beauty
MARY KAY AIMS TO MAKE LIPSTICK MARK -Women's Wear Daily
WWD
11
英文市场调研报告
Copyright 1996 Fairchild Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved
NEW YORK -- Mary Kay Inc. is embarking on what it hopes will
be the biggest launch in its 33-year history.
In July, the Dallas-based firm will introduce the Signature
Color Moisturizing Lipstick Collection, which it expects to
generate $92 million at wholesale in its first year. In the
initial, three-month promotional period alone, company
executives said it should bring in sales of at least $40
million.
The new lipstick brand is based on patent-pending
micro-encapsulated beads designed to deliver moisturizing and
long-wearing properties, the firm said.
The option of color customizing will also be part of the deal:
The lipstick launch will be augmented by Unlimited Options
Lipstick Adjusters, color creams that allow users to blend their
own hues.
``We follow Revlon in lipstick sales,'' said Curran Dandurand,
Mary Kay's executive vice president of global marketing. She was
here recently to discuss the project. ``But we are setting our
sights on the top spot.''
According to Information Resources Inc., a Chicago-based firm
that tracks drugstore, supermarket and mass merchant sales,
Revlon led the lipstick category in 1995 with retail sales of
$178 million. Cover Girl and L'OrAal followed with retail sales
of $57 million each.
IRI does not track direct-sales companies like Mary Kay, which
has a worldwide sales force of 425,000 people in 25 countries,
but the company reportedly rang up U.S. lipstick sales of $70
million at wholesale last year. Overall, Mary Kay generated
worldwide sales of $950 million in 1995.
Distribution of the new lip colors in the U.S., Canada and
Mexico will begin in July. Within the next six months, the line
will be shipped to Europe.
The U.S. color range will include 24 lipsticks with a suggested
retail price of $10 each, six lip liner pencils at $7 each and
four adjuster shades at $5 apiece. A refillable compact holding
two adjuster shades will be $18.50, while a larger compact with
four shades and a tube of lipstick will be sold for $45.
In addition, 12 coordinating nail colors, priced at $5 each,
will be introduced at the time of the lip color launch.
Beginning July 1, Mary Kay beauty consultants will be able to
purchase the new items from the company for resale to their
customers. About 45,000 salespeople are scheduled to attend a
mid-July annual meeting at company headquarters, where the line
will be officially unveiled.
The launch marks a departure in product development and
marketing for a firm more famous for its fleet of pink Cadillacs
than its fashion leadership. But executives said they are
working to update Mary Kay's image, and they conducted an
extensive study to find out what lip colors women around the
world wanted. From the resulting 35-hue global palette, the
company handpicked shades for each of the company's various
markets.
``We found that neutrals and warm colors rated highest,''
Dandurand said. ``Even cool-colored markets like Germany and
Japan are turning to warm colors. Still, there are enough
nuances in depth and intensity to customize colors from market
to market. In Russia, for instance, red is not worn. It is
viewed there as a color worn by prostitutes.''
To support the sales effort, Mary Kay will advertise in the
September, October and November editions of Vogue, Glamour,
Self, Allure, In Style, McCall's, Redbook and Martha Stewart
Living.
In addition, six million Vogue ``trend reports,'' featuring
samples of three Mary Kay lipstick shades and one adjuster
shade, will be mailed to customers in August.
The company is also running a six-page ad this July in Beauty
Magazine, its semiannual joint-venture publication with Hachette
Filipacchi. About 500,000 issues will be distributed to 40,000
newsstands nationwide, while approximately 500,000 more will be
circulated internally to the sales force.
``We are concentrating less on general-interest books and more
on books women view as fashion authorities,'' Dandurand said.
``Before, we sprinkled advertising throughout the year and
promoted several product categories. This new, more focused
direction reflects a media strategy we started just last year.''
The closest the company has come to first-year sales of the
magnitude projected for the lip colors was in September 1993,
when Skin Revival System made its debut. The brand, which
included a cream and a serum that each contained alpha- and
beta-hydroxy acids, hit $50 million at wholesale in its first
year, according to Dandurand.
In an unrelated July launch, the company is rolling out its Full
Coverage Correcting Concealers in four shades, along with two
Full Coverage Neutralizing Concealers, priced at $9.50 each.
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