make-up, lip and nail products); fragrances; mens grooming products, including shaving . As Max Factor flourished providing make-up for . | 06-056 Globalizing the Beauty Business before 1980 Geoffrey Jones Copyright © 2006 Geoffrey Jones Working papers are in draft form. This working paper is distributed for purposes of comment and discussion only. It may not be reproduced without permission of the copyright holder. Copies of working papers are available from the author. Globalizing the Beauty Business before 1980 Geoffrey Jones Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Business Administration Harvard Business School gjones@ Globalizing the Beauty Business before 1980 This working paper examines the globalization of the beauty industry before 1980. This industry, which had emerged in its modern form in the United States during the late nineteenth century, grew quickly worldwide over the following century. Firms 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 and hair care. By 1980 there remained strong differences between consumer markets. Although American influence was strong, it was already evident that globalization had not resulted in the creation of a stereotyped American blond and blue-eyed beauty female ideal as the world standard, although it had significantly narrowed the range of variation in beauty and hygiene ideals. 2 Globalizing the Beauty Business before 19801 This working paper considers the globalization of the beauty industry between the end of World War II and 1980. Like many consumer products, this industry has made the transition since the late nineteenth century from one in which numerous small enterprises sold products for their immediate localities to one in which “global brands” sold by a small number of large corporations can be found worldwide. The beauty industry has a number of distinctive characteristics which make it of unusual interest, however, including .
