A Design Essential Natural model
Hair is on our heads and on our minds. The search for the right style — and the right products to maintain it — is never-ending.
The family behind hair care brand Design Essentials has been in the hair business since the 1970s. They’ve seen four decades of hair styles come and go. They know that staying current, ahead of the curve even, is critical to maintaining relevance.
Cornell McBride Jr.
“From a historical standpoint, the 70s had a sense of pride with the afros,” Cornell McBride Jr., president of McBride Research Laboratories told MadameNoire on a recent phone call. Cornell McBride, Sr., the president and CEO of McBride Research Laboratories, launched M&Ms Product Companies back in 1973. One of their first big products was Sta-Sof-Fro, a product for men’s hair. By the 80s, the company had a number of big products, including Sof-N-Free, Moxie, and Curly Perm. That company was sold to Johnson Products in 1989. McBride Research Laboratories has been producing Design Essentials for more than 20 years.
“There was a change to relaxers then curls to relaxers,” McBride Jr. continues. “And now, it’s an evolution. Women are exploring natural [hair] because of liberation.”
As much as we think about our hair, we don’t want to be consumed with it. Our hair care products have always worked to keep us looking good. But now they have the added duty to make our lives a little easier. To innovate, Design Essentials has to bring customers the products to fit the lives they live.
“She wants flexibility with her lifestyle,” McBride continues highlighting the average woman’s active life working out at the gym, tending to family, and enjoying leisure time, and more. Living life by a stylist’s schedule is impossible.
A Design Essentials web banner
Some of the most recent innovations in hair care and beauty include the use of keratin as a hair straightener.
“Hair is a protein. So is keratin. With heat, you can wear the hair straight for a certain period of time,” McBride explains. There are other benefits as well.
“Scientific results show strengthening with some kind of protein-based system,” McBride adds.
But more than that, the real innovation in the hair care industry has been the relationships between the customer, the stylist, and the beauty companies.
“The stylist is seen as a consultant,” McBride says. “Consumers think they’re more partners, regardless of the style they’re trying to achieve.” Moreover, there are more sources for information; a focus on “consumer-focused knowledge” as McBride says. With tons of hair bloggers, YouTube, and other online sources, if a stylist doesn’t have the answer someone else does.
And once the consumer has the answer, they’re ready to go about making it happen, no time to waste. For Design Essentials, that means making the product more accessible to the customer. For the first time, the companies products are available for purchase nationwide at Sally Beauty Supply stores, for example.
“We talk with consumers, become her partner in her journey, and have more opportunity to bring more people into the tent,” McBride says. From a business standpoint, that means expanding to a broader customer base as well.
And speaking of that customer base, Design Essentials — and any other brand looking to make it big in the new hair care business — has to be mindful of who that customer is. No longer is the market divided along solely racial lines, with black hair care products separate from the items sold to other groups. Rather, it’s a multicultural market, and the key is ” speaking to texture,” McBride says.
“Consumers are identifying themselves by texture. The consumer is crossing over and looking at multicultural brands,” McBride adds. “We, as manufacturers, have to be more inclusive with the images we show and the medium we speak to.”
After more than 20 years of Design Essentials, McBride knows there’s always going to be competition from newcomers, big companies, and other brands that have been around for a while. The company has jumped onto the technology bandwagon with Facebook and Twitter pages. They manufacture other brands, like Colaura and Wave by Design. Styles come and go. The secret to longevity is reaching generations of customers.
“There are alternative methods that allow consumers to wear their hair straight, or go straight and back to natural,” McBride says. “[Change] is not going to go away but she wants flexibility.”
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