America took note when "60 Minutes" interviewed Mary Kay Ash in The nation was taken by the remarkable woman and her visionary business opportunity. Within two years, the Mary Kay independent sales force had more than doubled, and sales almost tripled. Click here for a list of Mary Kay markets around the world. The Horatio Alger Distinguished American Citizen Award is presented to Mary Kay Ash to celebrate her achievements and to honor how she overcame adversity early in her career.
It followed with banning product testing on animals. These actions, among others, have earned Mary Kay Inc. Click here for more information on the social responsibility programs at Mary Kay Inc. The new Mary Kay Building became the world headquarters in Situated on 34 acres, the floor, pink granite building includes nearly , square feet and is located in Addison, Texas, just north of Dallas.
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I CAN be very proud of what I do. Mary Kay is a company with heart A company with integrity. She began to think about what a "dream company" might look like, and the book waited 20 years to be written and published. She wrote in Mary Kay on People Management that her main objectives became to build an organization where the Golden Rule was the guiding philosophy and to "establish a company that would give unlimited opportunity to women. Mary Kay decided to start a direct sales company since that was the area with which she was familiar; direct sales also would be appealing to women who could sell part-time and follow a flexible schedule.
After deciding on a structure, she chose as a product a line of skin care products she had been using for more than a decade. She had been introduced to the skin care products while she was selling Stanley products at a home party. The hostess, a cosmetologist, was testing these products on her friends. This woman had developed the products from a leather tanning solution her father had formulated, after he noticed how young his hands looked from using the solution every day.
Although the cosmetologist marketed the products to her friends, she did not achieve great success in sales and, after her death in , Mary Kay bought the formula from the woman's daughter. They also recruited nine independent sales representatives. Only a month before the company was to open for business, Mary Kay's husband died, but Mary Kay decided to proceed with the opening.
His qualifications consisted of two college marketing courses and experience as a sales representative for a life insurance company. Within the year, Mary Kay's son Ben moved his family to Dallas, took a pay cut, and went to work for the family company. Daughter Marylyn joined the company later, becoming the first Mary Kay director in Houston. Beauty by Mary Kay opened on Friday, September 13, The products were manufactured by a Dallas company and sold through a network of salespeople, who were called "beauty consultants" and were required to purchase an initial "Beauty Showcase" kit.
The beauty consultants were trained in scheduling and conducting Mary Kay parties, or "skin care classes," in private homes. Beauty consultants purchased Mary Kay products at 50 percent below retail and resold them.
They also received commissions for sales of salespeople they recruited. The company tried to differentiate itself from companies that used illegal pyramiding. Unlike pyramid operations, Mary Kay sold its products to all of its consultants for the same 50 percent discount. It also took recruiter bonuses out of company earnings, not out of each sales recruit's earnings. The company also developed specific guidelines for its salespeople. Emphasis at home parties was on teaching, rather than selling, and the number of guests was held to no more than six.
Delivery and payment on the spot were required, and beauty consultants could not purchase from the company on credit. Mary Kay also limited its product line so that salespeople would be knowledgeable about each product. Unlike many companies, Mary Kay did not limit sales territories. Beauty consultants could recruit other consultants from anywhere in the world. The company also initiated an incentive program that included the use of a pink Cadillac.
This famous prize was established in when a pink Cadillac was awarded to the top sales director. The year after that, five Cadillacs were awarded and the next year, ten. By , the company was awarding 20 Cadillacs.
Later, rather than awarding them on a top-seller basis, they were awarded to any sales director reaching a preset sales level. By , 6, consultants were driving pink Cadillacs or other complimentary cars.
Annual conventions were held to recognize achievement, a practice that quickly became an important public relations event. Among other programs, the conventions featured workshops for husbands of Mary Kay consultants on how to be supportive of their wives' Mary Kay careers.
Soon, more office space was needed and Mary Kay moved to a three-office headquarters with a training room and warehouse space, for a total of 5, square feet.
Within two years, Mary Kay had about beauty consultants selling its beauty products. After that year, Mary Kay considered franchising to reach a wider market but decided against it because many women would have to turn to men for financing, which would reduce the level of independence that the company had tried to facilitate.
Instead, in , the company went public and used the proceeds from the IPO to fund its expansion. For the next decade and a half, sales grew at an average of 28 percent per year. Between and , however, sales slowed. To revive them, the company increased compensation rates for consultants.
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