Mary Kay Ash Case Study
Mary Kay Ash Case Study
It is a sight that usually commands a great deal of attention on the highway: an ordinary-looking, middle-aged woman driving along in a flashy pink Cadillac. Why, other motorists wonder, is this seemingly average homemaker behind the wheel of such an uncommon luxury car?
More often than not, the answer to this question will involve Mary Kay Cosmetics, Inc., a skin-care products company that motivates its sales force of more than 120,000 “beauty consultants” (recruited from the ranks of suburban housewives) by offering them the chance to compete for an assortment of storybook prizes. In addition to the pink Cadillacs, the Dallas-based firm awards mink coats, diamond jewelry, posh vacations, and similar luxuries to the beauty consultants with the best sales records. Mary Kay Cosmetics has been using the mix of friendly competition and glamorous prizes to rally its sales people since shortly after the company was founded in 1963 by Mary Kay Ash, a retired woman from Hot Wells, Texas.
A straight-A student in high school, Mary Kay entertained thoughts of becoming a doctor, but was forced to drop this idea because her parents could not afford to send her to college on the meager earnings of the family’s small restaurant. With her plans for a higher education thwarted, the attractive girl married a guitar player named Ben Rogers, whom she once described as “the Elvis Presley of Houston.” The marriage lasted eleven years and produced three children, before Rogers sought a divorce.
Left on her won, Mary Kay supported her young family by selling cleaning supplies at in-home demonstrations for Stanley Home Products. In 1953 she left Stanley and joined another direct sales organization, rising to the $25,000-a-year job of national training director. She resigned this position, however, after an outside efficiency expert advised the company to curtail her growing power.
Following her less-than-amicable resignation, Mary Kay planned to retire to write a
It is a sight that usually commands a great deal of attention on the highway: an ordinary-looking, middle-aged woman driving along in a flashy pink Cadillac. Why, other motorists wonder, is this seemingly average homemaker behind the wheel of such an uncommon luxury car?
More often than not, the answer to this question will involve Mary Kay Cosmetics, Inc., a skin-care products company that motivates its sales force of more than 120,000 “beauty consultants” (recruited from the ranks of suburban housewives) by offering them the chance to compete for an assortment of storybook prizes. In addition to the pink Cadillacs, the Dallas-based firm awards mink coats, diamond jewelry, posh vacations, and similar luxuries to the beauty consultants with the best sales records. Mary Kay Cosmetics has been using the mix of friendly competition and glamorous prizes to rally its sales people since shortly after the company was founded in 1963 by Mary Kay Ash, a retired woman from Hot Wells, Texas.
A straight-A student in high school, Mary Kay entertained thoughts of becoming a doctor, but was forced to drop this idea because her parents could not afford to send her to college on the meager earnings of the family’s small restaurant. With her plans for a higher education thwarted, the attractive girl married a guitar player named Ben Rogers, whom she once described as “the Elvis Presley of Houston.” The marriage lasted eleven years and produced three children, before Rogers sought a divorce.
Left on her won, Mary Kay supported her young family by selling cleaning supplies at in-home demonstrations for Stanley Home Products. In 1953 she left Stanley and joined another direct sales organization, rising to the $25,000-a-year job of national training director. She resigned this position, however, after an outside efficiency expert advised the company to curtail her growing power.
Following her less-than-amicable resignation, Mary Kay planned to retire to write a