Case Development Group H Farzana Shakil Hair & Beauty

I have no competitors said Farzana Shakil in an interview with Mirror Fashion Magazine. Farzana Shakil, the owner of a renowned parlour named Farzana ShakilHair and Beauty believes that she does not have any local competitors and that her real opponents are the internationals. She is very proud of her work and has achieved immense recognition among the fashion conscious people of Bangladesh. She has introduced a new concept of bridal makeup in the country. Farzana Shakil started at a very early age. She didnt realize that a hobby will turn to her profession. I did makeup for my friends and relatives even in my schooldays and to my greatest wonder my efforts were appreciated. She says that doing make up was something that she has been always fascinated of. It was there in her- she loved playing with colours and blending them in various shades. She still has a fascination for eyes. She is drawn towards expressive eyes and therefore, she likes to do the eye make up of talkative and beautiful eyes. She also does a lot of experimentation at times. Unlike others, she is the one who put up colours like black, blue, green, and magenta for the bridal makeup and immensely got recognized. She also started doing different kinds of makeup for photo shoots. Experimentation with makeup is something that I think differentiated my work from others. Farzana jointly started a beauty salon but soon realized that it was time for her to move on and use her higher potential. She set up Farzana Shakil Hair & Beauty in 2003, and by the grace of God she has managed to establish her very own brand among the discerning ladies of the town. She took her training from beautification training centres in Thailand, Singapore, India and Bangladesh. I wanted to do something different exclaims the owner. I always wanted to establish a brand image. So I used my signature as my brand. Farzana ShakilHair & Beauty is a concern of Farzana Shakils Makeover Salon Ltd. The salon occupies 3 floors of an independent building and is conveniently accessible from the adjoining Mirpur Road. Appointments can be made over telephone by calling 911-6057 or by arriving in person at the salon. House # 3/A Road # 28 (old), 15 (new) Dhanmondi, Dhaka - 1205 Telephone: 880-2-9116057 Fax: 880-2-956-4312 Website: www.farzanashakil.com

Case Development Group H Farzana Shakil Hair & Beauty

The Initial Throw Up It was very difficult when she first started her parlour. She had only few girls and a manager. Establishing the brand image that is her signature was difficult and challenging initially. But she put in a lot of effort to achieve that. Farzana sincerely adds, I believe if you give your 100 percent, work with honesty and sincerity someday your work will pay back. People are accepting her work and that is why she is still here. Beauty tips that she gives to her clients come from her own. She studied and learned from different institutions about skin and hair care. Establishment of my brand image is one of my biggest achievements. I wanted to put up something with my signature and I could do it and of course above all my book-Looks is my biggest achievement smiles the owner.

Whats Inside the Make-up Box?

By its virtue, beauty parlours are industries where customers literally dont know what they want and they depend upon the beauticians suggestion to get a make-over. So it is up to the employee to decide what a customer would look good with and even if she doesnt, it is heavily on the employee again to convince that she does look good with the change! The saloon itself isnt affected by the political instability of this country as they remain open on strikes etc. As a result they cater to customers that live in the area. This is a major advantage point for this saloon. Although there are consumer rights existing in Bangladesh, there is very little implementation of those. This means that even if a customer suffers skin disease due a mistreatment of the parlour, he/she has very little to do. This can act either as an opportunity for a parlour if their intention is to exploit the customers. However, for most, it would signify an ethical issue. The Chinese Gals! It was a popular belief before in Bangladesh that the female employees who work for the parlours are actually Chinese. The countrys beauticians have always looked up to the Chinese women and their ways to maintaining make-up, and made it the Bangladeshi benchmark for the last so many years. So in the beginning, few of the beauty saloons were named in Chinese to attract customers, and they even cleverly hired the tribal girls to resemble the Chinese girls. I still remember how they told me that the Chakma girl was a Chinese, when I asked where she was from accounts Rozana Haque, a 45 year old Dhakai woman, while she remembered her first experience at a parlour 20 years back.

Case Development Group H Farzana Shakil Hair & Beauty

The owners today dont lie anymore like that. The Bangladeshi parlours employ minorities in abundance, as these groups have well acquired the beautification skills over the years. When their predecessors came to Dhaka for being trained in the parlour, they carried on the tradition of bringing their relatives to the town next for the same job. Today, Dhaka alone employs about 3500 tribal girls in the field and most of them represent the Chakma, Marma, and Garo Tribes. Among of them, the majority comes from Mymensing and Netrokona, partly because it is close to the capital. Back where the Lights Dont Reach Protection of minority laws is very important in this industry. As most beauty saloons in this country have ethnic minorities as its main labour force its vital that they abide the laws laid down by the laws. As it is that minorities have always been outside the law in most countries and even when they are within it, they have been viewed as a group of people who could be easily manipulated and made to work for less than the minimal wage. The compensation for the employees is more or less fixed. Most workers get a monthly salary of TK 3000 to 4500, depending upon their seniority and efficiency of their work. Most of them are allowed a day weekend, which they get to choose flexibly with respect to others. However, all employees work from 10 am to 8 pm everyday in most parlours, with a little half an hour break for the lunch, and in days of high workload, the majority feels that one day holiday is not enough. Nevertheless, the employees now days are becoming more conscious about their rights, and a lot of them are now voicing about their needs for benefits and bonus in their rewards, which is non-existent right now. We dont even have a room of our own, grieves one employee during her work. If we have no work, we just stand around. The situation for others is no better, although some renowned parlours have an association room for their workers. However, the place is really small. On the other hand, how much these employees get paid and what benefits they are being given directly depend on how much the parlours earn per month. On average, a medium sized parlour with a maximum 25 employees makes about TK 50,000- 60000 profits per month, whereas a bigger sized one with about 55-60 employees makes 2.25 times the previous amount. This shows that owning a beauty parlour is quite a profitable job, but many of the owners unfortunately take a bigger portion as their own, Just like any other corporate institution, bigger beauty parlours are subjected to corporate tax. Its affected by the 15% on sale every month. They also have to pay indirect tax on importing machines from abroad for special treatments for certain services they offer.

Case Development Group H Farzana Shakil Hair & Beauty

Money and Make-up:

As the general growth of the economy is rising; so is the standard of living, leaving most with a higher level of disposable income than that they previously had. This automatically makes them fall into the target group the parlours aim to capture, not to mention the level of income rising for its initial target group in general, most of whom are upper middle class and higher comprising of women of all ages and professions and rapidly growing students who seek their services. These students seem to have more income now than they had before thus increasing their affordability for such services. Most saloons would be affected by inflations as the rising price of product would compel them to charge higher for the services. For example the prices of the facial oil increased along with the threads that they use to pluck ( plucking being one of the more popular services demanded by students).As a result the prices would increase and at one point affect them adversely as some customers wouldnt feel very generous about paying such a high price. Import barriers have long been a good reason for hiked prices on most foreign goods. The machines that need to be imported from China, Thailand etc carry with them the cost of passing through immigration thus increasing their cost. This as a result is put on the overhead of the business and the customers are made to compensate for it in small amounts. If the tariffs, quotas etc were to rise even higher the customers would react adversely and the business would lose some of them. The Technical Beauty: Styling trends have a mass appeal to those who are trends conscientious and these trends come about when there is a new innovation in the styling with new products that enable one to have different looks with their hair, facial tools etc. These needs are rooted from wanting to look younger and feel better. Thus they seek to have better hair, skin, nails etc. All such can now be achieved by using tools that were not previously available. It was long before that hair straighteners, hair re-bonding chemicals, steam machines etc. but are now available on demand. There are such services that are not so well popularized in Dhaka such as spas which do not have mass appeal or acceptance as the concept is new and is under as most new things are deep scrutiny. But for these things to truly develop, Dhaka needs to have sophisticated appliances that are not currently available. To import them the cost of the service would become very high and the market would be narrowly marginalized decreasing a chance of making a profit and surviving

Case Development Group H Farzana Shakil Hair & Beauty

How Society Views Parlours: Women have always been very fashion conscientious moving along with one trend to another. Beauty is no such exception. Dhaka today is budding with individuals who are keenly aware of the trends and follow them with vigour. The demand for looking well groomed has risen dramatically. The media plays a crucial role here as the cable culture grows so does the womans want for looking like her television idol; especially those of the Indian drama family i.e. soaps. Earlier most women stayed at home being house wives or home makers with plenty of time and they spent that time to groom themselves at home. The culture dictated so. However, the trend has changed ever since, with more and more homemakers are making their ways to the parlours and finding it one of their long sought recreations. This is a new horizon of young professional women whose jobs require them to look good and be well groomed. They need to have a professional look for such corporations and be able to carry them among groups of different professions. These factors have played a vital role in the existence of most parlours.

The Palates and Brushes of Farzana:

Farzana Shakil has been very famous for setting new products to the market. Throwing off the traditional red and gold in the bridal make-up, she introduced black smoggy eyes for the brides, which was a look never conceived before. The parlor has also brought back the 60s, 70s look, which too has been new to the market. Both the eye make-up and the Looks trend caught the market, and they were the services that captured the fame. Farzana Shakil, Hair & Beauty, is staffed by over 40 well trained and experienced beauticians, specialising in hairstyling, makeovers, pedicure, manicure, facials and other related services. The salon also employs 4 customer relations executives, who are on call throughout the day, to assist customers in assessing their requirements and cater to individual needs while in the salon. State-of-the-art equipment and trained hairstylists are on hand to provide the kind of hairstyling that conventional or trendy looks demand. The high quality of imported accessories, used for hair treatment and coloring, ensure quality results at very reasonable prices. The facial section is a self-contained independent unit housed in a separate floor, with 10 cubicles offering quiet privacy to each client. This section offers different kinds of facials, including herbals. Only the best ingredients are used, and facials applied under most hygienic conditions. The staffs are well trained and have received guidance and assistance from visiting foreign experts. They are highly trained and have been provided a self contained room and facilities, to provide services to clients, in a customer friendly environment. Special care is taken to ensure that each and every equipment is sterilized prior to use on the client.

Case Development Group H Farzana Shakil Hair & Beauty

The salon has two separate rooms, solely dedicated to cater to the make up needs of the clients. Both rooms are fully air-conditioned, with comfortable facilities and have a wide array of make up products that are tailor made to suit individual needs. Experienced staffs are at hand to create the look to fulfil client satisfaction. Many times, the parlour faces unaware customers who come to avail a certain service which is not likely to suit them. For example, there are a lot of customers who come for hair straightening with the lure of silky and glazy hair, yet having damaged hair. At this time, there is a huge opportunity for the parlour to make good cash by exploiting the customer, the after effect of which is a dissatisfied customer and ruin of reputation. Therefore, Farzana Shakil chooses a different policy and informs the customer straight out that such a service cannot be performed. To Farzana Shakil it is what the reputation of good work that matters, not the profit. At times, the customers also ask for the specification of ingredients being used in a particular service. Farzana Shakil immediately informs them the content in good faith irrespective of the fact that the customer may leave if a certain ingredient is allergic on her. In an era of increasing crime, Farzana Shakil has realized that it needs to increase the security of the customers inside the parlour. In that light, the parlour, being one of the initiators in the industry, introduced security scanning machines in its main gate, operated by a woman security guard. This security is available from the opening of the parlour to its close every operating day. The Bridal Make-Up! I desperately need the appointment. Please, please! were the words of a frustrated to-be- bride, who called up as early as two months before her wedding for an appointment but couldnt get one due to the high rush. Farzana Shakil Hair & Beauty is certainly the focal point in the city nowadays for bridal make up. Farzana Shakil, who is personally available, by appointment to apply bridal make up, has by now carved a unique niche for herself in the bridal circle of the city. Despite the fact that she charges the highest in the industry for bridal make-up, there is no shortage in the queue of brides per day. Her specialisation and off the beaten track approach to bridal make up has now made her one of the most sought after make up artists in the country. When you look at the eyes of the bride, you know its Farzana Shakil. No one in the industry can make your eyes look at luscious as that, comments Mirror, one renowned fashion magazine of the town. The smoky defined eyes which talk through the make-up are what Farzana Shakil is famous for. And you cant beat that! I find girls crying over the phone, wanting to get my appointment, but I cant help them. In a rush season, I dress up at least seven brides per day, and that is already too taxing. asserts Farzana Shakil, who thoroughly understands the sentimental breakdown these brides may be facing. If I want, I can take more, but that would seriously hamper my quality. .

Case Development Group H Farzana Shakil Hair & Beauty

Service Price List:

Price
THREADING EYE BROWS Upper lip Full face threading Hair Care Hair cut Hair colour Skin Care Manicure Pedicure Herbal Facial 10 minutes Facial Make- Up Party Make-up Bridal Make-Up Assistant Farzana Shakil Saree Mehendi Piercing Ear pin Nose pin 30 30 150 150-250 300 150 200 300-400 150 500-1000 3500 7000 100 300-600 500 300

Case Development Group H Farzana Shakil Hair & Beauty

I go to Farzana Shakil
Farzana Shakil strives to reach poshness and quality through its parlor. This has been the product positioning of the company, and it has successfully done so over the years. The very signature brand name suggests posh ness in the business, and the latter part of the name right attached to the signature: Hair and Beauty signifies the overall quality. The posh ness has also been achieved through various promotional activities over the years. It is Farzana Shakil who gave rebirth to the 60s and 70s look in the country, and the models used in setting the trend highly represented upper class. Over the years, the parlor has tried to achieve perfection, and this has been quite well perceived by the customers who kept going back to the parlor more and more. This as a whole suggests that quality has been maintained over the time. Dhaka is very fashion conscious these days. There are girls who have either finished school or just about to and now have become very aware of their appearance. They make good customers as they are willing to try almost everything youth would allow such mishaps such has two different eyebrow shapes! It has to be pointed out that this is a customer base that will ultimately prefer to keep going back as it has already formed an attachment with the institution. A well know fact about women, they all love to dress up given any occasion of a slight formal quality. With the rise of quality saloons especially Farzana Shakils its no wonder that there is a long que everyday for party makeup as it is called. They do their hair in fancy dos and trendy makeup that the saloon specializes in. Given that it is satisfactory they all come have come to be a loyal fan base. May it be the hair or the face. Some women just want to remove that extra hair around the eyebrows and stop reflecting a messed up image. Even that has to be done on a regular basis. They just simply want to look clean in a subtle way. Farzana Shakils regular customer base is noticeably large in this category, most of who are just there to polish up. Then again, there are women who go for regular facials, scrubs, manicures and pedicures. They are slightly more concerned with there over all appearance. As these are procedures that must be repeated every month to maintain the result, Farzana Shakils has had a large group of women who attend the saloon regularly just for these treatments. It must be noted that this is the income category of higher middle class and above. Most services that are offered by the saloon are custom designed for sophisticated posh women of society. The pricing of the services themselves have been made accordingly to attract women of that class of society.

Case Development Group H Farzana Shakil Hair & Beauty

Two months ago, F. S has introduced a membership card for its regular customers. In order to avail the card, a customer has to pay Taka 500, through which they would get a 10% discount every time they avail a service from the parlour. The card is quite small; it represents more like an ID card which can be easily placed inside a wallet. At the corner of the card, it says, Farzana Shakil: very classy, very exclusive, which perfectly matches with the product positioning of the parlour. Most customers are happily paying for the fee without much complains. This perhaps shows that the customers have wellpicked up the slogan and reckoned the fact that exclusive services mean exclusive charge. The parlour is also thinking of starting a membership card for the students. In addition, it is providing greeting cards, newsletter, suggestion box and web site to its customers.

Saloons Round the Corner:

It hasnt been long that beauty parlours have been a trend in the country. It was during the early 80s that some of the renowned beauticians in the country started their individual saloons, but mostly at their home. Among them, Lee Beauty Parlour and May Fair were the most well known. Back then, the demand was more on bridal make-up, with upper middle class and above fashion conscious women being able to afford their wedding make-up done. The range of services provided was minimum, but the prices charged very high. Therefore, the reach to the majority was close to none. The situation has long changed. Now a days, beauty parlours are growing at a mushroom rate, with one or two parlours being seen at most corners of the city. The challenges faced by all of them are not the same; however, the strategy of one definitely affects the other, either in a direct or indirect manner. There are a few major players in the industry. Personaestimated market share 50% La Belleestimated market share 15% Womens Worldestimated market share 5% Othersestimated market share 5% ( Farzana Shakilsestimated market share 25%)

Case Development Group H Farzana Shakil Hair & Beauty

Persona and Farzana Shakils are two blocks away from each other in Dhanmondi. They do tend to attract similar kinds of customers but Farzana Shakils saloon caters to the more discerning tastes. Persona has been avidly promoting itself through television shows, large completions and they have also formed a strategic alliance with a popular Indian stylist, Habib. Other than that they do have billboards around the city and is also affiliated with a shampoo brand called Sunsilk. La Belle, on the other hand, has a competitive advantage of being located in Gulshan and thus is every close to their target market, eliminating competition from Dhanmondi and saloons like Farzana Shakils. Not many promotions have ever been made maybe because they are only for the upper crest that is already faithful to them. At the same time, there is Womens World, which caters to the same target group. However, being located both in Dhanmondi and Banani, the parlour has a competitive industry advantage over most saloons, as it is able to reach clients in both parts of the city. Nevertheless, Farzana Shakil considers her main competition to be international. As for such there arent any international saloons in the city. The truth is that her immediate competitors are those discussed above. Nevertheless, she asserts that these are not her competitors. This is not because she thinks very highly of herself and deems that no one can reach her stage; it is more because she wants to expand her talent as a beautician and learn more. This, however, wouldnt be possible if she limited herself to these competitors.

Looks
In order to support her view on competition, she has published her own book Looks last year. She believed that international make-up artists would see her work and start developing a better perception about Bangladeshi work. The book advertises on the various looks and complementary fashion that women have enjoyed throughout the time, and portrays how Farzana Shakilhas achieved to bring back those trends. Looks is written in English, and its appearance and presentation is no less than that of an international fashion publishing. With a price tag of Taka 1000, the book was intentionally not written in Bengali, despite the fact that it would heavily sell in the market. It was meant for the international market. Farzana Shakil wanted the international make-up artists to realize that good work is being done in Bangladesh too, and that there are internationally competitive make-up artists in this country like her. Farzana Shakil did succeed in her attempt. After the publication, she received various international recognitions, and the most rewarding one was getting a contract for working with the artists of Hindustan Lever for two or more fashion shows.

10

Case Development Group H Farzana Shakil Hair & Beauty

Its My Way or the Highway!

Farzana Shakil is unfortunately notorious in the industry for having personal conflicts
with few of her powerful strategic partners. In fact, the very starting of the parlor was due to a huge clash that Farzana Shakil, the beautician had with her previous business partner, Persona. In addition, Farzana Shakil also had conflicts with NTv show Sunsilk Opsora, a program where she provided the make-up. She broke away from the contract without much consideration, and she decided not to get into such partnerships once again. In the industry, Farzana Shakil is known as the woman of substance, many times signifying her sophisticated personality but at times proving her rigid stubbornness. For all of the conflicts in the past, the reason has supposedly been its my way, or the highway on Farzana Shakils part. In such cases, the introduction of a consulting intermediary hasnt really been an option when managing the channel conflict.

Promotion:
There is a belief that for upper class parlours- there isnt much need for promotion. This is because the target market is limited, and the promotion is more or less by the word-ofmouth. In simple words, Farzana Shakil doesnt believe in investing a lot for the promotional strategies. The owner believes that if her work is good, people will automatically come to her; she doesnt have to go to them. Nevertheless, when the parlour was first set, there were numerous advertisements on various newspapers informing customers about the parlour. Back then, such an investment was costly; however, that was one of the only ways to market the beautician and her parlour. Over the years, there hasnt been such advertisement on the newspapers, as the parlour has more or less established itself. Although the parlour doesnt have extensive promotions, which reduces the cost, it incurs some heavy promotional cost at times. Eight months ago, the parlour paid a handsome amount of money to Mirror in order to have an exclusive interview of Farazana Shakil launching the Look. In addition, the parlour also went through huge investment in publishing the book and having its launching through a break out fashion show in Sheraton. Perhaps the most powerful sales promotion of the parlour was a Bou and Dui Shokhi (Bride and two friends) package last December. In this promotion the parlour announced that two companions of the bride would get free party make-up. In the same time, it also declared 10-20% discount on all services, and customers rushed to the parlour everyday.

11

Case Development Group H Farzana Shakil Hair & Beauty

Bonding with Others:

Farzana Shakils believes in having strategic partners in her business. One of her first partners are Nocksha (the Fashion subscription of the Daily Prothom ALo), the Lifestyle, and Binodon Bichitra, a lifestyle magazine. New fashion magazines are collaborate with her now days, and among these ICE Today and Mirror are the most renowned ones. To start with, there are very few advertisements of the parlour provided by the parlour itself. Most of the advertisement that it has comes from the collaboration with the strategic partners. For example, when Farzana Shakil does the make-up for Mirror models, she gets recognition on her name and parlour, which eventually acts an advertisement. The parlour never had any billboard in the past, however has an outstanding one now at the centre of the Airport Road. Just like any other parlour in the industry, Farzana Shakils have a T.V ad of its own, mostly because it is not affordable. However, unlike many of her major competitors such as Kaniz Almas from Persona, Farzana Shakil doesnt like appearing on the T.V. She believes that it is not upper class to do so, which would corrode her image. However, there are thousand times when the parol was advertised on the television media when it performed jointly in a program with its strategic partners. The most interesting part is that the total cost of such advertisement was carried by the partner. To sum up, the strategic partners who helped in TV promotion were Sunsilk, You Got the Look, and Close-up One. Even few days ago, she received high recognition for her superior work at the North South University club fair Fashion Idol, and the university is very interested in having her as its strategic partner in such future works. With its own investment, the parlor has already performed two fashion shows. The first one was held last year, June, and the last one this year Jan. The first show was designed to further capture the market and in addition create some international recognition. However, the last show was to support the launching of her book- the Looks. There have been many other fashion shows whereby Farzana Shakils was responsible for the make-up. However, the whole promotion and the cost borne in such cases were done by the strategic partner. Not only as a promotion, but also as a corporate philanthropy, the parol has performed various kinds of demonstration over the years. Few months ago, the parlour participated in giving free vocational training for 15 days to interested women sponsored by Fair &Lovely Foundation. In the past, the parlour has also allowed free hair cut services sponsored by Pantene. Currently, the parlour is also allowing Lakme to give free matteffect facials to Farzana Shakils customers, with the service being performed by Farzana Shakils employees.

12

Case Development Group H Farzana Shakil Hair & Beauty

The Upper Class:

I have some class conscious customers, you see, smiles Farzana Shakil. They want superior service; moreover, they want to be separated from the mass customers, who are not simply their type. These upper class customers want exclusive service, in which they want all services done relaxing in one place. With this in mind, the parlor is now also planning to accomplish a diversification. This would be done by starting a spa-like service renting the third floor of the present premise. The third floor would be reserved for the priority based customers, who are in simple words real upper class who already avail various services from the parlor being a commoner. The parlor has learned over the years that the exclusive most strata of society wants exclusive service from parlors whereby they could spend the whole day in the parlor with a prior appointment, taking care of all aspects of their beauty, starting from simple manicures to a revitalizing body massage. There are also plans for other diversifications, whereby Farzana Shakild reams of opening up a make-up school run under the parlor. However, lack of finance seems to be an issue here. However, it is more of the development of the human resource to manage the upper class edition and also the make-up school, which remains the concern.

Where Parlors Start Again!

The saddest thing about Bangladeshi parlors is that only few educated women are their owners laments Farzana Shakil at the end of her interview time. We need more educated women in this business, too; it is not only for the lower class girls. Farzana believes the real challenge for this industry lies in acquiring the higher class women into its work. She asserts that the parlors should encourage more educated women to join beauty parlors as their job and in the process initiate the new generation of beauty parlors in the country. She dreams that one day there would be a separate finance division, an HR Department, a production planner and what not in her long borne parlor, and the day is perhaps not far away. I want to give birth to corporatism in my parlor concludes Farzana in her speech. And the people I need for this are fresh graduates like you.

13

Case Development Group H Farzana Shakil Hair & Beauty

References www.farzanashakil.com Fashion Magazine Mirror Fashion Magazine ICE Today Looks Personal Interviews with Farzana Shakil Tanzin Khan Tania Zarifa Mazid

14