The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Estee Lauder’

One morning in the 1930s she gets ready and puts on one of her best outfits. She is a woman on a mission. She walks into the Buying Office and asks to see the person responsible for buying products for the department store. She is told that he is too busy to see her today. She tells them that she’ll wait around. Lunch time comes and they tell her to go home. She has now been waiting for hours, yet she decides to stay. During the time that she is waiting, she sees many men going in to meet with the buyer. She engages one, and asks him what’s in his products. He tells her he doesn’t know, all he does is sells the products.

Unlike him, she knows every single ingredient in her products because she cooks them up herself on her kitchen stove.

She waits and waits, and now it’s 5:00 pm, and everyone is leaving for the day. But she decides to wait some more. The buyer comes out and is surprised that she is still waiting. Because she has been so patient, he tells her to show him what she has, and she makes the sale, and gets her cosmetic line into the department store chain.

Who is this mystery woman?

Estee Lauder! At the time, she recognized that to take her business to the next level, she would have to get her product into department stores. She conducted research to find out what to do and then took action.

You may not have a business to take to the next level, but perhaps you’d like to get a promotion, you’d like to take your career to the next level.

• Decide where you’d like to go.
• Find out who has been down that road.
• What steps did they take?
• Will those steps work for you? Or do you have to make adjustments?
• Create your plan.
• Take action.

Estee Lauder figured out where she wanted to go next, then she took action. Her persistence, determination and patience allowed her to win big. And she also knew the benefits of her products and could talk about them. Who can you ask to mentor you to get you to the next level? Who can you use as a role model? We’re no longer in the 1930s, and we have more access than Estee Lauder did, so what’s preventing us from moving forward? Sometimes success is just around the corner and all that’s required is for us to go the extra mile.

Don’t Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,

As every one of us sometimes learns,

And many a failure turns about,

When he might have won had he stuck it out;

Don’t give up though the pace seems slow–

You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than,

It seems to a faint and faltering man,

Often the struggler has given up,

When he might have captured the victor’s cup,

And he learned too late when the night slipped down,

How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out–

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,

And you never can tell how close you are,

It may be near when it seems so far,

So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit–

It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

- Author unknown

How can you use Estee Lauder’s experience to catapult you forward? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Note: Based on research, this is my attempt to get into the head of Estee Lauder, a truly remarkable woman and a pioneer. Estee would have been a great blogger and Invisible Mentor. The steps she took to achieve success can still be applied today. As an innovator and marketing strategist, she created many techniques for promoting her cosmetic line, which many believe are novel today. These promotional techniques include “Tell a Woman” Campaign, known today as viral marketing, get others to talk about your products, known as raving fans.

When reading today’s post, read actively, and think of ways you can apply the information to your unique situation. As I was reading up on Estee Lauder, my creative wheels were spinning rapidly inside my head and I have ideas on how to better promote my products. When we study the past we are often better able to understand the present and the future.

Influence: Uncle John Shotz, a chemist

Big  Break: Came in 1946 from Saks Fifth Avenue and paved the way for product entry into other retail stores such as Neiman Marcus and Marshall Field’s

Regret: Not balancing work and family

Quotable: “Measure your success in dollars, not degrees.”

Estee Lauder’s Success Tips

1. Pay close attention to the quality of your products
2. Offer a gift with purchase
3. Send samples by direct mail
4. Think creatively instead of thinking competition. Which non traditional market could benefit from your product or service (How about tapping hotels to purchase business books for their executive guests as a welcome)
5. Carefully recruit and train all sales representatives on how to give excellent customer service (Have product demos)
6. After you achieve success with your product, expand the product line and brand
7. Have raving fans: Give your friends who have influence samples of your products to carry around
8. Use viral marketing (Similar to “Tell a Woman” Campaign)
9. Trust yourself and your instincts
10. Focus, be aware of the world around
11. Know your customer, know your niche
12. Persist and have ambition

Which success tip can you apply? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Resources

Builders & Titans: Estée Lauder by Grace Mirabella

Encyclopedia of World Biography on Estee Lauder

Estee: A Success Story, Estee Lauder

Estee Lauder Beyond The Magic , Israel Lee

Estee Lauder by Sara Alpern

Very Old Tree in China

For the past few weeks, I have been thinking about people who have died, who would have been great bloggers, as well as great Invisible Mentors. These people were innovative thinkers and ahead of their time. I will present their names in this post and in subsequent weeks, together, we will learn more about them, and their contributions to humanity.

At a later date, I will present other innovative thinkers and we will go through the process again. This is an excellent way for us to expand our thinking.

1. Estee Lauder, Cosmetic Maven and Marketing Strategist
2. Margaret Mead, Anthropologist
3. Earl Nightingale, “Dean of Personal Development”
4. Mary Wollstonecraft, Writer and Philosopher
5. Thomas Edison, Inventor
6. Napoleon Hill, Author
7. Francis Bacon, Philosopher, Scientist and Lawyer
8. Benjamin Franklin, Inventor, Scientist, Author, Printer and much more
9. Plato, Philosopher
10. Simone de Beauvoir, Writer and Philosopher

Why would these innovative thinkers be great bloggers? They knew how to create value, they had a willingness to share with others, they had great lessons to teach and they sometimes went against the grain for things they believed in. We will also look at ways to use what they had to say to apply to our unique situations. Next week, we will start off with Estee Lauder.