In the May issue of Ebony magazine (ebonyjet.com/ebony) now out on newsstands, there’s a cover-promoted feature by senior writer Adrienne P. Samuels headlined “Guess Who Sells Your Weave?” with an additional line that reads, “Koreans Capitalize On Black Beauty’s Big Business.”

      The article is causing a stir in the multicultural beauty products sector, though to me there’s little that’s new in the piece. All the players you’d expect are quoted, including Jinny Beauty Supply’s Eddie Jhin, Mid-K Beauty Supply’s Philip Kim, and American Health and Beauty Aids Institute chairman Clyde Hammond. An exception is the Black Owned Beauty Supply Association (bobsaone.org, 650.357.0073)—which gets a one-sentence mention.

      Now more than four years old, BOBSA is creating more black-owned, brick-and-mortar and online beauty stores. The organization has 2,800-plus members. And, recently, it announced the opening of a distribution warehouse in Tulsa, OK, and a wholesale co-op buying program with SoftSheen-Carson.

See you next Wednesday,
Marc

A vast majority of U.S. “luxury consumers” plans to not spend their tax-rebate checks, according to a new survey conducted by Unity Marketing (unitymarketingonline.com), a marketing consulting firm that specializes in consumer insights for retailers and marketers. That’s bad news for beauty stores that sell any high-end product as well as salon stores that provide an upscale health and/or beauty service.

      Over a five-day period earlier this month, Unity Marketing surveyed 1,258 luxury consumers with an average income of $173,400 and an average age of 45.9 years old. Three out of five people expect to receive a tax-rebate check. Of these, 27% intend to use it to pay down debt; 26% say they’ll save it; 16% state they’ll invest it; and only 11%—slightly more than 1 in 10—indicate that they’ll splurge on something special.

      “The affluent luxury consumers are the ‘heavy lifters’ when it comes to consumer spending,” comments Pam Danziger, Unity Marketing president/founder, and author of Shopping: Why We Love It and How Retailers Can Create the Ultimate Customer Experience (Kaplan Publishing, 2006, $27, in bookstores now). “The top 20% of households based upon income—which corresponds to Unity’s survey sample—spends about twice as much the typical U.S. household across the board. When they choose to hold back on their spending, the effects are felt far and wide.

      “Unfortunately, the tax rebate is unlikely to have much effect on retail spending among these shoppers,” Danziger continues. “A far more meaningful economic stimulus for the American economy would result from reducing the price of gasoline and improving the value of the dollar against foreign currencies.”

      For some time, I’ve heard about the ever-rising price of gas as one of the chief worries of beauty store owners and managers across the United States. Who will “get used to” $4 plus-per-gallon 87-octane at the pump? Now, seeming to confirm Danziger’s remarks, I’m hearing a lot about the weak value of the American dollar against major foreign currencies as a top concern from a number of U.S. marketers who have just returned from Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna (cosmoprof.com) in Italy on April 10-14.

See you next Wednesday,
Marc

Recently, two major suppliers to beauty stores—Los Angeles-based Spilo Worldwide (spilo.com) and Hauppauge, NY-based J&D Beauty Products (jdbeauty.com)—announced manufacturers rep changes.
      In the Southeast, Spilo is now being repped by Southeast Rep Services (803.285.8689, 803.285.8690, srstom@comporium.net). And J&D Beauty has picked up BTB Southeast Sales Group (800.241.5440, 770.518.6171, btbsoutheast@aol.com) as well as Jay Halaby & Associates in the West (800.651.2106, jay@jayhalaby.net).
      The moves are expected to boost sales of the companies’ products. It’ll be interesting to see how these changes play out in the coming months.

Just a little more than two weeks ago, Procter & Gamble announced that it had signed an agreement to purchase Frédéric Fekkai & Co. Read the details about this interesting transaction in the May Beauty Store Business (Industry Update, page 14), which started mailing from our printer yesterday.
      This was a win-win deal for P&G and well-known hairstylist Frédéric Fekkai. P&G picks up a hot haircare brand in the U.S. prestige channel to complement its impressive portfolio of retail and professional haircare brands. And Fekkai continues to build on the great success he has achieved thus far.
      “Our goal is to preserve the integrity of the Fekkai business, products and salons as sources of new product inspiration and consumer understanding,” says Craig Bahner, P&G’s vice president and general manager for North America Hair Care. “We see an opportunity to learn from and build this unique business model.” From coast to coast in the U.S. salon industry, we’ll all be watching closely—as will top executives at L’Oréal in France.

See you next Wednesday,
Marc

While attending a Dodgers-Red Sox exhibition baseball game last weekend in Los Angeles (no, not the one that struck a new record of 115,300 in attendance), I came across a startling fact: This year’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game, which will be held at Yankee Stadium and is bound to be memorable, is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. PDT—the exact close of the last day at Cosmoprof North America 2008 (cosmoprofamerica.com) in Las Vegas.

      No, this isn’t a late April Fools Day hoax. I don’t fool around when it comes to baseball. What I want to know is, how did this happen? As it stands, we baseball fans throughout the beauty industry will be caught in a getaway-day dilemma during the most important business-to-business show of the year.

      Unfortunately, from what I hear, CPNA is locked in with its dates at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Convention Center. And I doubt that baseball commissioner Bud Selig, who seems to have his hands full with the steroids scandal and all, would be willing at this late date to move the game to another day—not even for a few tons of new (and free) beauty products.

      The best solution, ladies and gentlemen fans? Let’s get working right away on some of those marketing whizzes who plan suppliers’ show activities. Maybe one will move his or her company’s posh party/event to AFTER the show. I’m serious. FOX will broadcast the midsummer classic. Think of the social-calendar rotation then: Saturday night, July 12, the Get Together Party; Sunday night, July 13, the 19th Annual North American Hairstyling Awards; Monday night, July 14, the City of Hope Spirit of Life Award cocktail party and dinner; and Tuesday night, July 15, the 79th All-Star Game. What a grand slam that would be!

      But back to reality and my sad-but-probable scenario: Catching parts of the game at one of those bars at Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport or on the radio while driving along Interstate 15.

See you next Wednesday,
Marc