Case Studies

Coastline Education

Subscription Library & E-Commerce

The Brief

The beauty industry is constantly changing in terms of techniques, products, trends, and customer demands. The best salon owners pursue continuing education to remain up-to-date, relevant, and profitable. Coastline Education provides salon owners a robust curriculum built around chemistry, design and business to help create profitable salons. Instructors would travel to salons across the country performing in-person education and selling products related to the in-person instruction. Competitors provide education to stylists and salon owners, but only within one brand. For example, if a salon uses L'Oreal products, they are only allowed to receive L’Oreal education. Coastline's biggest differentiator from the competition is that they provide brand-free education. The company’s president, Lisa Kelley, is arguably the single most well-rounded salon educator in the country. With 33 years of experience as a hairstylist, chemical formulation expert, and author of over 10 professional color manuals, her ability to help salon owners view their business from all essential angles is second to none. She has written the professional-use instructions on the bottles many of you hold in your hands every day, and she is a leading expert witness in court for hair color lawsuits throughout the country, called on by both sides to provide testimony regarding the science and painful chemical repercussions of improper hair color use, lack of proper clarification, and product failure. As the former Director of Education for a large distributor in the Northeast, and National Director of Education for a privately owned manufacturer of hair color products, she worked in the labs with chemists from the biggest companies in the world, learning how they develop, market, and upsell overpriced products through sales presentations, passed off as “product education” to their biggest customer - the salon owner.

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The Problem

When COVID hit, Coastline Education could no longer offer in-person instruction and the business was struggling to find the right videographers and developers for the transition to tech education. Plus, the online ordering system they rolled out was not scalable or efficient. The existing website image did not properly represent the brand, mission, or compelling offerings. The site itself was prone to bugs resulting in a disappointing user experience. Moreover, the online presence lacked search engine optimization so prospects were just not finding the site.

Coastline was not recording any in-person events. So the first step was to start recording content, that is where Namra came in.

A need to pivot in an time of pandemic.

Taking product orders over the phone in 2021.

This website needed to combine it's education platform with a robust eCommerce store and look good doing it.

The Solution

Kingside Development took an all-encompassing approach that tackled branding, marketing, back-end optimization, e-commerce, and profitability. They partnered with videographers at Namra Consulting and created a vast educational video library and a SKU-based eCommerce shop with smart categorization, automated ordering, and scalable, subscription-based pricing. A robust e-commerce component was developed so Coastline could fully capitalize on the website offerings. Full-scale payment processing was set-up and implemented.

A full-breakdown of Coastline Education's needs in the online space.

Partnering with professional videographers at Namra Consulting to help the client deliver content.

A sleek, modern website capable of hosting and selling content.

Completely revamping Coastline Education's sales pipeline and online presence.

The Results

The business is now virtually hands-free as all education components are in an online website-based library. It's subscription-based which drives reliable profitability. Moreover, new Instruction videos are a lot easier as they now have a studio set-up. No more travel expenses and facility rental to only a few dozen students at a time. Coastline Education now has hundreds of subscribers and is reaching an ever-growing student base.

A subscription-based video library capable of distributing their content nationally.

Passive income generation through subscription sales.

A full studio setup that allows Coastline Education to create more content easily.

Hundreds of subscribers and a growing student base.

The Showcase

After a lengthy design and development process, Coastline Education is doing better than ever. A re-conceptualized business model and embrace of best digital practices has revitalized a brand and helped hundreds of potential students build a future for themselves.

Passive income generation through subscription sales.

A full studio setup that allows Coastline Education to create more content easily.

Hundreds of subscribers and a growing student base.

And Another One

- DJ Khaled

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