Virtual Entrepreneur

Geovana Pagel
Businesswoman Antônia Joyce Venâncio has been having success since she bet on a market niche that up to now had been forgotten in Brazil: the production of Black, Muslim, Oriental, Indian and handicapped dolls. ‘We always work within the scope of social inclusion within sectors of the population that are little represented in toys’, explained Joyce.
In 6 years of existence, the company that joins social inclusion and business has already won clients in various states in Brazil and is getting ready to take the first step in the direction of foreign trade.

In 2005 Preta Pretinha (Black, Blackie) became the thesis for the doctorate of a group of Foreign Trade students at Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), one of the most renowned colleges in Brazil. According to the businesswoman, the work proposal of the group includes market research, promotion and internationalization of the brand. ‘This year research will take place in France. The students will also do research in stores and companies in France’, explained Joyce, proudly.

The Preta Pretinha store is the result of a childhood dream that became reality. The company owner explained that she and her sisters did not recognize themselves in the toys desired by most girls: dolls. The dolls found in stores were normally white. At that time they already thought about establishing a business that could supply this desire, that was not exclusively theirs, but also of other Black friends of theirs. ‘I asked my parents why there were no Black dolls. When I was between seven and eight years old, that affected me, it irritated me’, she explained. It was Joyce’s grandmother, Maria Francisca, who, she says, always worked hard on promoting their self-esteem, who started making cloth dolls, made out of black socks. ‘I started taking the dolls my grandmother made to school to use in activities at school’, she recalled. ‘In the beginning, friends found it strange, as they were different. But after a while what was different started becoming normal, and was taken naturally’, she explained.

The girl grew, studied psychology, worked as a secretary, as a video producer, but never forgot the cloth dolls and her dream of presenting them to other children. In 1998, with the help of one of her sisters, Lúcia and Cristina, and of another 6 people in the family, she started the business. Initial vinyl and cloth doll production was presented to the public at fairs and meetings in people’s houses. In 2002, Preta Pretinha opened a shop in Vila Madalena neighborhood in São Paulo, Southeast Brazil, where Joyce was born and raised.

Always aware and sensitive to the wishes of the people who surround her, Joyce noticed that there was much to do. ‘I work very much with what I hear from people. I create from what they ask for, with the details that they want to see in the toy’, she explained. She then started producing Muslim, Oriental, Indian and handicapped dolls and dolls with Down syndrome. ‘Difference cannot serve as an instrument for exclusion and my work is a way of transposing these barriers’, evaluated the businesswoman.

From then on, Preta Pretinha gained more visibility than Joyce had imagined. ‘Educators, teachers, psychologists and psychiatrists started coming to learn about our work’, she says. After that, large companies like Nike, ABN Amro Bank, ESPN and Abbott Laboratories, became Preta Pretinha customers and the company’s initial production of 800 dolls may rise as high as 30,000 units a month when the factory receives orders from companies for gifts.

‘The Muslim doll, for example, was an order by one of the coordinators of the Banco Real (ABN Amro Bank) School Project. She wanted to develop work with Muslim employees and found that the dolls could help’. Joyce developed a prototype, with various options of colors and hair bands that covered the head of the doll. ‘It was a great success, even at the store’, she commemorated. Joyce develops all the models and has 11 fixed seamstresses for the production of cloth dolls, 100% hand made, and she outsources the production of vinyl dolls. ‘I already have a group of seamstresses ready to supply when the demand rises, keeping in mind the future inquiries from abroad. I have no problem in supplying a greater number of orders’, she guaranteed.

Thanks to the success of the business, up to the end of May, the small shop that covers an area of just 15 square meters will move to a much larger address. The new shop is going to operate on the same street (Aspicuelta), but will be moving to number 474, into a house covering an area of 120 square meters. Apart from dolls in cloth and vinyl, the shop also sells key rings, fridge magnets, school pencil cases, earrings and puppets. The prices vary from 3 reais (approximately US$ 1,40) per doll key ring, to 150 reais (US$ 71) for a 1.20 meter tall doll. ‘All products are created considering social inclusion of difference, of the special.’

Site: www.pretapretinha.com.br

Post in Portuguese: Mercado Negro Faturando Alto: Preta Pretinha Transformou Hobby em Negócio

Also Read

1. Government Resources For Entrepreneurs Business Week: Small Business: Government resources for small business...

2 Responses to “All But White: Brazil’s Treasure-Trove of Black, Oriental, Handicapped Dolls”