IntroductionTo sustain in the industry, a firm needs to find its relative position and find out its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats and it needs to identify its competitors and perform competitive analysis. To explore the pattern of competition among different firms of a particular industry, I have chosen the beauty parlors of my neighborhood, Bashundhara R/A. Nowadays, due to the wide exposure of television, media and internet, almost all the women want to look beautiful and maintain their position in the society. This beauty is the external beauty that they try on themselves because these days women are more conscious about their face and beauty. For looking beautiful and attractive, almost all of them spend some portion of their personal or household income every month in the beauty parlors. For beautifying themselves they often visit the beauty parlors and take different services. Previously the beauty parlors provided very limited services. However, nowadays most of the beauty parlors have expanded their services starting from threading up to spa and other exotic services.In Bashundhara R/A, there are some small, one medium sized and one large beauty parlors. The parlors chosen for this report are: A. 13

B. Shahnaz Husains Signature Salon EvesC. Essence by Kelly BeD. Rup Ruposhi Beauty ParlorE. Shibanis Aroma Beautys World

Women living in Bashundhara R/A who feel of beauty care definitely think any one of the these beauty parlors.

About the ParlorsA. Shahnaz Husains Signature Salon EvesThe largest and most widely renowned beauty parlor and the market leader in Bashundhara R/A is the Shahnaz Husains Signature Salon Eves which was established on August 2012. It is situated at the Pizza Hut Delivery Building and its area comprises of few thousand square feet. It is run by Miss Nazia Marzia, proficient beautician and chairperson of the parlor. This beauty parlor is very famous for its vast range of excellent services and highly experienced and expert beauticians and hairdressers. The service provided by this parlor is superior compared to the other nearby parlors because they possess all the state-of-the-art beauty and make up kit and they use high quality products for providing their services. In addition, they have employed a large number of beauticians and hairdressers who can serve up to 20 customers at a time without forming a queue. The cost of availing the beauty services at this parlor ranges from Tk 40 for Eye Brows Pluck, Tk 500 for regular facial up to Tk 15,000 for Bridal make up. Their price plan is the highest compared to the other three parlors still lots of customers are attracted due to their superior service and soothing ambient. Most of the women living in Bashundhara R/A are financially well off and they visit Shahnaz Husains Signature Salon Eves because nowadays women are really conscious about their prettiness and they do not like compromising with their face and beauty. Therefore, averages of 45 to 50 customers visit this parlor every day.

B. Essence by Kelly Be

This is the market challenger in my neighborhood. It is located next to Hotcake. It is the medium sized parlor with an area of 800 to 1000 square feet and it was established on January 2012. Owned by Miss Jesmin Sultana, this parlor is famous for its variety of services.

This parlor is providing services almost similar to the services provided by Shahnaz Husains Signature Salon Eves. However, Essence by Kelly Be is lagging behind for the following reasons: They can provide service up to eight customers at a time (3 haircuts or threading, 2 facial, 2 pedicures and manicures and 1 piercing) which is very limited. This parlor has some of the state-of-the-art make up and beauty kits and equipments, not all of those. The machines that Essence by Kelly Be uses are not the latest one. Due to smaller in area, this parlor does not have the facility of spa in their service list. To overcome the drawbacks and to compete with Shahnaz Husains Signature Salon Eves, Essence by Kelly Be came up with the idea of lower price, different packages, discounts and home services. Thus, Essence by Kelly Be gets 25 to 30 customers daily. Its price starts from Tk 35 for Eye Brows Pluck, Tk 400 for regular facial and ranges up to Tk 10,000 for Bridal Make up. Therefore, it is convenient for the upper middle class women or female students of Bashundhara R/A to visit this parlor and obtain the services.

C. Rup Ruposhi Beauty ParlorA very popular beauty parlor of Bashundhara R/A is Rup Ruposhi Beauty Parlor which is situated beside the Best Clean Dry Cleaners covering an area of about 400 to 500 square feet and was established on April 2008. It is the first beauty parlor of Bashundhara R/A and is known by almost every women residing here. At first this parlor was doing monopoly business. However, after the emergence of the other parlors it gradually became the follower due to financial budget constraint while other parlors came up with better services with the state-of-the-art kits and equipments and bigger budgets. Therefore, to sustain in the industry, they are trying to provide the facilities according to their position and capacity. For instance, This parlor does not have a wide range of facial services and therefore, they try to imitate the leaders and challengers by providing the facial services manually. Besides, this parlor does not have the electric razors and other kits for haircuts. Thus, they use only scissors for haircuts and therefore they can provide limited number of hair styles to their customers such as straight cut, v cut and blunt cut.

Rup Ruposhi Beauty Parlor does not have any uniqueness in its services, it provides the usual services offered by any beauty parlor to the middle class women and housewives and therefore it can be classified as the market follower. Thus, they receive 8 to 10 customers everyday and they have the capability to serve at most 5 customers at a time. The pricing scheme of Rup Ruposhi Beauty Parlor is lower than the other two parlors mentioned above. Its price starts from Tk 30 for Eye Brows Pluck, Tk 300 for normal facial and ranges up to Tk 8,000 for Bridal Make up. Thus, it is suitable for the middle class women to visit this parlor and avail the services for beautifying themselves.

D. Shibanis Aroma Beautys World

Shibanis Aroma Beautys World is the small sized beauty parlor in Bashundhara R/A which is located at the Dutch Bangla Bank Building covering an area of about 400 to 500 square feet and it started its journey in 2010. This parlor came up to compete with Rup Ruposhi Beauty Parlor with similar kinds of services and is also the market follower. It also has financial budget constraint like Rup Ruposhi beauty parlor and it doesnt have the state-of-the-art kits and equipments.

Similar to Rup Ruposhi beauty parlor, to sustain in the industry, they are also trying to provide the facilities according to their ability. For instance, Due to low budget it doesnt have all the modern amenities and therefore, they try to imitate the leaders and challengers by providing the services manually. This parlor offers only two to three types of haircuts and facials and regular make up service to its customers. They have gone for mobility barriers by promoting Shibanis Aroma beauty products.

This parlor receives 8 to 10 customers everyday and they have the potential to serve at most 4 customers at a time. The pricing plan of D beauty parlor is same as Rup Ruposhi beauty parlor and lower than the market leader and challenger. Its price also starts from Tk 30 for Eye Brows Pluck, Tk 300 for regular facial and ranges up to Tk 8,000 for Bridal Make up. Thus, it is suitable for the middle class women and female students of Bashundhara R/A to visit this parlor and avail the services for beautifying themselves.

Nature of CompetitionThe beauty parlor business in localities can be classified into differentiated oligopolistic competition because there are only few firms and each has some unique attribute or little differentiation in their service. The chosen beauty parlors in Bashundhara R/A each has a slight differentiation in them. For instance, Shahnaz Husains Signature Salon Eves provides superior quality service and spa, Essence by Kelly Be offers different packages, discounts and home services and Rup Ruposhi and Shibanis Aroma Beautys World charges the lowest price.

Unique attributesShahnaz Husains Signature Salon Eves: Superior Service, Expert Beauticians, and Large Area. Essence by Kelly Be: Different packages, Discounts, Home services and Lower price. Rup Ruposhi and Shibanis Aroma Beautys World: Lower price.

The competition between them is intense. The ratio of market shares is fluctuating due to the entrants of the new and potential parlors during the last five years. Moreover, customers often change the parlor because of time constraint. For instance, if one just needs to pluck her eye brows, she doesnt need to be concerned about the quality of service. Thus she will visit the nearest parlor and take the service.

Matching with Principles of CompetitionA. Barriers

B. Porter Five Forces Among the five forcers, Porters two forces work for this industry,

Competitive Rivalry within an Industry: The competition among the parlors is intense, especially between the market leader and the market challenger. Threat of New Entrants: The threat of new entrants is also vital since it doesnt require much capital investment to set up a beauty parlor and it is a lucrative and booming industry.

Figure: Porters ForcesC. Current strategies

Discussion and ConclusionNowadays a significant portion of the women work and thus they are financially well off. Therefore, this segment of the customers of Bashundhara R/A always visit the market leader or Shahnaz Husains Signature Salon Eves. Also, most of the people living in Bashundhara R/A are financially well off. Therefore, these housewives look for better quality of service rather than its cost. Thus, it is an added advantage for the market leader to grab the maximum market share because they are proving superior quality service in exchange of highest price. Moreover, services provided by the beauty parlors are taken on a monthly basis. Therefore, even if the price is a bit higher, women do not consider that rather they search for superior quality service because women do not like compromising their beauty with money. Female students and middle class women living in Bashundhara R/A prefer visiting the market challenger or Essence by Kelly Be because it is easy on their pocket. Since this segment have limited amount of money to spend their living with, therefore they often visit the market challenger. However, once in a while or on special occasions they visit the market leader and pay premium price to get the premium quality service. In the competition between the market leader and the market challenger, the market followers are losing their market share day by day. However, they are trying to sustain with whatever they have. In the long run, they need to improve their quality of service and widen the service list. None of the parlors in Banshundhara R/A can be classified as a market Nicher. The parlors of Bashundhara R/A are trying their level best to satisfy their customers with the quality of service. There are always chances for expanding the business as well as for exiting from the business. There is also chance of adding some new facilities to the existing services. Therefore, the parlor industry is doing very well in Bashundhara R/A and it has the potential of growing.