Exclusive Beauty Supplies (EBS), a distributor of beauty items for salons, is launching a custom magazine called X Factor this summer as part of its push into new distribution territory.
EBS, which works exclusively with independent salons, recently extended its distributing license from its home state of Florida into Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. The company tapped Marketing Matters to help create and distribute its 24-page glossy following a multiagency review.
X Factor will be mailed to all 30,000 salons in the four-state area three times this year — in August, September and November — and is slated for bimonthly publishing in 2010. The magazine is a way for EBS to touch every salon in the area, even those that sales reps don’t get to, and is designed to help the distributor open new accounts.
MacDonald Kennedy, director of sales and marketing for EBS, explained that the growth of big, corporate distributors inspired him to use EBS’ independent business model to appeal to customers.
“There’s a David and Goliath thing now that’s made it possible for us to go out and tell a different kind of story about how we’re old-fashioned and independent and a small business just like our clients,” Kennedy said.
X Factor will also help EBS reach consumers, who can only buy EBS products through their salons, directly. The pricing section of the magazine is designed as a pull-out, so that salon owners can remove it and then place the glossy magazine in their waiting rooms.
Marketing Matters is also helping EBS with a digital version of X Factor, which will be e-mailed to salon owners who opt in. In addition, the agency has created a Web site, ExclusiveBeautySupplies.com.
