Sundial breaks down beauty, societal walls

You could say that “breaking down walls” to the New General Market has been a central part of the Sundial Brands mission — certainly long before the early April debut of the company’s innovative new social call-to-action/media campaign #BreakTheWalls.

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It’s just in their DNA.



Less than one week since the first of the spots, a 60-second short film, logged more than 1 million views in its first 24 hours on YouTube, Sundial co-founder and CEO Richelieu Dennis shared both the story behind the new campaign and the company’s 25-year journey in connecting with the New General Market.



To help tell the Sundial story, the company issued a casting call to the brand’s community members — often called the “SheaFam” — and tapped such influential beauty vloggers as Naptural85, SunKissesAlba and MahogenyCurls, to share personal frustrations in shopping for beauty products in mass retail.



Recounting anecdotes of how they shopped with white friends in the rest of the store, but had to “go separate directions” for beauty was one example a black woman shared. Others talked about a “teeny aisle” designated as their “spot.”



Such consumer experiences were the impetus for #BreakTheWalls, which debuted in April and proposed the idea of breaking down not only the physical walls in stores separating products, but also the mental divide of what is considered “beautiful.”



A clarion message to all women is that they don’t need to compare themselves to others and that they can embrace what makes them unique. The first phase included a 60-second short film, a 30-second spot, #BreakTheWalls digital and social assets and behind-the-scenes footage. Although starting with beauty, #BreakTheWalls will spur dialogue and action around other societal walls that “exist and that serve to divide rather than unite.”



The first montage showed walls literally falling down and touting the fact that Shea Moisture can be found in beauty “where we all belong.” More than 1 million people viewed the first segment online the night it was released, Dennis said.



He wants to start a conversation to make stores more inclusive and not just to benefit his brand, but also to improve shopper experiences. The pay off is there.



“Power is when you listen to consumers and you bring their voices into rooms like this,” Dennis said. “You might think you are serving a particular consumer, but you are not. She’s not telling you that in person. She’s telling that on social media or worse yet, she’s taking her dollars into another channel,” he said as a wake-up call for the industry. Retailers in the room concurred that with tweaks to assortments and merchandising, they are getting consumers who never shopped them for beauty before.



Another salient point is that many white women have thick and curly hair, requiring specific products much like black women. According to TextureMedia, about 60% of women in the United States consider their hair wavy, curly or coiley. It is not uncommon, Dennis said, for women to have to shop five different stores to get the products for one hair care look.



He realizes change can’t come over night. Many of today’s departments were constructed years ago. “When we started Sundial 25 years ago, the world was a different place,” Dennis admitted. And those in the audience concurred that consumers need to be educated about store design changes.



But Dennis has been enthused by how retailers have rallied around the concept, and change is a process. According to Dennis, many retailers have increased efforts to improve their assortments and merchandising to reflect more inclusion and are working to gain deeper insights that will help direct future efforts as they work to meet their customers’ needs. “We have a dialogue with each other, and we are connecting with this New General Market. We didn’t have to influence our retail partners. Although they have constraints, they say ‘let’s do this together,” he said.



The New General Market isn’t about big versus small brands, Dennis explained. “We need all brands to think about how they serve underserved consumer groups better.”