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When Tristan Walker decided to move his company to Atlanta in 2018, the change of scenery seemed counterintuitive to the dream of becoming a Silicon Valley darling.
But it was exactly what Walker envisioned. He wanted the headquarters for his brand Bevel, a health and beauty company specializing in razors for Black men, located where Black people actually live.
The Face Of America Is Changing. CEO Tristan Walker Says Brands Need To Respect And Respond To That Founded in 2013, Bevel initially focused on single-blade razors for Black men, and has since expanded its line to include hair and skin care products.
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The company was acquired by Procter & Gamble in 2018.Walker believes people’s differences should be recognized in the health and beauty space.“As a Black man, I have a different hair type. I have a different skin type.
And those needs should be respected,” he says. “As I walk down retail aisles, I deserve not only products that work for me, but also a design experience that doesn’t make me feel like a second class citizen.
Black Americans spend about $1.3 trillion dollars per year, roughly the size of Australia’s entire GDP. Despite having so much purchasing power, Black women and men find themselves rummaging around the ethnic beauty aisle searching for products that feature a 70-year-old Black man in a towel drinking Cognac while petting a tiger on the packaging, Walker says.
Black consumers are “the most culturally influential demographic in the world,” he says.But many companies undervalue Black consumers because their employee-base doesn’t reflect the diversity of their audience.
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Walker & Company, which owns Bevel and women’s haircare brand Form, employs a majority of people of color and has Black women in most leadership positions to reflect its customer base.created a new market with Bevel.
No one really took a pause to ask why was the market so small?” he says. “Perhaps the market is so small because you don’t have products that serve the needs of the community.”In the wake of the killing of George Floyd, many companies have responded in different ways from rebranding Aunt Jemima to running Black Lives Matter commercials.
Walker says he supports the progress and feels grateful that these actions — that should have been taken a long time ago — are happening nowCompanies are realizing the power consumers have to support brands that share their values, he says.
Black-owned businesses have faced difficulties receiving money from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, which echoes a longstanding issue regarding access to capital.
A study by the Center for Responsible Lending found that 46% of white-owned businesses could get credit from the bank compared to 23% of Black-owned businesses. Watch full video👇
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