10 Marketing Rules of Queen Estee Lauder

What I want to talk about today is not Estee Lauder , but the founder of this beauty empire - Mrs. Estee Lauder▼

She is recognized as a business genius. In 1998, Time magazine selected the 20 most influential entrepreneurs of the 20th century, and she was the only woman on the list.

Her life is a typical heroine's script. One person gets rich, the whole family gets out of poverty▼

However, I prefer to call her a marketing genius and an idol for all female marketers.

Social selling, trial pack marketing, brand marketing , these are what she has left. She is the originator of private domain traffic, and her private domain operations even affect international relations.

Don't believe it? You will know after reading her 10 marketing rules.

01Don’t do marketing if you don’t have a sense of conviction

If you don’t have a sense of belief when doing marketing, let alone conquering users, you won’t even be able to overcome your own challenges.

“If you really want to be another Estee Lauder, you have to have a strong belief in what you are doing.”

"If I believe in something, I will promote it with all my might."▼

In 1946, when the company was founded, Estee Lauder only had four products: cleansing oil, face cream, lotion and body oil.

Image source: Estee Lauder official website

But this did not affect her enthusiasm for marketing at all. In the era without the Internet, she would often take her products to salons or stores to sell her products to those wealthy ladies.

Because she firmly believes that every product is helping women create beauty.

02Marketing must first anchor the core value

"Every woman can become beautiful" is the core value that Mrs. Estee Lauder anchored when she started her business▼

With the rise of women's status in the last century, this core value became the emotional sustenance of countless women for Estee Lauder, and also quietly opened the door to Estee Lauder's business empire.

03If you can’t tell a good story, you can’t do marketing well

Top marketers are all good storytellers. Mrs. Estee Lauder is no exception.

She knows that the founder’s story is a magic weapon for brand marketing. As a new fashion brand, inspiration, romance and France are all indispensable elements of this story▼

In order to tell this story well, she portrayed herself as a girl from the slums, even though such a description was not appropriate for her as she came from a working-class family. But for a new brand, inspiration is undoubtedly a perfect starting point for a story.

She also changed her name to Estée, adding the small phonetic symbol to make her look French. Estée Lauder was officially launched▼

In addition, she also talked about her mother's French ancestry and her father's European gentleman style.

In this way, she gave a brand from New York, USA, a European feel.

04 Make salespeople part of marketing

Even if you have a good brand story, the audience will be limited if you tell it yourself.

This marketing genius realized in the last century that sales is also a part of marketing, which is something that many companies today have not yet realized.

Before a new store opens, Mrs. Estee Lauder will personally select and train female salespeople, personally introduce products, and arrange product displays.

She required every salesperson to be a "living advertisement" for Estee Lauder, to be well-dressed, to have the necessary product knowledge, to be able to demonstrate the functions and advantages of the products, and more importantly, to be able to tell the brand story to customers.

05Don’t think about making money from everyone

To put it simply, this is user positioning in marketing. Only by knowing where your users are can you target your marketing efforts more effectively.

In that era, the target audience of cosmetics were mostly ladies from upper society. So from the first day the brand was born, Mrs. Estee Lauder decided to only do business with the rich.

So even if she insisted, she still wanted to open a counter in Manhattan's most upscale shopping street - SAKS Fifth Avenue▼

When other skin care products were still using plastic bottles, she insisted on using the military metal of the time as the packaging for her lipstick.

So even though the price is high, customers still flock to it. Because the last thing rich people lack is money, and Estee Lauder not only meets their demands for quality, but also their fantasies of luxury and elegance▼

Image source: Estee Lauder official website

This is why, after Estee Lauder launched the most expensive facial cream in history in 1956, it not only did not lose users, but instead attracted them to rush to buy it.

06Free is the most effective marketing method

It was this woman who pioneered trial pack marketing.

After that, all cosmetics companies began to follow suit, and it even affected other industries, such as "tasting" in the food and fruit industry and "course experience" in the training industry.

Mrs. Estee Lauder’s marketing strategy is not just about giving away free samples.

In the early days of her business, she would go to the streets and let women passing by try her products for free. This series of practices earned Estee Lauder a good reputation and made more people feel good about her products▼

Outside of the cosmetics industry, free is still the most effective marketing tool. In essence, free means creating a good user experience for customers. After all, no one doesn't like to get something for free.

However, today, what can be provided to users for free at a controllable cost is no longer product samples, but high-quality content.

So friends, content marketing should not only be done, but also done well.

07 Make users your besties

The key to marketing is to establish a trusting relationship with users.

Estee Lauder often stands at the counter in person, listening to consumers' needs and explaining her products to them▼

She also often shares her beauty tips and product usage experiences with customers and provides purchasing advice, treating customers as good friends with whom she can talk about anything.

In today's Internet-developed world, how can companies make friends with users?

The most effective method is live streaming.

08Don’t underestimate the power of word of mouth

People can influence each other. Word of mouth can change users' perception of a product and can even convince them to buy it.

In an era without the Internet, Estee Lauder was well aware of the power of word of mouth. Because she knows that once women use a good product, they can't wait to share it with their friends.

"Telephone, telegram, tell your girlfriend."

This is what Estee Lauder says most often when promoting its products.

09Activate your private domain traffic

Top marketers must all be “social experts”.

Let’s take a look at the luxurious circle of friends that Mrs. Estee Lauder has accumulated on her entrepreneurial journey:

Princess of Monaco, First Lady Nancy Reagan, Lady Windsor, Princess Diana, Audrey Hepburn, Mrs. Hedana Rubinstein (a beauty industry expert who said, "There are no ugly women, only lazy women"), jazz star Frank Sinatra▼

Frank Sinatra, First Lady Nancy Reagan, Estée Lauder

But she knows that just knowing is useless, and face recognition is the key to activating private domain traffic.

In an era when there is no one-click way to send group blessings, let’s just have a party.

Mrs. Estee Lauder often held various social parties. Even in her later years, she insisted on having a socialite party with no less than 30 people every week.

Princess of Monaco and Estee Lauder

It is rumored that the United States' years-long ambiguous relationship with Russia during Trump's tenure began with a luncheon hosted by Estee Lauder in 1986.

At the time, Trump happened to be sitting next to the Soviet ambassador to the United States, Dubinin, and the two had a good chat. This led to the story of Trump's investment in real estate in Russia and his later "gay friendship" with Putin▼

The source of all this is the social queen, Mrs. Estee Lauder.

10The essence of marketing is the expression of human nature

Estee Lauder saw the importance of human expression in marketing earlier than Steve Jobs.

Who has the most beautiful face in the world? Estee Lauder’s answer is, “It’s not someone else, it’s you.”

She said: "Beauty is an attitude, there is no secret to beauty. Why are all brides beautiful? Because they care very much about their image at the wedding. There are no ugly women in the world, only women who don't care about or don't believe in their own charm."

All of her marketing concepts ultimately express that every woman can always be beautiful and fashionable.

Eventually, she won the hearts of women, and the Estee Lauder brand became one of women's closest partners.

Final Thoughts

I have always firmly believed that women have a natural advantage in the marketing industry.

Delicate emotions and keen insights enable female marketers to better understand the trends in the target market and capture target customers.

At the same time, they also have "androgynous" mobility. She can maintain strong maternal traits when interacting with colleagues and users, while having a strong sense of principles and firmness in her decision-making behavior.

Salute to all female marketers!

above

Author: Koala Marketing

Source: Koala Marketing