5 mins

“An organised salon business has the potential for growth in metros as well as in Tier-2, -3 and -4 cities.”

Rigorous hygiene protocols and high-quality products have always been top priorities for Lakmé Salon and now, in the new normal, the safety of its team and customers is a key focus area. Pushkaraj Shenai, CEO, Lakmé Lever, shares insights on Lakmé’s Happy New You Campaign, need to focus on training and safety, tips to manage a salon in the post pandemic scenario, and more, with Shriyal Sethumadhavan. 

Despite a challenging last year (2020), Lakmé launched its “Happy New You” campaign in December last year. Tell us more about the campaign. 

Everyone was looking forward to a new beginning, after the year we had all had. Given the impact 2020 had on our mental and physical health, we wanted to give our customers a reason to discover their happiest selves and hence, launched the fifth edition of the Happy New You campaign. This year’s Happy New You campaign went beyond our core offerings of Happy Skin and Happy Hair to include a Happy Body and a Happy Mind, as well. Additionally, we also wanted to give them a chance to contribute to the betterment of society and the environment. We collaborated with experts from the fields of health, fitness, and nutrition, who, along with our national creative directors for hair and skin, created personalised wellness routines for our customers. We also supported the education of the girl child through Nanhi Kali and are fulfilling our pledge to build a sustainable future by planting trees on behalf of our customers for the third year in a row. The core objective of this campaign was to make our customers look and feel happy.

What, in your opinion, is the best way to manage the salon in a post-pandemic scenario?

■ Focus on rigorous safety and hygiene protocols.

■ Ensure that the staff is consistently upskilled with training and education.

■ Keep your team’s morale high and be sensitive to their mental well-being because they are the face of your brand.

■ Offer customers personalised, high-quality products and services across a wider range of categories so that they can optimise their salon visits.

■ Look beyond your own salon and brand and contributing to the entire industry’s fast recovery and growth.

During the lockdown, about 4,500 members of the salon were virtually educated on salon safety and hygiene. Going ahead, will this be part of learning and salon SOPs?

 Absolutely. Our teams will continue to be regularly trained on enhanced safety protocols and hygiene standards, alongside their standard technical and personality development education. The current online training programme, called Xcel, is highly appreciated by all our colleagues; we will now add more learning hours every week. Due to the safety protocols implemented across all our salons, 96.7 per cent of our customers have voted Lakmé Salon safer than home. Additionally, as customers are now looking at result-oriented and time-efficient products and services, we are also training our teams on new offerings such as the zerotouch services from Dermalogica and a new hair repair service from TIGI that returns hair health in just five minutes.

How can the salon industry be one of the leading employers for youth in the country? Tell us about Lakmé’s achievements in this direction.

The salon industry is already a major player in the Indian economy, employing over 70 lakh professionals, 60 per cent of which are women. Our core vision and aim has always been to beautify the future, and this transcends across our colleagues, customers, and business partners. We are constantly recruiting and training new talent, developing customised growth plans through constant education at Lakmé Academy, and development programmes such as LEAP (Lakmé Entrepreneurship Award Program), wherein inhouse employees stand a chance to become a Lakmé Salon franchise owner with all our help and support. Our Backstage Heroes programme trains exceptional talent from across our salon network to participate at the backstage of Lakmé Fashion Week every season, an opportunity our colleagues look forward.

By the year 2030, we would like to create entrepreneurship and employment opportunities for one million professionals. Our colleagues are the face of our brand and the future of the industry and investing in their training and education is at the heart of our business.

What new business innovation and expansion ideas would you advise to the standalone salons?

My first and strongest piece of advice would be – safety first! At Lakmé Salon, we have implemented 55 enhanced measures, designed with the help of a panel of doctors, for the utmost safety of our staff and customers. Looking and feeling good is a basic human need, but at this stage, customers need to trust the brand they are going to. This has paid off for us, as 96.7 per cent of our customers have voted Lakmé Salon safer than home.

Partnering with a brand like Lakmé Salon, which has a proven track record of both safety and hygiene as well as expertise and setting trends, through our franchisee model can help safeguard independent business owners during these dynamic times. Additionally, customers are now happy to pay a premium for result-oriented and timeefficient products and services, and are looking for the highest level of expertise, which is why investing in global standards of technical and personality development training is now paramount. Educating and grooming beauty and wellness professionals to continuously upskill and consequently deliver above par services and counsel to customers is the way to grow and overcome challenges as they come along.

Finally, brands that have a purpose and are committed to the well-being of not just their customers, but also of the environment, stand to succeed.

How can the beauty industry survive the coronavirus? What are the challenges and opportunities? 

The beauty industry has survived and will continue to do so, despite the impact the virus had on it. For an industry that is based on human interaction and touch, salons have undoubtedly been greatly affected. As they say, “In adversity lies opportunity”, and we took the opportunity to digitally train our team in upskilling, safety protocols and hygiene processes, and more.

Brands that have a purpose and are committed to the well-being of not just their customers, but also of the environment, stand to succeed.

The opportunities outweigh the challenges, because an organised salon business has the potential for growth in metros as well as in Tier-2, -3 and -4 cities. Alternatively, being associated with a reputed franchise brand provides the franchisee-requisite brand support, training, and assistance in recruiting the right talent.

How is augmented reality revolutionising the beauty industry? Is it being welcomed and accepted?

Beauty brands are using everything from artificial intelligence (AI) to augmented reality (AR) to keep their customers engaged in a fiercely competitive market. Dermalogica, the world’s number one professional skin care brand, has introduced the digital Face Mapping service, a skin analysis technique aimed at helping people understand their skin health from the comfort of their home. This new tool is modelled after the brand’s signature in-person analysis tool, performed by skin therapists around the world. Going forward, beauty technology will be driven by an increasing demand for personalisation and customised formulas.

This article appears in the Apr-May 2021 Issue of Professional Beauty/ Hairdressers Journal India

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This article appears in the Apr-May 2021 Issue of Professional Beauty/ Hairdressers Journal India