Marketing Plan, First Draft
Oriental Beauty Salon Chain
DeVry University
Nov, 9, 2013

Table of Contents 1. Executive Summary 3 2. Situation analysis 3 2.1 Market Summary 4 2.2 SWOT Analysis 8 2.3 Competition 10 2.4 Service Offerings 10 2.5 Keys to Success 11 2.6 Critical Issues 12 3. Marketing Strategy 12 3.1. Mission 13 3.2. Marketing Objectives 13 3.3. Financial Objectives 13 3.4. Target Market 13 3.5. Positioning 15 3.6. Strategies 16 3.7. Marketing Research 17 References 18

1. Executive Summary 2. Situation analysis
Oriental Beauty Salon Company is in its first year of business as a start-up company, and it is preparing to launch an elite oriental beauty services for the Arab American female community living in USA. The Arab American population has been growing rapidly as a result of immigration, high birth rate, and conversions, it was estimated that in 2010 that Arab American community will form % 0.50 of total population of the USA (Asi& Beaulieu, 2013).The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the Arab American population to be approximately 1.4 million. However, the Arab American Institute (AAI) notes that this estimate is low as a result of a lack of comprehensive tracking. The AAI estimates the actual population of Arab Americans to be 3.4 million (AAI, 2008).The median household income for Arab Americans is $56,331 which is higher than the median income for all U.S. households (AAI, 2008). However, approximately 14% of the population lives below the poverty line with the figure increasing to over 28% for single mothers. The Arab American female community consists of many sub segments of varying nationalities including Lebanese, Syrian, Egyptian, Palestinian, Jordanian, Moroccan, Yemeni and others and who have diversity in culture, physical types and racial backgrounds, and aspiration. This niche market has never been served at the personal level before. The common need among this population is an increasing demand for beauty and fashion services that fuses contemporary American and traditional Arab cultures. Therefore, Arab American women are in need of a reasonably priced one-stop, convenient, beauty salon with workers who are skilled in serving women and their children. In addition women wearing the veil have special religious needs including a place to cut their hair without being exposed to men. There is indirect competition from salons owned by Arabs, home based salons and American beauty Salons. However, such competition does not directly address the needs of this population and there is therefore an opportunity for Oriental Beauty Salon. 2.1 Market Summary
Oriental Beauty Salon possesses accurate information about the market and has an intimate familiarity with the common attributes of its most prized customers. Oriental Beauty Salon will leverage this information to understand who is served, their specific needs, and they can be better served.
Oriental Beauty Salon’s market consists of woman in the Arab American community across the United States who prefer to keep their cultural identity congruent with their appearance and expect be treated and communicated with in a personal way. Arab-American Muslim women who veil are a unique and neglected niche segment in this community. They require culturally sensitive service in a comfortable and private atmosphere since they do not expose their hair or bodies to men aside from their spouse or close male relatives. The economic situation in the U.S. is increasingly requiring families to have a dual source of income which impacts the already busy lives of Arab American mothers. A "one stop shop” where mothers can have their and their children’s salon needs met will be an ideal contribution to the market. This information will be a great finding to understand who is served, what their specific needs are and how Oriental Beauty Salon will communicate with them and their kids.
The geographical target areas are the states with highest concentration of Arab Americans. According to the U.S. Census Bureau a substantial proportion of the Arab American population are located in ten states: California/Florida, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Taxes, Ohio, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. (Asi& Beaulieu, 2013).
Cities with 100,000 or more Arab Americans in the population include Sterling Heights, Michigan; Jersey City, New Jersey; Warren, Michigan; Allentown, Pennsylvania; Burbank, California and nearby Glendale, California; Livonia, Michigan; Arlington, Virginia; Paterson, New Jersey; Chicago land area, Illinois; and Daly City, California.(Dela Cruz&Brittingham,2003)
Target segments will be: * Females of Arab American descent living in the U.S. * Children of Arab American families (boys from age 1 - 8 year, girls from age 1+ year).
The total target population is 1.5 million of Arab American women including approximately 200,000Arab American Muslims who likely veil (AAI, 2008). The population is calculated based on the following data: the total Arab American population is 3.5 million, 46% are female, and the percentage of Muslims is 12% of Arabic population (Asi& Beaulieu, 2013)
The total target for children is 823,476, it is calculated based on the following data 55% of Arabic household are married couples ,total number of Arabic household is 511,000,and the average household size is 2.93(Asi& Beaulieu, 2013). Therefore, 55%*511,000=281,050 of Arab American household who are married couple, then the result is 281,050*2.93=823,476 children
Market needs Oriental Beauty Salon will serve the targeted customer with an elite cultural wide range of beauty services that are important to Arab American women which have not been adequately addressed in a special in the U.S. In addition, Oriental Beauty Salon will provide Arab American Women with the opportunity to network with other Arab American women in their community. Oriental beauty salon seeks to fulfill the following benefits that are important to its customers. * Elite, professional cultural touch beauty services, such as haircut, hair styling, hair coloring, waxing, and facial cleaning. * Comfortable, homey environment; Arab American women when go to generally focused salons, they do not feel a sense of belonging from the atmosphere, staff, and services offered. * Convenience: Oriental Beauty Salon will serve the mother with her children with no appointment necessary. Additionally, there will be a supervised play area for children while they wait for service or while their mothers are being served. * An opportunity for Arab American women to socialize since Oriental Beauty Salon will provide cozy nice corner as a waiting area and equipped by entertainment center includes Arabic songs, movies, news, and Arabic beverages, such as Turkish coffee.
Market Trend Oriental Beauty Salon will distinguish itself by marketing service that has never been available previously to Arab American women community living in USA. Arab American women used to go to western salons or any other salons to do the haircut, hair coloring, eye brow or even facial cleaning and all are done in different way than the oriental way that she used to get in her origin country, and most probably she is not satisfied, simply because her hair nature, skin nature are different by genes.
On the other hand, the Arab American women increased their demand for beauty and fashion influenced by mainstream American women and starts to take care of her appearance more. Arab American women used to do most of their beauty needs such as waxing, coloring, at home using the traditional ways. The modern Arab American woman prefers to be taken care of her in special way by going to the professional of beauty services.
According to this market trend, there is a huge need for a place where Arab American woman can receive the beauty services at the way that is familiar with her from her origin culture and in personal way (Arabic touch and taste) and at the same time she can socialize with other Arab American women living in her city. Oriental Beauty Salon will apply this specialized insight to its market and fill the substantial gap of such a trend.
Market growth with more immigration of Arabs people to the U.S., the community is growing rapidly and its requirements for different customized services are increasing; in addition to the rapid growth of beauty salon industry in the U.S., especially the family one stop shop style. The beauty salon industry in the U.S. is comprised of an estimated 350,000 salons and barber shops, including around 70,000 that are home-based operations. The industry generates an estimated $55 billion to $60 billion in annual revenue (Profile America, 2007). Salon services analysis shows a move away from independent salon and mid-tier chains model toward family-economy chains and chair/suite rentals (Soble, 2013) 2.2 SWOT Analysis
Oriental beauty Salon has many strengths on which to build, but the major weakness is lack of awareness among the Arab American community of having such a place, lack of brand awareness and image. The major opportunity is the growing demand of the targeted segment for personal customized level of service at affordable prices, in addition to a social benefit by giving a great chance for Arab American female community to meet and socialize and enjoy the cultural atmosphere of the salon. Also, Oriental Beauty Salon will help in creating job opportunities for Arab American women who have experience or ability to work as beauty professional. On the other hand there will be threat of indirect competitors such as American beauty salon, barber shops owned by Arabic person or traditional home - based operation Arabic barber.
Strengths Oriental Beauty Salon can build on five important strengths 1. Elite customized oriental beauty services with personal treat established by well-trained team who has the oriental beauty experience and touch. 2. Comfortable, sociable gathering spot bridging the Arabic women community living in USA. 3. One stop shop for the mother with her children. 4. The use of natural treatment material for hair treatments (Henna and other natural oils) 5. Proper place for Arab American women who wear the veil and need a privacy to cut her hair or doing other stuff without being exposed to men (religion concern).
Weaknesses Even though Oriental Beauty Salon will be a very attractive place for specific niche in the market that has never been addressed at personal level before in USA, nevertheless, there are three main weaknesses: 1. Lack of brand awareness- We are dealing with niche segment in the market that doesn’t have access to American cable TV or newspapers in daily basis ,most of them they have Arab American channels that are broadcasting the already made programs from Arab countries. This issue will be addressed in selecting the proper media strategy with aggressive promotion and proper reach to such community by relying heavily on word-of-mouth advertising, existing Arab American news and television outlets, and train employees how to build clientele through referrals and client relationships. 2. Scarce resources of Arab American women who are already licensed to work as a hair stylist or beauty professional, most of them have their original license issued by their origin countries and they are not applicable in USA. This issue will be addressed by offering free of charge education for the potential employees according to American regulations .Every state requires hair stylists to hold a valid license, State license requirements vary, but in general, stylists need to complete a state-approved cosmetology or barbering program, a designated number of hours of practical experience and pass a state exam. In some cases, the barber or cosmetology school requires applicants to hold either a high school diploma or GED. In most cases, licensed stylists need to maintain their licenses through continuing education (Erin, 2013). 3. Financial limitations associated with a start-up company.
Opportunities Oriental Beauty Salon can take advantage of three major market opportunities 1. Increasing demand of the Arab American female community for a place that provides the full services of beauty, but with a culturally sensitive personal touch and experience. 2. Steady growing market that is traditionally unaffected by the economic environment and Arab American women demand is growing with the market trend of beauty needs. 3. Increasing sales opportunity as more children from an individual family frequents Oriental Beauty Salon.
Threats Oriental Beauty Salon will face threat at the introduction of its services:
Competition from the American barber shops that the Arabic women used to visit with no optional alternatives or traditional home-based operation Arabic barbers who serve the Arabic/Muslim women either at their homes or by visiting them at their homes. 2.3 Competition
Oriental Beauty Salon will form its own niche market ,although there are a few competitors, Oriental Beauty Salon is the only place that designed for Arabic/Muslim women beauty needs . The few competitors’ salons in USA Market are not designed to fulfill the customized oriental special beauty needs of Arabic/Muslim women and never have been proper place to socialize to bridge the Arabic/Muslim community. We can consider the following in-direct competitors: 1. American beauty Salons, either the traditional, franchised or independent ones. 2. Traditional home-based operation Arabic barbers who serve the Arabic/Muslim women either at their homes or by visiting them at their homes. 3. Kids’ haircut Salons. 2.4 Service Offerings
Oriental Beauty Salon provides beauty services for the Arabic/Muslim women and mothers with children. This includes the followings: 1. Haircuts, hair styling, hair coloring, facial cleaning, eye brow shaping and tattoo reshaping, waxing, all by using natural materials as much as possible and with the oriental taste and touch offered by professional Arab employees 2. Arab American women can socialize there as well, since there is a place to wait; cozy comfortable corner served with entertainment center of Oriental music, Arabic movies and most recent news, in addition to offer oriental beverages like Turkish coffee. 3. The kids will have fun while cutting their hairs, since there is separate section to them furnitured with cool-funny safe chairs, and there is playground area for kids waiting in the queue or waiting their mothers with a supervision of the salon employee. 4. Oriental beauty salon will also sell hair care oriental natural products that are sometime sold at the Arab grocery shops and the Arab American women face difficult to find them. These professional quality supplies will include shampoos, conditioners, hair treatment products, (like Amla oil), brushes, combs, wax for body hair(like Meem and Jeem) and other styling aids. Service is offered on a walk in basis or by appointment. Oriental Beauty salon will emphasize a customer-centric service where the customer's needs are always the priority. 2.5 Keys to Success
Keys to success for Oriental Beauty Salon are to keep its oriental identity in terms of offering services and atmosphere and being the convenience place for the Arab American women and their children. In addition, Oriental Beauty Salon must ensure total customer satisfaction by letting the customer touches the oriental treatment of the professional team. Meeting the needs of such niche market in very professional way and customer attention being the priority of the team are the keys to success. 2.6 Critical Issues
Oriental Beauty Salon is still in the speculative stages as a start-up company. Oriental beauty Salon is targeting very niche market in a very big market like USA and the service offered requires having physical locations to deliver the services to the customers, so Its critical issue is the location selection per state and per city, which must be done with a very careful market research and paying attention to local variation, for example some cities have higher percentage of conservative Arab American women, others have more fashionable trendy Arab women from different religious and cultural backgrounds. Expansion must be done carefully and at a reasonable rate and after ensure complete control over the launched branches. On the other hand, there will be scarce resources of licensed hairstylist and beauty Arab American women and that will need time and cost to be solved and prepare a professional team to serve the targeted segment of Arab American women and their kids. 3. Marketing Strategy
The key to the marketing strategy is focusing on the Arab American women seeking special service of caring about their appearance while sustain their cultural touch. Oriental Beauty Salon will cover percentage of Arab American community; this percentage is concentrated in almost 10 states of US. Oriental Beauty Salon is able to address all the different segments within its market. 4.1. Mission
Oriental Beauty Salon mission is to provide the Arab American female community with a convenient one stop shop place that has an elite oriental beauty caring services within warm homey oriental environment. When Oriental beauty Salon adheres to this maxim, everything else will fall into place. The services will exceed the expectations of the customers. 4.2. Marketing Objectives * Oriental beauty salon will achieve a steady increase in its market penetration by growing in gradual controlled base; branches will be opened the first year at the highest concentration cities of Arab American community with a full capacity of service .The following cities are targeted first: Burbank in Califoirnia, Sterling Heights in Michigan and Jersey City in New Jersey. * Maintain positive, strong growth each quarter per branch * Increase repeat customers by 7% per quarter. 4.3. Financial Objectives * Achieve breakeven point by first year for the three launched branches * Grow the profit margin by 3% per year * Increase the amount of retail products by 10% per year 4.4. Target Market
Oriental Beauty Salon will target four different segments in the Arab American community; the strategy is based on service differentiation to meet the specific needs of such segments. The primary consumer target is Arab American women who seek to fulfill their beauty special needs with personal cultural touch, and Arab American women who seek a one stop shop for their selves and their children.
Oriental Beauty Salon will target four different market segments: * Arab American women who are tend to favor a female specific oriental salon with affordable prices and using natural oriental care products for their hair and bodies. They are looking for fashionable look and style but they want to sustain their cultural identity congruent with their appearance and expect be treated and communicated with in a personal way. * Young Mothers with Children: Most young children are notoriously difficult when it comes to getting haircuts. A family style salon is a more laid back place that allows the children to play while they are waiting and then will work with the parents in calming the children nerves when they are ready for their shearing. * Arab American Muslim women who veil are a unique and neglected niche segment in this community. They require culturally sensitive service in a comfortable and private atmosphere since they do not expose their hair or bodies to men aside from their spouse or close male relatives. * Children of Arab American families (boys from age 1 - 8 year, girls from age 1+ year).

Market size The total target population is 1.5 million of Arab American women including approximately 200,000 Arab American Muslims who likely veil (AAI, 2008). The population is calculated based on the following data: the total Arab American population is 3.5 million, 46% are female, and the percentage of Muslims is 12% of Arabic population (Asi& Beaulieu, 2013)
The total target for children is 823,476, it is calculated based on the following data 55% of Arabic household are married couples ,total number of Arabic household is 511,000,and the average household size is 2.93(Asi& Beaulieu, 2013). Therefore, 55%*511,000=281,050 of Arab American household who are married couple, then the result is 281,050*2.93=823,476 children.
Of the school-age population, 12% are in preschool and kindergarten (96,000 boy and girl), 56% are in elementary or high school (448,000 male and female), 46% are females (206,080 girl/ teenager) (AAI,2009).
The geographical target areas are the states with highest concentration of Arab Americans, top ten States by Arab American Population. California - 272,485, Michigan - 191,607, New York - 149,627, Florida - 100,627, Texas - 91,568, New Jersey - 85,956, Illinois - 85,465, Ohio - 65,813, Massachusetts - 65,150, Pennsylvania - 60, 870. (AAI, 2009)
3.5. Positioning
Oriental beauty salon will be positioned to be warm homey place that offers oriental beauty caring services and cater the special needs of beauty for Arab American women, Arab American Muslim women and mothers with their kids. The oriental personal touch and atmosphere, full service and convenience, and one stop service offering will distinguish the salon services.
Oriental Beauty Salon will invest time and money into training to ensure that clients receive the best experience possible making it is easier to turn them into a long-term customer. By providing superior customer service, Oriental Beauty Salon will be able to effectively compete against and outlast larger chains and independent stores. 3.6. Strategies
Product/Service The single objective is to position Oriental Beauty Salon as an elite, oriental, full service, family salon in the Arab American community areas. The marketing strategy will seek to first create customer awareness regarding the services offered, then develop the customer base, and finally work toward building customer loyalty and referrals. The message the Oriental Beauty Salon will seek to communicate is that it offers Oriental beauty caring service with personal treat for the women who veil and provide great opportunity for Arab American women to socialize within warm homey oriental atmosphere, in addition to grant one stop shop for the mother with her children.
Pricing Oriental Beauty Salon's pricing scheme will be based on a competitive pricing model with other similar service providers. The prices for children will be cheaper due to the higher frequency of cutting their hair (growing faster).
Distribution Oriental beauty salon will be distributed as mentioned before in the states that have the highest percentage of Arab American community ,which are California ( Los Angele county),Michigan (Wayne county) and New York (Kings county) (AAI,2010). Later on, there will be plan to expand into other cities at the same three states or other states that ranked too with high concentration of Arab American community.
Marketing communication Oriental beauty salon will locate its stores in different areas that have the highest concentration of Arab American community, so it will be visible to the highest percentage traffic of the targeted segments, also we will utilize the Arabic newspapers that are distributed locally per state, in addition to prepare flyers to be distributed through the Arabic groceries and Arabic festivals or in any occasion that has Arabic gathering. Word of mouth will be very important communication tool, so it will rely heavily on such way of advertising and train employees how to build clientele through referrals and client relationships. Consider giving a discount, or upgrade on their next visit to clients who refer a friend. Targeted advertising campaign will communicate Oriental Beauty Salon’s desired messages by reinforcing the brand awareness and the specialty and differentiation about its services. 3.7. Marketing Research
During the initial phases of the marketing plan construction, general research has been executed to get clearer idea about the target market and the feasibility of opening business to serve such taget, it had been discovered that Arab Americans live in all 50 states, but two thirds are concentrated in 10 states; one third of the total live in California, New York, and Michigan. (AAI, 2009) Several focus groups were held to gain insight into the buying patterns of prospective customers. The focus groups represented wide range of Arab American community women from different ages and mothers. The participants were asked what type of service they typically use and where they go to get it and what they are missing in the current service they received from other Salons. They were also asked how their current service could be improved and what it would take to get them to switch to a new salon. The focus groups provided invaluable information and feedback. While some of the information gathered was already known, other information were things that made perfect sense but had not been thought of.

References
Asi,M&Beaulieu,D.(2013). Arab Households in the United States: 2006–2010.U.S. Census
Bureau. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acsbr10-20.pdf
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Soble, S. (2013). 2012 Study shows solid growth for salon services and retail. Retrieved from http://www.salontoday.com/news/salon-business/2012-Study-Shows-Solid-Growth-for-Salon-Services-and-Retail-192583731.html
Erin, E. (2013). Hair Salon Owner: Job Duties and Education Requirements. Retrieved fromhttp://education-portal.com/articles/Hair_Salon_Owner_Job_Duties_and_Education_Requirements.html
Arab American Institute (AAI). (2009-2013). demoghraphics.Retrived from http://www.aaiusa.org/pages/demographics/