Mary Kay Inc. Building A Brand

Yes Mary Kay is a global brand. Why, because they marketed in many countries by the same name and they have similar and centrally coordinated marketing

Mary Kay started her business in 1995 and invested US$20 million in its China operations. In, 1996, Mary Kay managed to opened branch in Shanghai where residential incomes are higher than average and cosmetics and skin care products are used most often. By the end of 1997, wholesales sales topped US$12 million in China, and a nearly 12,000 strong sales force was making inroads into China’s cosmetic market.

Currently Mary Kay offers more than 200 premium products. The product assortments are innovative skin care, tantalizing makeup and unforgettable fragrances.

Mary Kay Ash was a famous American businesswoman and the founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics. She started her business with a small investment of $5000 in 1963, and soon became one of the most successful business women of her time.

Today, firms have to deal with a global marketplace; marketers have no other choice. Participation in global marketing has begun to shift from a mere “option” to an imperative. The world is becoming more homogeneous. Distinctions between national markets

Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc’s (MKC) was facing challenges of increasing number of competing direct selling organizations in the US cosmetics market and was not satisfied with their sales revenue generated from international sales. They believed MKC culture could be transferred internationally and that Mary Kay Ash’s charisma, motivation and philosophy were likely to appeal to women throughout the world.

Mary Kay Ash was a famous American business owner. She is the founder and owner of Mary Kay Cosmetics. She worked very hard in life to achieve great things. Owning her own business took her a while, but she exceled through it. Mary Kay Cosmetics is currently a $3.5 billion dollar industry. As a result of Mary Kay’s early life, life achievements and her current cosmetic line, she has become an inspiration to many people.

Question 1: Is Mary Kay an "international firm", a "multinational firm", or a "transnational firm" as defined in this course and based on its marketing strategy? Why?

This is an international marketing strategy that largely focuses on the commercial efforts and advertising on the benefits of concentrating on local markets rather than using global or universal approach. This, therefore, means that the company will employ work towards understanding culture of different local markets in various countries and try to enter into the studied market using the demographics in that area. The greatest effort required in this strategy is using advertising as well presentation to try and appease local sensibilities in various countries rather than applying a mass market strategy. So that this strategy can be successful it is crucial to carry out extensive research in different countries that the company hopes to invest (Leontiades, 2010). By learning how the company can be able to create a good connection with the consumers in various countries using multi-domestic strategy can assist to build a lot of tactics which can be integrated into markets that have many similarities. Learning how to closely associate with customers will also assist customize marketing and advertising efforts to match with the present local culture. Although multi-domestic strategy may be somehow expensive to employ its end result are more profitable to the company. When the company’s products are able to

Mary Kay Cosmetics is a company known for providing women with exceptional opportunities for professional achievement and economic success and rewarding women for their success. Mary Kay Cosmetics uses several programs to motivate, recognize, and develop its beauty consultants, which include recognition in a monthly magazine, annual events, gifts and prizes and most importantly, financial incentives. At the heart of the financial incentives Mary Kay provides is the three car programs offered to beauty consultants at different stages of their career. The car programs have proven to be effective motivators; however the costs to the company have skyrocketed as the number of car

Market segmentation is usually regarded as one of the main elements of marketing, with benefit segmentation commonly referred to as the most meaningful form of segmentation. Even though the importance of segmentation is broadly accepted, limited research, do exist about cosmetic medical products (Mohr, Sengupta, & Slater 2010, 79). There are very few real examples of segmentation studies available. This article has focused on Johnson and Johnson products marketing strategy globally. The spread of global culture is normally facilitated by the rise of global capitalism, the proliferation of transitional corporations, homogenization of global consumption, and widespread aspiration for material possessions. International market researchers have discussed the breadth of convergence of cultural values across countries.

In “P&G Japan: The SK-II Globalization Project” case study, the author Christopher Bartlett presents the P&G’s plan of pushing SK-II as a global beauty product. In late 1999, Paolo de Cesare, President of Max Factor Japan, had given an idea to the Global Leader Team (GLT) of P&G’s Beauty Care Global Business Unit (GBU) that whether it was a good idea for pushing SK-II to become a global P&G brand. Since the product was successful in Japan ($150 million in sales in 1999), P&G then was considering in expanding its SK-II to be distributed worldwide. There was also an effort of the Global Growth strategy of P&G at that time as an influence factor to

Mary Kay products have been seen to sell in more than 35 markets expanding across 5 continents. Mary Kay’s sales force exceeds 2 million globally with potential markets such as the Indian and Asia- Pacific areas that represent extensive growth opportunities. Mary Kay is focused on expanding into the Indian Market, due to its large population and market size. With the large population of middle class growing to a total of 500 million individuals will give Mary Kay the opportunity to build their brand and attract this demographic of consumers. Amongst the population that is averaging at 26 years of age consists of a growing number of women seen as highly optimistic candidates who have contributed to an increase in consumption

Avon, started its journey in the early 1886 is now the oldest and the largest marketers and manufactures of the beauty products. The advertisements from “Ding dong, Avon Calling” to “Hello Tomorrow” and from “You never looked so good” to the latest one “The Company For Women”, always helped Avon to improve its image and enhance the marketing strategies to serve the purpose. One of the amazing facts about Avon includes that it’s headquarter is situated in USA but major portion of its sales comes from outside North America. Avon has captured a huge market all over the world and its distributing the beauty solutions to almost all parts of the world. With Avon being a part of 112 countries, the company has

Commercial products of multinational companies are being marketed to people from different cultures owing to an increased growth in the world economy (Lin, 2012). Samli (1995) states that in most cases, consumer attitudes are largely driven by the framework of their culture. Mooji points out that global marketing strategies are not culture-free and should not be because its influence on consumer behavior is profound (1998, 2005) .In his article “The Globalization of Markets”, Levitt (1983) argued that customers can be persuaded by the same advertising appeals and values, irrespective of the culture they belong to.