The masterminds behind the Dr. Miracle’s brand explain how hitting the streets to promote their line made it a hit with consumers.
- by Julie Sturgeon
At first glance they appear to be the perfect ’90s sitcom: a fast-talking guy from Brooklyn, New York, who could sell snow to an Eskimo; a down-to-earth fellow whose creative career includes singing doo-wop along the Eastern seaboard; and a certified public accountant with a master’s in business administration who periodically steals a scene with his observations. The friends form a company and bam! It grows from $0 to $15 million in less than three years.
But this isn’t a Hollywood script and there’s no “aw shucks” punch line. Brian K. Marks’ and Ollie Johnson’s Dr. Miracle’s brand, which includes Braid Relief Spray, Stimulating Moisturizing Growth Oil and 2 In 1 Conditioning Shampoo, is a serious hit—and the third company this team has taken to the top of the multicultural haircare products chart.
A budding entrepreneur, Marks strolled onto the beauty scene at age 25 when his father hooked him up with a guy who literally had 2,000 jars of a product he called All Ways Natural. It was 1981 and, according to Marks, the formula was the first natural haircare product to focus on the multicultural niche. So Marks found $8,000 to get the ball rolling and convinced a health food store in an African-American section of Brooklyn to carry it. Eventually the duo infused Indian hemp into the formula, which attracted even more health food stores.
A decade later, Marks rolled out the African Pride brand, tapping into a fashion trend in which women wore Kente cloth to express their roots. “I think it’s fair to say that was the hottest, fastest growing brand that had hit the industry in about 20 years,” he says. “It became a worldwide phenomenon.” If that sounds like bragging, he’s entitled—by 1998, his 100-employee company was hot enough to convince Revlon(which is white) to buy it and name Marks president of the cosmetic giant’s ethnic brand division.
Meanwhile, Marks met CPA Rich Lombardi(white and now the owner) who became his vice president at African Pride. He also hired packaging and design services from a firm called Zoe Designs, which was owned by Ollie Johnson, the creative brain who is said to have opened the first African-American art
gallery in Greenwich Village in New York City. Johnson had worked as an art director for a number of companies before striking out on his own and he wasn’t happy with his choice. “Having a small business here in New York is no fun,” Johnson says. “I had three employees and it was nerve-racking chasing invoices and all the other things that went into it.”
Marks, however, was different. Johnson describes him as a difficult person to satisfy from a creative standpoint. “We’d have meetings where he was always looking for more,” says Johnson, who also acknowledges that Marks is a prudent businessman. “If I were in dire straits, he’d call the bookkeeper and say, ‘Pull Ollie’s folder. What do we owe him? Cut him a check.’ And I’d leave with money in my hand,” Johnson recalls. “Brian impressed me.”
So it was a foregone conclusion Johnson would accept full-time employment at African Pride, and he too stayed on when it became part of the Revlon family. However, Marks decided to split after two years in the corporate environment. He spent the next couple of years waiting out the terms of his noncompete clause, got married, had a few kids, built a new home and started working on his next big product. Meanwhile, Johnson stayed put through yet another buyout, but balked at moving his family to Florida when the company relocated its headquarters to Jacksonville. So he decided to stay in New York and work on creative projects out of a private office. “It kind of felt like I was going back to my roots—having another design studio,” Johnson says.
but at least I have long healthy hair underneath the synthetic, lol. 
