My Outline Of How I Market My Art
FACTUAL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES BEHIND THE BUILDING WEB BASED ART SALES
I borrowed ideas from successful merchants such as Charles Revson of Revlon.
1. Start with a superior product — but make the product visibly different
1. Initial Business principle:
Do not merely compete with an existing product. Find a meaningful product difference that customers can see and appreciate.
2. Turn an item into a desired product
Business principle:
If a product can become part of personal identity, the customer has a reason to buy again even when the old product still works.
3. Sell an idea, not merely a physical product
The important business idea is that the consumer was not simply buying nail enamel or lipstick. She was buying an emotional benefit — attractiveness, confidence, glamour, sophistication and aspiration.
Business principle:
The physical product is only part of what the customer is purchasing. The marketing must communicate the larger emotional benefit.
4. Connect products together so that one sale creates another
In 1939, Revlon entered the lipstick business and deliberately connected lipstick colors with nail-enamel colors.
The company's "Lips and Fingertips" approach made the products complementary rather than independent.
Business principle:
Design products so that customers naturally want to purchase related products together.
This increases the value of the customer relationship and creates opportunities for cross-selling.
5. Use color and variety to create repeat purchases
Business principle:
A successful product line can be strengthened by giving customers variety and a reason to return for something new.
6. Make advertising part of the product itself
Revson was a strong believer in advertising. Revlon did not simply advertise the product's functional characteristics. Its advertising created a world around the product — fashion, romance, glamour and sophistication.
Business principle:
Advertising should not merely announce that a product exists. It should establish what the product means.
7. Give every product a distinctive identity
Revson became famous for imaginative product names such as:
- Fire and Ice
- Cherries in the Snow
- Plum Lightning
- Moon Drops
- Ultima II
These names helped transform otherwise ordinary cosmetic products into recognizable brands.
Business principle:
A product needs an identity that customers can remember, talk about and emotionally associate with.
Source: Revlon official history.
8. Coordinate the entire presentation around one idea
Contemporary reporting on Revson described his practice of developing a theme for a product and then coordinating the manufacturing, advertising and retail presentation around that central idea.
This is particularly important because it shows that Revson viewed marketing as more than an advertising department.
Business principle:
The product, packaging, name, advertising and retail presentation should communicate one coherent idea.
Source: TIME's contemporary profile of Charles Revson.
9. Control quality relentlessly
Revson developed a reputation for extraordinary attention to quality and detail.
TIME reported that his standards were so demanding that he had been known to reject enormous quantities of lipstick because the shade was slightly wrong.
Business principle:
A brand is built not only by advertising but by consistently delivering what the advertising promises.
Source: TIME, contemporary profile of Charles Revson.
10. Sell through the places where the customer already shops
Revlon began selling through salons, then expanded into drugstores and department stores.
This was an important strategic move: Revson did not restrict the company to one specialized distribution channel.
Business principle:
Once a product has established demand, expand distribution so the customer can conveniently find it.
Source: Revlon official history; Smithsonian Institution.
11. Build a sales organization that understands the product
Revson was not simply an advertising executive. He was a salesman and placed great importance on selling.
The Revlon sales organization was trained to understand advertising, displays, inventory and the actual use of makeup.
Business principle:
The sales force should understand the entire selling process, not merely take orders.
Source: historical account of Revlon's early sales organization.
12. Use fashion and popular culture to create demand
Revlon deliberately connected its products with fashion magazines, models, photographers and celebrities.
The company developed major campaigns involving figures such as Dorian Leigh and photographer Richard Avedon.
Business principle:
When selling an aspirational product, associate the product with people and images that represent the life the customer wants.
Source: Revlon official history; Smithsonian Institution.
13. Be willing to spend heavily on advertising when the brand can support it
Revson was an unusually aggressive advertiser.
By 1956, Revlon had become the sole advertiser on the television program The $64,000 Question.
This demonstrates that Revson regarded mass advertising as a major strategic investment rather than simply an expense.
Business principle:
When a product has strong margins and a scalable market, advertising can be treated as an investment in brand dominance.
Source: Revlon official history.
14. Understand the customer psychologically
Harvard Business School describes Revson as having an unusual ability to understand the female consumer and notes that this ability, combined with his competitiveness, helped him build Revlon from a nail-polish company into a major cosmetics company.
TIME similarly described his ability to anticipate what American women wanted — or could be persuaded to want.
Business principle:
Successful marketing requires understanding the customer's desires, aspirations and psychology, not simply the physical characteristics of the product.
Sources: Harvard Business School; TIME.
15. Keep reinventing the product line
Revson did not allow Revlon to remain a one-product company.
The company expanded from nail enamel into lipstick, skincare, fragrances and other categories.
This was not simply diversification for its own sake. The new products were built around the same underlying consumer relationship with beauty, fashion and personal appearance.
Business principle:
Once a company establishes a strong consumer franchise, expand into adjacent products that serve the same customer.
Source: Revlon official history; Smithsonian Institution; SEC.
16. Take calculated risks with new concepts
The launch of the Charlie fragrance in 1973 illustrates Revson's willingness to take a major marketing risk.
The concept of Charlie was built around the image of the independent modern woman. The product became a major commercial success.
Business principle:
A company can gain substantial market attention by taking a calculated risk on a distinctive concept rather than producing another conventional product.
Source: Revlon official history; TIME.
THE REVSON BUSINESS MODEL — CONDENSED
Charles Revson's approach can be reduced to approximately ten major principles:
1. Make the product genuinely different.
2. Turn a commodity into a fashion or lifestyle product.
3. Sell the emotional benefit, not just the physical product.
4. Create products that naturally complement one another.
5. Give customers continual reasons to buy something new.
6. Build a memorable identity around every product.
7. Coordinate product, packaging, advertising and retail presentation.
8. Maintain extremely high standards of quality.
9. Put the product where the customer wants to shop.
10. Use aggressive, imaginative marketing to build the brand.
THE CENTRAL REVSON IDEA
The most important lesson from Revson's career is that he did not regard Revlon as merely a manufacturer of cosmetics.
He built a system in which:
PRODUCT → COLOR → FASHION → NAME → IMAGE → ADVERTISING → RETAIL DISPLAY → EMOTION → SALE → REPEAT PURCHASE
The physical cosmetic was the starting point.
The brand was the larger business.
That distinction is probably the most useful Revson principle for a modern business presentation.
PRIMARY SOURCES FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
1. Revlon Consumer Products — Our Founders / Charles Revson
Official corporate history and biography.
2. Revlon Consumer Products — Our History
Corporate chronology of major Revlon developments.
3. Harvard Business School — Charles H. Revson
Historical business-leader profile.
4. Smithsonian Institution — Revlon Advertising Collection
Archival record documenting Revlon's advertising history and development.
5. Library of Congress — History of the Beauty Business
Historical context for Revson and the American cosmetics industry.
6. TIME — "The Unflabbergasted Genius," 1959
Contemporary reporting on Revson's management, quality standards and marketing philosophy.
7. TIME — "Merchant of Glamour," 1975
Contemporary reporting near the end of Revson's career.
8. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — Revlon corporate filings
Historical company descriptions documenting Revson's role and Revlon's development.
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