The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Viral marketing’

Estee Lauder was ahead of her time! She makes a great invisible mentor, a unique leader who we can learn things from. In my blog post If Estee Lauder Was a Blogger, What Would She Say? I identified 12 success tips that I gleaned while conducting research on her. This is my best 2009 post because we can learn so much from her. Back then, her Tell a Woman Campaign was simply brilliant, and is what we now call viral marketing. Customer service was very important to her, so she carefully recruited and trained her sales associates. Her persistence and determination helped her to achieve professional success.

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

Looking at the success tips with today’s lens may not seem impressive, but over 40 years ago, now that’s a different story.

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. This is an entry for The Essential Lines from 2009 Group Writing Project.

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