. In a similar fashion, Ready to Beauty brought together more than 70 professionals from the general beauty market, to compare and contrast data findings. The general beauty market panel, which included current and former students from The Fashion Institute of Technology’sCourtesy Ready to Beauty, says the company doubled its business in 2020, adding that the brand saw success in quickly adapting to the disruption caused by the pandemic.
Grace, currently a strategic adviser to Ready to Beauty's data study and author of the study's foreword, was assisted by a team of researchers from Nielsen for the qualitative data review. She says there are a number of instances that showed a disconnect between what the Black panel participants say they need from the industry and what members of the general market panel presumed they need.
When the Black beauty brand owners were asked the same question, 92 percent pointed instead to investments and/or working capital as the top economic reform needed to better assist Black-owned brands, with mentoring and improving business skills coming in at second .
"I've seen that [advertising] discounts are being given and breaks are being given to smaller brands like mine," she explains. "Before, they would charge a [Unilever] the same amount they would charge a Camille Rose. It's impossible for us to compete that way, and they're realizing that." This played out in the pandemic in the case of the U.S. Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program loan, says William Towns, adjunct professor of social impact at Northwestern University. He says Black people have historically experienced challenges related to connections and relationships with banks or lending institutions.