Prannay Dokkania, Chief Operating Officer, Lloyds Luxuries Ltd. Gives an insight into men’s grooming services, its marketing strategies and future plans
Truefitt & Hill is the oldest barber shop in the world as recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records. Its products were brought up from the wreck of Titanic and today they’re a part of the Titanic Exhibition. The luxury barbershop is known for providing the finest men’s grooming services for over 218 years.
Truefitt & Hill has years of experience with men’s grooming. Among the services you offer, what are the most popular services for men?
Truefitt & Hill has been in existence for over 218 years now. We offer all kinds of grooming services for men. Our expertise is the Royal Signature Services (Royal Haircut, Royal Pedicure, Royal Manicure) and The Royal Shave is our Signature Service.
How do you market your services to your clientele? Is it different from marketing to female clientele?
Men are our primary customers and our business largely works on advocacy and referral. However, we also promote our services using omni channel platforms like – online and social media, offline events and collaborations. Yes, it’s different for females as we run occasion led tactical campaigns focused on promoting our gifting range and products which they can gift to their male family members.
Do you offer makeup services for men? Tell us about these services.
Yes. We do offer make up services for special events, especially for Weddings.
Do your clients ask for makeup services? When? Or is it restricted to certain occasions?
Yes, it’s exclusively for weddings as the enquiries we get are from would-be grooms.
Men painting their nails is becoming common these days. What nail services does Truefitt & Hill offer for men? Does it include applying nail polish, nail art, etc.?
We do have Nail, Hand & Foot services for men. We offer different types of Manicure & Pedicure. It includes nail shaping, hand exfoliation & a relaxing massage. Our patrons do ask for transparent Nail Enamel to be applied on their nails. However, our patrons don’t ask for Nail Art.
What is your experience of men asking for skin or body care services?
Men do ask for services like face brightening, party glow mask and even relaxing face massages. Beside this, they are more concerned about Blackheads & Whiteheads. In regards to the body services – Body Exfoliation & Deep Tissue Massages are the most preferred amongst our patrons.
What is the count of Truefitt & Hill salons in India? Which one of them is the best as far as performance is concerned?
In India, we operate 30 stores across 13 cities. All our stores are equally good and are at par basis the strategic location they’re present in.
Tell us about your future plans.
Today service contributes 80% of the business and the rest are products. In the coming years, I see that products would grow faster than services. If you look at male grooming services, you will find out that for centuries there has been no innovation vs so many new services being introduced for females. I see that innovation holds the key. We plan to add 20 more doors and we are aggressively working towards the expansion. Additionally, there will be expansion outside India as well where we will be launching another store in Dhaka and 1 store each in Vietnam, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar & Sri Lanka. On the product side there is a rising demand, especially from the customers who live in smaller cities. They are evolving and also want to use better products than they are using presently. We have seen an affluent population in these markets considering the fact that accessibility is a challenge, and also they have the spending power but have no place to spend. So, I see products becoming a far better business and we will aim at scaling up our operations.
