Ashvilleans will pay a premium for organic products. Right?
An entrepreneur gambles on $29 hairspray, and our panel of experts weighs in.

by Jess McCuan   .   photo by Brent Fleury

Just a few short months ago, Rebecca Hecht could have thrown up her hands and become a pineapple farmer. Really. Her family grows tropical fruit on a small farm in Hawaii, and even though she and her husband are only in their 30s, they could have more or less scrapped their Asheville life and headed to the beach. “It was tempting,” she admits. But moving to Hawaii would have felt a lot like giving up. And Hecht, a self-described “free spirit” who landed in Asheville in 1995 with a backpack, has worked too hard to make Adorn—a downtown salon that, in seven years, has grown from two employees to ten—into the hip downtown destination that it is. “I still love Asheville,” Hecht says. “Hawaii would almost be like retirement. I just felt like I was committed to what I was doing.”

So last year, at what was arguably a low point in the current long recession, she took a chance. She borrowed around $35,000 from her father-in-law and her mother and moved Adorn from Lexington Avenue into a bigger, higher-profile space downtown. The new shop, in a College Street storefront near Tops For Shoes, opened last October and nearly doubled Adorn’s space. With its high tin ceilings, huge front windows and airy, elegant interior, the new shop, Hecht says, was “everything I ever wanted my salon to be in the first place.”

But how to pay for the steeper rent, renovations and wages for three new staff people? Rather than raise haircut prices ($28 for men, $43 for women), Adorn has started offering a new line of high-end organic products, Intelligent Nutrients, created by the founder of Aveda, Horst Rechelbacher. That includes items like a 6.7-ounce bottle of shampoo made with agave extract and cocoa seed butter that sells for $29, and a bottle of hair spray, also $29 for 6.7 ounces, made from organic aloe leaf juice and pumpkin, among other things. To complement these products, Hecht sells MOP (Modern Organic Products) and Pangea, two less-expensive lines of organic hair products. In the new place, she’s added items like organic handmade soap, clothes by local designers and formaldehyde-free vegan nail polish ($10 a bottle).

On top of all this, she created areas for several new organic spa treatments: a $48 Zen pedicure and foot soak with green tea, rice milk and sake, for example, and a $38 manicure with lavender, milk, honey and oatmeal. “I wanted it all to be organic, food-based and nutritious,” she says of the new scrubs and rubs. “I came up with the recipes myself.”

Yes, it’s all organic, but will her customers bite? Her investment in the new products and services totaled around $5,000. When we checked in with Hecht, three months after Adorn moved into its new space, the salon was falling short of the additional $1,000 a week it needed to cover its new costs. To be sure, Hecht says, some of the services weren’t in full swing yet—her manicurist, for example, didn’t get started until mid-December. And she felt hopeful that, with wedding season right around the corner, sales of manicures, pedicures and styling of all kinds would start to pick up dramatically. But Hecht also agreed to let VERVE ask a panel of experts for their thoughts about her business move, and their advice about how to make the most of her expansion.

Gwen Wisler, Asheville Profits

“If it’s gonna work anyplace, it’s gonna work in Asheville,” says Wisler, a former CEO of the camping and outdoor equipment company Coleman who now runs her own consulting business. Yes, people are willing to pay more for organic products, but how much more? Twenty percent? Double? “I’m a little concerned about these prices,” she says. In fact, because some are so high, Wisler worries that the same people who pay $43 for a haircut might not be that interested in paying $29 for hairspray. “It’s almost like [Adorn] is jumping into a whole different strata of customers,” she says.

Then there’s the problem of getting the word out to wealthier consumers about the new offerings. “I do think that the higher-end consumer is on Facebook,” says Wisler.

• Compare prices of similar premium organic products and services. If your prices are much higher than other shops around town or those in similar cities, lower them.

• Infiltrate a few key groups. You need the “influencers” in a handful of prominent local organizations to help you spread the word. Try women in the Junior League, on symphony boards, or at country clubs, for example. Educate them about the benefits of organic products and services like yours. “It’s a little more guerilla, and it takes a little longer, but that kind of word of mouth is what sticks.”

Don Sinclair, Asheville SCORE

High-end organic is a tough sell in the current climate, says Sinclair, a retired chiropractor and small business counselor with the Asheville chapter of SCORE, the Service Corps Of Retired Executives. Businesses selling upscale products and services of any kind have been hit hard in the current recession, he says.

And if Adorn’s current customers won’t go for the higher-priced goods and services, that means looking for new ones—which could be dicey. “Fundamentally, if she tries to build up a whole new base of customers, it’s like starting a business from scratch,” he says.

• Try selling online. Retail businesses should turn over inventory between three and five times a year. If, after three months or so, some products aren’t selling, putting them online gives you a much wider audience of buyers.

• Get the word out. Contact every person in your current customer database to let them know about your new products and services. Send an email newsletter that includes health tips and the benefits of organic choices.

• Keep your current customers happy—offer them what they need and want. “She has a satisfied customer base,” Sinclair says. “That to me is the heart of her networking and marketing outreach… They serve as the portal of entry to other people.”

Dr. Alycia Fogle, Assistant Professor of Marketing, UNC-Asheville

Even high-end brands like Vera Wang have diversified in the past year because they’ve seen buying patterns fundamentally change. “This is a wake-up call, especially in beauty and fashion,” Fogle says. And competition is stiff for the Asheville consumers still willing to pay for high-end products. Adorn seems to have a younger, edgier vibe, but that crowd may not be able to afford the new products and services over time. Fogle suggests picking an affluent neighborhood in the area and doing a targeted mailing.

• If sales are still sluggish in a few months, lower the prices of some products to see if you can make up for the loss with volume. “[Organic] has been such a competitive advantage in the past, but it’s really gone mainstream,” she says. “People can buy drugstore-type shampoos that are organic.”

• Broaden your customer base. Get the word out to brides and tourists by partnering with Asheville-area hotels, B&Bs and wedding planners to offer Adorn’s spa services like massages and facials.

• Spruce up your website. Add sound and graphics with pizzazz. Post special events or an online coupon. Embed videos—a virtual tour of the salon, product demonstrations, or interviews with the Adorn staff about what’s hot. “People get online to look things up, and if it grabs their attention, they go there.”