Earlier in the chapter we explored the case example of the Japanese hairdressers, QBNET. The service concept for QBNET is essentially a simple and no-frills barbering service. The QBNET service has been phenomenally successful in Southeast Asia, and latterly has begun expansion into other regions. Ironically, the UK has seen the opposite with the growth of the full-service barber where previously most men’s hairdressing was simple, minimalistic and very much like the QBNET offering. Turkish Barber’s Club opened the doors of its first traditional barber shop in Birmingham, bringing the traditional style, heritage and full service of Turkish barbering to the UK’s second-largest city.

The chain proved a huge success, and 10 years later had 10 branches throughout the local region. Turkish Barber’s Club was not the first of its kind in the UK but was certainly one of the earliest full-service barbers to be successful. After its success, the city experienced phenomenal growth in the Turkish barber concept and both city centre and suburbs saw the rise of many emulators of Turkish Barber’s Club. If one chooses any high street in the suburbs of greater Birmingham, within a 10-minute walk one could pass three or four Turkish barbers. But some local people claimed that the Turkish barber market had become oversaturated.8 Try to identify which aspects of the service concept for a typical Turkish barber could be seen as the most important. In other words, on what should managers focus so as to make their particular take on the Turkish barber shop sustainable in the long term?