May I have your attention please! I need ALL retailers who have eyes to read, and those who have ears, to listen! Oh, and if you're a sister who's a beauty consumer, this post is just for you...
This Valentine's Day, some Wal-Mart/Sam's Club associates received a very special love message from ESSENCE magazine for the 7th installment of their Smart Beauty series titled "The Beauty of Confidence." While there, leaders of the mag, along with some of Hollywood's best, gave their insights on the importance of retailers having a variety of product that don't just cater to the basic needs of the African American female shopper.
In attendance, to help spark conversation for the beauty series, were President of ESSENCE Communications, Inc. Michelle Ebanks; Essence Editor at Large Nikki Taylor; Actresses Sanaa Lathan and Tasha Smith; Soul/Jazz vocalist Ledisi; and COVERGIRL Beauty Ambassador, Sam Fine.
Check out some of ESSENCE's astonishing statistics regarding the black female shopper, and also view key takeaways from the celebrity panel discussion below.
Nikki Taylor's shocking stats on the African American beauty consumer, and why black women need more than just a 4ft section at retailers like Wal-Mart:
"Black women are the most highly engaged beauty consumers in America. We spend over 9 times as much in hair care as others in the nation; 80 percent more on makeup in the nation, even with the lack of product offerings. We are deliberate when it comes to our beauty. We are always looking to style and self express. "Beauty is emotional not transactional." The emotional piece shapes what we define as satisfaction retail. So why are we the consumer getting overlooked? How is it that the shopper who over indexes in the beauty market only has one small section in the beauty aisles?...Everything that comes to speak to us in retail needs to say the same thing. That we are beautiful."
Tasha Smith on the importance of communication regarding the black female shoppers beauty needs:
"We don't want to have to rule the world and crawl on our knees to find a product. We have to be more vocal and communicate what it is we need. When we don't see a product we don't make a phone call or an email to say what we need. Like the bible says, ask and you shall receive!"
Sanaa Lathan on the need for more color in the beauty industry:
"Social media is helping reflect us. People are starving to see themselves. You don't realize what it does to a persons self worth when you don't see yourself everyday. It's so important in more ways than just feeling good to see yourself reflected...I feel like it's finally happening."
Sam Fine on the importance of having a high quality beauty product for black women:
"Finding the right product is like finding gold. We'll go out of our way to find it and pay for it if it does what it's suppose to do. Queen [Latifah] challenged the aesthetic of what a cover girl is suppose to look like."
I have to say that this panel was so great and awesome to experience! It felt so good to take part in such a needed conversation, and to also witness leaders within the beauty industry share their thoughts on why it's so essential for barriers to be broken when it comes to exposing all sides of beauty.
I think Wal-Mart sparked a great conversation for expanding beauty needs within the black community, and I'm actually anxious to see which retailers will hop on board.
After all, WE are the "essence" of the sales, and everyone knows, that the numbers don't lie ;)
Myself with the beautiful Tasha Smith and Sanaa Lathan:
Ledisi:
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