Target seeks support for black-owned beauty brands

Photography courtesy of Target

Target is looking to bridge a long-standing backlog in shelf representation of many retailers of personal care and beauty products created by and / or for people of color with a new program to support health and beauty brands owned. to blacks.

As part of the Building Blocks for Better Products (B3P) program, Minneapolis-based Target works with 27 Black, Indigenous and Color businesses.– brands currently worn by Target (eg, Rosen Skincare, Girl + Hair) as well as small startups, Target noted on his Bullseye blog on Friday.

One of the main goals of the program is to help participating companies in their efforts to manufacture “clean” health and beauty products – those made without unwanted chemicals such as phthalates and parabens – as well as suitable items. to vegans. To do this, Target leverages its connections with product development and analysis platforms, including Novi Connect and Chem Forward, to help B3P participating companies evaluate their products and identify a variety of options. ingredients and formulation.

Hair care of the young king CEO Cora Miller, who launched her natural hair care brand for black and brown boys after the birth of her son Kade in 2017, has praised B3P. “This program has really helped us assess both our current product offerings as well as new innovations,” Miller said in the Target blog post. Young King Kids’ Curling Cream, Leave-In Conditioner, and Essential Oils are now available at Target.

“Our goal is to support black-owned businesses and reduce the opportunity gap for women and people of color in business,” Target said, adding that B3P is “just one example of how whose size and scale we use to support small businesses and entrepreneurs. ” In April, the retailer pledged to spend $ 2 billion by the end of 2025 with black-owned businesses.

Rival Walmart announced in August its exclusive launch of a range of Baby Dove products created specifically for babies with melanin-rich skin. Walmart worked with Baby Dove maker Unilever on product development–a collaboration that allowed the partners “to accelerate the commercialization of a solution for various families to better meet the needs of our customers,” said at the time Ralph Clare, vice president of consumables at Walmart in the United States. United.

Market analyst Nielsen noted in April that black and Latin consumers have boosted sales of personal care products in the United States over the past year. “Hispanic and African American consumers are spending a lot of money on other ethnic groups when it comes to beauty and personal care, and we can expect multicultural consumers to fuel the growth of cosmetics,” Nielsen said in an analysis of the. category.

For more on this topic, see “The Color of Self-Care” in WGBSeptember / October issue.