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Johannesburg – An entrepreneur is tackling complexes among young African girls by selling dolls with ethnic hair.
Gugu Kgongoane made her first Afro-doll so that her daughter could play with an item that looked like her. Kgongoane bought a doll that was dark in complexion and then stripped it of its hair, before re-attaching an ethnic Afro, much like her daughter’s.
“My daughter was visiting friends, playing with her Barbie... Because Barbie has blue eyes and long straight hair. I started looking for a doll for her. A nice beautiful black doll for her. I found one and then reworked it,” she said.
Kgongoane explained to Fin24 that people kept asking her about her daughter’s Afro. Even though their enquiries were meant as a complement, Kgongoane said she did not want her daughter to think there was something wrong with her. This led her to make the doll. “The hair looks like my daughter’s hair. I don’t think she will think there is anything wrong with her hair if she is playing with a doll with similar hair,” she said.
She made outfits for the dolls and posted them on Instagram, which led to other people taking an interest in the dolls, and Kgongoane’s business, Masebotsana Afro Dolls, was born.
Kgongoane has been making the baby dolls for the past two months, but she has been running a baby couture business for nearly a year. Again, this business was inspired by her daughter as she started out making outfits for her daughter with Shweshwe material.
Kgongoane’s husband contributed the capital for her business. She does not keep stock, and makes the dolls and outfits as the orders come in. The outfits are custom made, Kgongoane shows the clients five options for clothes and they choose the ones they want, she explained. The turnaround time is seven days.
A play-set for a girl, which includes a skirt, baby grow, bib and headband goes for between R350 and R450. While the price range extends to R500 for boys.
I sell beautiful handmade African print clothing 4 kids.
— Nompopi Nodoli Doll (@GuguMdima) April 5, 2017
RT for awareness IG@ShweshweBabyCouture #BuyLocalSummit2017 pic.twitter.com/rH0k4yfoLS
Kgongoane has been selling the dolls for R250, but will revise this to R199, following market research. “Some people said it was too pricy. So I thought I could bring it down a bit and see how it goes form there.”
Differentiating ethnic dolls
Kgongoane said she was not aware of similar dolls until she searched for an ethnic doll for her daughter. The ones she found were expensive and so she decided to make them herself. She sources the dolls and then buys ethnic hair separately. It takes two days to do the hair, she said.
“How I differentiate myself from competition is that my dolls have an Afro,” she said. Further, the outfits have African-print and at the same time are fashionable."
Kgongoane also markets her dolls as having an event to go to, or work. She plans on making an albino doll.
Accomplishments
Kgongoane says her experience working as a journalist for magazines as well as in the digital space for these publications has proven useful in running her business. She relies on social media to promote her products.
Through Twitter and Instagram, the Joburg-based entrepreneur has had clients from as far as KwaZulu Natal, Mpumalanga, Cape Town and Sweden and the US. Twitter in particular helped with the international enquiries. She has over 300 followers on Facebook and over 50 on Instagram.
Tweeps please help me get word out about these gorgeous Afro dolls I sell. R250 each excluding del. RT for awareness pic.twitter.com/eZdJquEFOj
— Nompopi Nodoli Doll (@GuguMdima) June 4, 2017
She plans to continue using social media for marketing in the short term. Kgongoane is proud about the reach her dolls are getting, especially in the short time span she has been making them. She sold 25 in less than a month and is working on her second batch of 25. “We are fairly new but they are going fast.”
She plans to bring on a person to help for bulk orders. So far Kgongoane has been working alone and has relied on an intern to do marketing.
Her target market is mainly mothers, but she has had a few fathers enquiring about the dolls. “One guy said he is buying for all the kids in the family because they have been looking for black dolls for a while.”
Challenges
“I do not think my doll is an ultimate black doll because she has a very small figure,” said Kgongoane. She said she had received criticisms about the dolls not truly reflecting African girls. “My response is that not all black girls are the same,” she said.
Kgongoane said that she hopes to produce these dolls herself in the short term.
But these challenges have taught her to listen to her followers or clients. By putting a picture of a doll online, and getting feedback from users on what they think, she adjusts her product, she explained. “I learnt to listen to my clients.”
Among goals for the future, she is working on developing an e-commerce site. In the long term she wants a bricks and mortar store in Cape Town.
“In future I would really like to have a shop at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. That’s where the money is at. I want a nice and beautiful shop.”
She also wants the idea of wearing African print to be normalised. She also wants to establish her brand. “In the same way that a white Barbie doll is normal, I want to get to a place where people do not call my doll a black Barbie. Barbie is a brand, my doll is not a Barbie.”
Kgongoane said that aspiring entrepreneurs should find what they are passionate about and then turn it into a job. She also said that a lack of funding should not stop them. “We did not have a lot of funding. I have been using stuff around me.”
Kgongoane uses offcuts to make clothes for the dolls. “Think about what your community needs and then make money out of it,” she said.
Kgongoane's business kicked off when she made her daughter a doll. The interest on social media led her to make dolls for others. (Picture: Twitter).
