Business Monitor
A growing printwear sector
Open a copy of the phone book or do a Google search of the hairdressers in your area. You will be amazed by the results
Marketing expert, Paul Clapham, explains further.
are everywhere. This is a big business sector, one that shows no signs of decline, rather the contrary. Plenty of people make a weekly or fortnightly visit to their chosen hairdresser and spend serious money in the process. A dayʼs pampering at a spa is a popular present or business reward (and increasingly not just for women). Then there are all those upscale hotels for which an in-house spa with a host of treatments is an essential. In a nutshell, this sector offers plenty of scope for printwear but from my research it is not well established on the industryʼs radar. This is strange because the majority of business owners and staff in the beauty trade are women and they are in the business of best personal presentation. More than that, the business potential
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for the salon owner is good to very good. Women in particular choose hairstyles from what they see in public as much as what they see in the media. The walking talking advertisement that is printwear comes into its own in these circumstances. Compared to some sales, this looks to have a fair wind behind it.
Define your audience On the health side of the health and beauty equation there is a problem with defining your target customer, since there are dozens of routes to better health. I would recommend being highly selective. The obvious start is gyms. They are almost always printwear conscious in any case, selling the shirt to members who
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or does it stop there. There are beauticians, beauty salons, spas and nail bars. Again they
want to boast about their fitness regime. Itʼs a profit centre for them, so itʼs competitive. If youʼve got more and better ideas than the existing suppliers, why would they not buy from you? Visit a smart department store – say Harrods or Selfridges in London or House of Fraser nationally – and there will be beauty products on offer from major name brands. These are often franchises so trying to sell to them would be pointless because the printwear you see is part of the branding, the franchise deal. But itʼs a fine business opportunity. How knowledgeable is the companyʼs marketing department when it comes to printwear? They may be pistol hot, but I wouldnʼt bet the house on it. Go to those stores, see what they are doing, find out the contact details of the marketing team (ie pick up some leaflets) and you could be en route to a big name national, indeed international, client. Donʼt ignore the potential for consumer promotions in this area. The shirt will be seen by far more people than the bottle, which every brand manager will value. Be creative and be positive. Then there are manufacturers. Your immediate reaction may be that these are monster brands mostly located overseas. At the top end of the market that is certainly true, but itʼs far from the whole story. I write a business column for Natural Products, a trade magazine for the health food business and personal care (as they choose to call it) is an important sub- sector of their trade. It covers soaps, cosmetics, bath oils and so on, which are made from natural ingredients, leaving out those unappealing chemicals.
The good news is that these are often supplied by small, indeed very small, businesses and every month someone is sure to tell me about the success theyʼre having with a brand from one or other. Iʼd suggest visiting a good local independent health store to find out whoʼs doing this in your catchment area. I would be very surprised if the answer is nobody because there are a good number of them, a number that is steadily growing. In certain parts of the country, eg the South West, you will find a lot.
Tap into a different market Finally, we have Rover and Fluffy, also known as pets. No, Iʼm not barking. People spend serious money on keeping their cats and dogs in tip-top condition, which includes having their coats trimmed. This clearly varies by breed but there are enough dog and cat grooming businesses out there to confirm the demand. My expectation was that this is a piece
of discretionary spend for the wealthy urbanite. Apparently not. Plenty of people in the C2, D and E socio-demographic categories in the major urban centres (not just Chelsea and St Johnʼs Wood) are customers for the service. Iʼm personally uncomfortable with the anthropomorphism of treating pets like people but there are worse things that can be done to pets than giving them too much love. Since some of these businesses also
sell dog-walking services, the potential benefit to them from printwear is clear. The potential customer can see instantly that this is a business staffed by pet- lovers – just what the owner wants to know about them.
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
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