In Celebration of Sally

Here at American Salon, one of the key things we do for our readers is to highlight and showcase effective programs and promotions salon owners conduct to build their businesses. We especially like to do this when those programs include one of our manufacturer partners. And if for some reason one of those programs happens to include the group publisher's mother... well, that's like hitting the trifecta!

Kerry Cannon
Kerry Cannon

Here's an example of what I mean. Terry and Marie Harrison own the very successful Salon St. Louis, in St. Louis, MO, and they're doing some innovative things to increase the buzz about their salon and attract new clients. They recently held a special reception to showcase the work of a local artist, turning their salon into an art gallery for an evening. The artist's collection of portraits, called "Faces" (appropriate for a beauty salon), had three parts: Faces of Hope, featuring portraits of the homeless in St. Louis; Faces of Macedonia, where the artist served in the Peace Corp several years ago; and Faces of Family.

From a business perspective, one noteworthy aspect of this event was that it was a true manufacturer/salon partnership. Salon St. Louis has recently taken on the full line of Profound Beauty products, and Terry was named Technical Director for the company. Salon St. Louis and Profound teamed up to showcase the creativity and artistry of their stylists, while demonstrating the effectiveness of Profound Beauty's products.

My mom, artist Martha Talburt (center), with Salon St. Louis' Marie Harrison and Profound's Bob Salem
My mom, artist Martha Talburt (center), with Salon St. Louis' Marie Harrison and Profound's Bob Salem

But the thing that really brought it all home (literally) for me was that the local artist is my mom, Martha Talburt. She relocated to St. Louis a few years back and began getting her hair cut at Salon St. Louis. She immediately hit it off with Terry and Marie, and that burgeoning friendship resulted in this collaboration. And I only learned about all this when Stefany Reed and Bob Salem of Profound e-mailed me to say they had spent a wonderful evening with my mother and that the portraits of my children were adorable... small world!

This was a real win-win-win—for the salon, for Profound and for a local St. Louis artist seeking a broader audience for her work. Working in concert, these three parties created something terrific, in which the whole was definitely greater than the sum of the parts.

Kerry J. Cannon, Jr. Group Publisher, American Salon and American Spa. E-mail Kerry at [email protected].