Yasmin Khan author “Simple Steps to Building Successful Cosmetic Practices”

The five cosmetic marketing activities discussed so far are necessary activities if one has the desire to establish a successful and sustainable business in an industry that is competitive and is easy to enter. Also most clinic owners are weak in marketing and by not investing time and money into research, market analysis, segmentation, buyer behaviour and competition, the initial business structure is weak and vulnerable to the many competitors who are entering on a weekly basis.

Marketing for the Cosmetic Business

The intellectual resource gained from the research or five activities mentioned in previous marketing articles is necessary to complete the next five activities and they are:

Market Planning (Mission Setting Objectives Vision Planning Process)It is very difficult to determine your mission and visualize your concept if you have no idea of the market and its needs and desires. Most clinics provide a list of services which they are hoping the small elective cosmetic base will like. This is a clear sign of a weak business and I pick it this up very quickly when evaluating competitors. A competitor’s website and brochure will provide me with all the information I need to evaluate the weakness of the business.

Branding –(Brand Names-Brand Building- - Brand Promotion) Most people believe that branding is your design concept and logo. This is called the brand concept and the confusion by medical professionals of what exactly branding is has left them vulnerable to predator designers who are promising to make a business successful through design. Companies with a bad reputation will still have a bad reputation regardless of the brand image. A brand is developed over time by the leaders and the employees of the company through their commitment to deliver their vision. If the visionary is greedy, the culture will be greedy and the brand will be known for this. I experienced this with two very successful medical professionals who undelivered to their private patients believing that their brand image was enough to create loyal customers. Today, they are both bankrupt and so are a hundred other medical aesthetic business.

Pricing: Pricing strategy is overlooked by the medical arena and the lack of experience in this area of business is commoditizing the non surgical industry. Today,hair stylist are commanding a better return on investment for their time.

Promotion: Most clinicians go straight to this activity without any preparation believing that the client will act and behave like a patient on the NHS. There are only a few clients wanting to pay premium price for enhancement treatment so what you say, your branding, your consultation skills and your positioning will determine your success to draw the client in and to keep them returning.

Distribution: Distribution Channels are your locations where you provide your service. It can be one location or multiple locations. Most clinicians tend to aspire to be in a rich area or on a prestigious medical street but I think it is better to choose your locations based on convenience, parking, traffic, accessibility to tube and train station etc…..

In summary, marketing is a complex subject not limited to advertising. It is the least of the marketing executive concerns and the marketer know fully well that the accuracy of the advertising message must be accurate to pull the customer in and accuracy can only be achieved with preparation and planning before the business open its door.

The CPD approved Introduction to Medical Aesthetics and Starting a Cosmetic Clinic is a cosmetic business e-learning course provided free to all candidates attending the foundation botox training courses, this course will help attendees to understand the medical aesthetics business and provide a guide to starting their cosmetic practice.

In the next part of this article Yasmin reviews one of the options presently available which is providing cosmetic treatments in a beauty or health spa and the marketing benefits of this cosmetic business model for new cosmetic clinicians on completion of their cosmetic training courses.