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  • News

Paula Meehan Turned Heads, Restyled Hair Care Biz

  • January 2011
  • Case

Clean Edge Razor: Splitting Hairs in Product Positioning

By: John A. Quelch and Heather Beckham
After three years of development, Paramount Health and Beauty Company is preparing to launch a new technologically advanced vibrating razor called Clean Edge. The innovative new design of Clean Edge provides superior performance by stimulating the hair follicles to... View Details
Keywords: Project Management; Interdepartmental Relations; Organizational Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Conflict Management; Product Positioning; Marketing Strategy; Relationships; Product Development; Consumer Products Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry
Related
  • September 2013 (Revised November 2015)
  • Case

Living Proof: Are We a Technology Company or a Beauty Company?

By: Willy Shih

Jon Flint came up with the idea of a science-based beauty company while talking with his hairdresser about the problems with typical hair and skin care products. Together with a small team that included Professor Robert Langer of MIT, he committed to assemble a team... View Details

Keywords: Hair Care; Personal Care; Science-based; R＆D; Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Product Positioning; Science-Based Business; Business Strategy; Commercialization; Corporate Strategy; Technology Platform; Expansion; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; United States; Boston; Cambridge
Related
  • February 2021 (Revised July 2022)
  • Case

Sarah Breedlove: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Max Saffer
This case describes the rise of Sarah Breedlove, who later called herself Madam C.J. Walker, from the cotton fields of Louisiana to the head of a successful, nationwide beauty company providing opportunity and hair care products to Black women. The case describes how... View Details
Keywords: Brands; African-american Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship; Values and Beliefs; Personal Characteristics; Success; Work-Life Balance; Business Startups; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Personal Development and Career; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; United States
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  • February 2008
  • Article

Blonde and Blue-eyed?: Globalizing Beauty, c.1945–c.1980

By: Geoffrey Jones
This article examines the globalization of the beauty industry between 1945 and 1980. The industry grew quickly. Firms employed marketing and marketing strategies to diffuse products and brands internationally, despite business, economic, and cultural obstacles to... View Details
Keywords: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Globalized Markets and Industries; Product Marketing; Standards; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry
Related
  • 14 Jan 2019
  • Blog Post

"It'll All Work Out": Two Alumni Discuss Balancing Marriage and Markets

Love came to Carolina Delgado Joyce and Charlie Joyce (both MBA 2018) before they entered HBS together in 2016. With a wedding scheduled for July 9, "It was challenging," Charlie admits. "It's hard not to pull your hair out... View Details
  • 11 Jul 2006
  • Working Paper Summaries

Globalizing the Beauty Business Before 1980

Keywords: by Geoffrey G. Jones
  • 24 Oct 2023
  • HBS Case

From P.T. Barnum to Mary Kay: Lessons From 5 Leaders Who Changed the World

relationship caused her hair to thin. Breedlove found a product that revitalized it, and started selling the tonic, leaning hard on family and friends for labor and customers. “I was convinced it would be a success,” she said of the... View Details
Keywords: by Avery Forman
  • 20 Jun 2005
  • Research & Ideas

Creating a Positive Professional Image

story of managing your professional image, says Roberts. You also belong to a social identity group—African American male, working mother—that brings its own stereotyping from the people you work with, especially in today's diverse workplaces. You can put on a suit and... View Details
Keywords: by Mallory Stark
  • 23 Jan 2008
  • First Look

First Look: January 23, 2008

employed marketing and marketing strategies to diffuse products and brands internationally, despite business, economic, and cultural obstacles to globalization. The process was difficult and complex. The globalization of toiletries proceeded faster than cosmetics, skin... View Details
Keywords: Martha Lagace
  • 22 Nov 2004
  • Research & Ideas

Side Effects: The Case of Propecia

You are the marketing director of Propecia, a new drug for hair restoration that's about to hit the market. But the drug can only be purchased via a physician's prescription. So do you advertise directly to balding men? Do you concentrate... View Details
Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Health; Pharmaceutical
  • 19 Apr 2010
  • Research & Ideas

The History of Beauty

congressional hearings, but this had no discernible impact on either Revson or his company. Television also proved a medium that new entrants could use to challenge incumbents. During the late 1950s, Leonard Lavin used television advertising to grow the tiny... View Details
Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Beauty & Cosmetics
  • Web

Winners & Runners-Up | New Venture Competition

2023) Business Track & Crowd Favorite Winner We reduce braiding time from hours to minutes, empowering Black salon owners to double or triple their business and addressing the 8 billion hours spent braiding hair each year. DoriVac Kevin... View Details
  • 13 Nov 2013
  • Research & Ideas

Should Men’s Products Fear a Woman’s Touch?

women's shaving brand at Gillette. The company made a point of building products from the ground up for the distinct hair removal needs of both men and women. But it also made a point of creating a different brand name for Gillette's... View Details
Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage; Auto

    Madam C. J. Walker

    known, not only for its hair care products, but also for its extensive agent system, in which well-trained black women traveled throughout black neighborhoods across the United States, promoting the... View Details
    Keywords: Personal Care & Home Products

      Edward G. Gardner

      Gardner began mixing hair and beauty products for blacks out of his basement during the 1940s. Around 1960, he began working for another beauty supply business and when it went bankrupt, Gardner took its customers and began producing his... View Details
      Keywords: Personal Care & Home Products

        Charles A. Heimbold, Jr.

        Heimbold focused on Bristol-Myers Squibb’s growth and created a scientific-based, world-leading pharmaceutical company with very strong consumer franchises. Sixty-two percent of its sales come from pharmaceuticals (where it holds leadership positions in anticancer... View Details
        Keywords: Healthcare
        • Portrait Project

        Bianca Tabourn

        how many times my heart is broken. Say "I do" to a man who thinks I am most beautiful when sporting sweats and a pony tail. Dance at a night club, sober, and not have a care as to what others think of me. Walk into a meeting... View Details
        • Portrait Project

        Erica Hunt

        Is it possible to be so self-confident, yet so self-conscious at the same time? Maybe... But I'm looking forward to the day when I can stand in the pouring rain...get my hair wet...and like it! I'm going to laugh out LOUD, in public, and... View Details
        • 17 Aug 2015
        • Research & Ideas

        Who is Boss in the Sharing Economy?

        hair salons to real estate agencies have long organized themselves as associations of individuals, with the company itself exerting more or less control over the interaction between service provider and customer. Some View Details
        Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Service; Technology