Building a Strong Brand Identity: Key Elements and Strategies

You might assume that marketing and branding aren’t as crucial when renting salon suites or studios to health, wellness, and beauty professionals. However, with increasing competition and changing market dynamics, standing out is more important than ever. To successfully rent out your suites and achieve sustainable revenue, you need to distinguish yourself as the top choice in the market.

In this guide, we’ll cover the essential elements and strategies for building a robust brand identity and taking your business to the next level.

Let’s get started. 

1: Know Your Audience

Before diving into strategies for your brand identity, it’s essential to thoroughly research three key areas.

First, know your target audience. 

While your primary focus may be on beauty professionals—such as hair, lash, nail, brow, and skin specialists—it’s time to broaden your scope. With increasing market competition, consider also targeting health, wellness, and fitness professionals.  These professionals can include chiropractors, pilates instructors and psychiatrists. 

Within these sectors, determine whether you’re aiming to attract emerging professionals seeking cost-effective solutions or established experts seeking top-tier suites. Identify the age range and expectations of your target audience to tailor your approach effectively.

Those questions, and many more, will need to be answered. They’ll determine what the most effective approach will be for your brand, marketing attempts, and much more. 

2: Know Your Competition

To effectively stand out to your target audience, you need to understand what your competition is doing. Analyze their rent prices, contract terms, marketing strategies, and the audiences they influence. This insight will help you identify industry standards and opportunities to differentiate your offering.

Time and again, we’ve encountered salon suite and studio locations that didn’t do their homework and ended up pricing themselves out of the market—sometimes by as much as $100 per week more than the competition. Once you gain a local reputation for being “expensive,” it can be both time-consuming and resource-intensive to repair that image and adjust your rates to competitive market prices.

If you know what your competition is doing, you can make more educated decisions when it comes to choosing a target audience and appealing to that audience later on. 

3: Know the Market

The last key subject for you to research is the target market itself. Learning the ins and outs of the state of the market is going to help you with every other part of this process, and it’s crucial for your business in various other aspects, too. It’s not all about creating your brand identity. 

4: Define Your Brand

Once you have a clear understanding of the environment you’re entering, it’s time to define the details of your brand.

Remember, your brand is essentially your business’s “personality,” and it should be shaped with that in mind. What values do you want to communicate to the public? What goals do you want your brand to achieve for both your business and your renters?

Are you the flexible lease and affordable brand in the market? Are you the luxury high-end salon studio or a fun and community-oriented space? Do you offer business setup and marketing support for the long-term success of your tenants?  

Your brand identity needs to be carefully planned because it must remain consistent over the long term. It’s not something you can experiment with or change on a whim. Use the insights gained during the research phase to make this process smoother and more effective.

5: Perfect Your Brand’s Visual Identity

Brand recognition is crucial for establishing your brand identity. Consider a well-known fast-food restaurant—when you see the golden arches, you instantly know which company it is.

This is the power of a unique visual identity. It’s unforgettable, and it immediately tells you what to expect when you encounter it.

It’s not enough to just create a memorable logo and visual identity—you need to apply that same concept to every visual aspect of your business. From your website, Instagram, Google Business Profile, and Facebook page to your building signage and even your emails, every element should consistently reflect a visual style that’s uniquely yours.

6: Build Genuine Connections with Your Tenants

Today’s wellness, health, fitness and beauty suite renters are seeking more than just perks and competitive rates—they want to feel a personal connection with the person behind the business. They’re not just renting from a company; they want to know they’re partnering with someone who genuinely cares.

Crafting a brand story that resonates with your target audience is crucial. Share how you got started in the industry, the inspiration behind your brand’s goals, and why you’re passionate about serving them. This creates an emotional connection that draws people in and humanizes your brand.

7: Stay aligned with your Brand

This is a broad concept, but the key takeaway is simple: avoid anything that could damage your brand’s reputation.

Start by focusing on solid business practices and consistently reinforcing your brand identity. Maintain positive relationships, stay true to how you present your brand, and always strive to be a professional in your field.

Additionally, be mindful of associations that could harm your brand. This includes avoiding unprofessional hires and steering clear of partnerships with brands that don’t resonate with your target audience.

8: Continuously Monitor Your Brand’s Performance

After establishing a strong, recognizable brand identity that resonates with potential renters, it’s important not to become complacent. Throughout your business’s lifecycle, you should consistently track and evaluate your brand’s performance to ensure it remains effective and aligned with your goals.

Pay close attention to what works, take feedback seriously, and make necessary adjustments to adapt as your audience evolves. However, unless absolutely needed, it’s best to preserve the core of your brand identity to maintain consistency and trust.

Elevate Your Brand Identity with Slick Marketers

Ready to take your suite rental business to new heights? Let us help you take the hard work out of brand identity building. At Slick Marketers, we handle the heavy lifting of brand development so you can get on the right track quickly.

We specialize in identifying your target audience’s needs, analyzing the competition, and crafting effective brand-building strategies tailored to the beauty suite rental industry. Slick Marketers is an all-encompassing brand marketing agency specifically meant to help businesses in the beauty suite rental space.

Schedule a strategy session with Slick Marketers today!