Blue Bird, Chen-Yu, Glazo and a couple of others.
30) so an ‘L’ replaced the ‘S’ in Revson and Revlon started up at 38 West 21st Street, New York in March, 1932. The company incorporated the following year as the Revlon Nail Enamel Corporation with Charles Revson as president, Joseph Revson its treasurer and general manager, and Charles Lachman its vice-president and technical adviser. The youngest Revson brother, Martin Revson, would join the firm in 1935 and become its marketing manager. It is sometimes said that Charles Revson took a big risk leaving a paid job at Elka to start out on his own in the middle of the Great Depression but the risk may not have been as large as it first appears. From all reports Elka was a very small firm and Revson was probably getting most of his income from commissions, so going out on his own and selling for himself was potentially a move up.
The biggest risk Revson faced in his new venture was a guaranteed supply of nail polish. This explains why Charles Lachman was so important to the business and why was he given a half-share in the company: the family of Lachman’s wife, Ruth Young [1892-1949], owned the Dresden Chemical Company. They made nail polish – possibly even for Elka – and Lachman’s involvement was on the condition that Dresden would supply Revlon with nail polish on credit. Also, nail polishes do not appear to have suffered the slump in sales experienced by other cosmetics during the 1930s. In a piece of self-promotion, the J.
Walter Thompson Company – the advertising agent for Cutex – noted that manicure sales had actually risen between 1929 and 1932. In the three depression years since 1929, total dollar sales volume for Cutex manicure products has been 28% greater than in the three preceding years — following a steady sales growth since 1915. As a salesman, Revson’s main problem was how to outdo the competition. The largest nail polish company of the time was Northam Warren, who held the Cutex, Glazo and Peggy Sage brands, but there generic levitra without rx was also Blue Bird, La Cross, and later Chen Yu, and Dura Gloss, amongst others. In its first ten months of business it only did US$4,055.09 in sales but this jumped to US$11,246.98 in 1933 reaching US$1.2 million by 1940 (Tedlow, 2003). We threw everything else out and carried only Revlon.” Revlon nail enamels therefore appear to have been as good as, if not better than its competitors.
| Factor | Impact on Price | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Patent Status | High | Patent expiration leads to cheaper generics |
| Manufacturing Country | Moderate | Countries with lower production costs often have lower prices |
| Packaging Size | Variable | Larger packs are usually cheaper per tablet |
| Distribution Channel | High | Direct purchase from manufacturers is often cheaper |
In part, this was due to Revson’s obsession with quality.
| Country | Median Price (USD) | Cheapest Price (USD) | Most Expensive Price (USD) | Market Penetration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| USA | 30 | 25 | 35 | High |
| UK | 28 | 23 | 33 | Moderate |
| India | 15 | 10 | 20 | Growing |
| Canada | 29 | 24 | 34 | High |
Quality concerns may have been the reason for Revson switching his nail polish supplier from Dresden to Maas & Walstein around 1937, although a cynic might interpret this move as an example of Revson’s aversion to being beholden to anyone, and/or part of the move that saw Lachman’s share of the Revlon business cut from one-half to one-third (Tobias, 1976, p. 51).
Even if we accept that Revlon’s nail enamel was good and its colours fashionable I do not think this completely explains the rise in the company’s fortunes in the 1930s. For that we need to look at Revlon’s sales force. Charles Revson was a very successful salesman.
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He was enthusiastic, quite good looking when younger, would endear himself to female buyers by arriving with his nails painted in the latest Revlon shades, and was apparently prepared to exchange sex for a Revlon sale or extra counter space if the opportunity arose. When Martin Revson joined Revlon in 1935 as its sales manager, he proved to be an even better salesman and was very effective in building Revlon’s sales team. In a 1951 interview, he outlined three types of sales practices – canned, franchise and executive – with ‘executive’ being the highest class and the one Revlon used. Sales chief Martin Revson believes there are three kinds of selling.
Revson’s commitment to this idea was such that, in 1937, he opened a style department at Revlon – run by Miss Cherie Shackleton – specifically to promote style and fashion in manicure items. As well as colour, Revlon nail enamels may have been superior in other ways, as the story below – repeated in books about Diane Vreeland – suggests: Mrs Vreeland – later fashion editor of Harper’s Bazaar and subsequent editor of Vogue – became close to a friend of Flame’s [‘Flame’ d’Erlanger], simply called Perrera, who dabble in investments, but whose greatest love was giving manicures. … Perrera’s polish was made to a special formula which he alone knew, drying almost instantly to a rock-hard finish. From time to time he would give some to friends, and when Mrs Vreeland returned to New York in the late 1930s, she took two bottles with her. There are other reports that Revlon had a quality product. First is what he calls the canned talk type. Salesmen using this type usually sell nuts or bolts or cigarettes—some product for which there is a constant demand and which will sell pretty much according to the number of calls made per day.
A. C. Bailey, of the Bailey Beauty Supply Company, Chicago – who admittedly became a Revlon distributer in 1934 and may therefore be a little biased – is quoted as saying: “I went with him,” Bailey says, “because I had checked with some of the finest beauty shops in the east, like Michael of the Waldorf, and found the polish was incredible. It was chip-proof and had more stay-on power, had more gloss and lustre, the colors were beautiful, and the formula was just terrific. We were carrying at the time about five brands of nail polish. The formula is: The more accounts you visit, the more you sell.
This is not to say that the early years were easy and Joseph Revson can take much of the credit for guiding the early company financially through this time. As its name suggest Revlon started with a single product, an opaque/cream nail polish. The initial colours in Revlon‘s 1932 range are unknown to me but shades introduced up to America’s entry into the Second World War included: Sun Rose, Chestnut, Cubana, and Riviera (1935); Ascot, Savoy, and Windsor (1936); Newport, Nassau, Suez, and Sierra (1937); Cricket, Aurora, Lancer, Tartar, and Juelton 1, 2 & 3 (1938); Bravo, Chilibean, Shy, Red Dice, Tringar 1, 2 & 3, Pink Cloud, and Amoa Red (1939); Pink Garter, Scarlet Slipper, Pearl Glo, Pink Lemonade, Black Mask, Raven Red, Demitone, and Red Punch (1940); and Cherry Coke, cheapest generic levitra online Hot Dog, Rosy Future, Hothouse Rose, 1942, 1943, and 1952 (1941). 1941 also saw the introduction of Pearl Glow, a luminous nail enamel in Red Punch, Scarlet Slipper, Tringar 3, and Windsor shades, with Pink Lemonade, Suez, and Pink Garter shades of Pearl Glow added later in the year. One reason often given for Revlon’s success is that its nail polish was superior to other brands.
According to this story Charles Revson had realised the potential of the Elka’s opaque nail polish and made it better by producing it in a wider range of shades. All the other nail polishes on the market were transparent. Charles saw the potential in this difference. The others were made with dyes and were limited to three shades of red—light, medium, and dark. Revson felt that polish—“cream enamel,” as it came to be called—made with pigment so that it would really cover the nails, and made in a wide variety of shades, could capture the market.
Although overstated there is some truth to this story. Most nail polishes at that time in the United States were formulated to be transparent and used dyes rather than pigments as colourants. In the early 1930s the fashion trend was to only colour the nail across the centre of the nail plate, leaving the moon and the free edge clear. When applied with skill this look went well with transparent nail polishes. Cutex was still promoting this nail fashion as late as 1938, even though it had introduced a cream polish in 1934. However, ‘executive selling’ was supplemented by a number of very aggressive sales practices.
By contrast, opaque or cream nail polishes – containing pigments including titanium dioxide – were usually painted over levitra 100 mg most or the whole fingernail. They hid flaws in the nail and were easier to apply. What is not true is that transparent polish only came in a limited range of colours – Peggy Sage, for example, had a dozen or so different shades of nail polish in 1930 that could be harmonised with jewellery. It is also not correct to say that Elka was the only company making cream polishes. Again, Peggy Sage, for example had some in her range.
However, the number of shades was not as important as the colours in the range. The exuberant 1920s had ended with nail polish being produced in a wide variety of colours – including blues and greens as well as metallic colours like gold, silver, and bronze – but the depression years of the 1930s would see nail fashions move to more subdued reds and smokey-reds and this was the colour range Revlon was promoting. Back in 1933, cream nail enamel was received by beauty salon and consumer alike with great enthusiasm, for it gave the nails a covering that hid flaws as no product had ever done before. And it gave Revlon the “hook” by which they could enter the style business with a commodity. This was not the only reason why reds came to dominate nail polish colours in the 1930s.
The growing trend to match nail polish with lipsticks also saw a turn to reds. The colours selected for Revlon Nail Enamels were mostly the work of Charles Revson. Whatever else that might be said of him, he did have a good eye for colour, at least as it applied to make-up and clothing; furnishings and fixtures were another matter. More importantly, Revson treated nail enamel colours like fashion items and, from 1937, brought out new shades each spring and autumn. All of Revlon’s marketing efforts would then be put into promoting the new shades while older ones, if still available, were soft-pedalled. If a Chen-Yu nail enamel color chart somehow walked out of a store in a salesman’s briefcase … well, it could always be replaced by a Revlon color chart. If the bottle caps on some Chen-Yu nail enamels were loosened a bit and the enamel hardened … well, the store, or the customer, would know not to buy an inferior brand again.