Show the love: ‘Breaking the walls’ with Sundial
For 25 years, my family and I have built our business based on one premise — that the beauty industry should fully serve all women. Since then, we have advanced a mission and vision to change the social dialogue about how we’re looking at beauty as a society, and how those archaic structures and views are debilitating to the establishment of new and more inclusive ways of viewing beauty.
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By recognizing that beauty comes in every hair type, skin tone, shade and feature — and by honoring the natural beauty of every woman with natural products that address her individual needs and empower her to celebrate her unique journey — Sundial Brands is serving the New General Market of today and tomorrow.
The United States has indeed changed well beyond demographics, and the cultural shift that we are now witnessing will continue as a defining part of the landscape and future of this nation. This means that as manufacturers, brands and retailers, we have an extraordinary opportunity to shift how we approach and serve all, and as a result, reshape the beauty landscape from one of standardized ideals to one of inclusive representations.
The beauty aisle is the last place in America where segregation is still legal, and separating ‘beauty’ from ‘ethnic’ has only served to further perpetuate narrow standards of what is considered beautiful in our industry and our society.
Sometimes these conversations aren’t easy, but they are necessary for all of us to continue to grow and to better serve our community — not just a few or the largest segment, but all of them.
Earlier this year, we launched the first-ever national awareness platform for our SheaMoisture brand — #BreakTheWalls — to highlight the divisive constructs of beauty and move toward the inclusive experience that all women deserve. But beyond — and perhaps even bigger than that — #BreakTheWalls is sparking the conversation around true inclusion and the embrace of a more empathetic mind-set in our society. It’s about bringing down literal and metaphoric walls that limit us as an industry and as a society, beginning with the hair journey as a metaphor for life — a smaller piece of the larger societal conversation about accepting people.
Core to serving the New General Market effectively is to inspire people to question the boxes that others use to define them, in beauty or otherwise; challenge the status quo with new, more inclusive thinking; and support others in their efforts to break down all the walls that continue to separate us as a society.
Also core to serving the New General Market effectively is for all women to be able to walk into a store and find quality solutions for their needs — well stocked, with a variety of brands and with nothing that subconsciously reinforces a selective assignment of “beauty” for some and not others.
Many retailers have increased efforts to enhance their assortments and merchandising to reflect more inclusion in the near-term, while working with consumers to gain insights and learnings that will help them determine the next level of changes that are ultimately needed to meet their customers’ needs. Even brands that would otherwise be deemed as “competitors” have applauded and embraced our efforts. For us, this is what it’s about — working together to break the walls.
Our purpose at Sundial Brands is to “empower people to live more beautiful lives,” and that goes beyond the superficial of topical beauty. It’s about the connectivity that the acceptance of all beauty — and all people — can bring. It’s about the fundamental concept of how we see each other and how that manifests in how we treat each other.
In fact, at Sundial, we trans formed our General Market approach to a New General Market journey more than two decades ago, first using this term to describe our community of consumers and coining the New General Market as “an amalgamation of cultures, ethnicities and demographics aligned against commonalities, need states and lifestyles.” #BreakTheWalls is an extension of our focus on the New General Market and ensuring that all consumers, especially those who have been traditionally underserved, have an enhanced product and shopping experience based on being served according to their needs, not traditional segmentation.
The beauty industry has asked consumers to conform to narrow standards of beauty for far too long. It’s time for all representations of beauty to be embraced and celebrated, with ample choices to meet her needs wherever she shops. Together, let’s move forward on this path to inclusive beauty — as a society and as an industry — where we #BreakTheWalls that divide us, and where #EverybodyGetsLove.
Richelieu Dennis is cofounder and CEO of Sundial Brands.