Beauty Bo$$: Steve Stoute Talks Beauty Biz!

Founder of Ad Agency Translation, Stoute came a long way from the music industry. In 2005, he entered the beauty industry along side Will & Jada Pinkett Smith, Jay-Z and Mary J Blige as an investor in Carol's Daughter. Using his marketing background and dedication to succeed - he relentlessly pushed Carol's Daughter on the throats of Corporate America - Sephora n HSN were the only retailer that bit the "ethnic" product.

Stout's view on the ethnic beauty aisle - matches up with mines. Why the hell is there a "separate but equal" aisle for "ethnic hair products" Steve says,"How could Beyoncé and Rihanna and Kerry Washington and Jennifer Lopez and all of these beautiful women be on the cover of magazines, yet if you want to buy the products they use for their hair or their makeup, it’s put in the ethnic beauty aisle. Why is there an ethnic beauty aisle? Why don’t you just put the whole thing in alphabetical order? Although women of different ethnicities know they have special needs, they don’t want to be identified via the ethnic beauty aisle. The beauty business has been late to come to grips with that."

The question arose in the interview with beauty trade WWD, "How do you see the industry evolving in the next 2-5 years?," and Stoute reply was, "It’s not about product performance— that’s a given. I’m talking about the conversation around a product, the way a product is marketed, the feel, the communication, the call to action. Those things have to be modified in order to appeal to the polyethnic audience." He thinks that all global companies need to end the cookie cutter approach and allow the consumet to tell the merchandiser what they want and need; as he states in his newly release book The Tanning of America.

You can check out some book reviews by clicking this link:

http://tanningofamerica.com/

In his book, he states, "You can’t put them in that box any more because their shared interests with their peer groups allow them to have a much more peripheral view on what other cultures are doing and what may appeal to them."

Kudos to Stoute for Stickin it to the Cookie Cutter makers!