What does it mean for the hair and beauty industry?
By Jeremy Havard, Director of www.virtualhaircare.com.au, Australia ’s Online Hair Magazine.
(With acknowledgements to IPC Media UK, Fairfax Digital Australia and Marketing, Australia ’s Premier marketing magazine)
Australian online usage closely follows the UK and USA and a study released on the 16th of March by IPC/Time Warner UK (who publish Marie Claire and In Style magazines amongst many others), revealed the profound relationship women have with the internet and the major implications this has for beauty providers of all types.
IPC Southbank's Web Wise Women research questioned more than 4,000 women and discovered an obsession with the internet, with almost 70% claiming they couldn't live without the medium. And they're spending more time on the internet than ever before: almost three quarters of respondents said they spent more time online compared with last year.
The majority of premium women (86%) have shopped on the internet and 68% use it to research products before buying them elsewhere, with half going online to browse for clothes and 36% looking for beauty advice. They also use the internet to choose their hair care products, which salon to use and even find out which salons to avoid!
The popularity of the internet – in particular with premium women – is a trend no-one in the media and marketing industry can afford to ignore. Even if a salon is not online, your client definitely is and not having a presence can hand some of your hard won business over to your competitors.
The top five topics premium women search for online are travel, fashion, health, property and beauty, and their top five online activities are subscribing to newsletters, downloading music, grocery shopping, sharing photos online and participating in online forums and message boards. In Australia , trends are identical, with women flooding online to find out about matters close to their hearts.
Huge Australian publishing giant Fairfax has been conducting its own research into online trends and findings reveal that women head online for more ‘Life & Style’ as consumption habits change. The internet as an online community has become a mainstay in women’s lives, according to survey results released today by Australia ’s Fairfax Digital which investigated women’s online habits, backing up the UK study.
Forty percent of respondents stated they are spending more time online compared to a year ago, which explains the communication and media consumption patterns that emerged in Fairfax Digital’s survey.
Actively seeking information on lifestyle and entertainment, 74 percent of respondents use the internet for obtaining information on health. Sourcing details on personal interest topics such as hobbies (63%), recipes (50%) and home ideas (44%) also rated highly. Reading book reviews (34%), looking at fashion (32%) and reading about celebrities (27%) are other areas where the internet plays an important part, along with parenting and pregnancy information (27%) and beauty tips (27%) – all demonstrating that the internet, for women, is a lifestyle diversion from work and other activities.
What are the implications for Australian hair and beauty salons and product companies? These studies have shown that you simply can’t afford to be complacent about being online and being seen online. It’s simply no longer an option if you wish to maintain a competitive edge.
So what are the options? Connecting with your clients and customers online can be expensive, especially when dealing with the large online portals such as ninemsn and are therefore not an option for most. Having a website is an important part of your PR/media mix, but how are you going to tell people about it?
It’s very important to advertise in Yellow Pages or Truelocal, however these directories offer little ‘context’ apart from being a hairdressing listing and if you are at the bottom of the list, you may not always get seen. Traffic figures also show consumers are not using most Australian ‘salon finders’ in any great numbers because these mainly don’t have much interesting content and find it hard to get an audience in the first place..
Apart from the portals, consumers are using detailed and free beauty related sites such as home- grown beauty resources like www.virtualhaircare.com.au and www.virtualbeautycare.com.au.
This has put Virtualhaircare continually in the Top 10 most visited beauty sites in the region because consumers are looking at the great pics and tips then searching our Mylocalsalon resource for a local salon. Find out how you can participate by joining the Professional Members section. This is some of the best PR salons can get and provides a solution to connect directly with your customer.
(©The In-Point Pty Ltd)