BEIGE IS THE NEW BLACK & WHITE

A PROVOCATION

“Why the Tanning of America Should Be Mission Critical of the Beauty Industry”

At Translation (www.translationllc.com), we often talk about the “tanning effect” or the results of the tanning of America, as an unexpected outcome of cultural sharing and crossover. Tanning is the force of shared values abutting one another in harmony without regard for the differences in racial identity of the players.

BUT THE TANNING OF AMERICA WAS NOT JUST LIMITED TO THE CULTURAL ACTIVITIES, BUT LEAD TO ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE RACES.Tanning in the literal sense, will present in the near future some very real concerns for the multibillion dollar beauty industry as the separation between ethnic and general market beauty products becomes less defined and by the very nature of mixed phenotypical expressions, requiring more varied skin and haircare solutions for a myriad of hybrid concerns.

“According to the Pew Research and Social Trends 1-in-7 U.S. marriages is interracial or interethnic”

KINKY COILY AND SPLIT ENDS, BUT SLEEK SMOOTH AND SHINY WHEN WET AND GELED. The growth of a polyethnic, multicultural population here in the U.S. introduces a new challenge for personal health care product marketers as with this growth comes an entirely new set of personal care product concerns that are less predictive and far more diversified than ever in our history. The mixed race, multicultural tan family of just a few days from now, will open new micro-markets that beauty companies need to start identifying today, to have fluency in those concerns tomorrow. The science pipeline alone needs to start addressing the myriad of potential outcomes when the progeny of mixed race couples, come into this world. And even more complex still are the socio-economic, cultural, and geographic variances that will form the basis of ethnic identity so highly nuanced that it seems imperative now to build teams that prepare firms to maintain future viability. As I often think about this challenge, I have identified two archetypes to study as I prepare myself for a new landscape of SPF-infused haircare products — shampoos that don’t strip hair but also don’t add too much oil. My two angels of investigation are none other than Nicole Ritchie and Kimora Lee Simmons.

Nicole was raised by African-American Lionel Ritchie and his wife Brenda, whom I’m sure used products for Nicole (who is of Spanish, Afro-Mexican Creole) heritage that they themselves didn’t use. Nicole may or may not have had a legacy of understanding which products specifically worked for her and likely had some trial and error. Now she’s a mom, so her kids are White, Spanish, Afro-Mexican Creole — the potential outcomes of skincare and haircare needs and the changes as they age, I am sure are a process of trial and error. (2)

Kimora Lee Simmons is my other archetype as her daughters are 3/4 African-American and 1/4 Japanese (Kimora is half Japanese and half African-American, while the girls’ father Russell is African American) may have an entirely different range of concerns. But like Nicole, I am sure that the product range available to her are limited and/or varied necessitating I am sure some inventive mixing and matching to get to a perfect solution. (3)

Polyethnic families today are served by a burgeoning market that still emanates from the ethnic hair care aisle, which in itself seems to be an archaic and slightly offensive section of drug and grocery stores. But make no mistake, brands that can “better” address this market will emerge and those that can innovate and lead the systemic advances in the beauty industry will have succeeded at understanding consumer segmentation, product planning, skincare and haircare concerns and communications strategies and science authority, while also building the brand fundamentals to capture consumer interest and desire. But before those cash registers can start ringing, there will need to be even more research to find the baseline norms of the consumer paths to purchase and how these “new” consumers are respond to messaging.

YOU ARE ALREADY OBSOLETE: ALLOW IT TO CATCH UP OR LEAD WITH CONFIDENCE

1. FIND POPULATIONS TO BUILD BASELINE LEARNING. Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Panama and coastal Colombia are key regions of opportunity for baseline learnings as those cultures have centuries of experience in dealing with skincare and haircare concerns born from having highly mixed ancestry. Arrange for R&D, education, marketing and artist teams to go on ethnographic trips to these countries to talk with the real people on the front lines — the hairstylists and makeup artists of local shops. Also remember that these cultures are also very self-sufficient so don’t shy away from getting up close and personal with locals.

2. BUILD ADVOCACY GROUPS AND SOCIAL NETWORKS. Leverage your brand’s owned footprint to build peer networks where consumers can interact and share specific first-hand knowledge, interface with experts, and engage in two-way dialogue with your organization. Be upfront that your brand will be an active participant and monitor to gain key learning and insight toward the development of products that can address the myriad of concerns. Social-listen to these conversations and dive deep into not what they are saying, but how they are saying it. What is the context? Invite the in to meet with you. Give them an active role. Earned brand love today that becomes tomorrow’s product loyalty.

3. PLAN FOR FUTURE COMMUNICATIONS As archaic as I already believe race based segmentation to be in advertising communications, it will become obsolete when there is a sizable segment of the population that has a best of both, or a few, or most worlds growing experience. Look at your own equity and iconography. If you are struggling for relevance and meaning now, how competitive and appealing will your brand be tomorrow. My heart aches when clients fail to realize that the cultural zeitgeist curates away from brands without a name check in a rap song or some hashtag love from Riri, Queen Bey, or Miley (this is hyperbole that is close to being true).

4. DON’T BE AFRAID TO SAY ASHY SKIN. We run from cultural truths that are uncomfortable to say out loud without realizing that your big brain is needed on those topics.Embrace diversity and create education, mentoring and advancement opportunities for multicultural talent that can bring a United Nations quorum to your organization. It is not only the sign of modernity, but it makes great business sense to embody tomorrow today. As well, the more comfortable companies are with speaking broadly to cross-cultural personal care concerns, the more opportunity for true innovation exists. Imagine having a new perspective on some ritual, product, or behavior that has been “that way” since you can remember. Just as we had to grasp the concept of the “cloud” — so will we too need to embrace diversity if the intent is to remain relevant. Companies that are typically averse to change be it technological or cultural, will find it challenging to compete against an influx of new to market competitors staffed by young polyethnic professionals with real world insights and expertise.

5. CONSOLIDATE DIVISIONS. Change however may have to be revolutionary. The ethnic hair care aisle for African-Americans aligns to the Ethnic Beauty Division of the holding companies that create and market the products sold in those aisles. Consolidation of the teams and cross pollinating executives allows for your best and brightest talent to gain cultural fluency and dexterity with time still remaining for new business instincts to form. These divisions have to go eventually — so best to do so on your terms. Think about the universe of headphone manufacturers that sat idly making minor modifications to their product and eschewing cultural fluency oblivious to Beats by Dre. Don’t be the brand that is only used in International First Class.

6. R&D NEEDS TO START D’ING TOMORROW. Product efficacy. Color Palette planning. Fragrance formulation. Ingredient Strategies. pH / Alkalinity. Oil concentration. It would be hubris to assume that there are off the shelf solutions that currently exist. Soon there will be a level playing field. No brand is going to be able to claim dominance. The early entrants that can define star products and become the de-facto standards will win. There are brands that have a strong head start, but every personal care brand can find it’s market-share threatened if Kimora and Nicole decide to team up with the right holding company and start a personal care brand. Don’t wait for the shareholders to tell you so. The fact is that there has not been a sample size large enough to truly find the big bets. And no offense to the companies that market personal care products, but your own science, development and marketing teams are also not fully equipped and cross functional to share the insight by which those big bets can be made. Get in the lab tomorrow and start finding out just how elastic is deionized water across cultural footprints before you find your brand struggling for relevance.

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This phenomenon of tanning is such an exciting opportunity for beauty brands to be bold, daring and pioneering as the new frontier is all but clearly defined. To those professionals in the business today, start making your future plans; and for those who have expertise in cultural marketing, sociology, anthropology and chemistry, the beauty business is going to experience another innovation growth cycle — start thinking about how your might be the solution that they will soon be needing.

And I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of these new products as well as the emergence of new iconic personalities to usher us into this new era with the savvy, dynamism, intellect and insight that Esteē Lauder, Elizabeth Arden, Charles Revson and Max Factor inspire today those of us who have given study their remarkable careers and lives. As an area that I have always found of disproportionate interest to me, this convergence of cultural dynamics with marketing and product innovation is yet another major indicator of how the tanning effect continues to shape the future of our society and found itself directly within my crosshairs to opine.

What do you all think? Let’s get into it.

Tensions + Provocations

Source:

Pew Research Social and Demographic Trends (http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2010/06/04/marrying-out/)

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Richie)

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimora_Lee_Simmons)