THE MAYBELLINE STORY : 1960's introduced massive competition, here's how Maybelline stayed on top of their game

Monday, September 8, 2014

1960's introduced massive competition, here's how Maybelline stayed on top of their game

In the face of massive competition, Maybelline employed a national sales team, under Rags Ragland,

to cover independent drug, chain drug, and discount houses, to check on Maybelline's established Eye Fashion Center installations

and then send turnover orders to the indicated wholesale drug houses.

This was a major move, and expanded Maybelline's budget, to over 6 million dollars, but it was worth it.

Rags Ragland, with his remarkable communication ability was able to get the sales team to establish a separate operation, composed of 8 widely experienced men to run the whole thing.

These men represented Maybelline only, while many National sales teams, represented up to 40 companies

at a time

With this set-up, Maybelline successfully met the big competitive threat,

and with the effective development and promotion of their display selling units, that sold to Woolworth, and was now used by K-mart,

they stopped their biggest threat, Chesebrough Ponds. from developing and marketing their competitive eye cosmetic items...

and after about a year and a half, it was reported they lost many millions of dollars.

Maybelline was the most successful cosmetic company in the world, with a marketing sales team headed by

Rags Ragland.

With Maybelline's great success in 1966, Tom Lyle Williams, knew the time was right to sell his company to Plough Inc., a Pharmaceutical company in 1967, for 133 million dollars, or close to one Billion dollars, at today's rate of exchange

At the time of this mailing, August 1, 1966, I happened to be visiting my great aunt and uncle, Eva and Ches Haines, at their home on Lake Mercer, where this package was delivered. It was that Summer I met my cousin Jerry Westhouse, Eva and Ches Haines, grandson and it was Jerry who found this interesting package of Maybelline history, still at the Lake Mercer home, and sent it to me.

A letter enclosed with the package from Rags Ragland, explains the beautiful displays he designed and truly what gave Maybelline the priceless "shelf value" it had and still commands today almost 50 years later.