Jason Panda, founder of B Condoms, a Black-owned condom company based in Atlanta, has recently signed deals with Walmart, Target and a majority of CVS drugstores in the U.S. to shelve his product in stores.

Its three main rivals, Durex, Trojan, and Lifestyles, are all owned by businesses with billion-dollar valuations, companies with vast budgets for television and online advertising.

And yet, with little funding, this 10-person team at B Condoms has been able to grow an authentic and organic community of followers on Instagram, which led to the deal, with more than 65,500, approximately 25,000 more followers than his closest competitors, Trojan and Durex.

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Panda has largely focused its marketing plan on Black Americans through creative messages tied to visual art and explainer-style blogs for both men and women. Cheeky content slides such as 'the best places to have sex without getting caught' recently received more than 4,000 likes on Instagram.

There are almost 200 postings on the account, including oral sex instruction, a statement clarifying that flirtation does not imply permission, and a film with interviewees recalling their first orgasm.

But it's not all about getting your freak on. Much of the content is about sex education, health and wellness for Black Americans and other people of colour, Panda told the New York Times, amid disproportionately high rates of HIV and teen births among people of colour.

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"It was very interesting to see actual Black-owned sexual health," Brittany Wooten, 31, a B Condoms customer in Phoenix, told the New York Times. "And I've never heard or seen anybody before mentioning anything about Black condoms or any sexual health, reproductive or that kind of stuff when it comes to Black-owned (businesses)."

Goody Howard, a sex educator in Dallas, said, "They are focusing on pleasure education. I think Trojan does kind of a good job of insinuating pleasure, but B Condoms is giving you actionable items "This is how you do this.'"

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According to Mia Xu, a researcher at the NYU (New York University) School of Global Public Health and the lead author of a National Library of Medicine study condom brands are seen as a trusted source of sexual health information given an increased exposure to sexual health education on social media.

Moreover, social media posts pertaining to sex were a positive indicator of likes on Instagram and YouTube, according to the study. In addition, providing sexual health education had a positive association with likes on Instagram, too.

The sexual health education and resources provided by condom brands also has a significant reach and garners positive reception from audiences, the study reads, according to the New York Times.

"I never saw condoms as a career, but after I got into it, it made perfect sense," Panda said in an interview.

Now, he's looking to capitalize on his social media following and take the company to higher heights as sales grow in North America.

Source: New York Times