will require a various set of tools, software and both client side and server side programming. As means to develop it, we’re using Sublime Text 3 as an IDE and to be able to run our server side language of choice, PHP, we’re using XAMPP (Windows) / MAMPP (OSX).

Our file / folder structure has been organized in a very structured manner, as it follows, due to the fact that certain parts of the code are being used more than

once and that it is easier to keep pieces of codes organized in modules ergo placing the modules in different files / folders with relevant names:

using jQuery 13 a third party JavaScript library that at its core contains methods like cross browser query selector, removing and adding classes on HTML elements, appending or removing content in the DOM, and one of the most important, the AJAX function that we use to subscribe the users to Barbers 13 http://jquery.com/

The main technologies we have used during the development of Barber Shoppen are HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript as client side programming languages and PHP as server side programming language. Using vanilla JavaScript will significantly increase the amount of time that it would take to develop the website, therefore we are

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Shoppenʼs newsletter. A short example of the jQuery methods that weʼre using can

be illustrated in the following illustration:

We have also tried to partially add support for old browsers, mostly Internet Explorer, therefore we needed a feature detection tool for CSS3 rules and some native browser methods. For that we have included Modernizr 14 which is a feature detecting tool that checks for CSS3 rules

(like gradients, box shadows) and if the browser supports them it will add a specific class for each supported feature (in the opposite case it will add a class indicating that). The result of the test will look as the following illustration:

14 http://modernizr.com/

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Another third party library that we thought was necessary to use is the PHP Mailer15, an open source PHP library for delivering emails. We have included that and we created a Gmail account that was required for the library to work. The reasons why we needed such a feature is that weʼre notifying the users that are subscribing to the Barber Shoppenʼs newsletter so they are aware that they have successfully subscribed.

Considering the fact the technologies are recently moving towards an MVC and Object Oriented Programing pattern, we are structuring most of our client side (JavaScript) and server side (PHP) code in the same way. For instance our JavaScript code is wrapped in methods which are properties of objects and all of the methods are being contained by the root object property “BS” (which stands for Barber Shoppen):

As mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, there are parts of the website, therefore of the code, that is used in more than one place, ergo creating an HTML skeleton for our website it was a necessity. Using the skeleton we can easily start new pages just by duplicating the skeleton and replacing the piece of code that is responsible for including the content of the specific page:

15 https://github.com/Synchro/PHPMailer

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To be as brief as possible, the website we have developed, at its core, consists of basic HTML / CSS / JavaScript, with a few PHP functions for getting the page

title depending on where the user is situated on the website

And basic file inclusion in order to achieve the modularity that we have set our purpose on. The HTML we used it is very basic, with use of the main tags and with simple structures. Though we have

used canvas, we have not created that by ourselves as we have used the Google Maps 16 for showing the users where exactly the shop itʼs placed in the map. Our CSS is mostly organized on modules:

Due to the fact that it is easier to maintain and reuse but also because it is easier to remove and debug any possible layout bugs. Other than basic CSS3 gradients, box shadows, and other CSS3 rules:

16 https://maps.google.com/

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We have tried to support other devices than Desktops or Notebooks as tables

and some screens:

mobile

devices

with

big

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As for the JavaScript, the methods that we have used the most are the jQuery selector “$” which we have used

throughout the whole project for selecting various elements from the page and adding classes or animating, etc.:

The AJAX function that weʼre using for subscribing users to Barber Shoppenʼs newsletter:

And the animate function which we are using to animate the videos or other parts of the website:

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Conclusion To answer our problem statement, we had to first of all obtain an understanding of the company we were dealing with. Doing so through both an interview and a variety of analyses, we were able to find flaws within Barber Shoppen that we, as multimedia design students, could optimize. After learning that Barber Shoppen could potentially secure their financial stability through an increased focus on their yearly subscription, we tacked ourselves to this and made it our primary focus. After knowing what to use as the means to remedy their problem, we had to figure out how to. By conducting a survey we managed to give ourselves some vital information on Barber Shoppenʼs customers and use this to properly reach .

the people we needed to. Finding out how was done through a marketing campaign and with the personas we created from our target audience segmentation in mind. Possessing significant knowledge of our customers, we were able to find out how to target them visually through our digital product, and determine how to create the most reasonable navigation system. Providing ourselves with a good impression of how to target them properly through our analyses, combined with Barber Shoppen's core values and message we managed to create a site which appeals to the social emotions of people and supposedly increases the likelihood for them to buy a subscription.

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Appendix

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Appendix 1: Interview with Hasse 8/5-2013 Some of the main question. You can hear the whole interview on the CD-ROM Do you have any kind hierarchy in the company? • Of cause we have a boss and then I come next. But we are very equal in the store and the boss is not strict, off cause there is something wrong that needs to be fixed. When we are not working and we are all hanging out. Du you have any main rules? • We have two. o No women allowed in the store o Do not mess up the customerʼs hair. o How much do you focus on the normalization of the barber theme? • Very much now, because in the beginning the main focus was to get customers and the place and running. The time now is also helping because it is very popular to be retro and vintage now a-days and that help a lot to spread the message. Also because our word of mouth is strong. How do you see your competitors? • They help us to keep us on our toes and they also like that their customers can compare the work from other barbers. What are your values? • Good quality • The old barber theme • Loose Atmosphere • Good relationship with customers • Good service What do you want customers to buy? • Our year subscription so we can establish a relationship with them. Instead of people come and pay come and pay, even though that is better for the company moneywise. What is your main focus?

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•

Loyal costumers. But we also want new customers and have them purchase the year subscription so they become loyal.

How do you reach your customers? • Website and facebook • Main thing is the word of mouth What is your target audience? • It is broad it goes from small babies to old men, but 50 % of our customers are students. The stereotype is 25 year old guy who is a hipster and has beard.

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Appendix 2:

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Appendix 3:

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Appendix 4:

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Appendix 5:

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Appendix 6:

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Appendix 7:

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Appendix 8:

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Appendix 9:

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Appendix 10:

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Appendix 11:

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Appendix 12:

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Appendix 13:

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Appendix 14: 1. Mulder, Steve and Yaar, Ziv, 2007. The User Is Always Right : A practival guide to Creating and Using Personas for the Web. Berkeley: New Riders 2. Fog, K., 2010. Storytelling - Branding in Practice. Translated from Danish by K.A Townsfree. Denmark: Narayana Press 3. Lindberg Iinternational, 2010, Geert Hofstede [pdf]. [online] Lindberg Iinternational. Available at: < http://www.lindberginternational.com/files/Julekalender2010_NY/2010_11dec.pdf > [Accessed 09 May 2013] 4. The Hofstede Center, 2008. Organisational Culture & Change Management. [online] Available at: < http://geert-hofstede.com/organisational-culture.html > [Accessed 09 May 2013] 5. Admin, 2009. What are Geert Hofstede's 5 Cultural Dimensions? BusinessMate.org Business, [blog] 16 September. Available at: <http://www.businessmate.org/Article.php?ArtikelId=4> [Accessed 09 May 2013] 6. Pedersen , Holzendorff, 2009. Schein Artifacts - Organizational Culture - Corporate Culture Net2Change.dk Business, [blog] 04 December. Available at: <http://net2change.dk/dit-netvaerk/viden-om-forandring/ForandringsTeori/EdgarSchein-organisationskultur/ > [Accessed 09 May 2013] 7. Cousins, Carrie, 2012. Creative Background Styles and Trends in Web Design Tympanus.net Web Design, [blog] 17 August. Available at: <http://tympanus.net/codrops/2012/08/17/creative-background-styles-and-trends-inweb-design/ > [Accessed 12 May 2013] 8. Cousins, Carrie, 2012. Perfectly Paired: Using Symmetry in Web Design Tympanus.net Web Design, [blog] 04 September. Available at: <http://tympanus.net/codrops/2012/09/04/perfectly-paired-using-symmetry-in-webdesign/> [Accessed 12 May 2013] 9. Cousins, Carrie, 2012. Understanding the Rule of Thirds in Web Design Tympanus.net Web Design, [blog] 23 May. Available at: <http://tympanus.net/codrops/2012/05/23/understanding-the-rule-of-thirds-in-webdesign/> [Accessed 12 May 2013] 10. Cousins, Carrie, 2012. Making Room to Breathe: Wrapping Text Around Elements Tympanus.net Web Design, [blog] 15 May. Available at: <http://tympanus.net/codrops/2012/05/15/making-room-to-breathe-wrapping-textaround-elements/ > [Accessed 12 May 2013] 11. Cousins, Carrie, 2012. Color and Emotion: What Does Each Hue Mean Tympanus.net Web Design, [blog] 03 April. Available at: <http://tympanus.net/codrops/2012/04/03/color-and-emotion-what-does-each-huemean/ > [Accessed 12 May 2013]

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12. Cousins, Carrie, 2012. Principles of Color and The Color Wheel Tympanus.net Web Design, [blog] 28 February. Available at: <http://tympanus.net/codrops/2012/02/28/principles-of-color-and-the-color-wheel/ > [Accessed 12 May 2013] 13. Cousins, Carrie, 2011. Communication, Mood and Meaning: Lines in Web Design Tympanus.net Web Design, [blog] 17 November. Available at: <http://tympanus.net/codrops/2011/11/17/lines-in-web-design/ > [Accessed 12 May 2013] 14. Cousins, Carrie, 2011. Be More Creative through Design Constraints Tympanus.net Web Design, [blog] 28 October. Available at: <http://tympanus.net/codrops/2011/10/28/be-more-creative-through-designconstraints/ > [Accessed 12 May 2013] 15. Cousins, Carrie, 2011. 25 Examples of Emphasis Applied in Web Design Tympanus.net Web Design, [blog] 08 October. Available at: <http://tympanus.net/codrops/2011/10/08/25-examples-of-emphasis-applied-inweb-design/ > [Accessed 12 May 2013] 16. Cousins, Carrie, 2012. Stop, Lock, Click: Attention – Grabbing Elements in Web Design Tympanus.net Web Design, [blog] 28 September. Available at: <http://tympanus.net/codrops/2012/09/28/stop-look-click-attention-grabbingelements-in-web-design/ > [Accessed 12 May 2013] 17. Market Wire, 2012, 7 Steps to a Successful Social Media Strategy, [pdf]. [online] Canada. Available at: <http://www.marketwire.com/getattachment/knowledge_Sharing/White_Papers/7_St eps_to_a_Successful_Social_Media_Strategy/Website_WhitePaper_7StepsToSucc essfulSMStrategy.pdf> [Accessed 18 May 2013] 18. Topachievement.com Creating S.M.A.R.T. Goals <http://topachievement.com/smart.html > [Accessed 18 May 2013] 19. Socialmediaexaminer.com 5 Easy Steps to a Winning Social Media Plan/<http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-easy-steps-to-a-winning-socialmedia-plan/> [Accessed 11 May 2013]

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Appendix 15:

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