I was first introduced to Mary Kay in 2004 shortly after my 18th birthday. A mom who we will call "Dee" from the local homeschool group had just become a "Independent Beauty Consultant" with Mary Kay and my mother had agreed to host one of Dee's first Mary Kay Parties. My sisters and I was extremely excited to be a part of this perceived rite of womanhood and be included with all the other adult women that were going to be there. It was a hilarious catastrophe. Dee showed up late with her daughters in tow, who were her assistants for the evening. The rest of the homeschool moms who had agreed to come be a part of it had already been there for an hour. We had all sat in our living room talking and visiting and enjoying the evening. Upon Dee's arrival we all made our way to the kitchen table and were quickly set up with individual mirrors and an array of sample products. Dee lead us through applying foundation, blush and eye makeup. Each part of the application process was accompanied by a tutorial on how to properly apply the makeup. I soon became exasperated with Dee's constant "no you're doing it wrong" with each product I laid my hands on. Evidently I was using too much foundation in her expert opinion, even though she looked like she had put hers on with a mudding spatula. I was still struggling with acne at this time and I saw foundation as my ticket to not looking like a complete pizza face. The rest of the homeschool moms were also becoming quickly irritated with Dee and her assistants know-it-all attitude. Finally one of the moms began to crack jokes about painting on their clown faces. The table soon began to erupt in gales of laughter which only made Dee act more like she was teaching a room full of kindergarteners. Come to find out not even Mary Kay can cover a face flushed with irritation, no matter how thick you coat it on. My mother quickly sensed the decorum of the room deteriorating and snuffed the raucous atmosphere with one of her looks and directing everyone's attention back to Dee's demonstration and memorized sales pitch. After the pitch was finished orders were taken and the moms left. My mother and Dee had a more serious conversation about how Dee had become involved and the actual savings on cosmetic products of Mary Kay. Since there are 6 girls in my family it was always a struggle for my mom to provide herself and her daughters with cosmetics. Mary Kay presented itself as an opportunity to fill this need. My mother quickly signed up as an Independent Beauty Consultant purely for the purpose of using the direct buy discount to purchase affordably priced cosmetics for herself and her daughters.
I had heard of this legendary woman. Her pictures depict her as a beautiful and gracefully aging woman. She began her cosmetic business at age 45 with her 20 year old son in 1963 with $5,000 and a Dallas storefront with nine salespeople. Within in two years of starting her business she made $1 million, not bad for a mid-life crisis. Now her business makes over $2.2 billion dollars each year Her business claims that it gives women the independence they desire. Not only in their home or leisure life but in the work force. In 2006 it was estimated that the Mary Kay work force had over 700,000 individuals with 40,000 new Independent Beauty Consultants recruited each month. A large portion of these individuals are women. Women who had careers as professionals in the workforce, housewives, urban and rural and they are from all kinds of socioeconomic backgrounds. The Mary Kay Company has expanded its business to 34 international countries. Their business primarily thrives on word of mouth, there are very few television commercials or advertisements in the public media. Yet Mary Kay is a household name and a popular brand amongst working class, poor to average income level families. Those are usually the people that these products are marketed to. Women who can't afford to buy their cosmetics at their local department store but who feel that buying their cosmetics from Wal-Mart is embarrassing. Mary Kay gives the women in this economic bracket to feel a little bit more special. Well thats what they want us to think.
Mary Kay's advertisements are geared towards the 25-50 age bracket. They do not rely on traditional marketing methods. They have now made their catalogs available on the internet but before that they were mailed to anyone who had made a purchase through an Independent Beauty Consultant. The catalog is titled "The Look" and a new one is published every season. Below I have included links to the current catalogs and I even found a Malaysian edition. "The Look" markets towards diverse ethnicities and ages. The models are not entirely stereotypical, the advertisements use all eye colors, body types, ethnicities and ages. However the only hair color not advertised on a model is red. Black, brown and blonde are all advertised but a heavy emphasis is on dark hair colors. The most prevalent eye color used is brown, there are some blue eyes but very few green eyes. They advertise a varying amount of styles that can be achieved by the average woman with little to no makeup experience application.
Contained in these links are some of the ecatalogs of the Mary Kay product line. These ecatalogs are advertisements for the "trends" of the seasons and their full product line.
Spring/Summer Trends 2011 MaryKay
Malaysia April 2011 MaryKay
Full Product line March 2011 MaryKay
Here are some of the examples of the various covers and advertisements for the ecatalog.
One of the perks that the Mary Kay company claims is excellent customer service. They promote this through one of their rare television commercials.
They have also been featured on ABC news
This is a 2009 Television commercial promoting their "virtual makeover" application on their website.
Here they are featured on the Tyra Banks Show.
This is a online advertisement for Mother's Day gifts.
Here is a advertisement in German.
This is a internet advertisement for their "virtual makeover."
Here is a advertisement for the Mary Kay Opportunity.
This is a television commerical for their new compact.
Provided here are the links to the current International countries that Mary Kay is doing business in.
Mary Kay is a MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) business. It depends on Independent Beauty Consultants which are women that are on the introductory level of the pyramid. These IBCs are recruited by other IBCs in a effort for the recruiting IBC to gain advancement. Mary Kay's pyramid scheme is made to particularly attractive to women who need a job and still wish to be with their families. Women spend hundreds to thousands of dollars trying to achieve the dream that Mary Kay sells. Debt is easily accumulated and no one makes any money as an IBC unless you can recruit enough other desperate women to be IBCs so you can gain advancement. Mary Kay has an approximate 41% turnover rate for first year IBCs, that means 4 out of 10 women who make the initial investment do not make it past the first year. They draw their IBCs in with promises of the mythic "pink Cadillac," freedom from the 9 to 5, freedom to be with their families and independence as a woman.
The iconic pink Cadillac has been the light at the end of the tunnel for Mary Kay saleswomen. Mary Kay advertises that internationally they have more than 39,000 Independent Sales Directors; with an estimated 40,000 new IBCs recruited each month this means that your chances at becoming a sales director and having a chance at the iconic pink Cadillac are slim at best. Even if you obtain a pink Cadillac the lease for this vehicle is only provided for two years. On top of that you will lose "ownership" of your precious pink Cadillac if you do not meet the monthly sales goals. The actual reality that is hidden from the new IBC is that the car that you may earn as an IBC is not actually a Cadillac nor is it pink. The car you can earn is a dark grey Chevrolet Malibu, pink Cadillacs are reserved for Independent Sales Directors or National Sales Directors. As a new IBC you have a 12.3% chance of becoming an ISD and having the opportunity to earn a pink Cadillac. Here is a diagram of what an actual sales director makes:
Source
Women who have the good fortune to get out of the Mary Kay black hole have banded together and speak out about their experience in an online community entitled "The Pink Truth". These women have recognized the manipulation that ISDs and NSDs use through their optimism, enthusiasm and false hope. Which are simply a way to take advantage and propel women to give them their money. Tracy Coenen, the founder "is committed to providing in-your-face reality at Pink Truth. She says the truth about Mary Kay is ugly indeed, but that won't stop her and her cohorts from exposing the pink truth daily."
CBS News Report - Mary Kay and the Economy
CITATION
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