On her big deal with Target…
HANDS UP if you’ve been to Target and have seen how they group Miss Jessie’s, Shea Moisture, Jane Carter Solution, Kinky Curly, CURLS for Target, etc. altogether? Were you not surprised at this when you first saw it? I would have never expected Target to be the first major store to bring in a large amount of Black-owned companies’ products in like they did. From a PR perspective, it was definitely a good move to change the demographics of customers in the store. As Jane spoke to me about this huge milestone, she seemed very humbled to have her products in Target. JCS can be purchased online and other retailers such as Whole Foods, but Whole Foods, though a major retailer, can’t be found as prevalent nationwide as Target (or maybe that’s a personal observation? There’s not a Whole Foods within 90 miles of me, but there’s 2 Targets within 10 minutes from my house).
Many places that we go to for hair products have very little ethnic buyers Sallys, military bases, etc. Few ethnic buyers means less reasons for these stores to sell products that are categorized as “ethnic”. Jane shares that it’s hard to cross over in hair industry (as I pondered that, it sunk in just how true that is; I never realized that!) and the move to Target was a step in that direction. People buy based on convenience i.e. Target. And that is how they pull in much of their demographics. Being sold in Target opens up “demographic doors” that other retailers wouldn’t have opened.
On the demographics of JCS…
It was so interesting to hear Jane’s thoughts on demographics. She feels so strongly that products shouldn’t have to be categorized as “ethnic”. Shopping in the “ethnic” aisle has always made me mad because I don’t understand why I’m standing in the ethnic aisle, but there aren’t any White aisles or any other aisles categorized by anything, let alone ethnicity. Jane is committed to changing the notion that Black hair is different than White hair and that we can’t use the same products based on our skin color. Instead, she is advocating for categorization by straight, wavy, curly, etc. If you think about this, it’s true. Nowadays I look at a product based on if it works for curly hair, not necessarily whether or not it’s in the “ethnic” aisle. Her products are purchased by a wife of demographics, ranging from African-American women, biracial women, women with biracial children, “tree huggers”, etc. JCS products can be used by anybody and that’s the intent. One of the reasons that she started her product line was because of frustration from having to combine product lines on her customers’ hair because only certain products reacted well on their hair. JCS products work well together to benefit a wide range of hair from straight to curly.
Stay tuned for Part 3 (Jane's thoughts on social media in the natural hair community) tomorrow!
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