Estée Lauder Leadership
Estée Lauder (1906-2004)
Born in New York City, she (pictured right) started her cosmetics business selling skin creams, made by her
uncle.
Her main rivals were Elizabeth Arden,
Charles Revson (of Revlon) and Helena Rubinstein.
Why was she a great leader?
1. Knowing her customers
She was fanatical about quality, because she knew her customers would pay a high price for
it.
Women felt they were buying luxury products with snob appeal.
So the advertisement for Re-Nutriv moisturizer asked the question:
“What makes a cream worth $115?”
The selling of her Clinique range emphasized the “science” of
beauty, with saleswomen in white laboratory coats, working under fluorescent lighting.
2. Innovation
She was:
- innovative in her selling methods (see point 3).
- continually introducing new products like the hugely popular strong scent,
Youth Dew (1953), Re-Nutriv moisturizer (1957), Aramis for
men (1964) and Clinique (1968).
3. Super selling
She sold her cosmetics through:
a) dreams
She didn’t just sell cosmetics but also dreams to her customers, helped by beautiful
models,
b) glamour
She was the first person to use a model (like Liz Hurley pictured
right) to sell a cosmetics range
Her advertisements suggested that, if you bought the cosmetics, you might look glamorous too.
c) personal service
She launched her first product range in 1946 that included creams and cleansing oil, giving facials to women in
beauty salons.
“Touch your customers, and you’re halfway there” was her motto.
d) free samples
She gave away free samples that encouraged people to come back and buy them (her
“gift-with-purchase” idea).
e) word of mouth advertising
She also encouraged people to tell their friends about her products.
“Telephone, telegraph, tell a woman” was one of her favourite phrases
4. Hard work and persistence
She always worked incredibly hard.
She pestered all the big New York department stores to give her a sales counter
until Saks did in 1948.
She then tirelessly travelled throughout America, selling mainly to upmarket department stores.
5. Ambition
She was a child of Jewish immigrants, but Jews were considered socially inferior by American society.
So she was incredibly ambitious to be successful and become socially
accepted.
She even divorced her husband, Joseph, in 1939, because he didn’t work hard enough to help the business. They
are pictured right together (courtesy of Estée Lauder).
But she re-married him in 1942!
Key quote on
success
I never dreamed about success, I worked for it.
Key quotes on selling
If you don’t sell, it’s not the product that’s wrong, it’s you
When you stop talking, you've lost a customer. When you turn your back, you've lost her.
Key quote on
products
The product... will speak for itself, if it’s something of quality.
Key quote on
women
Beauty is an attitude...There are no ugly women, only women who don’t care or who don’t believe they’re
attractive.
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