Marketing disguised as your mom

The echo of your mother's or father's voice from childhood undoubtedly rings in your ear every once in a while when you find yourself slacking in areas that he or she routinely chided you about.

A messy desk will have you wistfully recalling lectures about the cleanliness of your bedroom. Falling behind on a work project will likely cause a flashback to the time you left the "Model of the Solar System" school assignment until the night before it was due. And, of course, who can forget the comments they shared when your hygiene standards and theirs didn't sync up?

Well, one salon chain seems to think that you still need a good browbeating every once in a while when it comes to your hair.

The Magic Cuts chain (essentially a Canadian version of Great Clips, Fantastic Sam's, et al) offers what it calls "A Haircut Reminder Service."

That's right; on a time schedule that you determine, they'll send you an e-mail telling you it's time to get your haircut, along with a coupon that will make it easier to choose Magic Cuts to trim that unruly mop of yours.

Consider for a moment the societal significance of people actually feeling the need to sign up for a "Haircut Reminder Service." If this catches on, should we hope for a companion service from, say, McDonald's that sends subscribers a text message about 11:30 a.m. every day reminding them to eat lunch? Or how about a daily wake-up call that includes a checklist (shower, get dressed, etc.) of tasks you'll need to accomplish before you hit the door for work? It's enough to get you shaking your shaggy head.

But, as insipid as the notion of needing an e-mail to tell you something you could find out by looking in a mirror, the devilishly clever component of this program is the coupons. After all, one quick-service salon is pretty much like another. By sending coupons on a schedule identified by each customer, Magic Cuts is likely seeing a much higher return on those coupons than they would via any other distribution method. On the surface, it seems idiotic, but it's really very strategic.

So, what does this mean to you?

• If it's strategic, it's not ridiculous - Magic Cuts knows that a buck off a haircut will mean something to a customer and prospect base that isn't interested in bonding with a certain stylist. By letting the customers dictate when they get their coupons, Magic Cuts becomes the easy choice among the sea of cheap "chop shops" (sorry, couldn't resist).
• Connect with the customer's life beyond your product - Magic Cuts uses the tried-and-true "you're busy...you can't sweat the small stuff...let us help!" positioning to sell the service. Silly as that may seem for something like a haircut, it's much more effective than a check box on the Web site that says "Sign up for coupons here."
• Keep it fresh - Attention spans being what they are (particularly among adults who need to be reminded to get their haircut...), it's likely that Magic Cuts will need to vary their coupons every so often to keep it a must-read e-mail for their enrollees.

The message? You never know what you'll come up with if you start with a clear objective. And, get a haircut will ya?