SUCCESS STORY

KAMA MAHARAJ: HOW WE MADE SACHA A GLOBAL BRAND

EVEN as a young man, Kama Maharaj observed how difficult it was for dark-skinned tropical women to find appropriate cosmetics.

“The make-up colours disappeared on dark skin,” Maharaj recalled, “while the foundations and powders left some of them looking like Casper the Ghost.”

While at university in Canada, “I saw darker women wearing make-up looking just as bad as they did in Trinidad,” he reflected.

Upon his graduation and return to Trinidad and Tobago, Maharaj was determined to enter the industry to create a suitable product for people of colour.

He got the opportunity when a cosmetics firm closed down; he made financial arrangements for a business takeover.

At that time, more than 40 years ago, there were two distinct market segments – “mass and class,” according to Maharaj.

Premium brands were imported, while domestic manufacturers focused on budget products.

The new T&T manufacturer opted against low-priced products for mass market.

Instead, he had a global vision.

“I had observed a major problem affecting darker women worldwide and wanted to develop a brand to satisfy this unmet need,” he explained.

His vision was “to develop a line of make-up and successfully compete with these imported brands, at same price points.”

In other words, his goal was “to build a global brand made in Trinidad and Tobago.”

The international brands – high quality, with exquisite packaging – did not suit darker women, “since that was not their core business and clearly they paid little attention to it.’

Caucasian women, he pointed out, “are basically one shade, warm and cool, and making products for them is easy.”

Darker-skinned women, he noted, “have a wide range of skin tones and making products for them is far more complex and requires extensive testing.”

In a land of women of colour, Sacha was able to “test, re-test and fine-tune at leisure.”

Still, Maharaj was conscious of the challenge of consumers switching from an international to a Caribbean brand.

So, “we focused all our energies and resources on making products that were exponentially better on darker skin.”

The Sacha team “invested heavily in research and development, using the finest raw material and ensuring that every product we made went through extensive testing.”

In 1999, the brand was named the official cosmetics for Miss Universe Pageant, and received similar status at the 2000 Miss Universe Pageant and 2022 Miss Panama Pageant.

After a number of years, Sacha became the top-selling cosmetics in Trinidad and Tobago, and then, according to Maharaj, “we began to export the brand in earnest.”

Caricom was the first stop, followed by Latin America.

The company took advantage of duty-free concessions with Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic, and partial-scope agreements with other countries.

Maharaj sees vast market opportunities in Africa but shipping difficulties as a setback.

He and his team focused on North America, competing against entrenched brands that have large advertising budgets and are endorsed by celebrities.

Maharaj continued to innovate the Sacha products, and create relevant synergies, to build global brand equity.

Buttercup Powder solved the decades-old problem of women “looking ashy in bright colours and pictures.”

Online sales skyrocketed, and today it is one of the most purchased make-up products by women of colour, and there are about 15,000 five-star reviews on Amazon.

Sacha created a foundation, “to rave reviews.”
Maharaj said he has instructed his tech department to develop a state-of-the-art “foundation finder,” using artificial intelligence.

The team “will continue tweaking and making adjustments until we achieve an acceptable level of shade accuracy.”

Then there would be a launch on the company’s international website, “confident that the negative feedback and returns would be minimal.”

Maharaj stressed that product innovation and leveraging the latest technologies are key to penetrating the global market.

Innovation in distribution is also vital, he said, drawing on vast experience.

He said Sacha created diverse and reliable distribution channels, by positioning the brand locally, exporting to 60 countries, and utilising websites, Amazon and the European Union.

The company operates its own high-end stores at shopping malls in T&T and Panama, the latter being the home of the Panama Canal and Copa Airlines and gateway to Latin America.

Online sales have given Sacha “a huge customer base.”

There is a company app, with loyalty customers’ discounts, and a content-rich industry website with links to the shopping site.

Chat GPT is being utilised to generate daily blogs.

“We are continually reinventing ourselves,” Maharaj stated, “and seeking ways to expand globally.”

He observed: “By differentiating ourselves, solving problems, focusing on quality, leveraging technology and prioritising sustainability, we can compete on a global scale and achieve success in the ever-evolving global marketplace.”