A Modern Take on a Time Honored Tradition of Barbering
The Challenge
Scaling a traditional service business in the digital era to create a unique experience that attracts top barbers and loyal customers in a local community.
When J’Bez first approached us, they were just another barbershop in an industry already saturated with competitors. Being that J’Bez was located within walking distance from the University of California, Riverside it would be easy to imagine the ease of client acquisition. But, being a new entrant proved to come with more than a few challenges. Most, if not all, barbershops and salons in the surrounding area had existing brand loyalty from both the university students and long-time locals, so it raised the question of how J’Bez would stand out.
Additionally, there was the issue of seasonality. Being located near the university meant there would be a steady stream of clients who would only be in the area for 9 months out of the year. This would mean the summer months and holidays would have severely reduced foot traffic.
Lastly, the barbershop industry has been notoriously old school in how they take appointments, with a large market not bringing their business online. Another question raised was if customers would adapt easily to a barbershop’s online appointment system. We knew from the start that we wanted to systemize the appointment booking process so the barbers could spend more time doing their craft rather than fussing with administrative work.
The Impact
300%+ Revenue Growth between 2019 - 2022
The result of us working with J’Bez since 2019 was a 300%+ growth in revenue in 3 years and they’re on track to open a 3rd location.
“Finding the right partnership or service to take your storefront business into an e-commerce store can be very difficult. In my experience with consulting companies, they do not spend enough time learning the business model and mission to get my website reflecting my storefront. Free Logic has been able to do that and more. With their experience in business and digitalization, I’m confident we can develop a website experience that revolutionizes the way barbershops are run online.”
Gerson Lemus
Owner, J'Bez Barbershop
Our Approach
How was J’Bez’s continued success achieved in an old-school industry saturated with competitors? The answer is by bringing their business into the digital era.
We leveraged best practices in digital marketing to simplify consumer interactions while gathering data to reinforce an expansion strategy.
Steps to Bringing J’Bez’s Business into the Digital Era:
- Conducting market research on the barbershop industry in the Inland Empire and Orange County markets.
- Defining a brand image through a Brand Sprint with the leadership team.
- Creating a website built with an appointment booking system and e-commerce functionality.
- Tracking data to reinforce an expansion strategy.
- Building up a community by doing events for anyone to feel like J’Bez is home.
Conducting market research on the barbershop industry in the Inland Empire and Orange County markets.
Our team started off our work with J’Bez by conducting market research on the barbershop industry throughout the Inland Empire and Los Angeles markets. Our research led us to find the barbershop and salon industries have remained largely untouched by digitalization taking every other industry by storm.
This discovery ultimately guided our decision-making process throughout our rebranding and revamping process. We found that when searching for a place to get a haircut, more often than not people trust the locations that are at the top of Google search results, have a clean website design, and an online payment system.
Defining a brand image through a Brand Sprint with the leadership team.
Prior to creating any marketing collateral, we conducted a brand sprint with the leadership team at J’Bez, and its purpose was to facilitate turning their ideas and notions about their brand into a defined brand image. Findings from this exercise, such as their strong emphasis on being strongly tied as a family were revealed while defining their value propositions. We created a branding guideline that would be used in every touchpoint a customer has with the business from their website to their shop signage.
Creating a website built with an appointment booking system and e-commerce functionality.
Once their branding was solidified, we began working on their website. Since one of their core value propositions is family, we ensured that the website leaned into this aspect through creating individual barber pages that dove deeper into the background of each barber. Many of their customers have been with them for years before they had a brick and mortar location so their customers felt like family just as much as any of the J’Bez barbers.
However, as much as it’s important to know the team behind the business, it was essential that customers would have an ease of booking when visiting the site. No questions, no confusions, and ultimately, no need to call in the old school way to book a haircut. We integrated a booking software, Squire, that allowed customers to instantly book with a barber and securely pay right away. In this way, upon arriving at the shop, the customer can sit in the barber chair without any delay and any fuss with paying on the day of.
Another big feature we added to the site was an ecommerce functionality so that customers would no longer have to buy any of the products in-person at the shop anymore. Through integration with Squire, payments for products can be made online and shipped right to your door.
Tracking data to reinforce an expansion strategy.
Every single decision we make at Free Logic is backed by data. With that came tracking their website analytics, weekly revenue reporting, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ranking. Within a year of working with J’Bez, we were able to bring them into the first page ranking on Google for barbershops in Riverside. Within 6 months of launching their new website, we were able to increase their organic monthly traffic by 91%.
The weekly data reports we created reinforced the numbers to hit to open a new store location. Through these reports, we were able to track seasonality, the days of the week with the most/least bookings, the type of service that were high earners, and month over month revenues. This data gave J’Bez owners the knowledge and understanding of where they can allocate or invest their earnings back into the business. Additionally, the reports gave a pulse on which barbers could use more push in bookings. We could then push more ads out for that specific barber for that season in time.
Building up a community by doing events for anyone to feel like J’Bez is home.
The J’Bez shop owners’ dreams were always rooted in fostering a sense of family at the shop whether you were a patron or employee. At the start of 2021, we began pushing events at the shop that would build on that sense of community through hosting gaming tournaments and listening parties. Since J’Bez is on UC Riverside’s campus, it was important to be able to provide a safe space for not only newcomer students, but also for patrons to invite their friends to hangout.
The work that we’ve done with J’Bez is just the start. We’re currently working on a new feature of their website called Find Your Perfect Cut that would act as a search engine tool for anyone interested in learning or knowing about a specific hairstyle. With a busy season ahead of them, we’re also supporting their marketing efforts in opening their newest location come 2023. We hope to see you back to check on all the newness that J’Bez is delivering!
Scope of Work
Branding
Brand Sprint
Visual Identity
Brand Messaging
Brand Guideline
Website
UX/UI Design
UX Research
Maintenance
Blog Strategy
Copywriting
Content
Photography
Videography
SEO
On-Page and Off-Page SEO
Local SEO
Email Marketing
Newsletter
Campaigns
Ads
Yelp ads
Facebook Ads
Google Ads
Data
Web Analytics
Data Analytics & Tracking
Monthly Data Reporting
Event Planning
Gaming Tournaments
Listening Parties
