After a career in marketing for traditional beauty brands including Avon, Estee Lauder, L’Oreal and Deva Curl, Megan Streeter joined custom hair care DTC Prose as chief marketing officer last year. After 6.5 years at Henkel’s DevaCurl – four as CMO – Streeter was attracted to Prose’s company mission to change beauty practices and offer sustainable and equitable products.
“It was a really interesting brand, I had never seen anything like it before,” recalls Streeter. “What attracted me was the fact that they were trying to use the business as a force for good. A B Corp certified, climate-neutral company that has a very data-driven approach in terms of product, product performance and digital experience was very appealing to me.”
French-founded, Brooklyn-based Prose sells high-end custom made hair care products, competing with brands including Olaplex, Bumble & Bumble and Malin & Goetz. On the rise since 2020, the global premium hair care market size is expected to reach $ 31.17 billion by 2028, per Research and Markets. “As we’ve seen in 2022, haircare is still a rising category and that’s going to continue as we look into 2023 from an opportunity perspective,” says Streeter.
Prose offers personalized consultations so that customers can get a shampoo made for their specific hair needs. Primarily focused on shampoos and conditioners, in August the company expanded its product portfolio to include custom styling gel. To promote the product, the DTC partnered with the brand’s first ambassador, Marvel superhero Lauren Ridloff, as well as a diverse network of influencers including a number of curl experts and hairstylists. The Curl Outside the Lines effort stars the brand’s first ambassador and Marvel superhero Lauren Ridloff.
“The idea was you as an individual should not be stuck in a narrow path. You should be able to Curl Outside the Lines and really celebrate that individuality and push the boundaries when it comes to self expression,” says Streeter. “We partnered with Lauren Ridloff, who represents and embodies our values. She was the first deaf superhero in the Marvel movies. She truly embodies what it means to go outside the lines. We were able to nurture who she is as an individual through this partnership.”
Brand Innovators caught up with Streeter to discuss showing up in culture, and the differences in unique challenges of working for a D2C. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What role does culture play in creating a brand and how are you trying to make your brand show up in culture?
Being a personalized brand – because it’s definitely about the individual – is intrinsic for us. We need to be attuned to what’s happening in the culture. One of the areas that we focus a lot is around our social impact initiatives, because they are helping to change, as being a business and a force for good and also being attuned to what’s happening. Through many of our social impact initiatives, we’ve been able to respond to culture. Throughout the year, we’re partnering with a variety of organizations to support our community base. Culture is critical to the brand and how we show up. Expectations of consumers now are very high which is good. Companies have a purpose and should be accountable for what they’re bringing and how they’re helping to shape culture. At Prose, we want to be a product of change.
Can you talk about your brand mission and how this is showing up in your work?
Our brand mission is to nurture the power of the individual. It’s about caring for that individual. We recognize that one size doesn’t fit all, hence why we’ve created hyper-custom products to address the needs of the individual. In August, we launched our first custom styling gels. We had learned that our product portfolio was missing a gap. We weren’t really addressing all the needs, from the styling range in terms of what people were looking for. Our styling gel is a way to express yourself as an individual and what your style means. We use the styling gel as a beacon and also as an opportunity to push our brand campaign forward.
What did you learn in the beauty industry that you are applying to your current role at Prose?
L’Oreal, Estee Lauder, and Avon were incredible grounds to have honed my marketing skills from a classic perspective. These experiences also gave me the opportunity to understand all different parts of the beauty category be it from skincare haircare makeup fragrance. It was a great training ground.
In my last position at Deva Curl, there were totally different dynamics. It was much more entrepreneurial and hands on. Part of what attracted me to Deva Curl was to be able to learn how a company works from the bottom up. So really understanding the full working dynamics of a smaller company, and how you build from the ground up, being smaller and more entrepreneurial.
Taking the classic experience that I’ve had at L’Oreal and Avon and then blending that with my experience with Deva Curl has allowed me to come to Prose and flex between the two. My role is to help scale the company and create the strategic building blocks to be able to drive growth and then most importantly really be able to retain and recruit talent.
What are the unique challenges and opportunities of working for a DTC brand?
D2C is different. I’m learning a lot every day. It’s been a really interesting environment over the last 16 plus months, especially with a lot of changes happening in privacy. With a DTC company, we’ve had a tremendous amount of growth over the last five years. We’re excited to reach almost $100 million in revenue by the end of this year. It’s all about pivoting and being really agile and evolving. We have a very data-driven approach. At a DTC, you have to be really smart in terms of where your investments are. You have to be really thinking about the efficiency of every single channel. You’re constantly trying to evolve the mix to drive conversions on the site. What’s different for us, especially being custom, we’re really thoughtful about production and volume and how we’re developing our formulas and manufacturing.
While there are pros and cons of working at a D2C, there are unique advantages. It’s always about being agile and pivoting and learning. The major difference is the test and learn mindset that you have to have. That’s one of our strengths. It’s what’s allowed us to evolve.
Can you talk about working with influencers and how this is strategic for your brand?
Six plus years ago, influencers were more on the organic side, and you were developing those relationships, and that still continues for us. We they’re a very important part of our media mix and part of our whole marketing mix in general, both from a paid and organic perspective.
When we think about influencers, they’ve been an integral part because they’re able to bring the brand to life for us through storytelling. They each have their own story. They each have their own needs that Prose can help with. So partnering with influencers has been a great opportunity for us, it’s definitely been a growth driver. It’s the way that we create meaningful relationships, while being very authentic.
Who is your target audience and what channels are you playing in to get their attention and engage them?
Our main audience is considered the older home millennials, the 35- 44 year olds. But we definitely have a mix of major beauty enthusiasts and sustainably conscious individuals, as well. We have a diverse mix to reach them –Meta’s Facebook and Instagram are a key component in terms of being able to recruit new customers. The millennial consumer is very video first, so playing in the digital video arena is really important. We also use podcasts, Tik Tok and work with influencers. It is the whole mix, we have to be very mindful of the mix.
