#361
04 Sep 2024 (15 days ago)
Early Business Beginnings
- Estee Lauder's first year in business generated approximately $50,000 in revenue.
- Estee Lauder's company was started as a small concession stand at a single beauty salon where she was the sole employee.
- Estee Lauder and Joe started their business in a former restaurant, doing all the work by hand and working late into the night.
Beliefs and Philosophy
- Estee Lauder believed beauty to be an ancient industry that would allow her to build a business around things that would never change.
- Estée Lauder believes beauty secrets have been passed down from generation to generation and enhances a woman's appearance.
- Lauder believes beauty is the best incentive to self-respect and makes people more apt to believe and like you.
- Estee Lauder believed that starting a business later in life allowed for greater focus and determination.
- Estee Lauder believed that it was not enough to have a great product, but that one must also be passionate about selling it.
- Estee Lauder believes in visualizing success and working hard to achieve dreams. She uses the example of picturing a sale to a large department store, which later became a reality.
- Lauder encourages listeners to focus on their goals and never give up. She believes in setting high standards, demanding perfection, and pushing beyond perceived limits to achieve dreams.
Early Influences and Passion
- Lauder's first experience with beauty was her mother who instilled self-confidence in her at an early age.
- Lauder's passion for beauty started at a young age and she used her family as models to practice her skills.
- Estée Lauder became interested in skincare at a young age and learned how to make skincare products from her uncle, John.
- Lauder continued to make and experiment with skincare products in her own home for many years, viewing it as a hobby and a "secret, absorbing experiment".
Key Business Strategies
- Lauder's initial marketing strategy relied heavily on word-of-mouth advertising, which she called the "tell a woman" campaign.
- Estee Lauder's business strategy involved building goodwill, direct outreach, and providing free samples and makeovers.
- Estee Lauder believed in the power of samples, investing heavily in providing them to potential customers instead of traditional advertising.
- Lauder gave away free makeovers and samples to potential customers and encouraged them to tell others about her products.
- Lauder cultivated relationships with salespeople in other departments of the stores where her products were sold and encouraged them to mention her products to their customers.
- Lauder made a point of meeting with magazine and newspaper beauty editors, giving them samples and advice.
- Lauder believed in building relationships and maintaining them over the course of her career.
Expansion and Growth
- To expand her business into Europe, Estée Lauder focused on getting her products into Harrods, believing that if she could get her products into that store, other stores would follow.
- Estee Lauder was able to successfully expand her business into Europe by sending her products to beauty editors, visiting them regularly, and providing samples.
- Estee Lauder was able to successfully expand her business into Canada by first convincing a reluctant buyer to sell her bath oil on consignment and then sending additional products.
Personal and Family Involvement
- Estée Lauder and Joe got divorced but later remarried and remained married for over 50 years.
- Estée Lauder's business, still family-owned in 1985, involved her husband, her son Leonard, and later her second son.
- Estée Lauder involved her sons in her business from a young age. Her son, Leonard Lauder, worked at the office after school, delivered packages, worked as a billing clerk, and worked full-time during the summer.
Customer Engagement and Loyalty
- Estee Lauder's products impressed Florence Morris, the owner of a beauty salon, leading Morris to ask about Lauder's skincare routine.
- Lauder saw an opportunity and offered to bring Morris some of her products.
- Lauder believed in the power of demonstration, refusing to leave her products without showing Morris how to use them.
- Impressed by the demonstration, Morris offered Lauder the opportunity to run a beauty concession at her new salon.
- Lauder believed in customer loyalty and claimed to have invented the sales technique of giving gifts with purchases, ensuring customers never left empty-handed.
- Estée Lauder would give free makeovers to women poolside at hotels while on vacation.
- Estée Lauder traveled the country by train attending every one of her store counter openings to meet potential customers.
Marketing Innovations
- Estée Lauder believed she could sell more perfume if it was marketed as a bath oil that could double as a skin perfume. She believed this strategy would remove the social stigma some women felt about purchasing perfume for themselves.
- Lauder emphasizes the importance of staying connected with people in her industry, considering them both business associates and friends. She highlights the benefits of socializing with store owners, buyers, media professionals, movie stars, and young career women.