Native Child: Providing Hair Care essentials for the underserved needs of African Women

As an African woman looking for hair care solutions, Sonte Pooe felt like there was nothing out there that spoke to her needs. Being passionate about both hair and health, Sonte set out to create a brand and products that would fill that gap in the market and help women like herself.

And so, Sonte’s business Native Child was born: a plant based hair care and body care brand, created for the underserved needs of women of colour. Speaking of the inspiration behind the business, Sonte explains, “I wanted to create a brand that someone that looked like me could identify with and immediately say, ‘Oh, wow. This is for me.’”

Sonte and the team at Native Child believe that mother nature is far superior than man made alternatives, so they use plant based, natural, safe and sustainable ingredients of the finest grade. Their haircare range is a labour of love and has been developed over a number of years of experience.

The products and brand proved successful and Sonte’s team looked for ways to expand their business even further. Looking into the options of online marketing, Sonte turned to Google for a little help.

Creating a Google My Business profile enabled Native Child to reach more clients. Sonte explains, “Google My Business is great in that we are able to get feedback from our customers and they get to know the spirit of the company - it gives it that personal touch. It helps to keep the engagement going and make them feel like they are a part of us. Not only that, but they are able to find out where we are and they are able to go to our website - it has increased our revenue by about 20% and increased our online presence as well.”

Sonte’s efforts didn't stop there. Choosing to run Google Ads boosted the business even further, with Google Ads sales now accounting for 50% of online sales. Explaining how insightful the campaigns are, Sonte explains, “Because of Insights, you are able to see what campaigns worked, what didn’t, and you just get feedback of how much you spent and how much of that was a return on investment.”

As the business began to grow, the team at Native Child also expanded to meet the demand of new and potential customers: going from a team of three to a team of 14 employees. Sonte says, “It is exciting to see that this little baby of a company that came out of South Africa is now all over the world. Google is definitely assisting us in becoming that global brand that I have dreamt of becoming.”