#H2HChat From local to global. How Mary Kay scales its marketing with Sheryl Adkins, CMO Mary Kay

Hey everybody, how are you doing? Today is a great day because it is H2H Chat day, which makes it a Monday, and because it's a Monday, we have to have H2H Chat because that makes it a great day. I just made that up. I've never said that before. I don't know where that came from, but I think Mondays are always a unique day, so there you go. Anyway, I wanted to say hello to everybody out there. Thank you so much for joining us today for another H2H Chat. Today we're really, really, really excited to have a special guest with us. I'm going to introduce her in just a second. You can see her nice smiling face right there. But before we introduce her, I like to always say hello to my co-host Suzy. Suzy, how are you doing back in New York, in the New York area? I should keep— I should say, I always say that.

Yes.

In the New York area, how are you doing today?

From the 6th borough, I think is what we're trying to call ourselves, Jersey City. I am, I'm rocking it. It is a cold, gray, rainy day, so probably more San Francisco-y weather actually.

Wow.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm good. We're seeing a bit of green on the trees. Spring is starting to come. So it's nice. Yeah. I'm totally jazzed for today's chat. It's going to be great. Yeah. I'm loving everything already. Big hi to all of our community members who are already tweeting in. It's going to be great.

Yep, we got Eileen and Paul and Mordecai and Rachel and Lisa and Sylvia.

Mordecai joins us from Israel, so he always joins us right after he's put his kids to bed. So thank you, Mordecai, for jumping on for a few minutes.

From the holiest of holy cities. Thank you so much.

There you go, yes.

The Easter Bunny should be coming through there any minute now. I wanted to introduce our guest today, very excited to have a fresh face and a new company, well not so new company, but new company to H2HChat, Mary Kay and Cheryl Atkins Green. Hopefully I said your name correctly, I usually ask you offline. You did. So just a quick intro for her, she's an entrepreneurial operating executive with extensive global business experience. experience across a broad range of consumer categories and distribution channels ranging from classic roles like brand management roles at companies I'm sure you've never heard of. So I apologize if you haven't heard of these companies like Kraft Foods and Snapple and how do you say it, Schweppes. Operating roles at Citibank and a division of Alberto Culver overseeing worldwide marketing, sales, manufacturing, and distribution. So it's really unfortunate that she hasn't accomplished too much in her career.

She's so obscure. I don't— yeah, I'll have to look up some of

those. Yeah, so we'll do our research afterwards to figure out who they are. But now for the last 7 years, she has been in the Chief Marketing Officer role at Mary Kay. And Mary Kay is a phenomenal company. I've had a chance to, as I was telling her off offline. I've had a chance to see their great place there, their buildings that they have, and it's just such a great culture. So I'm sure we'll get into that today. So currently she's leading their global marketing strategy, brand positioning, new product development, advertising, digital marketing, social media, product education, and customer insights to drive long-term growth and support the more than 2 million independent beauty consultants who make the Mary Kay brand irresistible. So That said, welcome, and how are you doing today?

I'm doing great. In fact, that's her favorite word at Mary Kay. She always said when someone asks how you're doing, you say you're great, because even if it's not a good day, you're still a great person.

Oh, I love that. I love that. And the vibe that I felt when I— like I said before, when I visited, was there, that vibe that you just described. It's not made up. It really is the vibe of Mary Kay, and her legacy has certainly lived on, I think. How do you— just before we get into a few questions I know everybody really wants to hear about, I'm curious just about yourself and if you can just give us a little bit more background about you and what your passions are around. Obviously you do a lot of marketing stuff, but tell us a little bit more about you.

Well, I consider myself to be actually more of a general manager, but For me, the best way to grow both the top line and the bottom line is through being very customer obsessed. And so I think my passion for marketing and driving results through marketing is really about that customer focus. I can say from the time I had my Barbie dolls and I tried to make my own cosmetics in the kitchen, I was destined for the beauty industry. And I think the fact that I was able to find a career opportunity that brought together my professional passion and some personal things that are important to me in terms of helping people, particularly women and children. It's just amazing that I'm able to do that all now and under one roof.

Oh man, you know, it's interesting because just as a side note, yesterday my daughter was in my office for almost the half probably about half of the day, and she came out at dinnertime and she said, hey, do you want to see the video that I just made? And showed us, and it was her teaching people how to apply makeup. Ooh. And she built with iMovie, she built this— I'll try not to get too parent excited over what, you know, too proud over what she did on this because it's about more than that, but I found it interesting that she was saying that she didn't think a lot of people her age knew how to properly apply makeup, and so here she was doing that, and she spent all this time applying it, and then she came back and did a voiceover and all this stuff. She said that it's really popular on YouTube for people to understand how to do that right. Is that accurate?

Yeah, that's— I mean, this category is very much driven by education visuals and videos in particular. And what women actually want is they want someone to teach them how to use their makeup, not just sell it to them. So separately, I'll have to make sure I get your daughter's link, and I'd love to see her videos. We might need to bring her on this summer.

I'm sure she'd love that, right before she heads off to college. So let's talk about how marketing is different for Mary Kay than perhaps some of the other positions that you've held in your career? How is this a different kind of marketing role for you?

Well, first of all, I have probably the most dynamic brand in the world that I can think of because the brand is really that individual, that independent beauty consultant. So compared to a box of Fruity Pebbles that just sits quietly on the shelf in a grocery store, Each Mary Kay brand ambassador, if you will, is alive, dynamic, she's unique, and it's an incredible responsibility to kind of help orchestrate a brand that is so full of life.

It sure is. And what do you think the difference is? How did this brand get— I don't want to compete with the other brands because every brand has life in it, but what makes this brand that much more youthful or more full of life than perhaps other brands in the way that you just described it?

I think it's because the brand really is about relationships. It's, it's, you know, the makeup products of course are important, but this brand and the brand story is really about relationships. It's about human connections. So when I talk about life, I mean, it's, it's the ups, the downs, the wins, the losses, and each independent beauty consultant has a myriad of connections with her customers, and so it really is a brand about customer experiences and about relationships.

Now I didn't warn you ahead of time, and I apologize, when you use the word human on— this is called H2H, human to human, so when you use the word human, this happens. I was going to hit it right in the middle while you were talking. But now moving forward, you'll know that. I'll

know,

okay, I'll be ready. Okay, so you said the thing that I think everybody here totally agrees with you on, which is it's about the people. Now you were also telling me, we talked last week preparing for this, and I found it kind of interesting what you were telling me about with customer support when your independent consultants call in, they get— what happens?

Well, I first want to share that every single department in Mary Kay has a mission statement, and that mission statement starts with the same words: I support the independent sales force by blank. So we are all aligned in support of the success of the independent sales force, and that means whatever they need, whenever they call, we pretty much will drop anything and everything to at least find out what they need, get them in touch with the resource who can help them. So above and beyond, you know, our traditional customer sales, we have a sales development team that's there for support. And any executive that's contacted, we have a level, I think, of trust and mutual respect, and we know the independent sales force is not going to call us unless something's very important to them at that time. And if it's important to them, it's important to us.

Yeah, and, and going back in time, when you look at Mary Kay, um, that's a great transition because when you look at Mary Kay, it is the ultimate company in human-to-human. That's why I was looking so forward to this, because when you think about what you have— I mean, where, um, where the brand has come from, it is about human-to-human. Like, you sit in other people's homes and Show them and teach them and share with them and build their trust and everything that goes with that, which eventually leads to a relationship, which eventually leads to a sale. And now look at us where we're at with digital and online and living in an automated world. So trust is much harder to gain. Yeah. I'm curious, and I'm sure everyone else is out there, how do you bridge the gap? between where you were and where you are now?

Well, I think we've worked very hard to make sure there hasn't been a gap as it relates to culture and values. So we are very much dedicated to the personal values of Mary Kay Ash, our founder. So some of those values are around making everyone feel important because everyone is important. Things around the Golden Rule, you know, treating others the way we would want to be treated. So when you hold on to those types of principles over time, that really is the rock, if you will. And so no matter what kinds of technology might come into play, we are still very much grounded in those principles. And when we have decisions to make, if we want to know how to handle a situation, we always come back to those principles. And I give that full credit for that, you know, 50-plus years of trust that we've Oh,

I bet. Now digging in a little bit in there about new innovations, technology innovations and marketing automation and social media and things that just were not around when the business first started. Yeah. How have you adopted these philosophies over time and how do you embed that and teach that to people that aren't used to using this? This is not their way.

Well, the Mary Kay way is about personal connection. So technology really is viewed as an enabler. We position the digital tools and features that we have as really mechanisms that can help an independent beauty consultant provide the best service to her customers, to be accessible to her customers 24/7, whenever, however they want to reach out to her. So it's really not technology for the sake of technology, but it really is in support of delivering great service and being accessible, staying connected. So, you know, delivered that way, it really is still very consistent with our principles. You know, I remember years ago when Mary Kay first was going to, you know, in the dot-com era, most people would have thought, well, you're a direct seller. How do you— what are you going to do with a website? Well, we have a great website. And each sale that's conducted through the website is credited to an independent beauty consultant. So we've stayed true to our model and just took the technology and set it up in a way that supported the success of the independent sales force.

Wow. So it's become a bit of human to machine to human, if you will, but the human to human is still there. You've just inserted the middle piece. Exactly. Yeah. Which I think a lot of businesses miss that aspect and try to automate its human to machine. And so that's— okay, I have so many questions to ask you. We have a little bit of time here, so I'm going to try and take advantage of all of it. So executing on global marketing initiatives, let's kind of broaden out a little bit. Global marketing initiatives, where do you begin? You have these independent consultants trying to build an army of influence and sales, and you're just one person, or well, with a team, with a great

team. I have a little help.

You have a little help. Where do you start? Where do you

start? It starts with a strategy, of course, a global strategy, but it also starts, I think, with an understanding that if one of the key drivers of your brand success is that personal attention and customization, one of the things that I need to do with my team is leave room for customization at a local level. So that means global strategies still are able to incorporate local preferences of an individual region or country.

Oh wow, okay, so you have local support everywhere that's communicating. And so how's that communication happening between local and global within your own company?

Well, one of the things that's great about Mary Kay is that marketing and sales are very much best friends. And, you know, you can probably, you know, paper a stadium with all the articles about marketing versus sales, but when you're independent sales sales force is also your best customers, you don't really separate marketing and sales. You know that that's a partnership that needs to work in order to support them. So a global strategy will be cascaded down through a region team and into countries where marketing and sales sit down together and map out the goals and programs and make sure that those two, you know, streams of initiatives are really working together to support the sales force.

It sounds easy, and yet it's probably, I'm sure, a big challenge at the same time to do something like that. And I'm curious too where there's room for acting independently. So, you know, even just with tools that we have all over the place, like, you know, we have Periscope now, or these other tools, Facebook Live, or Even just social media in general. Is there, is there a standard? Is there rule sets that, that they have to operate by? Can they just go on Periscope and talk about their products and say like, you need to buy from me? Where is the line there?

Well, there are certainly professional business practices that are specified in the agreements that independent beauty consultants sign, and those things are around some of the integrity, the principles of conduct, etc. So there is that, as I'll say, a framework. But, you know, to your point, each independent beauty consultant is just that— she is independent. Because she embraces the values of the company, she tends to want to present herself and her business in with integrity and in a positive way that's going to not only enhance her personal Mary Kay business but the Mary Kay brand in general. So again, I'm going to keep probably coming back to the, to the importance of principles and values and those really being truly embedded in the DNA of what we do and how we do it every day. And those are the things that enable us to feel very comfortable that the independent sales force will professionally represent themselves and the Mary Kay products.

Oh, that's, that's probably the glue that, that, that when you can stay with it so, so much and really hold, hold true to that day in and day out, that's probably what's gonna hold, hold that together. So I could, I could, I totally agree. Now what, okay, so we've been talking about global and independent consultants. Now, how do— let's talk about bringing them kind of the two together. You're building an— well, let me ask it this way. What is your philosophy on building a global community versus local online and off?

Well, as a global brand, we're in 35 countries around the world. We share a commitment to the dream of Mary Kay Ash. So on that level, there is a global community that's, I'll say, built into our business model. Now, having said that, certainly within each country, for example, they will nurture social media communities using the social media that's most relevant in that market. So in China, it will be WeChat. In Korea, it might be Kakao Story. In Brazil, they might jump onto WhatsApp, but in another market, they might choose a another medium. And this is where again, as the Chief Marketing Officer, I have to make sure that there's a global strategy to guide these decisions, but I need to leave room for the local marketing teams to make the best call for what's going to be relevant to that market and the independent sales force there.

That makes sense, and their ability to move is definitely going to help them succeed and feel like they don't have some restraints to be creative themselves. So you said before that you believe that sales and marketing on your team is working really well together. Maybe we can dive into that a little bit. How does sales and marketing work together, and how do they make that connection work so well? Because that's typically not the case in most companies. I'm just going to say it.

Well, I'm going to come back. When you have a shared goal, and we know that our success is reflected in the success of the independent sales force. That unto itself really gives us a common bond, if you will. But I think more importantly, because the independent sales force typically begins as a consumer of the products, she's probably been invited to a skincare class, skincare party, tried the products, loved them, and then over time wanted to take advantage of the Mary Kay opportunity. So that customer journey, if you will, really does start with a consumer who falls in love with the brand and wants to be a part of it and to share that brand with other people. So thinking about that customer journey in a very seamless fashion is one of the reasons why sales and marketing are able to think about our relationships in a very seamless fashion. Now, I'm not going to pretend that everything's, you know, perfectly pink and pretty every day. Everyone's going to have their own, you know, perspective. But as long as we're headed in the right direction together and pursuing that common goal, we will get there. And we will get there, I think, a better way by working together. And that was also something that Mary Kay, you know, would would teach that people, when people are part of building something, they're going to be more committed to it. So a marketing program is going to do better when we know sales has contributed to developing it. Likewise, a sales program is going to do better when marketing has contributed.

And so when a new product comes out, walk me through how the communication happens. How do they get excited and aware over it? How do they launch it? You know, what— is this a very human release, or is it a digital-to-human release? Like, how do you launch new products in your company?

Well, as you can imagine, we actually have 3.5 million independent beauty consultants now, and so we are always listening for what women want. So the voice of our customer is always alive and well, and a lot of the product concept work that we're doing has come out of either requests or ideas from the independent sales force or the local market. So that will get rolled up, we'll identify what we think are some global opportunities, and before we, you know, go to the bench and start formulating, we're gonna take those concepts, those business proposals, back out to the markets and, and get the input of both sales and marketing right up front, because we need to make sure not only is a new product successful unto itself, it needs to add value to the entire Mary Kay portfolio that that independent beauty consultant might have. So it's very different from a retail environment where when you have a new product, if you want to, you could go take the old version off the shelf and just focus on the new. We don't have that opportunity. We have to make sure that each new product really complements and expands the business opportunity for an independent beauty consultant.

Wow, you guys got it down.

It certainly helps to have that happen.

Now, once the product is released, Now, let's— if you don't mind, maybe we can get just a little bit tactical.

Sure.

Because I'm curious how you feel about a personal brand, because everyone out there is their own consultant, and yet they're using the product, they're helping to promote the product, they're helping to build awareness. It is a mutual benefit to each other to be working together, but to help build each individual's personal brand is only going to help them reach new people and help sell new products. How do you help them build their own, or do you help them build their own personal brands?

Well, one of the important things that we do is to provide a lot of content, whether it's materials to promote products, tutorials, and we were talking earlier about makeup usage. There is education that's provided to independent beauty consultants if they want to take advantage of it. Education around things that are going to help them as, as leaders and as business people, etc. So we are not expecting that every independent beauty consultant will want to kind of start from scratch. So support of her business really does include some, I think, some really easy-to-use customizable business tools, things like a personal website, for example, that she can use to promote her business, she can customize it with some of the products she believes her customer base will most enjoy learning about. So we make it as easy as possible for her to be successful and for her to focus on what only she can do, and that's to provide service and advice and recommendations to her customers.

Yeah, and it's probably to To look at yourself, and I can speak from experience, I think, on this one, to look at yourself as both a business and a person is probably the biggest challenging thing for anyone, for anyone to do. And to teach someone how to do that is definitely, I would imagine, one of the biggest stumbling blocks. But when they can achieve it, when they know the balance of it, for instance, you know, on Instagram, I see all kinds of things sold, and I just want to sometimes reach out to people and say, stop selling and start helping, because products are coming across left and right versus, you know, the value or the fun or the instance. And so, you know, there's that balance of what you share. And I'm curious, do you have that balance? Do you share that balance with everyone in terms of what to share, how to share, that kind of thing?

Yes. And when you talk about people selling versus adding value. Again, Mary Kay Ash also had a very strong belief in the principle of go give, giving without the expectation of receiving anything in return.

Yeah.

There again is another pillar in our cultural foundation. So what that means is that things like trying the products before you buy them, again, helping someone learn how to use the makeup. So, you know, I remember before Mary Kay, buying probably, you know, hundreds of dollars worth of makeup that looked great in the department store under fluorescent lights when someone professionally applied it to me. Then you get home the next morning, you're like, what is this? And none of it looks good on you again. So, um, I— we believe in relationships, and I think when you are relationship-oriented, um, it's not about a sale. It's about understanding someone, understanding, um, What their needs, what their problems are, and how you might be able to be of assistance. And when you start building a relationship on that basis, it's really not about the hard sell.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. So we have a, we have a lot of people that are giving us great questions. I've been monitoring over on the left. I know Susie can't wait to get started on those. I've got just a couple more minutes with you, but I wanted to remind everybody that they can use the hashtag #HTH chat, and now's your chance to throw out some questions, some more questions I should say, that you want Suzy to go ahead and pose back here live. So we would love to have all your questions, and even if we don't get to them here live, we'll certainly try to address them on Twitter. So definitely throw them out, use the hashtag #HGHchat if you haven't been here before, and make sure that you tag it so that we know that you're asking the question. Okay, so Just to finish up on our little segment here, let's talk now— we've gone all over the place from global to local, we've gone from social, we've been to H2H, we've covered a lot of ground. Now I'm curious what your challenges are that lie ahead. What are some of the big challenges that you face on a marketing spectrum? So it's pretty wide, but maybe just a couple, you don't have to go through all of them.

That

you face that you're really looking forward to

Well, I mentioned before, Mary Kay is in 35 countries, so keeping up with what women want all over the world, particularly when trends probably move faster than ever because they're visible. So something you might see in one market can expand very quickly and go viral. So that's the exciting part of the job. I wouldn't trade it. And I think that's what's so exciting about But it means that when you're used to developing products maybe on a 12-month or 24-month timetable, all of a sudden you have to be so much more agile. Uh-huh. Because you've got to be able to identify a trend quickly, get in, get it to market, you know, while the time is ripe. And that's probably one of the harder things to do, but it definitely keeps keeps my role very exciting. I bet. The other thing is, on the flip side, you know, trend spotting is the fun part of the job, but, you know, our world is very complex. There's a lot of things going on in a lot of markets, things that might be challenging. It might be challenging for an independent sales force member to be able to do her business. So we are always thinking about you know, the, the health and safety of our independent sales force. So those are things that aren't necessarily under our control. What we can do though is again give her options of how she can run her business. You know, I can see when there's a weather report and there's snowstorms, the independent beauty consultants are on social saying, hey, I'm glad I can do this business on my iPad. You know, I'm glad I can— have orders placed on my mobile phone. I don't have to go out today, I can stay home with my children on a snow day. So we try to make sure that we are supporting the independent sales force. Again, we can't control the external world, but what we can control is how we support her.

You know what, I just have to say real quickly that my hat's off to you because you keep mentioning, I just have to jump on Twitter, I just have to jump on social, and I can see how people are doing in X, Y, and Z city. And as a CMO, to do that— and I only know this because you told me this last week too— that you jump on social in the morning and again at the end of the day to see how everything is going. And that's how you keep, I think— and I'd love to hear your response— but how you keep your finger on the pulse. And that's awesome. That's the only way I know how to put it. That is so great that you actually keep your finger on the pulse of social to see how all your consultants are actually doing using social listening. Yeah. your own teammates really are doing.

Yeah, I love it. It is a way to be in contact, to see what they're thinking, what they're feeling, to celebrate special moments when they're maybe picking up a Cadillac or achieved a new level of sales and, you know, maybe they've earned enough money for a dream vacation. And they share those moments, and to be able to just jump in and say, thank you for your Mary Kay business, Way to go. I love being able to do that. I can tell you a lot of— it took my husband a little while to get adjusted to the fact that I'm on my phone a fair amount. I try to, you know, take a break, do the eye contact human to human now and then. But it is amazing. I know some executives say they don't have time.

Sorry, you did say human.

I did. You know, some executives feel they don't have time for social. I feel like you can't afford not to find some time. time. And even if you're not prolific about tweeting and taking photos, at least be there. Yeah. Pay attention, see what's going on. It doesn't take but a fraction of a second to hit that little like button. I find so many great opportunities and it's again coming back, Mary Kay Ash was so great, that personal, you know, you can do it honey, what's your next goal, I'm there, you can do it, one woman can. That's what— if she was alive today, I know she'd be in social media encouraging women because that was always what she felt, you know, was the most important role of a leader.

That's great. The legacy of one person who can affect a company and keep the culture within a pretty big amount of change and to ride through that change is pretty awesome. So last question before I turn this over to to Suzy is where do you— we've talked about change and there's big digital transformation. And so again, along the lines of that same thinking in change, and change is good as long as you stick to your vision and mission. Yeah. Where do you see— where does the company see itself in 5 years? How much change is it looking to create to stay ahead of the curve, not just with the curve, but ahead of the curve on where, you know, just even the beauty products are and the beauty product industry?

Well, this is where being global can serve us well because we have access to developing technology, whether it's digital tools or it could be beauty products. And quick example, in Asia Pacific, Korea, China, things like beauty devices, they're launching beauty devices every other month or so. And these are going to be trends that we can monitor in market. And then when we see something gaining traction, introduce some of those devices into the rest of the world. And that's just one example. I think, you know, as I think about our business going forward, and I always think about trends as being a bit of yin and yang, I think on the one hand, yes, technology is going to be even more pervasive, and we will make sure that the independent beauty consultants have the latest and greatest technology. But I also feel just as things become more mechanized, there's going to be an intensified desire for human interaction, and that's going to bring us full circle right back to the way this business started, one person to another person over a kitchen table. So I'm obviously very bullish and optimistic about our business because, I mean, it's— that's the one thing you can't put in an app, that person-to-person connection.

Right. I waited until you were done.

Thank you.

And I do agree. I totally agree. Everything is cyclical. Bell-bottoms are back, and things are happening now that we were doing 10 years ago, and it's something that certainly won't go away. So spot on, absolutely agree. And so, okay, I am going to pass the baton over to Suzy. Suzy, you are— well, both of you are in good hands. Thank you. I'll leave you off here. I'll chime in when needed, and otherwise I'm going to take over on the Twitter feed, and I'll see you guys in a little bit.

All right. Thanks, Bryan.

Cheers.

All right. Thanks so much. Our chat stream is rocking, so I know we're not going to get through all of these, but we're going to try and do a lightning round as much as possible. So I actually want to kick off with question, question of my own. So one thing kind of going into this, you know, a major concern with social media has to do with compliance. So I know Mary Kay is FDA registered. It's a big thing to you guys, which I think is just so great quality-wise. Absolutely. But obviously with FDA compliance comes all sorts of different social media guidelines. How do you handle that when you're dealing with a whole bunch of independent beauty consultants? Are you doing training? How— is this a concern for you? It's

a combination. We have a variety of communication mechanisms to make sure that they know all that they need to run their business successfully and compliantly. So they have that information at their fingertips. In addition, when there are events such as our seminar, we will also overlay that with social media. We have a fabulous legal team and they are always available for any questions. If they happen to see something that maybe is not as good as it needs to be, there's going to be a polite phone call to, you know, inform that person. So we— I think we have a really good system of, again, making sure that each Independent Beauty Consultant can be successful. And compliant.

So do you— yeah, I just want to follow up. It's so fascinating because we've worked with— I've worked with social strategy with different compliant companies, right, from biotech to the financial, and I know our community has as well. And there's always such a concern about this type of regulation, so it's so interesting with that. So it sounds like you do strict training with your consultants as you bring them on. So that they—

It's a combination of, yeah, making sure they— yeah, certainly, you know, more broadly, we have a strong regulatory department that's making sure of all that we say and all that we claim and the testing and support of our products. All of those things are a part of our broader commitment to quality, and certainly making sure that the independent sales force It does have the information about how to talk about the products, how to talk about their features and benefits. Those are all things that, again, support the integrity of their business and the integrity of the Mary Kay brand.

That's great. That's great. So I have a great question from Courtney Smith. She is— and this kind of sticks with the general theme of training. How do you teach social selling to beauty consultants who are less tech savvy?

We actually don't refer to training but providing education because again, they are independent beauty consultants. When there are events, we have things such as a career conference and an annual seminar event for all the sales force. We take advantage of those opportunities. to provide not only one-on-one education, but also classes of education. Through our other communication channels, including an intranet site, there's also content available that would help someone. We're also finding, though, that the independent sales force typically are very highly connected women. They are very social. And so there have certainly been examples where they've been even a little bit ahead of the company in terms of picking up on new social media opportunities. So we have a chance to really learn from them as they are, you know, like I said, trying out new tools and techniques.

Interesting. So then this plays— this transitions into a question from my buddy Bryan Fanzo. Bryan, thanks so much for joining us today. So he's curious in terms of how Mary Kay approaches experimentation and adoption of new platforms such as, for example, Snapchat. So it sounds like in some ways you follow the lead of your consultants.

In some respects, we certainly do our best to, you know, have our fingers on the pulse and be aware of what's emerging and what benefits it has. But we also understand that we can't and shouldn't chase every, you know, we call them shiny new objects. Just because it's out there and new. So we do sometimes look to see what's being adopted by the independent sales force, or what are they asking us for. And again, to your point, follow their lead to make sure that we're providing what they need when they need it.

Do you find— just to follow up on my own— do you find demographic-wise that you have more or less social savvy. I know you have a definitely huge following with the boomer population, right? Massive Mary Kay. I also know that social media use is definitely growing with the boomer generation. So are you trying to match that evolution? How do you handle that?

Well, actually, even though Mary Kay as a company has been around for a little over 50 years, about a third of the independent sales force is in that millennial age group. So we are continuing to attract that next generation of brand lovers. And then as it relates to digital, there was probably a time, I'll say more about 4 or 5 years ago, where we could see that there was a little bit of, you know, difference in how quickly people adopted new technology. But quite frankly, I have a lot of power users, for example, on Instagram, and they are in that baby boomer generation. Again, I'm going to come back. These are women who love being connected. They're passionate about what they do. They're passionate about helping other women. So they are, for the most part, pretty quick to adopt those tools that help them get the word out about Mary Kay, the positive work that Mary Kay does in the community and obviously the great products too.

So another question coming from our community member Ralph Capocci. Ralph, so glad you could join us today. So he says, what level of digital savvy would you like your independent beauty consultants to aspire to?

I'll have to say I want them to be at the level that best serves them and supports their business. They know Their customer base better than I do. So I would never, for example, set a goal that, you know, every independent beauty consultant must have XYZ social media account. What I— my job is to make sure, again, she has what she needs and some great content when she needs it. So the answer is really going to vary based on that individual personality of an independent beauty consultant. So

I noticed that you're using the feminine pronoun consistently. I've heard though that you do have male consultants.

There are some, yes. This is true.

What, what percentage is that, out of curiosity?

Actually, I don't have a specific number. I can tell you it's definitely under 10% worldwide. But yes, there are, there are some men who embrace the Mary Kay values and the Mary Kay opportunity and And, you know, in markets such as Brazil, we definitely see more men in the sales force than maybe other countries.

Interesting, interesting. That's fascinating. So great question from Julie. Julie, thanks so much for taking the time out. I know you are super busy with your site launch right now, so I'm so happy to see you on this chat. She says, do you see the concept of digital changing the culture and business process Why larger, in a larger degree than just marketing, for example?

Certainly digital does have an impact on how we do business, how we think. Certainly as we partner with different parts of the organization, we all need to be thinking about how different, whether it's information or, you know, Bryan had asked about a product launch, we need to be thinking about how that is going to play through, if you will, through the various digital tools. So it definitely is a mental shift across the organization. And at the same time, I think the more we do embrace the digital tools and platforms that are available, it makes us all the more committed to making sure that The things that have kept our company strong in our culture don't get lost. So I think, you know, we work together to make sure— how does this feel? We know what the platform does. How do we make sure it feels good?

Interesting, interesting. So are you seeing as well— so you're saying that you have a lot of millennials now. I know that one of the big things with Mary Kay is having the in-person meetings, right? The in-person weekly meetings, everyone comes together. Is this something you're seeing shift? Are you having online hangouts now? How is technology changing this?

Yeah, we still know that the independent sales force will connect face-to-face, but there are also people, for example, they might have a team member in another state or another country, and they are definitely taking advantage of Skype. I had mentioned in my conversation with Bryan that some of our national sales directors, they were the ones that introduced me to Periscope. I hadn't—

Oh wow.

It wasn't really on my radar screen until I saw them promoting their Periscope broadcast on Twitter. So I said, oh, I need to get caught up here. Nice. So again, we definitely are seeing the independent sales force use a cross-section of tools. I know in Brazil, as another example, rather than getting together for a meeting, they call it a pre-party and they'll get together, they'll talk, share some makeup tips, and then get ready to go out for the evening, whether it's dinner with family or if it's a group going out to a party or something. So women love to connect. I mean, I think that's been true since the beginning of time. So the venue might change, there might be some digital involved. Women love to connect.

Hmm. Hmm. So I have another question here, and to my community member, I am so sorry I did not write your name down. So this is an excellent question. Anonymous, please claim your question and I will verbally recognize you. So great question, wanting to know if you recommend a particular technology, hardware, software, or social for your independent beauty consultants.

No, we don't. Certainly there are company resources, so in that instance the company has selected a platform to support their business. So for example, on e-commerce and things like that. But in terms of the independent beauty consultant, again, she's independent. It's up to her. To use an example in the United States, we will make sure that there's content she has access to on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, you know, the list could go on. Mary Kay has its own YouTube channel. So those resources are all there for her, but it is up to her what she uses, when she uses it, and again, which channels she, she chooses to use.

So what about user-generated content? Do you have branding guidelines that you give to your independent consultants to create brand integrity? How much leeway do they have there?

There are some guidelines about how they can use the trademark. And, and those are understood and those are in their agreement. But in terms of, let's take Instagram and how they might want to show a new product, that they do have leeway. They certainly understand that it's in their best interest to, to show it in a professional way, in a professional setting. But for somebody— I'm sorry, I'm sorry. For one person, it might be just on her bathroom counter. Someone else might go to Michaels and put little flowers around it. You know, so you do see the differences in their personality. The other thing that's interesting is in social media, every other independent beauty consultant can kind of see what her sisters, if you will, are posting. So if some— there's a bit of self-monitoring, if you will, from the community of independent beauty consultants. So I haven't seen anything problematic, but I think if I did, probably one of the other independent beauty consultants would tag her coattails even before I might even see it. Interesting. Yeah, again, and it would be done in the spirit of, you know, I want you to do your best. I want to make sure Mary Kay continues to have a positive, respected image. And that person probably would say, thank you, I hadn't thought about that post that way. Knock on wood, I haven't seen those situations. But it is a community, and I think the members of the community do want to look out for each other just to preserve what has been so successful for so long.

So you've created a sense of brand integrity and buy-in to this concept of the Mary Kay way and all of that. That's really Really interesting model of utilizing employee advocacy and identity to protect compliance action, actually.

Well, again, to be clear, the independent sales force, they are not employees. But separately, yes, the employees of Mary Kay Corporation also know the guidelines around social media. But I do want to make sure we keep that distinction clear.

What is that? So explain in that case, you know, for, say, for social media and, you know, liability, you know, all those different things. If they aren't your employees, then if I go and say something about the brand on social, you're able to in some ways have more freedom in that way. Is that correct?

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking in terms of an independent beauty consultant and what she can say about

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, she cannot, she cannot misrepresent the products or misrepresent the Mary Kay opportunity, but her description of her experience with the products, that's going to be her personal description. So yes, she can talk about how long the waterproof mascara, you know, lasted on her lashes. Yes, she can state that.

So I also, I wanted to give a shout out to Carrie Maslin. You had that awesome question that I didn't recognize you for. I also wanted to give a shout out to our community. We are trending for I think the 4th or 5th time in a row. So way to go, guys. So I have a really awesome question from Kathy Klotz Guest. Kathy, awesome to see you on our stream today. She says, what's the one thing you wish Mary Kay would do or evolve to in the future?

I think the thing that I wish for Mary Kay is that more people in the world knew about how Mary Kay, through its foundation, the Mary Kay Foundation, through the community service and contributions of the independent sales force, The volunteer work of the employees. I wish that more people knew just how much Mary Kay cares about making the world a better place, and how much they do in support of that. It's never been a marketing strategy to to talk about that, and you probably won't see a big commercial from us talking you know talking about here's what we. you know, how Mary Kay is, you know, pink changing lives. But on a personal level, I wish more people knew that about Mary Kay.

So I have a question here from David Pepper. David, I'm so glad you were able to join us today. He always has awesome questions with regards specifically to content creation. So he's curious, with this global audience, how do you address language barriers as you create content?

When we are creating content, one of our filters is to make sure that a key concept, or even when we're naming products, that it would translate and it wouldn't represent any potential issues. And so the global marketing team is going to look at content in that way. We also create a lot of versions, so when we're creating our look book, our product catalog, we're going to have a variety of models, a variety of skin tones. We even have different smiles because some markets like a big toothy grin and some like a little more of a sophisticated, you know, subtle smile. So we do work very hard to make sure that the assets will resonate locally.

What about in terms of social media when you're dealing with, you know, a very, very different style of communication. Obviously in certain countries you have to be much more careful about what you're saying in those ways.

And for Mary Kay, you know, being a beauty brand, we're a very visual brand. And we find that actually some of our strongest content in terms of engagement tends to really be much more focused on the visual than the text that goes along with it. So we are able to provide and also share a good amount of content around the world by focusing on telling a story visually.

So another question here from Christy. Thanks so much for joining us today, Christy. She says, how do you get and keep independent beauty consultants on board to execute your strategy at a high level To deliver a consistent and quality experience. I want to highlight the concept of consistent and quality since they're moving between potentially different independent experiences. How does that work?

Well, I'll say that Mary Kay, the basis of success is that customer experience, and it is something that consumer first experiences when she's a guest at a skincare party. And one of the things that she comes to learn as she gets to know other independent beauty consultants is to— first of all, she'll learn about the Mary Kay values and culture. And being— when someone is relationship-oriented, relationships really come from consistency in those experiences. So I can't say that this is something that's written down somewhere in a manual versus really conveyed consistently through the interactions. And coming back to the golden rule of treating people the way you would want to be treated, we make every effort to treat the independent sales force in a way that we would want to be treated, and likewise they treat their customers with that same golden rule mindset. And I think the commitment to the culture and the values and the appreciation of the culture and values, that actually goes farther, I think, than any, you know, manual could ever accomplish.

So what do you do to try to instill this culture? It sounds like in some ways that's— as you've just said, it's so incredibly important.

I think by living it and living it consistently and sharing the stories of the positives of that culture. It's something that Mary Kay Ash personally represented when she was in the operating role, and now today the independent sales force really are— they're the face. They're the voice of Mary Kay, and it's really through their modeling of those principles and values that they are learned and embraced by others.

So I have one final question, and this is from my buddy Ailee Nielsen, who joins us every week from Florida. She says, what advice do you have for marketers who would like to pursue a CMO or leadership role?

I do think that the CMO of today and of the future really does need to bring a generalist mentality to that role. So learning about the business from all functional aspects for me is some of the best preparation that a Chief Marketing Officer can have. Certainly with a focus around understanding sales and digital and how those 3 areas really need to be at the epicenter of designing and enhancing a customer experience is the other piece of advice.

That is dead-on advice, I love that. Well, thank you so much for joining us. I did not get through all the questions. I definitely encourage you as you are browsing Twitter, as you say

you do,

to check out the hashtag. Lots of excited people there.

And we apologize to your husband for having to look at your photos one more time at the end of the day. But thank you so much, really, really appreciate this. As you will be able to see when you go back into Twitter, you're gonna see exactly why we trended on Twitter, because it was an amazing not only conversation, but the conversation that took place in the community on Twitter was fascinating as well. So it was like these great communities obviously coming together. Really, really enjoyed some of the things that you had to say, and like Suzy just said, there's some great questions on Twitter too. So thank you so much for being here today. Is there anything we didn't ask you or any final words that you would like to impart on everyone before we go?

Oh, well, first of all, I greatly appreciate the opportunity. You know, I could talk about Mary Kay for for hours. So at this point, and now I love the fact that your community is so engaged, and I think your mantra of human to human, we can't lose that. And we have to, I think, be that group that stands up and protects relationships.

That's fantastic. Well, you're speaking, you're preaching to the right choir. And so thank you so much. And Suzy, thank you once again for an excellent Q&A. And to everyone out there, this has been fantastic. You guys are great. Really appreciate it. We will see you again next week on Monday at the same time. We'll announce our next guest within the— oh.

We have a special edition of H2H Chat.

Oh, we do. You're right.

It's Thursday.

Yeah.

I'm on the ball. Look who's on the ball this week. I'm so proud of myself. Featuring the one and only Joel Comm. He has a new book coming out on live streaming. A new course. A new course on live streaming. You do not want to miss this chat. We'll have the reg page up right after this chat. That's right. Thank you. We will then also have a chat next Monday. Extra H2H chat, no extra charge.

Yes, because nothing's an extra charge here.

No, no.

The

currency is relationships.

Right, right. So, all right, good point. Thank you so much, Suzy. I appreciate that. Yeah, so Thursday, join us for a special HDA Chat with Joel. We're going to be talking about live streaming. Thank you so much again for reminding me and us of that. And we will see you on Thursday. So make it a great week, and we'll talk to you guys soon. Cheers.

Thanks, Bryan.

Bye, guys. Take care.

Thanks, Suzy.