1946 Estée Lauder
Building a Beautiful Global Enterprise
Estée Lauder not only made the world a more beautiful place, she also left
behind a billion-dollar legacy. Born Josephine Esther Mentzer in 1908 in the
borough of Queens, New York, Lauder gained merchandising experience working in
her father's hardware store. But it was her chemist uncle's influence that led
to her future business ventures. In 1946, Lauder founded The Estée Lauder
Company and began selling skin-care products developed by her uncle to beauty
salons and hotels. Her talent for sales led her to her own counter at New York
City's Saks Fifth Avenue in 1948, followed by Neiman Marcus in 1950. The company
opened its first international account at Harrods in London in 1960. Lauder's
innovative marketing techniques helped spread her brand name worldwide. Over the
years, Lauder and her team of executives added new brands to the company's
portfolio, including Aramis, Clinique, Prescriptives, Origins and MAC. Lauder
died in 2004, but the company continues to succeed: The Estée Lauder Company is
now a global enterprise that exceeds $7 billion in annual sales.
1950 Brownie Wise
The Planner Behind the Party
Her knack for sales, charm and ambition helped launch a product as common to
most American kitchens as forks and knives. Wise was a single mom in 1939 when
she got her lucky break: After selling Stanley Home Products in the early 1950s,
she realized that Tupperware would be sold more effectively at home parties than
at department stores. Wise's "party plan" marketing system began outselling the
stores, and that's when Tupperware's inventor, Earl Tupper, took notice and
hired Wise as vice president of the company. In 1958, Tupper fired Wise after
the press suggested that she was the key to Tupperware's success. Wise died in
1992, but her marketing tactic lives on to this day--companies such as Mary Kay
Cosmetics and Cookie Lee jewelry have followed in her footsteps by adopting the
party-plan marketing method to sell their own products.
1951 Lillian Vernon
Mail-Order Madness
Before the company went private in 2003, Lillian Vernon's empire was worth more
than $238 million. Born Lillian Menasche in Leipzig, Germany, in 1929, Vernon
came to the U.S. in 1937 when the Nazi threat intensified. In 1951, she decided
to start a mail-order business named for her Mount Vernon, New York, home. After
a second divorce the 1990s, she took Vernon as her surname. Vernon used $2,000
of her wedding gift funds to buy a variety of matching purses and belts, and
placed an ad in Seventeen magazine. Soon, $32,000 in orders came flooding in.
Vernon published her first catalog in 1956, offering personalized combs, blazer
buttons, collar pins and cuff links. By 1970, Lillian Vernon Corp. hit $1
million in sales. The company expanded its items to encompass holiday décor,
gifts, household items, fashion accessories and children's products. After 51
years as CEO, the personalized gifts pioneer stepped down in 2002. The company,
which filed for bankruptcy protection in February, is being acquired by Current
USA Inc. for $15.8 million.
1959 Ruth Handler
Barbie: Creating an American Icon
With the creation of the Barbie doll, Ruth Handler has changed the way little
girls play and dream, and has forever left her stamp on American culture.
Handler came up with the idea of creating a doll that looked more like an adult
after noticing that her daughter preferred to play with paper dolls that looked
like adults. Although her husband didn't think the idea would sell, Handler
debuted Barbie (her daughter's nickname) at a New York toy fair in 1959. Handler
and her husband, Elliot, were already selling dollhouse furniture and other toys
through their company, Mattel, based out of their Hawthorne, California, garage.
Within five years, Mattel became a Fortune 500 company. In 1967, Handler became
president of Mattel Inc., a position she stayed in until 1974. Her legacy lives
on today, and Barbie brings in more than $1 billion a year for Mattel.