Business
Founders of b Condoms on Integrating African-American Health and Business
Since the beginning of the recession entrepreneurism has been on the rise as more and more people tire of endless job searches that yield few results, and others grow weary of work that fails to provide any real personal or financial satisfaction.
But not all entrepreneurs are equal, and there’s a new crop of business leaders on the scene. For them, money isn’t enough – they want to make a difference.
Jason Panda’s road to social entrepreneurism began with a conversation with his mother. Having seen how drugs decimated inner cities in the 70s and 80s, she dedicated her career to working with recovering addicts in the Boston area. They began discussing the issues currently plaguing urban communities and Panda, immediately thinking of the disproportionate rates of HIV, AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), felt his own call to action.
Panda connected with friends and former Morehouse classmates Elkhair Balla and Ashanti Johnson (all pictured above), and b Condoms was born.
“The result of the conversation between Jason and his mother was really a sense of shock and awe that none of the condom companies – which offer the only preventative measure for HIV, AIDS and STIs – were playing an active role in urban communities at all,” said Balla.
And that is exactly the niche that b Condoms aims to fill. With the belief that luxury brands attract more consumers – especially urban consumers – Balla and company have embraced a marketing campaign that positions b Condoms as the sexy, chic and high-end prophylactic.
“If we have people thinking that it’s a hot condom, which then in turn makes them use the condom, which in turn makes them want to carry the condom, then we’ve achieved our goal,” Balla explained.
Luckily for consumers, particularly those in the low-income communities hit hardest by HIV/AIDS, the high-end strategy doesn’t mean higher prices. b Condoms are comparable in price to Durex, Trojan and other popular brands.
Balla and his partners are so committed to getting their product in the hands, and bedrooms, of those most at risk, that they offer significant discounts to nonprofits and grassroots organizations working directly with those populations.
It is this community focus that is the real driving force propelling the brand, as well as the benchmark that the group uses to measure its success.
“The overall goal of b Condoms is to use the sale of condoms to help fund HIV and AIDS prevention work,” said Balla. “So what we’re doing now is trying to put studies in place that will directly measure how impactful we have been – whether from a partnership standpoint or from a funding standpoint – and whether we are changing the trajectory of STIs and HIV in those target communities.”
By any standard b Condoms has done extremely well since its launch on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2010. In less than one year the company has opened permanent office space in Harlem, hired seven staff members and forged partnerships with more than 50 community organizations, including the Brooklyn AIDS Taskforce, and global brands like Google and The Magic Johnson Foundation.
b Condoms is also an official vendor for the city of Baltimore, and the company’s founders are currently in discussions with retail chains to carry the brand.
Next month, Balla, Panada and Johnson will embark on the inaugural b Healthy Tour, traveling to 30 HBCUs to further promote their safe sex message. Additionally, they will be highlighting other illnesses that disproportionately impact African–Americans.
With an aim of tackling health disparities in urban America, Balla noted that the future holds endless possibilities for b Condoms and its parent company, b Holding Group.
“It could be HIV/AIDS testing kits, or whatever the market dictates,” he said. “But we will always focus on public health and awareness.”
Source: The Atlanta Post