According to Mary Kay CMO Sheryl Adkins-Green, powerful ... · company to match her own...

According to Mary Kay CMO Sheryl Adkins-Green, powerful, lasting corporate transformations need not always stop traffic. Sometimes, understated transformations can yield ravishing results.

BY CHRIS WARREN WITH GORDON PRICE LOCKE

1 INSIGNIAM QUARTERLY® FALL 2014COPYRIGHT © INSIGNIAM HOLDING LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION.

It all could have ended very badly. A few years ago the local marketing team for Mary Kay Inc. in China came up with the idea for a promotion — a model search contest — that frankly didn’t dovetail neatly with the global brand strategy the cosmetics giant had developed at its corporate headquarters a world away in Dallas, Texas. Faced with the question of whether to

nix the idea altogether, Mary Kay’s chief marketing officer, Sheryl Adkins-Green, instead offered some guidance about how her Chinese colleagues could tweak their idea to be more synergistic with company-wide efforts, but otherwise gave her blessing. “We said we look forward to what you’re going to learn from this,” recalls Adkins-Green, who has been Mary Kay’s CMO for the past five years.

Mary Kay Inc. celebrates its 50th anniversary with the company’s largest ever pink Cadillac rally, 50 years to the day after the iconic beauty company was founded.


The resulting program was such a

rousing success that the team behind

it was invited to the company’s global

marketing conference to share what they

learned – the contest has continued to

evolve, and Adkins-Green herself is now

a judge. More importantly, the hands-off

approach is symbolic of the philosophy

that has allowed this half-a-century-old

company to grow from founder Mary

Kay Ash’s single 500-square-foot Dallas

storefront into a global leader in the ultra-

competitive cosmetics industry. “I think

that is an example of knowing when,

where, and how to let go and leverage

local insight and the talent of the local

marketing team and look to that as

content that other markets are going to be able to leverage down the road,” says

Adkins-Green.

In other words, it’s about trusting and empowering people to drive the kind of

continual transformation companies need to flourish — both internationally and at

home. There is an abundance of evidence to demonstrate that this quintessentially

American brand has developed an enviably successful approach to the always complicated

and nettlesome goal of global expansion. Indeed, Mary Kay, which manufactures and

distributes over 600 cosmetic and beauty products, currently operates in 37 countries

and has a global network of over 3 million independent sales consultants.

China has long been a focus of attention, particularly areas of the country other

retailers might ignore. “Over the course of the last five to eight years, we’ve started

to look at what China will need in five years,” Mary Kay CEO David Holl told

Bloomberg News in 2011. “We’ve managed the transition, so it’s no longer all about

the U.S. …We don’t need a shopping mall to sell, so we can do extremely well in

[Chinese] cities where they don’t have all the infrastructure.”

It has been an effective strategy. At the start of this year, Forbes ranked Mary Kay

at number 163 on its list of the largest privately held companies, with estimated


[Clockwise from top left] Independent sales force members organize and host Mary Kay Skin Care Parties — a critical component to the company’s business model; Scenes from the 2014 Mary Kay Seminar, an 18-day event in Dallas, which is estimated to have pumped $32.1 million into the local economy; Mary Kay’s corporate headquarters, located in Dallas; Mary Kay Foundation donates $25,000 to Hope’s Door, which is aimed at helping families affected by domestic violence; Purdue University Calumet wins the 2014 AAF National Student Advertising Competition for a campaign showcasing Mary Kay.


revenues of around $3.5 billion annually.

Several independent analysts pegged

2013 as a marquee year for Mary Kay

— it’s estimated that the company

recorded a number of its highest grossing

months in history during the year — and

international sales play a central role in

its ongoing growth. In fact, over the past

decade, the portion of Mary Kay’s overall

revenue from international markets

spiked from 30 percent to 70 percent,

with countries like China, Russia and

Brazil growing in importance.

While Mary Kay has clearly found

a recipe that seems to work as well in

Shanghai and São Paulo as it does in St.

Louis and Seattle, Adkins-Green is the

first to say there’s nothing easy about

international success (see sidebar for

her tips on going global). Take China,

now the company’s largest market.

Everything about succeeding there

is a challenge, starting with the huge

geographic distance, which makes it

hard to train or even communicate in

real-time with colleagues. But even when

communication is not an issue, culture is.

“The challenge with China is not actually

because of cooperation, but culturally,

it’s probably the most different than the

U.S.,” Adkins-Green says.

A CULTURE OF QUIET,

EVERYDAY TRANSFORMATION

Although it’s just one small example,

the Chinese model search contest Mary

Kay pulled off is emblematic of the kind

of transformation and adaptation that is

required to win in new and challenging

markets — one that doesn’t necessarily

require seismic changes to strategy

and culture. Rather, while less splashy

and much less disruptive, Mary Kay

has established a culture that embraces

daily transformation — perhaps more

accurately described as evolution — that

nimbly adapts to the inevitable avalanche

of new opportunities and challenges.

TIPS ON PURSUING GLOBAL GROWTH

Expanding into global markets isn’t easy. Besides the obvious

challenge of different languages and cultures, there are legal

and regulatory hurdles to overcome. Is it worth the hassle? Well,

for Mary Kay, which first ventured internationally when it entered

the Australian market in 1971, the answer is a resounding “yes.”

Over the past 10 years, the company’s international revenues

have grown from 30 percent of total earnings to 70 percent.

As one of the executives who has helped guide that growth,

CMO Sheryl Adkins-Green has some suggestions about how

brands can successfully expand globally.

1 THINK LIKE MARCO POLO: When you have an

explorer’s mindset, she says, you are not judging

but you’re very open to learning.

2 GIVE YOUR EARS A WORKOUT: Engaging a

global team will determine your success. And they

have a lot to tell you about what works and what

doesn’t on a local level. Listen to them.

3 MAKE THOMAS EDISON PROUD: Or, for that

matter, make Mary Kay Ash proud. Ash once said

“we fail forward to our success,” which is an eloquent

way of saying that you won’t succeed if you don’t embrace

experimentation. Adkins-Green says she loves that she can go

back to those words and encourage her team that it’s OK to fail

when something hasn’t gone as planned. Although she has

a team of perfectionists, she often points out why a particular

action was taken, what was learned, and why it’s usable.

4 COLLABORATE: This doesn’t just mean

coordination and consensus building. Collaboration,

Adkins-Green says, relies on trust. To collaborate

means you let go and let your partners run with the ball. If the

CMO is the quarterback, you need to be comfortable handing

things off.

5 CELEBRATE: If you have success in your overseas

efforts, indulge in some well-deserved celebration.

It’s a way to keep good things going. Bring the

energy back to what got accomplished, what was fun along

the way, and the excitement of that accomplishment. It is that

energy that’s going to fuel the next round. That’s how you keep

momentum going.


Adequately listening to and serving the

needs of millions of beauty consultants

located around the globe requires the

capacity to adapt and transform on a daily

basis. Still, while allowing for the sort of

fluidity and flexibility that is so essential in

order to have success in different markets,

there is a bedrock core to the Mary Kay

culture that provides important focus.

“We are all aligned around a common

mission of enriching women’s lives and

supporting the success of the sales force,”

says Adkins-Green. “By definition, we are

all on the same page.”

Which is not to say that the best way

to serve the sales force and, ultimately,

women customers is not a subject of

vigorous internal debate. “While we have

differences of opinion, it will never really

get to the point of being a struggle or an

argument,” she says. “When we do have

a difference of opinion, we talk in terms

of what is going to help the independent

beauty consultant be successful and that is

usually the tie-breaker if there is a debate.”

With customers and beauty consultants located across the globe, one of the most

difficult questions Adkins-Green has faced as CMO is how to settle on the right

messages to appeal to customers. “The toughest challenge when I took over

this responsibility was to really consolidate and combine our brand messaging

around the world because it means so many things to different people,” she

says. As a start, she examined the kind of adjectives people already used to

describe Mary Kay and found a mixture of positive and negative, old-fashioned

and innovative terms — it was a confusing mélange for some members of the

executive team, many of whom didn’t agree on what the brand stood for. So

Adkins-Green worked with a team to crystallize the essence of the brand and

develop a vision statement. “It’s aligned around three key components: irresistible

products, a rewarding opportunity, and positive community impact. So, with just seven words, we built a communication strategy

that not only resonated with the Mary Kay business around the world but, most importantly, with the independent sales force.”

DISTILLING THE MARY KAY MESSAGE

Mary Kay VP of Public Affairs, Anne Crews (right) with winners of the Unsung Heroes Awards — an anti-domestic violence task force — in Washington, D.C.

There are a host of reasons why Mary Kay eschews the typically painful culture

pivots that so many companies endure when they decide reinvention is a must.

Simply put, the company’s executives have never lost sight of the value of the

trusted relationships between the Mary Kay sales force and their customers.

“In the case of Mary Kay, the brand is the independent beauty consultant,”

says Adkins-Green. “The independent beauty consultant knows her customer

personally,” she says. “She’s going to see her next week at the PTA meeting, so

there’s an accountability and trust that comes out of that relationship.”

The CMO says it’s the executive team’s job to provide their salespeople with

whatever they need to excel — which, of course, makes sense because the

company’s business model is such that the individual success of a salesperson

translates to company success. The most obvious way Mary Kay helps its beauty

consultants is by developing and distributing a steady stream of high-quality

products while also handling the not insignificant regulatory requirements that

come from serving dozens of markets around the world.


Like every large company, Mary Kay grapples with how to best

use technology to drive results. “As a brand that has always been

driven by word of mouth, the whole shift for digital and social media

to be the primary marketing channels is a huge opportunity for

Mary Kay,” says Adkins-Green.

“The independent beauty consultants websites are like a

personal makeup concierge,” Sara Friedman, Mary Kay Inc.’s vice

president of U.S. marketing, said in a press release announcing the

changes, which came as part of the company’s 50th anniversary

celebrations in 2013. “Once a woman goes to her personal Mary

Kay independent beauty consultant’s website or connects with

one through the help of the consultant locator, she can save her

favorite products, view application tips, get personal product

recommendations, and order products. Plus, she can always see

how the newest trend looks on her with our popular online virtual

makeover. The website makes running a Mary Kay business easier

and makes buying our products even more fun and convenient.”

TECHNICALLY BEAUTIFUL THE COLLABORATIVE NATURE

OF TRANSFORMATIONAL

LEADERSHIP

For her part, Adkins-Green feels

as though she landed at just the right

company to match her own personality,

skills, and leadership style. Before

arriving at Mary Kay in 2009, Adkins-

Green held senior marketing positions at

Alberto Culver, a leading beauty products

manufacturer whose brands include

Noxema and St. Ives, as well as Citibank

and Kraft Foods. As has been the case

in her previous jobs, Adkins-Green has

seen her role largely as a facilitator. “I’m

passionate about connecting ideas and

people and I think that’s always been my

strength,” she says.

While that talent has undoubtedly

played a central role in Adkins-Green’s

successful career, at Mary Kay the

ability to build and foster relationships

is particularly resonant — after all, that’s

how the company’s beauty consultants

have performed so exceptionally. Not

surprisingly, Adkins-Green estimates

that about 80 to 90 percent of her time

is spent engaging people at Mary Kay

and cultivating relationships — which

is far different from her job at Kraft, for

example, which included devoting plenty

of hours to product development.

It’s important to understand the

nature of all of this people-focused

effort. While it’s true that Adkins-Green

has an essential role in developing and

implementing branding and marketing

strategies, she also says that it’s her task to

influence and shape decisions rather than

outright dominate them. Part of that, she

says, means being an internal advocate.

“Part of my style is that I’m a cheerleader

for the brand and for marketing’s role in

the sales force’s success every day,” she

says. “So when it comes time to actually

advocate for a new initiative, I feel like I

already have some momentum before the

conversation even starts.”

Clearly, that’s not all there is to making sure that marketing efforts receive the

C-Suite attention and assistance they need. When she wants to push an important

initiative that she thinks is the “proverbial no-brainer,” she’ll often “come in and

hit it hard with an energetic pitch.” Then again, if something is potentially more

controversial and delicate, she’ll seek out input from as many people as possible

before she even puts together a recommendation. “It really does depend on the

initiative and where I think that stakeholder is, in terms their ability and readiness

to support,” she says.

But if Adkins-Green wants any confirmation that she made the right decision

in coming to Mary Kay, it comes each night at bedtime. What prevents slumber

aren’t challenges and headaches and deadlines, she says. “What keeps me up, with

all sincerity, is excitement about what we can do and what we will be doing,”

she says. And when does she sleep like a baby? “It’s when I have good feedback

from the sales force.”


According to Mary Kay CMO Sheryl Adkins-Green, powerful ... · company to match her own...

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