Founded in 1982 in Minneapolis, MN, Great Clips, Inc. counts more than 4,400 salons in the U.S. and Canada. The brand is 100% franchisee-owned and is the largest salon brand in the world, employing over 28,000 stylists. The brand prides itself on fast and convenient walk-in haircare services and allows online check-in to minimize the time customers spend in the waiting room.
Just prior to the 2024 Super Bowl, Great Clips and mobility manufacturer Kawasaki partnered in a campaign featuring Kawasaki’s RIDGE® side x side while tapping into the power of a legendary haircut.
Mark Johnson, CEO of Loyalty360, spoke with Lisa Hake, the Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Great Clips, about the fun promotion with Kawasaki, collecting zero-party data, and building a path to loyalty.
Founded in 1982 in Minneapolis, MN, Great Clips, Inc. counts more than 4,400 salons in the U.S. and Canada. The brand is 100% franchisee-owned and is the largest salon brand in the world, employing over 28,000 stylists. The brand prides itself on fast and convenient walk-in haircare services and allows online check-in to minimize the time customers spend in the waiting room.
Just prior to the 2024 Super Bowl, Great Clips and mobility manufacturer Kawasaki partnered in a campaign featuring Kawasaki’s RIDGE® side x side while tapping into the power of a legendary haircut.
Mark Johnson, CEO of Loyalty360, spoke with Lisa Hake, the Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Great Clips, about the fun promotion with Kawasaki, collecting zero-party data, and building a path to loyalty.
Good afternoon, good morning. This is Mark Johnson from Loyalty360. I hope everyone's happy, safe and well. I want to welcome you to another edition of our Leaders in Customer Loyalty series. In this series, we have the privilege of speaking with leading brands about what they are seeing and hearing on the frontlines of customer channel and brand loyalty. Today, we have the pleasure of speaking with Lisa Hakey. She's the Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Great Clips. How are you today, lisa?
Speaker 2:
Great Mark, Good to be here.
Speaker 1:
Thank you very much for taking the time to talk with us today. First off, I would like to start on a more personal level. I'd love to get to know you a little bit about your current role with Great Clips.
Speaker 2:
All right, great. Well, let's see's see, I've been, with great clips, for almost seven years now, leading marketing and communications, which basically is helping support our brand and drive customers to salons across all of great cliffs locations. We're in the us and canada. We have over 4 400 locations. Uh, we're 100 franchise owned and we're the largest salon brand in the world actually. So leading all brand building, marketing efforts, marketing planning, both at the system-wide and local level to support all of our franchisees and grow with our customers.
Speaker 2:
Prior to that, it's been a very journeyed experience to get to Greycliffs, but I spent nine years at Best Buy, so working across many of the different areas of Best Buy, the last three years working as the marketing leader for the Geek Squad, so helping with all the rebranding and creating more of the integrated services approach that Best Buy continues today. And let's see, prior to that, I had my own business and I developed a retail concept that grew, ended up becoming a franchisor, and so that's ultimately one of the reasons I came to Best Buy or to Great Clips at the end, but had a franchise. Business grew it had over 14 locations across seven different states. So that was a very interesting adventure. Eventually got out of that business, which can be a whole nother uh conversation, um. And then, prior to that, I spent six years at 3m um, before that was at pillsbury.
Speaker 2:
Uh, so it started my whole business or my whole career in international business. So my focus was, uh, I studied japanese, japanese and was very much into traveling and other cultures and working to help businesses grow in other areas of the world.
Speaker 1:
But lo and behold now here I'm at Great Clips. That's awesome. Well, thank you for that background. That's good to know. Very well handled the role of Great Clips. It sounds like.
Speaker 2:
Yes, yes, it's been a great experience so far.
Speaker 1:
So I know, around the Super Bowl, or should I say before the Super Bowl, the team at Kawasaki reached out to Great Clips to talk about a campaign involving their ridge, side-by-sideside and return of a certain haircut, the mullet. I know you guys that did some promotion around it. Would love to know about how that promotion came to be and how it involved 15,000 free haircuts, not just limited to mullets, ahead of the big game, the Super Bowl, yes, okay.
Speaker 2:
So it was a really fun collaboration that we did with Kawasaki. They had launched their first Super Bowl commercial ever. They had done the preview of it or the little sneak release of it, and it had driven a lot of attention with this fun spot that they or campaign. They were running again around the ridge featuring mullets. And the reason they featured mullets was because the ridge itself they talk about it being business in the front party, in the back, and you know that ties you all the way to or connects you to mullets and so they reached out to us. They wanted to keep that energy and excitement earned media going leading into the week of the Superbowl.
Speaker 2:
So it was literally, uh, some social media back and forth and a handshake. Um, we said let's figure this out as the world's largest salon brand, um, we were in the best position, with the most reach, to help get mullets out there to everyone. So we agreed to run this collaboration through a promotion where we offered, like you said, 15,000 free mullets. We ended up just having it be haircuts because we did not want our stylist having to police what's a mullet or not a mullet, but we were able to figure out how to make this happen very quickly.
Speaker 2:
It literally came to life in less than two weeks and we were able to bring mullets to the masses and it was a great experience. And it was a great experience. The whole reason we were able to do this is because we were able to stand up the customer experience, enabling this immediate and real-time campaign and the offer of free haircuts through the Marigold Experiences platform.
Speaker 1:
Okay, excellent. The Great Clips free haircut coupons were sold out in less than seven hours no-transcript Right.
Speaker 2:
So we were able to use the Marigold Experiences platform to capture, to have a place for our customers to go, to drive that call to action, to get them to register or sign up to say, hey, I want one of those free mullets. And so we captured that information in real time and then we were able to issue a one-time offer directly through our email, through their email, for them to get this free offer. So, yes, that sold out in seven hours. So this generated a lot of excitement, viral energy around it. And then we kept the momentum going by offering a $2 offer coupon to those who couldn't join the party for the free month.
Speaker 2:
So it wasn't a typical campaign that we had months and months to plan but it was a big win for the Great Clips team and Kawasaki and our customers, and just a testament on how quickly and easily we could create a highly personalized campaign that was both engaging and interactive, using those experiences with Marigold.
Speaker 1:
Okay, After the 1,500 free haircuts, the coupons were distributed. Great Clips made an extra move and provided a subsequent offer, a $2 off coupon, to those still seeking to engage with the brand. The brand, their boards generated a rewarding customer experience for those who missed out on the free offer, in a very quick and efficient manner. You know how did that extra effort that you put forth go towards creating extra connection, extra customer loyalty?
Speaker 2:
Well, to start off, you know while this wasn't like a specific loyalty program or you know a purpose in driving loyalty with our existing customers, what it did do is open our brand up to a lot of new customers and we were surprised we had redemptions the redemptions that we had with this for over 40% new customers. So new customers to experience the Gray Cliffs brand. And that's what it really takes. You have to experience Gray Cliffs the first time to understand how we innovate around that core haircut, how we make it easy for customers to save time, save money, get a great consistent haircut, and then it's up to that experience to then start driving that loyalty. And then it gives us an opportunity to continue engaging with those customers directly. We are able to gain many, many new email subscriber opt-ins and people who are signing up to say, hey, they want to engage with our brand.
Speaker 1:
Okay, you mentioned you saw some great success in driving engagement with current and potentially new audience and around 40% of the redemptions were made by new customers and potentially a new demographic of customers. That could be applicable as well and facilitated by that connection with Kawasaki. What did you see as kind of the end result, the acquisition campaign, the kind of data and insight that you gathered? You talked about zero party data and others. How might great clips evolve this promotion into rewarding customer loyalty program?
Speaker 2:
Yeah. So it's just kind of our first step of what we're doing and what we call the path to loyalty, because we are working on a more formalized loyalty program. Our app is so important to our business, as well as our website, in driving customers to realize that they can check in quickly for a haircut, they can find a location across one of our 4,400 locations, they can check wait times and they can check in and get on the wait list quickly and conveniently. So it's about using this zero party data, using this permission based marketing that we have and having the right tools in place that we can easily activate future loyalty campaigns. That we're growing our email subscriber list. We're doing much more with personalization and just building relationships through those subscribers. That we have already growing those subscribers and, like I said, while this wasn't specifically about loyalty, it's probably one of the best promotions we've done to drive new customers to salons recently.
Speaker 1:
You touched on this a little bit how you're leveraging Marigold's platform to create unique engagement. You talked about gamifications, zero-party data. In what ways are you leveraging Marigold's platform to build that path to loyalty?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so we're working on just trying to create fun and engaging and, like you said, gamifying experiences that we can produce quickly internally using that gamification, that engaging content. That obviously relates to getting your haircut, but there's so much that we can do. I mean, haircuts are fun and the more we dig into the ways that we can talk about it with our customers, we can gauge, we can personalize with our customers. So, using those insights, we're learning through this platform, collecting that zero party data, driving that engagement, seeing who wants to engage, getting those real-time insights has been critical to all this and critical to helping us just navigate what we prioritize and what we do next.
Speaker 1:
Okay, you talked about kind of the path to loyalty, but in the interim, how will this customer acquisition strategy that you ran with Kawasaki and the data that you gathered during the campaign help you enable and cultivate a deeper personalization approach in your email marketing efforts? I mean first and foremost.
Speaker 2:
It's about using this fun message that we had around mullets surrounding the big game of the Super Bowl, without having to have a big Super Bowl at ourselves, but just driving that earned media and that almost viral social engagement that we had to get a high percentage of new customers engaged with our brand, allowing us to invite them to opt in to subscribe to our email, and gaining that zero party data through that. Now it's up to us, then, to continue to use that data and information that we've collected, onboarding those customers into our brand, getting them to understand all the value props we have to offer, and then using that to just build the groundwork for future campaigns through those path to loyalty efforts that we're working on.
Speaker 1:
Okay, when you look at the kind of the earned outreach that you attained, I think great clips witnessed around 70 or more than 70 news media stories that were generated because of the media spot during the Super Bowl, which built excitement around the promotion and the partnership. How did you see this additional exposure as potentially an opportunity to drive emotional loyalty for the brand?
Speaker 2:
Well, it just really helps personalize the whole haircut. I mean, the haircuts are so personal to everyone. And when we can get mainstream media you know life and style type media talking about haircuts, talking about the popularity of the mullet, which truly has become popular, but really just creating that excitement and buzz around haircuts tied to the Great Clips brand, and that happened more than we could have anticipated with this campaign. So the promotion itself, you know, framed around that mullet haircut trend, helped make it fun, helped make it shareable, driving new customers and existing customers to re-engage with our brand. So that media exposure just helps introduce us to new audiences in an exciting way, so that visibility helps. And we're dreaming up already the next fun collaboration.
Speaker 2:
So stay tuned, especially as we lead into back to school, which is a really important key drive time both for existing customers and new customers. You know, outside of getting school supplies, getting, you know, the new fresh outfit for back to school, Also, what's on busy parents' minds is getting their kids haircuts. So how can we be part of that conversation to engage that engagement with our brand and then drive loyalty from there?
Speaker 1:
Excellent. What can Loyalty360 do to help you and your team and your customer loyalty journey?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, well, we, my team and myself have relied on Loyalty360, especially because, you know we're a unique business category. We're not. We're not QSR, we're not, you know, your traditional retail. All we do is cut hair and we are a hundred percent franchisee owned. So the industry is unique. We're not e-commerce, we cut hair. They can't do that online yet. So, um, so it's all about benchmarking, it's all about finding unique ways that um brands are leveraging technology, uh, using even Miracle to build loyalty programs to connect with their customers in new and engaging ways. So a lot of benchmarking, a lot of storytelling. That we have to do internally and we rely on Loyalty360 for that information.
Speaker 1:
Excellent. Well, thank you for that. That's great to hear. Now we have our fun quick fire question segment, so we'd like to limit the words, the responses, to a one word or short answers, or I get in trouble with Nick and the content team. So first one what is your favorite word?
Speaker 2:
This was fun to think about as well. So I would say perspective, just the idea of viewing things from different angles and opening your mind.
Speaker 1:
OK, what's your least favorite?
Speaker 2:
word Can't.
Speaker 1:
What excites you Ideas?
Speaker 2:
excite me or how to solve problems.
Speaker 1:
What do you find tiresome De dealing with difficult or negative individuals? Okay, what book uh that is a favorite of yours do you like to recommend to colleagues? So a future or a?
Speaker 2:
previous leader that I had back at best buy, hubert jolie. He wrote a book called the heart of business and I think it's just a really great story around, or resource around, authentic leadership and creating meaningful connections.
Speaker 1:
Excellent. What profession, other than the one you're currently in, would you like to try?
Speaker 2:
I'd love to be a travel guide. I used to want to be Julie McCoy back in the day.
Speaker 1:
Okay, what do you enjoy doing that you don't often get a chance to do?
Speaker 2:
Visit family Between my mom and my six brothers. They all live in different states across the US and we don't get enough time together.
Speaker 1:
Okay, excellent, that's good to hear. Family is always important. Who inspired you to become the person you are today? Back to family, I would say my mom.
Speaker 2:
To become the person you are today. Back to family. I would say my mom. She has great perspective, she's been through a lot in her life and she is so resilient and always curious. She loves to travel still and she's 76 years old, but she is so active and has more energy than many people.
Speaker 1:
That's awesome. What do you typically think about at the end of the day?
Speaker 2:
I think about what's next. What do you typically think about? At the end of the day, I think about what's next. What's my next adventure? You know how do I continue having fun, enjoying family and friends? I always like to have plans Like what are we going to do? Next? Also, I do think about work, how we're going to solve the next problem. What's the next opportunity to engage with our customers and for our brand?
Speaker 2:
Okay, and the last question how do you want to be remembered by your friends and family? Okay, this goes all the way back to my favorite word, which I would say gets back to having perspective. I, you know, always being curious, wanting to gain life experiences and just having adventures surrounded by friends and family, and just learning from others.
Speaker 1:
Okay, and well, that's it. We're all wrapped up. No, that was great. Well, thank you very much for taking the time to talk with us today. It was great getting to know you a little bit, lisa, and getting an update on some of the customer loyalty programs and the path to loyalty that you're working on at Great Clips. I'm a big fan of Great Clips. Go there all the time. I don't have my card around here, but I do even buy the prepaid haircuts and I do for one, so it's always fun to go there, actually.
Speaker 2:
Well, thanks for being a customer and appreciate the conversation as well, so look forward to staying in touch, mark.
Speaker 1:
All right, great Well. Thank you very much.
Speaker 2:
Everyone else Thank you.
Speaker 1:
Thank you for taking the time to join us today and make sure to join us back for another edition of our Ludus and Customer Reload series. Until then, have a wonderful day, thanks.
