To Download a PDF of an Interview with Jim Markham, Founder, Product Developer

INTERVIEW VIEW Interview INTER Building Brands An Interview with Jim Markham, Founder, Product Developer, and Chief Executive Offi cer, ColorProof Evolved Color Care®, LLC discuss distributing his products. I also pitched to predict how big our success will be. Some my cutting method to him, and he suggested I ventures will be more successful than others, of fl y to California for a friendly wager to see whose course, but all are learning opportunities. technique was better. He ultimately won, but the Will you talk about the ColorProof® visit solidifi ed a partnership. I began training in business and where you see opportunities as his technique and opened a Sebring franchise you look to the future? Jim Markham in New Mexico. When Jay was tragically killed We sell ColorProof® to independent distribu- in the Manson Family Murders in 1969, I took tors, and they, in turn, sell it to professional stylists EDITORS’ NOTE Jim Markham is a highly over as President and CEO and I also adopted and colorists. We have over 4,000 ColorProof® acclaimed beauty industry icon who has led an his client roster, which included high-caliber stars salons that use our products and also retail them amazing trailblazing career from being a promi- like Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, and Frank to their color-treated clientele. We presently dis- nent celebrity hair-stylist to developing and inno- Sinatra. At that point my career launched into a tribute throughout North America and in a few vating over 300 products for fi ve highly successful much bigger arena, and I quickly became profi t- international territories. I see tremendous oppor- hair-care companies, four of which he founded able. My celebrity clients demanded the very best, tunity in untapped international markets while and fi ve owned including: ColorProof Evolved which could only be attained through proper continuing to grow our business within our exist- Color Care®, PureOlogy Serious Colour Care®, technique paired with high-performance prod- ing domestic network. ABBA Pure and Natural®, Markham Products®, ucts, spurring my love for product development. How hard is it to tell the story and show and Sebring International®. To date, under his I ended up selling Sebring® and then started differentiation with your products? leadership, Markham’s combined companies have Markham Products®, which revolutionized the If you have a superior product and a strong generated over $1.2 billion in retail sales. He is best men’s wash-and-wear category of daily shampoo- point of difference, it makes it easy to tell the known for developing the fi rst luxury professional ing and styling. Following Markham®, I launched story. The key is to fi nd a niche, something that line exclusively for color-treated hair and for pio- ABBA Pure & Natural Hair Care®, which was one sets us apart from the competition. neering sulfate-free shampoos that have revolu- of the fi rst 100 percent vegan lines in the United Does innovation primarily take place tionized the way people care for color-treated hair. States and focused on naturals. After selling ABBA, with more entrepreneurial companies? we thought we would retire, but a few months One of the only ways entrepreneurs can COMPANY BRIEF ColorProof Evolved Color in, we received a phone call from a friend who had compete with the big guys is through innovation. Care® (colorproof.com) is a complete line of been diagnosed with cancer. Her doctors told her While large companies may have access to new award-winning, professional luxury products to avoid products containing certain ingredients, ingredient technology, their cost of goods and designed exclusively for color-treated hair. These most of which were found in common products. price points often restrict them from using it. With next generation formulas combine the latest inno- She asked me to develop products she could ColorProof®, we are not limited by the cost of vations in ingredient technology with best-in-class safely use. The products I developed were not goods of our formulas, so when a revolutionary ingredients to create a new standard in color care. only free of any known carcinogens, but also ingredient is discovered, we can include the opti- free of sulfates and salts and, coincidently, were mal amount in our formulas, giving us an edge Did you know early on that you had an entre- fabulous at keeping color in. That same year, I and guaranteeing superior product performance. preneurial spirit and can you talk about how traveled to Cosmoprof in Bologna and saw that Our unique product development strategy keeps that has been at the core of so much of what a color boom was happening, yet there were no us on top of our game. Entrepreneurial compa- you have accomplished? brands preserving or enhancing color vibrancy. nies just cannot compete with the big guys with I guess I’ve always had an entrepreneurial I jumped at the chance to take our formulas conventional products, thus making them more spirit that was driven fi rst by the desire to provide to market resulting in PureOlogy Serious Color innovative. for my family, and later by my love for product Care®. With PureOlogy® we pioneered the sul- How hard is it to stay on top of the tech- innovation. I was married and had a child by the fate-free revolution and quickly became the mar- nology in this space? time I was 15. To support my family, I dropped ket leader in professional color care. Following Since product development is my passion, out of high school and became a barber charg- the sale of PureOlogy® I thought we would I am constantly on the lookout for innovation. ing $1.50 a haircut. I quickly found I had a talent retire again, but kept getting requests from stylists I frequently meet with ingredient suppliers and for cutting hair, so I began entering hair-cutting and industry friends to come back with new prod- our labs to see what is new. We are always competitions and won every one I entered. ucts. I returned to introduce ColorProof® – the most prepared to improve our existing formulas Competing taught me early on that I could do technologically advanced products the industry to incorporate the next degree of technology whatever I set my mind to as long as I worked has ever known for color care, a category where that increases performance or to develop new hard, developed a strategy, and had confi dence we have almost no competition. products inspired by the latest revolutionary that I’d win. When you’re starting a new venture, do technology. We will never release a product I had read in Playboy that celebrity styl- you know early on that it will be successful? unless we know it is far superior to anything ist Jay Sebring was charging $50 per haircut in A good indicator of success is when we are that already exists on the market. This keeps his Hollywood salon and that he had a prod- positive that our product performance surpasses us on the forefront and pushes us to evolve uct line. I was intrigued and called him up to anything else in the market. It is, however, hard continually.• 78 LEADERS POSTED WITH PERMISSION. COPYRIGHT © 2017 LEADERS MAGAZINE, INC. VOLUME 40, NUMBER 1.

Load more