Page 168 - 100 Great Marketing Ideas (100 Great Ideas)

80 BE THE EXPERT

We were all brought up with the axiom that the customer is always
right. The customer is not always right, of course, but he or she is
always the customer, and they decide whether they like what we are
offering or not.

In most cases, the customer’s preferences should be accepted and
provided for—but there are some circumstances in which the
provider must be the expert. This is the case for doctors, dentists,
and piano teachers—they are the acknowledged experts, and it is
their expertise we are paying for.

If we could establish ourselves as the experts in any given field, we
should be able to command higher prices, greater respect, and more
loyalty from our customers.

The idea

Up until the 1960s, ladies’ hairdressers were simply technicians
who did exactly as their customers told them, usually without
question. The profession was low-paid and low-status, with salons
competing largely on price and with little incentive to raise the
standards through training.

In the early 1960s a young Jewish hairdresser from London’s East
End decided to change all that. He developed a system of precision
cutting that meant that the hair naturally fell into shape without the
need for complicated setting or perming techniques. The technical
breakthrough was only the first part of the story, though—the young
man followed it up by insisting that customers had their hair cut the

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