Indeed, Theresa's will not serve 'customers' as a tattoo shop or cosmetics counter would; it will develop clients who will be invited to return for additional enhancements. However, integral to the strategy will be turning away clients who have had all the procedures that seem to our medical advisor to be advisable. In short, Theresa's is not interested in tattooing a woman to look like a cat, but rather in enhancing a woman's appearance as a women, thus enabling her to live a more abundant and powerful human life. These concepts are the foundation for Theresa's strategy, which can be condensed to these concepts:
Creating the Theresa's brand name in aesthetic enhancement
Placing the company on a level comparable to or exceeding that of laser eye clinics, etc.
Taking seriously our responsibility to enhance our clients' lives and not to be party to questionable requests for aesthetically debatable procedures
Tactics
Theresa's initial tactic will be forming the referral relationships with medical/surgical/dental practices that understand the value of aesthetic improvement such as Theresa's offers.
In addition, we will seek early clients whose influence in the community can add credibility to our programs.
Our advertising will AVOID Val-Pacs and other lower-level advertsing media. We will target upscale city magazines and the radio stations most of our potential clients (20-something through baby boomers) listen to.
Very importantly, we will seek free advertising in the form of segments on local broadcast "newsmagazines." The value of this is incalculable, although it is, in fact, a calculated risk. While we would have creative and message control in a paid advertisement, editorial work removes that control. However, because we will seek this coverage early, we would expect it to gain from the novelty factor and avoid criticisms that might develop, regardless of how excellent our work is, later in the company's history.
Financial schedules/timetable
We must plan on 'carpet bombing' the airwaves and local upscale print media three weeks prior to opening and for four weeks after opening. Beyond the first month, we will cut back on the paid advertising; we will, however, have spent considerable work hours gaining the free coverage mentioned above.
The broadcast placements can be done closer to air; the print ads need to be placed a minimum of a month before they are needed.
Thus the marketing/advertising budget split of the initial advertising budget is as follows:
Four weeks from opening: 35% expenditure
Three weeks from opening: 20%
Two weeks from opening: 15%
One week from opening: 15%
Opening week and each week for first month: 15%
Evaluation procedures
The simplest way to evaluate the success of our marketing plan is whether the target number of clients arrive for procedures. However, we will also establish benchmarks for expenditures/number of each procedure, from permanent eyeliner to facial resurfacing. While we expect the greatest profit margin on the simpler procedures, because we want to establish the idea of full service in a medically acceptable environment, we will be looking closely at the increase in the more complicated procedures as a benchmark of how well we have established that image, which is essential, we believe, to our longevity in what we expect to become a more crowded market over time, partially because of our own 'educational' efforts.
References
Adverse events associated with 'permanent makeup.' (2004) FDA Consumer 38(5), 4+. Retrieved May 2, 2005 from www.questia.com.
Covino, D.C. (2001) Outside-in: Body, mind and self in the advertisement of aesthetic surgery. Journal of Popular Culture 35(3), 91+ Retrieved May 2, 2005 from www.questia.com.
Neimark, J. (1994) Change of face change of fate. Psychology Today 27(3), 42+. Retrieved May 2, 2005 from www.questia.com.
