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SPEAKER_00: This Women's History Month Encyclopedia Wamanica is brought to you by Mercedes Benz. Mercedes Benz celebrates all women driving change and is indebted to those trailblazing women who punctuate the brand's history like Bertha Benz and Evie Rusqvist. These women defied the odds to change the auto industry forever. Mercedes Benz applauds the tenacity and courage it takes to pave the road ahead. Listen along this month as we share the stories of inspiring women in charge and at the top of their fields. Powered by Mercedes Benz.
SPEAKER_08: Every woman, if she just does five minutes, you don't need any more than that. Just put on a little glow and your face right over the glow so the glow looks like it's part of you and powder your face very lightly. And with a very beautiful soft lipstick and then put a little freshness up here. You walk in a room, you feel wonderful. Not just put powder on and run.
SPEAKER_00: Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan and this is Encyclopedia Wamanica. Today we're talking about a woman whose name is synonymous with excellence in beauty. An undeniable titan in the cosmetics industry. She built an enduring brand through innovative marketing. We're talking about Esté Lauder. Josephine Esther Menser was born in Corona, Queens to two Hungarian Jewish immigrants, Rose and Max Metzner. While Esté declined to publicly reveal her age, it's estimated that she was born on July 1st, 1906. Esté was exposed to merchandising at a young age. She helped her father in his hardware shop by rearranging products in the store's window. Her fascination with beauty and skincare products came shortly thereafter. When Esté was a teenager, her uncle, John Schatz, emigrated from Hungary and joined the family in New York. He made his own facial creams and shampoos for a living. Soon after his arrival, he established New Way Laboratories in Brooklyn to make his products. Esté was immediately taken with the process. She began working on her own concoctions and collaborated with her uncle. While John was an excellent craftsman, he lacked business acumen. Esté soon took the lead on marketing and selling his products, peddling them everywhere she went. In 1933, Esté married Joseph Lauder. The birth of their first son, Leonard, quickly followed, but the couple clashed from the onset. Esté and Joseph did not conform to stereotypical gender norms of the time. Esté was ambitious and entrepreneurial. Joseph was better known for his social ease and struggled to stay gainfully employed. As a result, the two divorced in 1939. Joseph, however, never gave up on the union. In 1942, the couple reconciled and had their second son, Ronald. This time, the marriage stuck. Joseph played a key supporting role in Esté's growing empire, and the two remained together until Joseph's death 40 years later. By 1944, Esté was creating and selling her own creams in New York beauty parlors. Esté was a one-woman band. Not only was she the chemist and inventor behind her products, mixing them in her own kitchen, she was also the lead promoter and salesperson. She knew the only way to gain maximum exposure was through department stores, and had her eye on one in particular, Saks Fifth Avenue. When Esté first approached Saks, they wanted nothing to do with a woman from Queens selling creams she made in her kitchen. But Esté was a master at marketing her products. In 1946, she devised a plan. She gave away 80 lipsticks at a charity event at the distinguished Waldorf Astoria Hotel. She made sure each lipstick was beautifully packaged in a metal case, which was a real luxury since metal was hard to come by after World War II. Shortly thereafter, Saks was bombarded with calls from customers asking to buy more of Esté's lipsticks. Saks called Esté and placed an order. They sold out in two days. To meet demand, the whole family got involved. Esté and Joseph rented an old restaurant in Manhattan where Esté could create her creams on a much larger scale. Their oldest son, Leonard, delivered the products to Saks on his bicycle. Esté traveled the country by train, pitching her products to department stores. The beauty market then, and now, was crowded and extremely competitive. Esté was regularly turned away. She gained some traction when the editor of Harper's Bazaar, Carol Snow, interviewed her. Esté shocked Carol when she applied the product directly to Carol's face. Esté was known for always demonstrating her products by touching a customer's face. While unconventional, Carol loved it, and Esté made an influential friend. Esté was meticulous when it came to the aesthetics of her products. She spent ages deciding on a color for her jars and landed on the iconic light blue that's still in use today. Regardless of location, Esté never missed the opening of one of her counters at a department store. She'd arrive early to personally select and train the sales staff. Despite its rapid growth, the Esté Lauder Company was still small potatoes compared to bigger names of the day, like Revlon and Elizabeth Arden. Esté had to be extra creative in order to compete. She believed her facial creams were best in class, but her other products drove sales. Esté decided to start including free samples of her facial creams when customers bought a lipstick or fragrance, thus creating the concept of free gift with purchase. Her competitors laughed at the idea, why give away your goods for free? But the idea worked, big time. It was such a success that within a short while, all of Esté's major competitors were copying the idea. That wouldn't be the last time Esté's ideas were ripped off by bigger companies. When in the 1950s, Esté didn't have enough money to purchase television ads like her competitors. She instead created paper inserts that included a sample of her fragrances. These samples were mailed out with the monthly Saks membership statements. Given the ubiquity of that practice today, it's safe to say it was another huge success for Esté. Unsurprisingly, her competitors took note and followed suit. The fragrance in those mailers would be key to Esté Lauder's enduring success. Seeing that most fragrances were expensive and wore off quickly, Esté concocted a fragrance with staying power at a much lower price point. The scent, youth deux, was a hit. In some stores, it boosted Esté Lauder sales from a few hundred dollars a week to a figure in the thousands. It's now a line of fragrances worth millions. In the late 1950s, Esté's son, Leonard, took on a larger role in the business as his mother aged. He also expanded the company's reach, responding to demand for hypoallergenic products. He created the Clinique skincare line, which targets a younger clientele. The Esté Lauder company remained privately owned for many decades, far longer than its competitors. Only a few family members knew the recipes to any given product. In 1995, Leonard took the company public. To this day, immediate family members retain voting control of the company. Esté remained active in public life, hobnobbing with some of society's most elite figures. She remained the spokesperson for the company Esté Lauder until her death in 2004. She was 97 years old. Today, Esté Lauder Companies is worth $14 billion. All month, we're talking about women in the driver's seat. For more on why we're doing what we're doing, check out our newsletter, Wamanica Weekly. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Encyclopedia Wamanica. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow. 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