Mary Kay’s Skin Care Contest
Written by Parson’s Green
Mary Kay’s CEO Ryan Rogers issued a challenge to the Mary Kay sales directors! See Ryan’s Video here!
He would like them to sell 100,000 sets of the Mary Kay Skin Care Line between January 1st and February 28th. This is the basic skin care set and has a cleanser, exfoliator, toner and moisturizer. The suggested retail price is $80. The wholesale cost to consultants is $40.
To support directors and their efforts, the company will generously include 6 sample sheets of the mattifying regiment with every order of at least three sets.
Each of the four Mary Kay seminar areas will have four winners. The first three winners will be chosen by sales volume. The fourth winner will be based on the highest average of set sales compared to the total unit sales.The winners will receive a fully taxable $200 Visa Gift Card.
The company is so generous. The contest costs Mary Kay $3,200 for the 16 gift cards that are given out.
And if 100,000 sets are sold to consultants, as hoped, that’s $4,000,000 in revenue for Mary Kay.
Mary Kay Ash was well-known for her ability to offer relatively small prizes that were effective at getting large orders from consultants and directors. (The pink Cadillac is a great example of this: $456,000 of wholesale orders required for 24 months, in exchange for a vehicle lease that costs the company around $500 a month or, $12,000 for the whole lease.)
It seems that her grandson, Ryan Rogers, is keeping her memory alive with an even more lucrative contest.
Visit the
I wonder if this big push means there’s going to be a packaging change and/or formula change to the set coming in March.
Got to be. It’s a lot like the shenanigans they pulled when they were changing the Timewise sets, and when they were selling stuff at 40% suggested retail to consultants and then changed their packaging.
Just a slimy trick to load consultomers up with soon to be outdated inventory that won’t be online or in the Look Book, making it even harder to sell.
I just noticed the “while supplies last” part in the small print. I’m 100% convinced that they’re fixing to unload everything they’ve got in stock of this particular packup, which will go bye-bye once it’s sold out, to be replaced shortly by the Latest and Greatest (aka the same goop in different tubes with fewer pieces at a higher price). These, of course, will moulder quietly in garages and spare bedrooms as Ryan fills up Gram-Gram’s pink heart-shaped tub with dollar bills and wallows in them.
Ryan, you suck.
Ok, so the while supplies last part is for the samples ::facepalm::. Ryan is still getting rich off the consultomers and he still sucks.
It’s been a long day.
Ryan looks awful. A few years at the helm have aged him 30 years! I guess swindling millions of women out of their hard earned money takes its toll, even at the top.
It bears repeating re: these contests: The company DOES NOT track sales to end users, only to consultants. They do not care if 100,000 sets get sold to a customer or end up moldering on consultants shelves or in their garages, as long as they get their money. Upfront of course, like any good debt free company. They don’t care if consultants operate debt-free.
“Each of the four Mary Kay seminar areas will have four winners. The first three winners will be chosen by sales volume. The fourth winner will be based on the highest average of set sales compared to the total unit sales.The winners will receive a fully taxable $200 Visa Gift Card.”
And since MK doesn’t track retail sales, they really mean ORDERING volume. That $200 prize is equivalent to only 5 skincare sets (and one sample sheet. Gosh, how magnanimous of them.) Realistically, are you going to sell even 5 of these things in a timely fashion?
I think SisterHavana is exactly right and this means that they’re going to be changing the product, the packaging, or something else slimy once the “contest” is over. Then you’ll be stuck with a bunch of sets that won’t be in the Look Books so they’ll be even harder to unload. Remember what they did with Timewise.
Don’t get caught up in the excitement or hype. Your director is going to be riding your ass to buy as many as you can because she’s got dollar signs in her eyes as a chance to boost her own commission. She might even dangle a cheapo prize of her own in front of you. ;If she gives you grief for not ordering inventory you can’t shift, you’ll know that she only cares about her bottom line, not yours.
And what the hell’s up with the fleece, Ryan? The sugar-sharp CEO of the multibillion dollar #1 (direct sales) color cosmetics and skincare brand in the whole wide world should at least be wearing a suit and tie!!!!!!!!! What would Grammy Dearest say?!?!?!?!
He’s probably wearing pants and not a skirt, hose and heels, like granny ordered./s
A “fully taxable” $200 Visa gift card. At my previous institution, our office earned the “Department of the Year” award. We each had the option of taking $300 in cash (added to our paycheck and ‘fully taxable’) or taking $300 in gift cards chosen from a variety of retailers (not taxed, as it was considered a gift). Just another black mark against this incredible opportunity.
So the challenge is to “sell” skincare sets but all you have to do is order them without proof of sale to an outside customer. They’re not even TRYING to make this not look like a pyramid scheme. And as usual, only the Director gets an actual prize. The unit gets nothing. “Oh but we get the distinction!” And a crap ton of product sitting in your house you will never sell or use.
Desperation doesn’t look good on you Ryan.
This is like Chris Kempczinski saying…
“We have a challenge to sell 100,000 additional Big Macs by Feb 28th. The top 4 Big Mac consumers will get a $30 gift card!”
Why $30? Because that is roughly six times the cost of a Big Mac, just like the $250 is roughly six times the cost of the Skin Care Line.
Think of all the Big Macs someone will have to buy to end up in the top four. A lot more than six I can assure you! Same for the skin care line.
This will be a very bad deal for the “winners” in both cases.
Look at those retail prices. Overpriced, mediocre products.
And check out social media. Consultants are offering discounts, BOGO, GWP, product giveaways, and even CASH giveaways to get a sale or an interest in MK.
“This is your chance to set yourself up for success by attracting new customers who could become valuable team members, too.”
This is what irritates me the most about Mary Kay, the pressure to recruit your own competition. It’s especially cold-blooded, considering that there’s very little retail demand for Mary Kay in the first place. How deceived do you have to be, to let someone convince you that self-sabotage is a great business strategy?
Ryan DOES look terrible! At least compared to the last pictures I saw of him. At any rate: Is this a “normal” type deal? Or is this an act of desperation to quickly generate some much needed revenue.