Mary Kay Cosmetic SWOT Analysis Author Darlene Trotter
Mary Kay History At a time when women were suppose to be home taking care of their families Mary Kay Ash was out working in a man’s world and achieving success. After 25 years working in direct sales and being passed over for promotions by men she had trained, in those times women were not given many opportunities for advancement, Mary Kay Ash handed in her resignation. After she resigned she began writing a book about her experiences in the work force, she did not want other women to experience what she had, and soon discovered she had a marketing plan for a dream company. With her oldest son, Richard, $5,000 in savings, the The sales force of Independent Beauty Consultants is another strength that cannot be ignored. No one can say that Mary Kay does not take care of their sales force. Though they are “self-employed” Mary Kay offers the best training and rewards. In their training each beauty consultant is encouraged to “consider herself Mary Kay” to project the founder’s charisma and selling ability (tshaonline.org). Beauty consultants are taught that they are in business for themselves but not by themselves. The rewards for sales and recruiting are numerous vacations, jewelry, and lots of recognition. One of the highest achievements is a pink Cadillac. With the training and rewards it is obvious why the beauty consultant works so hard to be successful. The fact that there are 1.8 million Independent Beauty Consultants attests to Mary Kay success. Product knowledge and safety are probably the biggest strength of the company. Beginning with the first skin cream that Mary Kay bought the manufacturing right to; to today’s anti-aging products she has always wanted to sell the best product. It was a tanner’s daughter who mixed up the cream and Mary Kay knew it was something special. Mary Kay spends millions of dollars a year and does more than 300,000 test to ensure every product meets the highest standard for safety, quality, and performance (Marykay.com). Each new product goes through stringent testing before being brought to market. With these standards the consumer knows they are
