In order to successfully market branded beauty products to African-American women it is important to first understand her concept of beauty and her definition of her own personal beauty in order to connect with her through relevant messaging.

Beauty is individual to today’s Black woman. For the most part, she is not trying to live up to European standard of beauty that are incompatible with her skin color, her features, her hair texture and her body type. These women find themselves beautiful “as they are” rather than in relation to some standard outside themselves.

Beauty product brands that wish to connect with today’s Black woman should reflect her concept of beauty rather than represent mainstream imaging and messages, which may be ignored by a Black audience who is looking for more.

Marketing Beauty to Black Women will address the evolution of Black beauty standards throughout history beginning with early messaging that reflected and in some cases, drove, the desire for lighter skin and straighter hair in order to be happy, to attract a man or to positively represent the race.