Estee Lauder's Philosophy: Every Woman is Beautiful

Believe it or not, cosmetics magnate Estée Lauder had simple beginnings. She was born sometime around 1908, although her true age was kept secret her entire life. She wrote in her autobiography "Estee, A Success Story" about her age that "It's the best kept secret since the D-Day invasion." [1]

She grew up in Corono in the Queens Borough of New York City as Josephine Esther Menzer. When a school official misspelled her name, the family adopted it as Esty. It later transformed to Estée.

Her first sales experience came at her father's hardware store where she spent hours arranging merchandise and window displays.

It was her Uncle John Schotz who inspired Lauder to focus her attention on cosmetics. A Hungarian chemist, Schotz cooked up skin care creams in the Menzer household.

"I watched as he created a secret formula, a magic cream potion, with which he filled vials, jars and flagons," Lauder has said. "It was a precious velvety cream that magically made you scented. Maybe I'm glorifying my memories, but I believe I recognized in my Uncle John my own true path."[1]

Lauder spent twenty years under the apprenticeship of her uncle, improving his creams, and still making them from her home. By the time she married Joseph Lauter, later changed to Lauder, Estée was cooking up her own creations in the kitchen. Even after she gave birth to son Leonard, Lauder continued making and selling her creations.

Her first touch of success was from selling her products to clients of The House of Ash Blondes Beauty Salon on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

Lauder had something of a unique approach to selling her products: free make-up demonstrations and give-away samples. Though these techniques may have appeared to be self-defeating, they actually turned out to be quite innovative. Lauder was able to market and sell products to more women, and expand her market to resort hotels in metropolitan New York, even during the Great Depression, thanks to her "free" marketing techniques.

The Lauders divorced in 1939 and Estée headed for Miami Beach, Florida. There, she employed another marketing technique for her cosmetics by starting the "Tell a Woman" campaign. The campaign worked and she was able to sell her products to wealthy vacationers.

The Lauders remarried in 1942 and had another son, Ronald. Estée commented on remarrying her husband by saying, "I was married very young. You think you missed something out of life. But I found that I had the sweetest husband in the world." [1]

Be that as it may, the Lauders made a great team. Estée continued making her creations and doing the marketing while Joseph became financial manager.

Saks Fifth Avenue gave the Lauders their first big break. Saks placed a big order with the Lauders for their Super Rich All Purpose Cleansing Oil, Crème Pack and Skin Lotion. Lauder cooked the products on a restaurant stove in a converted restaurant they were using as a factory, and delivered them personally to Saks.

Once Saks was selling Estée Lauder products, other big name department stores followed suit: Neiman Marcus, Marshall Field and Bonwit Teller.

At this point, Lauder implemented new marketing strategies: selling her products through the best department stores, handpicking her saleswomen and the "free gift to every purchaser" technique. She insisted upon selecting and training the staff for each of her Estée Lauder department store counter, seeing her saleswomen as "the link to my customer."[1]

Lauder believed in the power of the human touch. Her belief that in order to make a sale, you must touch the customer was one of the basics of the training of her saleswomen.

"I didn't get there by wishing for it or hoping for it, but by working for it," she often reminded her sales force.[2]

Estée Lauder Inc. was officially formed in 1947.

A few short years later, Lauder introduced the first fragrance to be manufactured by Estée Lauder Inc. Youth Dew was both perfume and bath oil. Retailing at $8.50 per bottle, Youth Dew did $50,000 in business in its first year.

Lauder continued being an innovator, introducing Beautiful and White Linen perfumes, Aramis for men and a hypo-allergenic cosmetics, Clinique.

But the ingredients of her creations were kept within the family. A family member was the only person allowed to add a final and secret ingredient to the creations in an effort to protect the company from industry spies hired by her competitors. It also lent a certain mystique around Estée Lauder which didn't harm sales.

Lauder also refused to sell out to any corporate conglomerates. Estée Lauder Inc went public in November of 1995. Profits were reported in excess of $60 million.

Leonard Lauder began running the company in the early 1990s. Ronald was in charge of the company's foreign operations for a time, but left to serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense during the Reagan administration. He also served as U.S. Ambassador to Austria and made an unsuccessful bid for the New York City Mayor's office.

Joseph Lauder died in 1984. Estée spent less time dealing with the daily operations of the company, spending more time on philanthropic efforts.

Lauder's autobiography, "Estée, A Success Story" was published by Ballantine Books in September, 1986.

Estée Lauder, successful businesswoman, entrepreneur and queen of the cosmetics industry, died April 24, 2004 of cardiopulmonary arrest. Her age was estimated to be 97.

Sources:

[1] Encyclopedia of World Biography
[2] Estée Lauder website