As my students know, I'm a great fan of using history to
help teach modern-day entrepreneurial tactics and strategy. February is Black History Month and as such
offers us a fine example of target marketing and also an outstanding female
entrepreneurial role model, Madame CJ Walker - America's first self-made female
millionaire. Mme. Walker amassed her
fortune in the early 20th century with a line of hair care and cosmetics
products for African American women.
I was reminded of Mme. Walker's successes when I read about
Tristan Walker (no relation to Mme. Walker) who recently put
out a new line of products for the skin-care and beauty-product industry for
African-Americans. Mr. Walker got a
training position of entrepreneur-in-residence at Andreessen
Horowitz, the Silicon Valley venture capital
firm, a leading venture capital firm. His time at Andreessen Horowitz gave him
a good idea about what makes a first-class company and what investors are
likely to support. Chief among those
good ideas, of course, is finding a ready and willing target market.
In Mr. Walker's case that market is
African-American men. Walker’s first product is Bevel,
a set of shaving products for men with coarse and/or curly hair. The shaving products are just about to hit the
market and it will be interesting to see if they succeed. It will take a lot to match the success of
Mme. Walker, whose hair products dominated the African-American market for at
least the first 25 years of the last century and are still available in limited supply
today.
In each Walker’s case, of course the
target market was clearly defined. When
done properly, a company with a well delineated target market has a good chance
of success.
Speaking of success, I’m hoping a great
number of students this Spring will enter the Center for Entrepreneurship’s Business Concept Competition which
culminates on Friday April 11 with our first-ever four school final, aka The
Future Four. You can read all about it
on our website. I'll have a lot more to say about it in the coming days and
weeks.
