North American Effie Winner Spotlight: SoftSheen-Carson and Publicis Kaplan Thaler’s “Curl Power”
In 1978, haircare brand Dark and Lovely introduced the first at-home chemical relaxer and built a brand around straightening women’s hair.
In 2013, the brand expanded their look and launched its Au Naturale line of styling products, designed for African American women who want to embrace their natural hair. The brand faced a challenge: Not only did they need to gain the trust of consumers who associated the brand with relaxers, but the market was already saturated with competitive products.
In response, Softsheen-Carson and agency partner Publicis Kaplan Thaler locked in on a key audience insight and created Curl Power, a campaign that encouraged women to go Au Naturale.
Curl Power took home an Effie in the African American category of the 2014 North American Effie Awards.
Campaign Summary: The natural hair movement among African-American women is the fastest growing segment in ethnic haircare. Dark and Lovely (makers of the first relaxer kit for home use) was associated with the exact opposite of the natural hair movement. We had to assure women of our authenticity by persuading her that we were reentering into this new territory because we care about her needs, not because we’re following the trend. We proudly celebrated the power of the natural hair and the fact that women with unstoppable curls never shrink from who they are.
Read on for more insights from a collaborative interview with the team behind Curl Power.
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How do you define effective marketing in one sentence?
Softsheen-Carson & Publicis Kaplan Thaler: Effective marketing is not only convincing a consumer to buy your product, but to buy into what your brand is about—thus, positively influencing purchasing habits now and in the future.
What was the key insight that led to the “big idea” behind Curl Power?
Softsheen-Carson & Publicis Kaplan Thaler: We did a lot of consumer research and spent time sincerely considering the role the Dark and Lovely brand has played in the history of African-American hair to reach our insight.
Having or reclaiming pride in the hair she was born with is a BIG, emotional event in a woman’s life, especially for an African-American woman. It’s a decision she’s made for herself. It’s empowering. It’s progressive. It’s exciting. And she will appreciate any company that supports her in her journey to self-affirmation. So, we made it our mission to prove to her that Dark and Lovely Au Naturale proudly celebrates the power of the curl by fully acknowledging that women who embrace their natural curls clearly never shrink from who they are.
What was the biggest challenge you faced getting this idea to market?
Softsheen-Carson & Publicis Kaplan Thaler: The first major challenge was convincing consumers and retailers that Dark and Lovely has the expertise and the right to “win” in the natural hair category, given the brand’s history and leadership in the relaxer segment.
Closely linked to this challenge was the fact that we were such a late entry into the natural hair category. For more than a year before launch, the category’s rapid growth was being driven not only by a number of small, independent, natural-hair focused brands, but some of our top competitors in the relaxer segment as well.
What specific elements of this campaign do you think took it from being a great idea to an effective marketing campaign?
Softsheen-Carson & Publicis Kaplan Thaler: We brought “Curl Power” to life through a variety of media vehicles and touch points that drove a complete surround-sound, consumer experience based on where she was and how she consumed information-from being the only brand on television distinctly celebrating her natural hair to creating assets that allowed her to be the face of the campaign (e.g. Out of Home Billboards, Facebook cover photo, social media announcements, curlpowerstyles.com microsite).
This consumer is often made to feel like the beauty industry doesn’t see or appreciate her, thus, we went from a great idea to an effective campaign by ensuring all media represented an array of natural coily and curly-haired African-American women. Further, the language of Au Naturale is all about empowerment, strength and boldness, which clearly resonated with this community enough to motivate her to buy into the Au Naturale brand.
Prior to the launch of the Dark & Lovely Au Naturale Line, Dark & Lovely was known exclusively as a brand for hair relaxers. How did you mobilize your target audience to embrace “Curl Power?”
Softsheen-Carson & Publicis Kaplan Thaler: In a way, we had to prove that Dark and Lovely, a brand many thought was irrelevant for natural hair, was also evolving to fully embrace our own legacy of expertise in Black hair. We had always embraced African-American beauty, we just had to show that we embraced it in its entirety.
To that end, we demonstrated that Dark and Lovely is not a “me too” brand shifting to what others may deem a trend, but instead celebrating the variety of hair choices and celebrating the diversity of African-American hair. No matter what her hair choice, we wanted her to know there was always a home for her in the Dark and Lovely family.
Our Au Naturale Curl Power campaign was dedicated to delivering caring recipes that delivered on the styles that she wanted to rock and giving her an outlet to share amongst her community.
Softsheen-Carson & Publicis Kaplan Thaler: In addition to the credits on the official entry, we would also like to credit and acknowledge the following team members:
Sivonne Davis, Assistant Vice President Marketing, Dark and Lovely
Ifeoma Fejokwu, Brand Manager Marketing, Dark and Lovely
Nneka Keshi, Director of Digital
Tiffany Plater, Senior Manager, New Product Development
Mezei Jefferson, Director of Education
Patricia Cumberland, Assistant Vice President of Creative Services
Ken Jenkins, Assistant Art Director of Creative Services
Tiffany Mayo, Director of Customer Marketing
Patricia Rappaport, Vice President, Bratskeir & Company
To read more about “Curl Power,” visit the Effie Case Database.
For more information about the North American Effie Awards and the latest updates on the 2015 competition (the extended entry deadline is October 22), visit www.effie.org.
