Company Name: Revlon, Inc.
Founders: Joseph Revson, Charles Revson and Charles Lachman
CEO: Debra G. Perelman
Revlon, Inc. is a multinational company who provides the personal care items such as cosmetics, fragrance and skin care products. Since their origin in the 1930s, they have always been one of the top companies in the cosmetics market. The current headquarter of the company is situated in New York City from where they started their journey.
How It All Started
Revlon was founded in 1st March 1932, in the midst of the severe worldwide economic depression, also known as the Great Depression. The company was started by the Jewish-American brothers with the idea of making nail polishes. Along with the Chemist, Charles Lachman, they started their journey of making nail polishes by using pigments instead of dyes.
Soon they created various shades of opaque nail enamel and started selling the products in the pharmacies and departmental stores. It took these three men only six years to turn Revlon into a million dollar organization, selling their special nail polishes only.
Launching
After the success of their first product, Revlon began to make new products. In the 1940s, they started offering a total selection of nail scissors and manicure tools followed by a line of lipsticks. The company was honored with Army-Navy-E-Award for selling make up related contents for the US Army during World War II. Revlon bought the cutlery manufacturing company Graef &Schmidt in the 1940s. This enabled them to produce their own pedicure and manicure instruments without buying from other sources.
In the 1950s, the company started to expand their business by buying sportswear and drug companies. But these ventures were not as successful as their beauty products which made them refocus on their core products. During the 1970s, Revlon released a new perfume named ‘Charlie’ and since then, they kept producing beauty products and enjoyed astonishing success.
Marketing Strategy of Revlon and the Reasons behind Their Success
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- Variety of Products: Since the beginning, Revlon has been considered to be one of the best in the cosmetics business. They have kept introducing new products such as different shades of Mascara, eye-liners such as kajal liners, pencils and crayons, lip care products such as lip liners, lip gloss etc. For reducing wrinkles and age lines, they have introduced new products under the brand name of Revlon Youth FX. They also have started producing hair products such as shampoos and hair colouring products. Several beauty tools such as lash curler, tweezers, beauty kits, nail clippers, mirrors etc. This much variety has helped the company to attract a huge base of consumers and resulted in growing their business even more. These products can be used both for personal care as well as in the beauty parlours.
- High Customer Engagement: Revlon has a 24-hour online helpdesk and has always tried to interact with their customers to understand their needs. Through the Revlon Women Online platform, the company has also encouraged the customers to express themselves and help them with their problems with the products. This highly active interaction has helped Revlon creating a bond with their customers. Also, with the feedbacks, they have made many improvements to the products which resulted in customer satisfaction.
- Price: Right price of the products can attract many customers. Thus Revlon prices their items very strategically so people from different classes can buy them. They also have an understanding of what the other brands in the market are offering for the same products. This information has helped them to refresh their idea of pricing the products and helped to create a better customer base.
- Rich History: Since the beginning, the Revlon has built a humongous reputation based on their quality products and their spirit of innovation. Because of this, the company had become so successful in just a few years. This rich history has helped them in creating a very strong customer base as well as gaining their trust. Because of this reputation, even now people go for the Revlon products rather than trying the other brands and companies.
- Strong distribution Channel: The Revlon products are available in almost every city in the world. Thanks to their strong distribution channel, they have achieved this extraordinary feat. Being available almost everywhere has helped the company grow their market as well as retain their large base of customers.
- Philanthropic Works: Revlon has always helped underprivileged communities. The company has helped in improving health and well being of the women society to fulfill their aim to empower them. The largest project of Revlon is ‘Revlon Run and Walk’, an event held to raise money and awareness for cancer and other health issues. With the free health checkups and screenings, the company has exposed and made themselves well-known to the world.
Campaigns
Before 1945, Revlon campaigned with hand-drawn black and white ads. After becoming successful, they started to launch coloured photographic ads in famous stores and magazines. These ads were taken by the prime fashion photographers such as Cecil Beaton and Richard Avedon.
One of the world’s most renowned models, Dorian Leigh had featured in Revlon ads during this time. Her sister too shot a number of Revlon magazine ads in the 1950s. Even though the ads with models were successful during the 1980s, due to some reasons, the company decided to pursue the movie stars for the new ads.
Among the movie stars, Jennifer Connelly, Jaime King, Eva Mendes, Kate Bosworth, Halle Berry were one of the most renowned ones. Jessica Biel became the newest actress to join the brand after featuring in the re-mastered version of the “Fire and Ice” magazine advertisement. Supermodels such as Naomi Sims, Elle Macpherson have also been endorsed with Revlon. Cindy Crawford make-up ads and the ads of Charlie Perfumes featuring Shelly Hack are some of the iconic advertisements in the history of Revlon.
Conclusion
Revlon started their journey during a dire economic time. Fighting with all the problems, the company has established themselves as one of the largest brands of cosmetics in the world. Their charity works are famous for empowering the women community as well as raising awareness for several diseases. Their positive attitude towards everything has helped them come this far and will surely help them to grow more and be the best in the business soon enough.
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