Estée Lauder

“Those makeup counters you see in every department store today with the dedicated chairs and beauty experts. That all started because Estee refused to let her first customer try products alone.”

“While other beauty companies would rely on marketing claims, Estée could explain exactly why her products worked, what was in them, and how they were made.”

“She would give gifts without a purchase. This wasn't generosity. It was complete strategy. The goal was to get her products into every woman's hands, to let them try them at home after she explained how to use them, to transform skeptics into believers in the …”

“His Bronx laboratory was an arsenal of analysis. Spectroscopes breaking down colors, infrared and ultraviolet machines decoding fragrances, atomic absorption equipment, reverse engineering formulas.”

“When a fragrance was 95 or 98% done, a member of the Lauder family would personally deliver the last crucial ingredient, the two to five percent that made each creation unique. Only a Lauder knew the complete formula.”

“When Revsan's Ethira tried to challenge Clinique later on in the future, Estée authorized an ad in Women's Word Daily that quoted phrases from an upcoming campaign taken directly from his confidential internal memos.”

“Start in a second-tier store, and you become a second-tier brand. Your prices have to match your location. Your image follows your prices. Your future shrinks to fit your beginning.”

“So at the time of her passing, the company that she started with just a few hand creams had over five billion dollars in revenue.”

“Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden had built these global empires through chains of luxury beauty salons, but as they had something they didn't, this almost pathological inability to take no for an answer.”

“When opening a new counter, she didn't just show up for a ribbon-cutting ceremony. She stayed for the entire week. She selected and trained her sales staff. She went to every department in the store, and she gave samples to all the women working in the other d…”

“Being family-owned meant they could do what public companies couldn't. Discard entire batches of product if they weren't perfect.”

“The numbers tell the story, from 50,000 in sales in 1953 to over a hundred and fifty million by 1984. That was just for youth too.”

“All these instances would be incredibly difficult as a public company and almost impossible with professional management and not a founder at the helm.”

“The order? 800 dollars worth of merchandise.”

“Apple seems to have learned a lot from Estee Lauder as well, right? If you think about it, they have a hands-on demo. So they guide you through it. They show you how their products work, how to use them. They focus on the customer experience with the packaging…”

“When warned that no one would pay a 115 dollars for a cream, she didn't lower her price. She raised their curiosity. Her advertisement simply asked, what makes a cream worth a 115 dollars? Come meet Estee Lauder and find out.”

“Why do you spend so much for a Picasso? The linen-unders painting cost two dollars and 75 cents. Each jar of paint perhaps a dollar 75. You're paying for creativity, for experience, for something that works for you.”

“In two days, they didn't just sell well. They sold out completely. It was 1946”