Ethnic hair care manufacturers expand lines - page2
Hair care products for ethnic market.
Author: Molly Prior
Luster Products' Pink brand flas added momenturn to its success in texturizers,
with this summer's launch of ShortLooks, a texturizing system intended to help
women of color achieve natural-looking styles. The ShortLooks product line includes
a no-mix, no-lye texturizer, SassAFraz Styling Spray and Gel'N Styling Gel.
Come January, Johnson Products will add more competition to the ethnic set with
the national launch of GentleTreatment: Style revival, a line of nine hair care
products designed to repair and revitalize hair during each step of the styling
process. GentleTreatment, formulated for African-American women with relaxed,
color-treated and damaged hair, features natural ingredients such as lavender
extract and contains Hydra-Nutritive Complex V1--a blend of Vitamin E, Aloe
Vera and Hydrolyzed Silk Proteins that moisturize and strengthen hair. The line,
consisting of styling items such as Daily Hydrator Creme Moisturizer, Heat Manager
Protectant Spray, Designing Gel and Fabulously Gray! Yellow-Out Conditioner,
already has rolled out to several key accounts. GentleTreatment semi-permanent
hair color, promising the staying power of a permanent, also has rolled out
to key accounts and will join the entire line in its national debut in 2003.
To give moms more styling options for their little ones' natural, not yet chemically
treated hair, Johnson Products created US Kids by Ultra Sheen, the first line
developed to preserve and maintain natural hair for children. All products in
the seven-item line--from Curl Release Balm to Detangler--are formulated with
a multi-vitamin complex of vitamins A, C and E, and contain a blend of rosemary
and safflower oil to add a healthy sheen to hair and prevent breakage. US Kids
grape fragrance also makes it kid friendly to the line's target age group of
children from birth to 12 years old.
To address a broader multicultural base, Johnson Products will launch a new
brand called Reflexions. The line, intended for pure conditioning, is formulated
with a slew of natural ingredients, such as shea butter, avocado, soybean and
safflower oil. Reflexions will bow first in the beauty and barber channel and
then makes it way to drug stores sometime next year.
Special needs section
Increasingly, the consumer heading to the ethnic set for hair care products
is more difficult to pigeonhole. "Many consumers have hair care needs that
are not race based," said Chapman. The "changing complexion of America,
as Chapman referred to it, may require retailers to re-evaluate how they describe
and label the ethnic department. She suggested retailers can entice the multicultural
consumer in with signage that reads, "special needs section" and,
in the future, to organize products by hair need, such as curly, relaxed or
dry.
Establishing the department as an ethnic center--featuring categories such as
hair care, hair accessories, skin care and cosmetics--could potentially be a
very powerful sales generator, said Erez Barak, vice president of marketing
and sales for Bi-Lo Distributors, which distributes personal care products in
the Northeast.
Several vendors nodded to CVS and Rite Aid about making their ethnic sets more
relevant to their customers. Rite Aid, for example, is using data gleaned from
several of its vendors and is taking a much more regional approach to its ethnic
assortment and has changed its buying structure to do so.
The onslaught of styling lines formulated for the specific hair needs of ethnic
women promises to liven up a category that is experiencing softness. And, fortunately
for manufacturers and retailers, the need to look good 24/7 does not waver in
a troubled economy.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further
reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group
Other Pages
Expansion
of ethnic hair lines(part1)
Expansion of ethnic hair lines(part2)
