Ulta Beauty Tuesday released an initiative to better reflect the country’s diversity with the products it sells in stores and the faces it displays in advertising campaigns.
The beauty retailer has committed to doubling Black’s proprietary brands in its assortment by the end of 2021 and intensifying employee training to make stores more welcoming to all customers. The company will invest more than $ 25 million in the initiative.
She also chose Tracee Ellis Ross, actress and CEO and founder of the hair care brand Pattern Beauty, as her diversity and inclusion consultant to help advise the company and hold it accountable.
In the past year, many companies have struggled to find out whether their business practices – including hiring, advertising and selecting products for display – reinforced or fought systemic racism. The assassination of George Floyd and the protests of Black Lives Matter sparked a wave of corporate commitments to do more to address racial inequalities.
An increasing number of large retailers promise to step up their philanthropy and recruitment. and some, including Macy’s and Gap, signed the 15 Percent Pledge, which aims to make black-owned products on store shelves proportional to the country’s black population.
Ulta Beauty recently debuted an advertising campaign that presents and celebrates black women.
Source: Ulta Beauty
Ulta’s CEO, Mary Dillon, said the beauty industry, in particular, “should be leading.” She said it plays an important role in shaping what society sees as beautiful and desirable. In addition, she said, more than 50% of babies born in the United States are not white – a dynamic that will shape tomorrow’s customers and determine which brands will remain relevant.
“It is not just an opportunity, but an obligation to represent everyone to celebrate diversity – if you look at our advertising campaigns, if you look at photography in our [hair] beauty salon, if you look at the way we are training our associates to work with all types of hair, “she said.” Meeting the needs of everyone, of any age or race or skin tone or hair type “is essential to Ulta’s business.
Diversity and inclusion efforts have become more of a business imperative than a gesture of goodwill, as buyers pay more attention to corporate values like sustainability and diversity and vote with their money. This is something that Dillon said he saw closely as president of the Retail Industry Leaders Association.
“Consumers are now demanding a higher standard of business, and they should be,” said Dillon.
Ulta will place about $ 20 million in media investments on multicultural platforms aimed at reaching black and Hispanic communities, such as TV commercials featuring black women. It will spend more than $ 4 million to market and fuel the growth of its black-owned brands and about $ 2 million in mandatory quarterly training of store employees to combat unconscious prejudice.
Ulta is also trying to expand the team’s diversity through recruitment efforts and the creation of a Diverse Leaders Program to provide executive guidance to more than 30 employees who show the potential to become company leaders.
Alongside Ulta’s beauty industry, Sephora owned by LVMH, announced a similar plan in mid-January to make its stores more inclusive. Among the changes, she said she would double her brands owned by Black and reduce the presence of third party security. He also signed the 15 percent pledge.