Detail is everything

From ultra fast in-store treatments such as Skin Laundry to in-home facials, beauty salons face increasing competition from both new entrants and established brands. To attract new clients and turn clients into fans, salon owners need smarter, more intuitive strategies that incorporate savvy marketing, good design and memorable client service.

In our work with boutiques and major brands, we’re called upon to create both new concepts and refurbishments to improve profit and performance. In this process, we freely admit to being obsessive about detail.

Salvatore Cicero (Sav to his friends and clients), co-founder of Two by Two and interior design specialist, says it’s the ‘small stuff’ that makes a project successful – and rewarding. For Sav (who has been known to go way beyond the brief to hunt down a specific light fitting or fabric) design is critical to the commercial operation of a salon as much as the aesthetic look of a space. “Fundamentally, it’s creating a great space for clients and employees alike. Design is more than the superficial or decorative, it’s how each part of the experience feels.”

Beneath the surface of successful beauty interiors lie three arguably more potent elements: Tonality, Texture and Talent.

Tonality represents the sensory, and often subliminal, elements of the salon environment: lighting, colour, sound, olfactory notes and temperature. It’s also about creating a proprietary set of codes that communicate your brand from the moment you step into the space, in a way that feels loyal to its principles and values. Think about how your clients encounter these – is there a dissonance between the premium level of therapies and products and other details, such as an ugly water cooler or displays that are out of date? From using natural cues and biophilia methods to soothe city dwellers to designing a high-tech white space to denote more clinical values, the design process should draw on a wide set of decisions to ‘edit’ the space.

Texture focuses on the multiple touchpoints and materials chosen and delivered across the experience. Floorspace, welcome areas and connecting spaces can be ‘quietened’ through lighting and coverings, to provide a disconnect from the urban outside world, whilst simple details such as high-spec, bespoke uniforms and gowns can elevate the client experience.

Talent incorporates both the service delivery of beauty therapies and the consistent communication of your salon brand. It’s also about mapping the user journey and using data to tailor to personalise the client experience. The importance of subtle interactions – the initial welcome, small rituals, timing – whilst training and recruiting on attitude are, for us, as vital as specifying the highest level of equipment and product.

Design is so simple, that’s why it’s so complicated – Paul Rand, Designer

The new sense economy

Beauty-care salon brands may face increased competition, but are also well positioning to carve out a distinctive remedy to today’s fast, ‘drive by’ modern lifestyles. It’s also worth remembering that, in an increasingly digital world, this industry provides a ‘high touch’ service that scientists identify as significant to our overall wellbeing. After all, how many professions can claim to have physical health, mental wellbeing, stress-busting and improved confidence as their common purpose? Design’s role is to interpret that mission in a way that is human, relevant and provides the antidote to fast-moving urban living.

To find out more about our work in this area, please contact Salvatore on 020 7278 1122 or email sav@twobytwo.co.uk