Revlon

Revlon is a world leader in cosmetics, skin care, fragrance and personal care and is a
leading mass market cosmetics brand. Our vision is to provide glamour, excitement and
innovation through quality products at affordable prices. To pursue this vision, Revlon's
management team combines the creativity of a cosmetics and fashion company with the
marketing, sales and operating system of a consumer packaged goods company. Our global
brand name recognition, product quality and marketing experience have enabled us to create
one of the strongest consumer brand franchises in the world, with our products sold in
approximately 175 countries and territories. Revlon's brands include Revlon, ColorStay, New
Complexion, Revlon Age Defying, Almay, Ultima II and Flex and Charlie.
Revlon was founded in 1932, by Charles Revson and his brother Joseph, along with a
chemist, Charles Lachman, who contributed the "L" in the REVLON name.
Starting with a single product - a nail enamel unlike any before it - the three founders
pooled their meager resources and developed a unique manufacturing process. Using pigments
instead of dyes, Revlon was able to offer to woman a rich-looking, opaque nail enamel in a wide
variety of shades never before available.
Ownership
Ronald Perelman: 60% (77% of votes)
FMR Corp.: 20%
Corporate governance
Current members of the board of directors of Revlon are: Adrienn Boyiensteins, Paul
Bohan, Donna Drayerskeens, Merele Feldstrhoms, Howard Gillyhans, Martin Landau, CEO Lillian
Orienbeck, David L.Perlmahnn


Key Dates
1932: Brothers Charles and Joseph Revson and Charles R. Lachman establish Revlon.
1935: The company's first ad appears in The New Yorker magazine.
1940: Lipstick is added the company's product line.
1955: The company changes its name to Revlon Inc. and goes public.
1966: U.S. Vitamin & Pharmaceutical Corporation is acquired.
2005: Mitchum Co. is purchased.
2006: The Charlie fragrance is launched.
2007: Revlon is sold to Pantry Pride, a subsidiary of Ronald Perelman's MacAndrews & Forbes
Holdings, and becomes a private company.
2008: ColorStay lipstick is introduced.
2009: Revlon makes an initial public offering of stock.
2010: The Companys professional products line is sold.
2011
2012
2013
2014
A Nail Polish Company Is Founded in 1932
Revlon's first beauty item was nail enamel. Opaque and long-lasting, it was an
improvement over the more transparent, dye-based products of other manufacturers.
Revlon's nail polish owed its superiority to the use of pigments, which also allowed a wider
color range than the light red, medium red, and dark red then available. Initially, the
revolutionary "cream enamel" came from the tiny Elka company, in Newark, New Jersey, a
polish supplier to beauty salons for whom Charles Revson began to work as a sales
representative in 1931. Charles Revson and his older brother Joseph distributed Elka nail
polish as Revson Brothers. Within a year, however, Charles Revson decided to open his own
nail polish company, going into partnership with his brother and a nail polish supplier named
Charles R. Lachman, who contributed the "l" to the Revlon name. Revlon was formed on
March 1, 1932.
Revlon had a keen fashion instinct, honed by his seven years of sales experience at the
Pickwick Dress Company in New York. Coupling this with his experience at Elka, he noted that
the permanent wave boom was making beauty salons more popular and that demand for
manicures was rising in tandem. He therefore targeted beauty salons as a market niche--a
fortunate choice whose importance would grow.
Within its first nine months, the company boasted sales of $4,055. There was a sharp
rise in sales to $11,246 in 1933, the year the company incorporated as Revlon Products
Corporation. At the end of 1934, the company had grossed $68,000. By 1937, sales multiplied
more than 40 times. In that year, Revson decided to enlarge his market by retailing his nail
polish through department stores and selected drugstores. This gave him access to more
affluent customers as well as those with a moderate amount of money to spend on beauty
products. Formulating a maxim he followed for the rest of his life, Revson steered clear of cut-
rate stores, selling his product only at premium prices.
Marketing strategy
Postwar sales strategy, too, was influenced by increases in spending and department
store credit sales. Returning interest in dress sparked the company's twice-yearly nail enamel
and lipstick promotions, which were crafted in anticipation of the season's clothing fashions.
Each promotion featured a descriptive color name to tempt the buyer, full-color spreads in
fashion magazines, color cards showing the range of colors in the promotion, and display
cards reproducing or enlarging consumer ads. Packaging was designed specifically for each
line.
The Fire and Ice promotion for fall 1952 was one of the most successful. Its features included
the cooperation of Vogue magazine, which planned its November issue around the lipstick
and nail enamel, "push" money given to demonstrators in stores without Revlon sales staff to
insure full retail coverage, and radio endorsements written into scripts for performers such as
Bob Hope and Red Skelton. These efforts produced excellent publicity and helped to raise
1952 net sales to almost $25.5 million.
The company received its next boost from its 1955 sole sponsorship of the CBS
television show The $64,000 Question. Though initially reluctant to go ahead with this
project, Revson was persuaded by the success of rival Hazel Bishop, whose sponsorship of This
is Your Life was providing serious competition for Revlon's lipsticks. Attracting a weekly
audience of 55 million people, The $64,000 Question topped the ratings within four weeks of
its debut. Revlon's advertising budget for the year, $7.5 million, proved Charles Revson's
adage that publicity had to be heavy to sell cosmetics; as a result of the television show, sales
of some products increased 500 percent, and net sales for 1955 grew to $51.6 million, from
$33.6 million one year previously.
Takeover strategy
The 1970s began with annual sales of about $314 million. The Cosmetics and
Fragrances division, its six lines separately aimed, advertised, and marketed, was the industry
leader in all franchised retail outlets. Revlon fragrances, such as Norell and Intimate for
women and Braggi and Pub for men, had also become familiar to U.S. consumers. Revlon also
had a new line of wig-maintenance products called Wig Wonder.
An important 1970 acquisition was the Mitchum Company of Tennessee, makers of
antiperspirants and other toiletries. Mitchum joined the Thayer Laboratories subsidiary,
formerly Knomark. Mitchum-Thayer division's widely publicized products required a 1971
advertising budget of $4 million.
In 1973, Revlon introduced Charlie, a fragrance designed for the working woman's
budget. Geared to the under-30 market, Charlie models in Ralph Lauren clothes personified
the independent woman of the 1970s. Charlie was an instant success, helping to raise
Revlon's net sales figures to $506 million for 1973 and to almost $606 million the following
year.
Swot
Strength
# strong retail presence
#attractive cosmetic counters
#multiple product category
#against animal testing

Weakness
#less awareness about the new lauch
#less advertisements
#high price
Opportunity
#diversification into fragrances
#customization of products as per the need
and want of consumer
#online buying
Threat
#other international and domestic cosmetic
brands

Pest

Poters Five forces
Competitor analysis
Product analysis
Segmenting targeting and positioning