Great Clips’ “Trim It Up” Campaign Generated Nationwide Brand Awareness and Customer Loyalty During the Back-to-School Season

Great Clips, the 4,400-plus-unit salon franchise with locations throughout 180 markets in the U.S. and Canada, has continued to push a nationwide marketing presence that has placed the brand at the forefront of its industry. This year, Great Clips launched a “Trim It Up,” campaign, with the focus on Online Check-In and the Great Clips app, to help trim the back-to-school checklists of parents and kids during a busy time for families everywhere.

To draw attention to the brand’s convenient technology and salon offerings, Great Clips partnered with professional skateboarder Tony Hawk and his 13-year-old daughter as influencers for the campaign. Both visited local Great Clips salons to get ready for the new school year and shared custom video content on their social channels, showcasing the ease and convenience of back-to-school haircuts for both parents and their kids.

Great Clips also partnered with The Holderness Family, a family of four that has dominated the YouTube streaming ranks with original music, parodies and vlogs. The family also visited their local Great Clips salon, and created a fun, engaging music video about how easy it was to get the whole family styled for the school year with Great Clips.

“It’s a mission of this company to help people feel good not only about themselves, but about where they are spending their money,” said Lisa Hake, vice president of marketing and communications for Great Clips, Inc. “By partnering with premier influencers, we found a way to promote our brand in new ways that resonate with our audience in channels that continue to evolve.”

The brand also leveraged a wide array of digital channels to engage customers around the back=to-school season, including paid and organic social media, digital audio on Pandora and Spotify music platforms, paid search engine advertising and Great Clips-owned email and in-app messaging. The brand’s multifaceted approach and partnerships with influencers are geared to elevate and update its traditional norms of advertising. These marketing and public relations efforts ensure the campaign is not only visible to a wide range of customers, but accessible for customers to meet the brand on multiple platforms.

While these Great Clips campaigns are national in reach, the brand is still focused on leveraging assets and opportunities for franchisees to bring these programs to life in their local markets.

“As a Great Clips franchise owner, it is a huge asset to have a nationwide campaign that is bringing people in the door during back-to-school season,” said Juanita Kilambi, an owner of salons in the San Diego market. “This is one of the more popular times of the year for our business, and we wouldn’t be able to launch anywhere near this amount of attention if we were an independent shop.”

Hake says the brand’s extra effort on the marketing and communications front has helped it establish a nationwide presence. “We have a tremendous marketing team that comes up with these ideas, and our brand is truly getting promoted in hand-picked ways.” The team’s strategy allows Great Clips to generate millions of marketing impressions with each campaign.

“It’s important for our customers to receive a convenient, comfortable experience at an affordable price they can rely on,” Hake said. “This holds true for both our salon experience and our brand advertising;and we’re able to reach customers in individualized ways, and we’re able to ensure every customer gets the look they want once they walk in the door.”

Promotions for the brand’s “Trim It Up” campaign began in July and wrapped up in September. The campaign offered a glimpse into the ever-changing landscape of consumer marketing and the continual efforts Great Clips is making to meet the needs of clients through a changing marketing strategy.