Thursday, February 13, 2014

Black History Month



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.