Interview with The York Management School The Center for Evolution of Global Business and Institutions (CEGBI)

Maybelline 1915

The original Maybelline Company formed in 1915 to 1967, though incorporated in 1954, was a private family owned company, based in Chicago. Tom Lyle Williams was President and was responsible for all advertising. Noel J. Williams, followed by Tom Lyle Williams Jr. was Vice President and ran the administrative part of the company. Rags Ragland, headed the Marketing department. Chet Hewes, (Maybelline’s namesake Mabel Williams’s husband,) headed the division of the company that produced mascara, called De Luxe Mascara.  Ches Haines, (TL’s sister, Eva Williams husband) was in charge of transportation. In other words these few men ran the entire world wide company,  that today takes hundreds of people, executives and employees. Maybelline was known as the “Wonder Company.”  Today it would be impossible to operate a corporation with such a small group of family executives.

 

Maybelline Founder, Tom Lyle Williams 1915

The original Maybelline Company focused on one idea. Eyes.  Tom Lyle Williams put every dime back into the company to expand its Advertising and Marketing as well as develop their product line. The secret to Maybelline’s success was the having a quality product at a price every woman could afford. Maybelline was and still is a dime store luxury, priced modestly and advertised in beautiful displays.

 

Maybelline's namesake, Mabel Williams

What is your opinion about the fact that so many top cosmetics brands were created by diaspora entrepreneurs?  

Tom Lyle Williams was an entrepreneur who didn’t want to work for anyone. There was a need in the market place and he was there at the right time in history. Beauty and creativity go hand in hand. I believe young dispora entrepreneurs have their own beauty secrets and don’t want to give them away. They don’t want to work or can’t get work, they are driven by their own need to produce something and be a success in their own right. Many dispora entrepreneurs have old fashioned beauty secrets handed down to them through the generations and are inspired to share them with other women. Like Maybelline… being concocted with ash and Vaseline a secret of the harem, according to a vintage movie magazine…it filled a need and it took off because women were ready for it.

 

Tom Lyle and Mabel's brother Noel J. Williams and his wife Frances 1916

How do you think the management of the cosmetics brand changes in periods of crisis such as the current recession?

When the economy is down, cosmetic sales are up. Women will give up a lot of luxuries, but they won’t give up their beauty products. With Maybelline, it’s even more pronounced, because of the price that most women can afford even though their money is limited.

I am looking at two periods in time such as the Great Depression and World War II. What are the marketing and branding strategies of your brand? Do you have an idea of what it was like during these two periods and what changed substantially?

During the Great Depression, Maybelline moved from being a product women ordered from the classified section of magazines and newspapers, to being a dime store product. Maybelline was the first to create carded merchandise in the 1930s. They also were the first to create swirling displays, we take for granted today. They went from black and white small ads in movie and fashion magazines to full page color ads. They were the first to come out with “Before and After” print ads. Thom Lyle was a visionary always ahead of the curve. He also targeted the youth market, who were going to the movie theatres to see Hollywood Stars, and wanted to look like them. He stalked the dime stores with new products that even teenage girls could afford. Maybelline went from a large 75 cent box mascara to a small 10 cent box. He sold in volume… that was his secret. He also had a quality product that would endure for over 100 years today.

During WW ll, Maybelline was shipped to All the Army and Navy Barrack stores, where they carried ciggerates, beer, candy, chewing gum etc.  Enlisted women, and wives of the enlisted men,  insisted on having their Maybelline. (The American Government almost stopped the production of mascara during the War, because petroleum was rationed. Whoever, Tom Lyle went to the Pentagon and said, “You stop us from producing Maybelline and the moral of our soldiers will go down. Maybelline kept its doors open.)  One the War ended, Maybelline took off Globally, because though the Army Barracks stores closed, women all over Europe, who were also able to shop at the stores, demanded access to their Maybelline.  It was during this time, Tom Lyle Williams, contracted the biggest Hollywood Stars to represent Maybelline in full color, glossy ads, on the back of movie magazines. Women in the States and Soldiers, overseas, pinned these pictures up in their bedrooms or in the lockers of the barracks’. They were signed by the Stars and looked like they were personally autographed to them. This was a huge advertising campaign helped sell War Bonds. Maybelline also produced a more glamorous line of products that young women enjoyed carrying in their purses while out dancing in clubs. It was all done to boost morale.

In your opinion, do you think the motivation has changed from that on the date of the brand’s creation and why? 

I believe Maybelline today wants to reach a larger market of women, women of color especially. They now have a much larger line of beauty products that cater every woman’s needs. Face makeup, nails, lipstick, powder you name it they do it. Maybelline is about to come out with Organic products. Yes they are going Green. They don’t do animal testing anymore and they are still the premier cosmetic brand in the world. Ever 1.5 second a Maybelline mascara is being sold in the world. To think it started 104 years ago, by my Great uncle, a 19 year old entrepreneur with a 500 dollar loan is really unbelievable. I believe the Brand today is still motivated by Tom Lyle Williams original concept of producing a quality product at a sensible price that all women can have access to and afford. And, to continue producing the most beautiful print ads and TV commercials in the Cosmetic field

Interview with The York Management School The Center for Evolution of Global Business and Institutions (CEGBI)

Maybelline 1915

The original Maybelline Company formed in 1915 to 1967, though incorporated in 1954, was a private family owned company, based in Chicago. Tom Lyle Williams was President and was responsible for all advertising. Noel J. Williams, followed by Tom Lyle Williams Jr. was Vice President and ran the administrative part of the company. Rags Ragland, headed the Marketing department. Chet Hewes, (Maybelline’s namesake Mabel Williams’s husband,) headed the division of the company that produced mascara, called De Luxe Mascara.  Ches Haines, (TL’s sister, Eva Williams husband) was in charge of transportation. In other words these few men ran the entire world wide company,  that today takes hundreds of people, executives and employees. Maybelline was known as the “Wonder Company.”  Today it would be impossible to operate a corporation with such a small group of family executives.

 

Maybelline Founder, Tom Lyle Williams 1915

The original Maybelline Company focused on one idea. Eyes.  Tom Lyle Williams put every dime back into the company to expand its Advertising and Marketing as well as develop their product line. The secret to Maybelline’s success was the having a quality product at a price every woman could afford. Maybelline was and still is a dime store luxury, priced modestly and advertised in beautiful displays.

 

Maybelline's namesake, Mabel Williams

What is your opinion about the fact that so many top cosmetics brands were created by diaspora entrepreneurs?  

Tom Lyle Williams was an entrepreneur who didn’t want to work for anyone. There was a need in the market place and he was there at the right time in history. Beauty and creativity go hand in hand. I believe young dispora entrepreneurs have their own beauty secrets and don’t want to give them away. They don’t want to work or can’t get work, they are driven by their own need to produce something and be a success in their own right. Many dispora entrepreneurs have old fashioned beauty secrets handed down to them through the generations and are inspired to share them with other women. Like Maybelline… being concocted with ash and Vaseline a secret of the harem, according to a vintage movie magazine…it filled a need and it took off because women were ready for it.

 

Tom Lyle and Mabel's brother Noel J. Williams and his wife Frances 1916

How do you think the management of the cosmetics brand changes in periods of crisis such as the current recession?

When the economy is down, cosmetic sales are up. Women will give up a lot of luxuries, but they won’t give up their beauty products. With Maybelline, it’s even more pronounced, because of the price that most women can afford even though their money is limited.

I am looking at two periods in time such as the Great Depression and World War II. What are the marketing and branding strategies of your brand? Do you have an idea of what it was like during these two periods and what changed substantially?

During the Great Depression, Maybelline moved from being a product women ordered from the classified section of magazines and newspapers, to being a dime store product. Maybelline was the first to create carded merchandise in the 1930s. They also were the first to create swirling displays, we take for granted today. They went from black and white small ads in movie and fashion magazines to full page color ads. They were the first to come out with “Before and After” print ads. Thom Lyle was a visionary always ahead of the curve. He also targeted the youth market, who were going to the movie theatres to see Hollywood Stars, and wanted to look like them. He stalked the dime stores with new products that even teenage girls could afford. Maybelline went from a large 75 cent box mascara to a small 10 cent box. He sold in volume… that was his secret. He also had a quality product that would endure for over 100 years today.

During WW ll, Maybelline was shipped to All the Army and Navy Barrack stores, where they carried ciggerates, beer, candy, chewing gum etc.  Enlisted women, and wives of the enlisted men,  insisted on having their Maybelline. (The American Government almost stopped the production of mascara during the War, because petroleum was rationed. Whoever, Tom Lyle went to the Pentagon and said, “You stop us from producing Maybelline and the moral of our soldiers will go down. Maybelline kept its doors open.)  One the War ended, Maybelline took off Globally, because though the Army Barracks stores closed, women all over Europe, who were also able to shop at the stores, demanded access to their Maybelline.  It was during this time, Tom Lyle Williams, contracted the biggest Hollywood Stars to represent Maybelline in full color, glossy ads, on the back of movie magazines. Women in the States and Soldiers, overseas, pinned these pictures up in their bedrooms or in the lockers of the barracks’. They were signed by the Stars and looked like they were personally autographed to them. This was a huge advertising campaign helped sell War Bonds. Maybelline also produced a more glamorous line of products that young women enjoyed carrying in their purses while out dancing in clubs. It was all done to boost morale.

In your opinion, do you think the motivation has changed from that on the date of the brand’s creation and why? 

I believe Maybelline today wants to reach a larger market of women, women of color especially. They now have a much larger line of beauty products that cater every woman’s needs. Face makeup, nails, lipstick, powder you name it they do it. Maybelline is about to come out with Organic products. Yes they are going Green. They don’t do animal testing anymore and they are still the premier cosmetic brand in the world. Ever 1.5 second a Maybelline mascara is being sold in the world. To think it started 108 years ago, by my Great uncle, a 19 year old entrepreneur with a 500 dollar loan is really unbelievable. I believe the Brand today is still motivated by Tom Lyle Williams original concept of producing a quality product at a sensible price that all women can have access to and afford. And, to continue producing the most beautiful print ads and TV commercials in the Cosmetic field

Aspiring entrepreneur's take away from The MAYBELLINE STORY

 

I was 15, my grandmother suggested I tell the Maybelline Story in my speech class.  I did and not only got an A, but also gained a lot of overnight popularity. I decided at that young age I wanted to write a book someday so the story wouldn’t be forgotten.

What’s the core of the story?

Overcoming obstacles and succeeding. Believing in yourself and making your dream a reality. Like the new Maybelline New York tag link says, “Make it happen.” 

19-year-old entrepreneur founded an Empire with a $500-dollar loan and its effect on him and his family is a blessing and a curse.

My great uncle, Tom Lyle Williams, founded the Maybelline Company in 1915 and though he reached great success, he and his partner lived in obscurity to protect the Maybelline brand from public. The family’s blessings and curse came after the sale of the company. Some of them weren’t ready for overnight wealth.

So basically the book evokes the time-honored story of the small town boy who aspires to make it big and then proceeds to do so – in spite of neighbors who figured he wouldn’t amount to anything ---is that it?

Yes, that’s an excellent point. Rags to Riches and becoming a great success when everyone said he was a dreamer. 

 Have the principles of being a successful entrepreneur changed in the meantime?

The desire to aspire, achieve and create something is part of our DNA. However, the will to keep going is the challenge. Today social media, I think more and more entrepreneurs are creating brands that have a chance to thrive much faster than say, advertising in the classifieds like my Great uncle had to use in the 1920s.

The driving Spirit that motivates a person to produce and market something they believe in never changes. It's an internal spark that is ignited by some inspiration

1.Tom Lyle’s secret’s to success included

2.  Accountability: Though people called him a DREAMER, he didn’t rely on wishful thinking.  He stepped up to the plate and worked to make it happen. He had the fortitude to persist in spite of significant obstacles. He was Inspired and responsible for making things happen. Action is what separates doing from dreaming.

 What can an aspiring entrepreneur take from your book?

My story is about overcoming the obstacles that constantly try and silent the entrepreneurs voice. To never stop believing in your dream and succeed in the end. No matter how long it takes.

Michael Levine, one of the most successful PR Agents in Hollywood, captures the place of Maybelline when he says that every girl he ever dated as a teenager had Maybelline cosmetics in her pursue – and that even in later life, his dates always had some Maybelline product in their purses.  Today, it’s impossible to walk through a drugstore without seeing Maybelline products. That seems to speak both to the power of Maybelline marketing and its place in our culture …  

Maybelline has always been known for it’s Advertising and marketing. Tom Lyle Williams was known in the business as The King of Advertising. Maybelline had a tremendous effect on changing the culture in the early years.  Today, Maybelline’s standard of beauty is still holding strong with the younger generation. Maybelline continues to change with the times and keep up with what women want.

Amongst the firsts started by Tom Lyle Williams and now taken for granted was his use of Hollywood starts to endorse his products. What other firsts did start?

  

Carded thn bubble wrapped merchandise and the twirling displays we take for granted today in stores.  They were the first to do “Before and After” effects in print and the first to use special effects on TV in the early 1960s. They also were the first to use page, colored advertising on the back of magazines. And the list goes on.

Reading the book, one gets the picture that Tom Lyle Williams had had some failures and then when the early Maybelline products began selling well, he was almost surprised by his own success. Is that what happened?

In the early days the whole family took suitcases to the train station and wheeled bags of mail home in a wheel barrel because the Post Master told them their mail was jamming up the system. This was the first revelation that the American girls were ready for this new eye enhancing product. It was a shock for the whole family as Maybelline continued to expand over the years.

Was there some good old-fashioned luck here? A part of Maybelline’s success was that the times were changing? It was no longer assumed that women who used makeup were – as they used to say – of loose morals?

It was the flappers who launched the Maybelline company and Silent Films.   Tom Lyle featured Stars Silent Film Stars endorsing Maybelline saying they wore Maybelline in public. Husbands threatened to divorce their wives if they dared to buy the product. But, in the end the women won the vote and the right to beautify their eyes.

Was there some regret when L-Oreal took over Maybelline.

The company sold to Plough Inc in 1967. Tom Lyle did regret selling it. He wished he had turned it over to the younger generation. But you’ll have to read my book to see why.

Maybelline's place in the History of Makeup

 

History of Mascara

   

CAlanna Martine Kilkeary

Our Beauty P.I. series is where Makeup.com editor Alanna delves into the history of various makeup products — where they originated from and how they’ve evolved. Next up on the list is the conception of mascara.9

The human body has a knack for genius traits, and one of its best traits is its ability to protect itself from outside harm. Take hair, for example: It’s a natural defense system that coats the skin and is meant to keep bacteria at bay. Another similar protecting barrier? Eyelashes. Meant to divert, protect and defend the precious sclera and cornea, lashes are a lot more than just a charming feature.

Mascara: The OG Protector

This is why it’s actually no surprise that mascara was one of the first makeup products to exist — it was created as another layer and practical mean of protection around the eye. The precursor to what we know as mascara began way back when — around 4000 BC in Ancient Egypt. Beauty gurus would use mixtures of kohl and ointments to darken and accentuate the lashes, and this OG version even helped protect the eyes from bright sunlight, Marie Claire reports. Like many things in the ancient world, these early mascara practices also coincided with spiritual phenomena: Not only is the mascara a protectant of the physical eye, but also a shield to ward off any bad juju — and although archaic, that’s something we can stiill get behind.

But the origin of mascara doesn’t stop there. Ancient Romans also had a heavy hand in the practice of darkening lashes, and the first Persian-founded cosmetology school taught women how to formulate their own mascaras around 900 BCE, Popsugar Beauty reports. With the major rise in makeup (and Queen Liz-inspired red locks) centuries later during the Elizabethan Era, women began experimenting with dyeing their lashesusing berries and fireplace soot (pretty is as pretty does, I suppose).

The Rise of the Formula as We Know It

Although ambiguous, the term “mascara” is thought to have been derived from Spanish, Portuguese and Italian words, màscara and maschera, meaning mask or stain. The first modern predecessor to mascara as we know it came from a French chemist named Eugène Rimmel, yep — saying it louder for those in the back: that Rimmel — for Queen Victoria. What was finally different about Rimmel’s formula was that he used the newly invented petroleum jelly, which he mixed with coal to create the new mascara formula — and bingo, modern mascara was born.

As the 20th century rolled around, American businessman Thomas Lyle Williams created a similar mascara product for his sister Maybel, and by 1917 he had his first cosmetic mail order business selling Lash-Brow-Ine. This applicable mascara was the very first marketable mascara in the cosmetic industry, and soon its name changed to a familiar one we know and love:Maybelline — after Ms. Williams herself, *yep, mind blown.*

Without surprise, mascara became a household item in the cosmetics world, with bigger beauty giants jumping on the trend, like makeup maven Helena Rubinstein. Even more interesting, the original design of the first mascaras came in cake form where the product was packed into a palette and sold with a small brush (you can even buy one here!). And with the rise of Hollywood actresses, costume makeup and false lashes of the 30s, mascara transformed from practical to coveted, and it’s this versatility that has allowed it to be one of the most-sought after makeup products for just about everyone who wears makeup.

It wasn’t until the 1960s that mascara evolved into tube form, thanks to Rubinstein’s Mascara- Matic and Maybelline Ultra-Lash. The tube truly revolutionized mascara and forever changed the way in which we apply and use it. Mascara finally achieved the ultimate makeup goal: It became totally effortless.

Lashes on Fleek

Today, mascara still transforms its wearer, but even more so than ever before: Now it enhances, lengthens, thickens, curls and darkens (or even colors blue or purple or burgundy). Mascara is one of those astonishing makeup products that has come full circle, beginning as a fierce protector of the eyes against sunlight and terrain, and becoming a must-have for all kinds of makeup gurus out there.

There’s a reason why mascara is often one of the first makeup products beauty amateurs reach for. With the swipe of its wand, it makes you feel that little bit of magic that is makeup