Entrepreneur, Hold The Ish: How Tracee Ellis Ross Created A Company For Hair Like Hers

  • 📰 Forbes
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 64 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 29%
  • Publisher: 53%

United States News News

United States United States Latest News,United States United States Headlines

After working on a brand pitch since 2008, Tracee Ellis Ross tapped into the $2.5 billion natural hair care market and launched a hair care line designed for people with curly, coily and tight-textured hair types

, and African-Americans account for almost 90% of the overall dollars spent in the ethnic hair and beauty aids category, according to Nielsen. “The launch of products like Pattern is signaling to black and brown and multiracial women and girls that they are truly being seen and finally celebrated,” says Cheryl Grace, a consumer engagement exec at Nielsen.

Yet when Ross took her pitch to the first marketing agency, the meeting ended in tears. The executive “looked at me and said, ‘I don’t understand why anyone would want hair products from you. And there’s so many hair products in the world, why do you think these don’t exist?’” It was the first time she was asked that. “It was a good question,” Ross says. “It forced me to start finding answers.”

In order to turn Pattern into the product she was always looking for—“a brand that actually felt like it was made by somebody who was in the community,” she says—Ross took full control of her marketing strategy, which consisted of a mobile-only campaign. A big part of that campaign was inviting 35 beauty editors to watch her take a shower and wash her hair using her products in real-time.

Shaun Neff, Pattern’s brand development partner, remembers being impressed by the way Ross asserted her vision on shoots—where she insisted the photographer be a person of color—and in meetings. “I was just sitting back and hearing her talk, hearing her address the market opportunity, hearing her own hair experience, hearing about what she dealt with down to figuring out the humidity level so she’d know what she’s doing with her hair for the day,” he says.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

Nice that the world is finally acknowledging all us mixed-ish

Brilliant! Crush it.

I lobe everything Tracee! 💜

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 394. in US

United States United States Latest News, United States United States Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Uniqlo's warehouse robots on track to replace human workers - Business InsiderUniqlo's robots have already replaced 90% of its human workers at its flagship warehouse, now they've cracked the difficult task of folding T-shirts I will build a professional ecommerce website online store please contact me from fiverr: I'll build a modern WordPress Website according to your requirements.
Source: BusinessInsider - 🏆 729. / 51 Read more »