My name is Marco Barber and I see my name everywhere: every three or four streets, in every neighbourhood on the planet. I probably have more shops bearing my name than any brand in the world. I am not a successful entrepreneur looking to invest in your business: I work on “storytelling” – a key element of branding. The shops bearing my name are hair salons: “Barber Shop”. This article is about the fascination and the turning point that led me to work with salons.
Can you imagine what it feels like to see your name everywhere? Have you ever bought a car? Didn’t you then see the same model wherever you went? Didn’t you see pregnant women everywhere when you (or your wife) were expecting? Haven’t you noticed that your newborn’s first name is among the current trends? Information is everywhere: what we notice is selective.
Then you get used to it – but not without consequences: I have always taken photos of myself in front of Barber Shop windows. I have an inexplicable urge to go in and check whether the barbers really are my family, by proxy. But you don’t visit empty-handed! I thought of offering them a photo portrait: but I’m not a photographer, and my project fell into a coma... until I took a digital marketing training course at Nomades Advanced Technologies in Geneva.
Immersion in digital marketing and what I discovered
If you don’t practise it yet, or as a reminder: digital marketing is strategy, communication, the web (website, social media) and analytics (to measure activity). I work in awe on developing ideas, writing, illustration, photography, video, the web and online community management. The training programme takes a practical approach: the certificate is earned by developing a project.
That’s when my inner barber came back with a full head of hair: the mission of the digital “marketer” is to showcase their clients’ style, identity and services – isn’t that the hairdresser’s mission too?
I plucked up my courage and visited a salon, “Coiff’ qui peut la vie”, to suggest an interview with Patricia, the manager. She was delighted, and so was I: we decided to make a film about the hairdressing profession. I discovered that her work is communication (knowing how to listen to and understand your client); cinema (Patricia is an actress; the salon’s name comes from a Godard film), music (Patricia is a dancer; she introduces her clients to music; her colleague Florent plays the salon’s beautiful piano), photography and illustration (she holds exhibitions in the salon), social networking (her salon is the corner of the neighbourhood where people come to chat), hospitality and loyalty (when you find the right hairdresser, you don’t change).
Content is king. Creativity, its majesty
If you run a shop, I would be delighted to talk to you about your identity and your vision of the trade, to raise awareness of your fascinating field. If you are a digital marketing professional, I would love to discuss your experience and my conviction: running an online presence achieves little without the right content. Creative communication is a rare skill, but a key one.
