How Tristan Walker Built a Personal-Care Brand for an Underserved Market
Tristan Walker built a personal-care brand by recognizing that many consumers were not being served adequately by products designed for the general market.
Walker founded Walker & Company Brands in 2013 and introduced Bevel, a personal-care brand initially focused on shaving products for men with coarse or curly hair. Traditional shaving methods can contribute to irritation, razor bumps, and ingrown hairs, concerns that disproportionately affect many Black men.
Instead of treating these customers as a small variation within a much larger market, Bevel placed their needs at the center of its product design, brand presentation, and customer communication.
Walker’s experience offers entrepreneurs important lessons about understanding underserved markets, solving specific problems, building customer trust, improving representation, expanding distribution, and growing without losing the purpose that made a brand distinctive.
Look for Customers the Market Has Overlooked
Large industries do not always serve every customer equally well. Companies may concentrate on the broadest possible audience while leaving significant groups with products that do not address their particular needs.
Walker saw that many Black consumers spent money on personal-care products but often had limited access to brands created specifically for their hair, skin, and grooming concerns.
Entrepreneurs should study where customers are adapting unsuitable products, accepting disappointing results, or choosing among options that were not designed with them in mind.
An underserved market is not necessarily a small market. It may contain millions of customers whose needs have been underestimated, misunderstood, or treated as secondary.
The opportunity begins with asking: Who is not receiving the attention, quality, convenience, or respect that other customers expect?
Solve a Specific and Meaningful Problem
Bevel’s initial proposition was easy to understand. The shaving system was developed to help people achieve a close shave while reducing irritation and razor bumps.
This focus gave the brand a practical purpose. It was not simply another razor distinguished by different colors or advertising. It addressed a persistent and uncomfortable customer problem.
Entrepreneurs should define the problem they are solving in clear language. Customers need to recognize quickly why the product may be relevant to them.
A specific problem can also guide product development. Ingredients, tools, instructions, packaging, and educational content should all contribute to the intended result.
The more clearly a company understands the problem, the less likely it is to add features that distract from the product’s essential value.
Learn from Personal Experience Without Assuming Everyone Is the Same
Walker’s own experiences as a Black man helped him recognize shortcomings in the personal-care market. Personal experience can provide founders with valuable insight into problems that outsiders may overlook.
However, one person’s experience does not represent an entire customer community. Entrepreneurs should combine personal understanding with interviews, product testing, customer feedback, professional expertise, and continuing research.
Customers within the same demographic group may have different preferences, budgets, routines, hair types, skin conditions, and expectations.
A founder’s experience can identify the opportunity. Careful listening helps the company develop a product that serves the wider market responsibly.
Make Customers Feel Recognized
Representation affects more than advertising. It includes how a product is designed, how customer concerns are described, which people appear in promotional materials, and whether the brand communicates with respect.
Bevel presented Black men as central customers rather than occasional additions to a general campaign. This helped the brand establish a stronger connection with people who had not always seen their grooming experiences reflected by major personal-care companies.
Entrepreneurs serving an overlooked audience should avoid treating representation as a temporary marketing technique. Customers can often recognize when a company’s interest is superficial.
Credibility develops when the product works, the language feels informed, the imagery is thoughtful, and the company continues listening after the initial campaign has ended.
Combine Products with Useful Education
A personal-care product may perform differently depending on how it is used. Shaving preparation, technique, equipment maintenance, and aftercare can all affect the customer’s experience.
Educational content can help customers understand the problem and use the solution more successfully. Instructions, demonstrations, articles, videos, and answers to common questions can reduce confusion and improve results.
This principle applies across industries. Customers may need guidance to receive the full value of software, financial services, fitness programs, home products, or professional services.
Useful education should help people make informed decisions. It should not exaggerate results or imply that one product will work identically for everyone.
Expand Distribution Without Losing the Brand’s Focus
A specialized brand may begin by selling directly to customers online. This approach can help the company collect feedback, explain its purpose, and build early relationships.
Reaching more customers, however, may require retail distribution. Physical stores can introduce the product to people who prefer to see it before purchasing or who discover it while shopping for related items.
Entrepreneurs should select distribution channels that fit their audience and economics. Retail expansion can increase visibility, but it also introduces inventory requirements, wholesale margins, packaging standards, and competition for shelf space.
Growth should make the brand easier to find without weakening the customer understanding that made it successful.
Treat Acquisition as One Possible Growth Path
Procter & Gamble acquired Walker & Company Brands in 2018. Joining a much larger consumer-products organization offered access to resources, distribution capabilities, and operational experience that could support broader growth.
An acquisition can help a mission-driven brand reach more customers, but it can also create concern about whether the original purpose will remain important.
Entrepreneurs considering acquisition should evaluate more than the purchase price. They should consider the future of the team, products, customers, brand identity, and mission.
The right partner should understand why the company became valuable in the first place.
Sanj Talks Takeaway
Tristan Walker demonstrated that entrepreneurs can build meaningful businesses by paying close attention to customers whom established industries have not served well.
The central lesson is that underserved markets should not be approached as charitable opportunities or marketing trends. They should be treated as valuable customer communities deserving thoughtful products, strong service, accurate representation, and long-term investment.
Entrepreneurs who listen carefully can uncover problems hidden by broad market assumptions. When they combine that understanding with specialized design, useful education, authentic communication, and responsible expansion, they can create brands that customers recognize as being built with their needs in mind.
Get Involved with Sanj Talks: Explore current opportunities at SanjTalks.com/sponsorships.
Leave a Reply