Research on Melissa Stephens Nail Artistry
2/18/16
Introduction
Melissa Stephens has been a manicurist in Nashville for over 13 years. With more than a decade of experience, she saw the damage that applying artificial nails and using drills did to the health of clients’ nails over the years, so when she opened her own salon four years ago, it was Nashville’s first salon to focus solely on natural nails. Located in a cozy shop in the Berry Hill area, she specializes in custom nail art and bringing fun back to the salon experience.
Primary Research
Interviewed client
Interviewed customers
Secondary Research
Google, Bing and Yahoo
Search terms:
“best Nashville manicure”
“Nashville manicure”
“Nashville nails”
“Nashville nail salon”
“Melissa Stephens Nail Artistry”
“Melissa Stephens nails”
“Melissa Stephens Nashville”
“Melissa Stephens manicure”
“Melissa Stephens review”
“Haute Pink Nails”
“Haute Pink Nails Nashville”
“Haute Pink Nails Melissa Stephens”
Twitter, Facebook and Instagram
Search terms:
“Melissa Stephens”
“Melissa Stephens nails”
“Melissa Stephens manicure”
The Tennessean and Nashville Scene
Nothing found.
Research Results
Melissa has been a manicurist for 13 years, but most of that time has been under the employ of a shop owner. Four years ago (Feb. 18, 2012), she went into business for herself under the name Haute Pink Nails. She rented a room inside a hair salon in Berry Hill for a little over a year. During that year, she did home appointments and in-store demos at Nordstrom for the Butter London line to build her client base and customer loyalty. In 2013, she relocated to a slightly bigger space in Berry Hill and rebranded as Melissa Stephens Nail Artistry. In 2015, she took a brief medical leave due to complications with her wrist. Due to her medical issues, she was no longer able to safely offer pedicures. To alleviate this, and to accommodate her growing client base, she brought on her first employee.
Publics
Currently, I don’t think anyone is really interested in it. The only things I found out there, besides the content that she generated, were Yelp reviews, an online nail magazine article from 2013 and a local, natural nail polish company that listed her salon as one of the ones that use the product.
The kind of people who would be most interested in Melissa’s message are the kind of people who enjoy going to a hair salon for the social experience as well as the service provided. They would need to both understand and embrace that her space is not the same as a typical mall / strip mall nail salon.
Message
The primary message should center around the idea that you don’t need to give up nail health for nail beauty. This addresses the population of people who have tried acrylic nails in the past and have not been able to retain the same nail health after they were removed. This also addresses the potential client base who is only comfortable with acrylic nails because of the long lasting nature of the design / polish.
Media
I think a YouTube channel would be great. I also like the idea of doing a segment during a noon news broadcast. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are also necessary for promotion.
SWOT analysis
Strengths: competitive pricing, personalized / customized services, atmosphere, consistency
Weaknesses: smaller shop (friends of clients – aka potential clients – don’t have the space to wait around and get a feel of the shop), hard to find if you don’t know what you’re looking for
Opportunities: She uses an electronic scheduler, so she has access to email addresses of all of her clients. I think we should send out a survey to current clients to get a better idea of what kind of people we need to target.
Threats: Other businesses that offer similar services at comparable price points.
Summary
I think that she needs more uniformity in her online presence. For instance, her Twitter, Facebook and Instagram all have different handles, and she uses them for both business and personal posts. She could benefit from a partnership from an existing brand – whether it’s a referral from known influencers like beauty bloggers or sponsorships from companies whose products she uses. Hers is a visual medium, but I don’t like that the only thing you can find from her are static images. Even on the website, her work isn’t the first thing you see. Her goal is to grow her business, so I think running a referral promotion with her current clients with either a free or discounted service as the prize would be a great idea. I think we need to do a psychodemographic analysis on her current clients to find out which types of clients she has the most of so we can appeal to that public more.
Hi, I'm Kia 