Hiding Information on the New Mary Kay Men’s Line
Written by Parsons Green
In March, Mary Kay announced to sales directors there would be a new men’s line, and the current line would be phasing out.
Directors could sample the new products by purchasing a buzz kit that arrived in April.
However, these new products will not be announced to consultants until May 1st, although word has leaked that the current men’s products would be discontinued.
A consultant asked about this on Facebook, a director confirmed the phaseout and promptly was scolded by Ellen Bowman Cox.
She states many consultants don’t think like businesswomen and will hold orders because new products are coming! (Ummmmm…. isn’t waiting to order when new products are coming out… a REALLY GOOD business decision???)
But… directors like Ellen need to manage production and can lose their title if they miss production goals, so it’s in their best interest to not tell women that products are being changed.
Ellen admits she would rather keep information from her team to benefit herself instead of letting the consultants decide what is best for them. She would rather they order soon to be obsolete product to maintain her production knowing that they will then be pressured to purchase the new rebranded products when they are released. Ellen is shameless and this doesn’t seem very Golden Rule to me!
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As a guy I can say I’ve never tried MK products for men, nor do I know anyone guy that does. Not saying it doesn’t happen; I’ve just not ever heard of it happening.
It’s probably one of those things that the average guy only uses if his wife or girlfriend buys it for him, or else she’s in MK and he’s using up her extra inventory.
What do you want to bet that directors are urging their downlines to load up on men’s skincare sets now to get a head start on Father’s Day?
A real company would announce the new product and significantly drop the wholesale price of the old to move it out. Both would create a buzz, and if they were really retailing these products, there would be a market for both.
But MK is not about retailing. Instead, they are all about ordering and recruiting…filling the homes of the sales force with product at the highest price possible. Why close out an old product on the cheap when you can trick your sales team into stocking up on something at full price that will not otherwise sell at that price?
Ellen Bowman Cox confirms that this is the way.
Exactly … and they would have let the old product stock decline as much as possible at full price BEFORE they made the cuts a d closeout.
“word has leaked”
Of course it leaked. SDs have been blabbing about it for weeks on their public YouTube videos.
So… many consultants don’t think like businesswomen, she says! But she does, always. I’d call this Buzzkill, not Buzzkit.
I wonder if our next Friday letter will be about us “leaking” this info and how awful we are to do so. Shame on us!
I only wish I knew MK reps to leak it to! That Ellen Bowman is a real piece of work. It may not show to public satisfaction but the moral crimes she lives by do come back on her. I wouldn’t want to peek into her mind, much less emulate her ways.
Withholding information that would have a significant factor in consultants making their “business” decisions is fraud. Plain and simple. Mary Kay and these directors should be ashamed of themselves. If you’re in Ellen Cox’s unit, congrats, she thinks you’re dumb and will manipulate you to benefit herself and leave you stuck with discontinued inventory you can’t sell. My spouse and I own a business and if we treated our staff like that, they would have grounds to sue us into oblivion. Shame on directors like Ellen and on Mary Kay.
I just noticed the MK site is allowing reviews again. Time for the IBCs to rate every product with five stars. 🙂
Reviewers are asked to identify as “Customer” or “IBC.” IBCs must include their Consultant ID.