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Madam C.J. Walker, Queen of Product-Market Fit - Saturday Strategy Sessions

number 006

Author

LaToya Allen
May 11, 2024

Happy Saturday everyone!

What you missed last month:

In my cart đź›’ : Biography of Madame Pompadour. It’s rumored that she was the true ruler of France during the reign of ​​King Louis XV.  Are the rumors true? If so, there’s got to be a business lesson in that book. I’ll report back my findings; give me a few weeks.

On my radar 📡: this talk about one of the most powerful women in New York.

As I mentioned on Wednesday, one of my goals is to play around with the format of the newsletter.  So we’re going to call this little experiment The Saturday Strategy Session - a place where we connect historical business moves to modern-day strategies. 

Let's get into it.

A'Lelia Bundles/Madam Walker Family Archives

Madam C.J. Walker was the first free-born person in her family.  She had less than 6 months of formal education, made a few dollars a day washing clothes, and no internet access. And still, she became the first woman in the US to make a million dollars. 

That’s about 32 million dollars today!

Unlike these guys, Madam C.J. Walker built a product that solved a problem she personally experienced. That makes the product easy to sell, validate, and change according to users’ needs.  It also helped her find product market fit.

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According to ProductPlan, product-market fit “describes a scenario in which a company’s target customers are buying, using, and telling others about the company’s product in numbers large enough to sustain that product’s growth and profitability.”  So how did she find it in her time?

Walker was born in the the Reconstruction era, which began after the Civil War ended.  The country was trying to figure out how to integrate the Confederate States into the United States.  Most available hair care products weren’t designed for black hair texture.  Millions of black women had the same host of problems when it came to their hair - itchy scalps, breakage, the inability to grow, style, and feel beautiful in their hair.  As an adult, Walker recognized that there was a hole in the market, and eventually developed high-quality hair care products tailored to the specific needs of black women. 

She didn’t rely on one single technique to get them to buy, use, and tell others about her products.  Walker created an ecosystem that lead her to product-market fit.  

Buy

  • She engaged directly with her customers through demonstrations and personal interactions, which helped build trust and loyalty, encouraging more purchases.

  • Madam Walker created a network of sales agents, whom she trained personally, allowing black women to start businesses by selling her products.  But they had to purchase the products to sell them, so this increased her sales. 

  • She gave commissions and bonuses based on sales performance, motivating them to sell more, which meant they had to buy more.

Use

  • Madam organized workshops and demonstrations to educate women on how to properly care for their hair using her products. This helped customers see the value and effectiveness of her products, encouraging consistent use. 

  • Each product came with detailed instructions on its use and the benefits it offered. This clear communication helped ensure that customers used the products correctly and experienced the intended benefits, leading to higher satisfaction and repeat purchases.

  • By promoting hair care as a form of self-care and self-respect, Madam empowered her customers. This approach increased the use of her products by tying them to a broader message of personal empowerment and pride.

Tell

  • User-generated content is popular today, but it's also a technique used by Madame C.J. Walker.   Testimonials and word-of-mouth endorsements from satisfied customers functioned similarly to modern user-generated content, enhancing her products' credibility.

  • Her active participation in social and political causes helped build a strong community around her brand, leading to natural word-of-mouth promotion. 

  • Recognizing the success of sales agents publicly and providing awards for top performers created a competitive and cooperative environment that encouraged sharing success stories and promoting the products.

Next Steps

  • Plan an in-person demonstration of your products

  • Do a copy audit: Make sure you’re clearly communicating the benefits of your product to your users everywhere.  On your website, in your newsletter, in your socials.

  • Get testimonials - even if it means giving away your product for free

  • Don’t be afraid to get involved in causes you believe in - and tell your customers about it so they don’t block you

Best,

LaToya

P.S. Here are some more resources for you