Mark TungateBranded Beauty: How Marketing Changed the Way We Look

In the book entitled “Branded Beauty: How Marketing Changed The Way We Look” by Mark Tungate, the author explores the evolution of beauty products and brands throughout history and how these companies market themselves to the public. He begins by giving a brief background of ancient beauty, even dating back to the time of Cleopatra. Tungate explains how many of the ancient beauty practices and values derived from religious traditions and rituals. The backstory explaining ancient beauty set the foundation for the rest of the book because the reasons beauty was so desirable to the ancient people are much different than they are today. Tungate explores these differences and shows the reader how cosmetic brands reel in the consumer, leaving them eager to purchase the magical product to fix their problem areas. Tungate does a great job at explaining the most basic, and in some cases most important step to launching a cosmetics brand; storytelling. He captures the charming stories told by big players of the field, such as Elizabeth Arden, Estee Lauder, and Charles Revson. Tungate highlights the way brands like Elizabeth Arden market product, such as their Eight Hour Cream. He incorporates how Elizabeth Arden although desirable, was also slightly resented. The author describes how their story telling sold the idea that “aging was undesirable, but somehow shameful” (Tungate, 31). Although not the most positive stories to tell, they did help not only Elizabeth Arden, but also many other brands to develop into multi- billion dollar businesses. He also describes the rivalry between companies offering similar products and how they tweak their product a little to set themselves apart from the competition and enunciated the importance of product packaging to sell your story. Another important topic Tungate articulates in the book is the importance of selling an experience. Many individuals love to feel pampered and taken care of when walking up to the beauty counter. Tungate emphasizes how providing a complete experience for the customer boosts interest in the product and increases sales. It’s crucial that a brand provides employees that are eager to sample products to their guests and who are concerned to help them fix their issues. “‘Touch your customer and you’re halfway there,’ she told her sales people.”(Tungate, 46). Here, Tungate highlights the valuable advice given by Estee Lauder to their employees. It is brands like Estee Lauder who ultimately outshined other competition due to their appeal to their consumer. Through providing an experience for a customer, it gives them a more valid reason to spend money on a product that they may have thought was too expensive. The experience gives customers a feeling of getting the most of their money. The author describes the rise of more natural beauty brands, like the Body Shop. Growing interest in more natural and sustainable ingredients allowed for natural beauty brands to thrive. They offer something different, new, and seemingly more reliable to customers seeking these kinds of values. In contrast, Tungate mentions the rise in popularity of tattoos and cosmetic surgery. With times changing, tattoos allow for people to express themselves and the ability to feel strong and empowered. In current times, we can see a shift from makeup and skin creams to cosmetic surgery to ensure a lasting result that works and makes people feel younger, and more desirable. Today’s society is much more accepting of these permanent changes (tattoos, botox, plastic surgery) which aides in the success of these services. Although I liked the history and backstories told for some of the companies mentioned, I felt that this book lacked structure. I felt that each time I began reading a new chapter, I almost had to start with the mindset that I was at square one. I felt the author could have been more fluid when writing this book. The chapters are broken up into sections and I felt that these sections distracted from the overall objective. This book provides lots of information, but much of it is only covered on surface level. I wish the author would have narrowed the topics down and discussed each one more in-depth. I feel that this would have also helped make the writing more smooth and fluid. However, this book is a good read if you’re interested in the history of big name beauty brands and how they evolve to keep up with current trends and growing competition.

Branded Beauty is a great factual History Book of the Cosmetics/Beauty Industry. You get a front row seat of the behind the scenes and birth of many of the "Big Players"...Global views from Elizabeth Arden USA to L'Oreal Paris show how the now Ultra-Glam got their starts. I have had more fun and enjoyed reading this from cover to cover. In addition to the interesting History of Beauty, it also presents a perfectly focused marketing study of just "Why We Buy"! A great read for sure.

Tunegates book on the Beauty industry is a short course on how the iconic beauty brands have flourished in the global market. I expected a bit more in depth analysis on the social impact. Very good informative reading!

Very interesting read. I would recommend this book.

The description of this book was very helpful when I was deciding which books to use for a senior seminar class. I used this for its detailed beauty industry information and it helped me receive an A on my research paper. It is an easy read and was extremely helpful.

I was really looking for a book more about how marketing makes women purchase products they don't need. While this was an interesting history of marketing cosmetics, it wasn't what I was looking for.

Bought this for my wife and she enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed watching her reading it... And she luvs me for buying it for her..

In this book, Mark Tungate explores how the beauty industry- soaps, hair products, perfume, makeup and skin concoctions- has pushed its way into a multibillion dollar business.Like all beauty books, the author starts with a brief history of beauty trends, starting with the ancient Egyptians. He quickly gets to the modern age, though, giving brief bios of Helena Rubenstein and Charles Revson's Revlon, who brought beauty products out of the kitchens of women and into a prominent place in the western world. With the advent of movies, makeup became something that was necessary for women to look their best, not something only fallen women wore. Advertising convinced women- and to a lesser extent, men- that perfect skin was necessary for happiness, that a well made up face would ensure success, and that smelling seductive would bring you love.Only a small fraction of the price of cosmetics is actually spent on materials; packaging, advertising and promotion account for the rest. The cosmetics industry sells us stories, and humans thrive on stories. This perfume will make you feel like you're walking on a tropical beach. This cream will keep you young forever. While color cosmetics (lipstick, eyes shadow, mascara) are probably the most visible cosmetics, they aren't the ones with the biggest stories behind them. That you'll be hip if you wear Urban Decay eye shadow is less of a lie (you can see the effects in your mirror) than the lie that creams that cost over $1000 a jar will make your skin soft, wrinkle free, and young, because it's hard to verify if the cream is doing the job. In reality, expensive skin creams can do little beyond what the cheap ones do. Society has been changed by marketing to believe that youth, beauty and happiness are available in a bottle.The book is fast reading; Tungate covers all the trends but does so fairly briefly. Each chapter has the main points in a box at the end, like a text book. It's a very interesting read if you love sociology. The author amusingly points out that he himself and his wife buy cosmetics, knowing how they are sold to people, for the soothing, hopeful ritual of using them. Cosmetics just make people feel good; if you're lucky, the feeling lasts. If not, the next advertisement will convince you that the new product is really what you need.

As a beauty lover/worker in MKT industry, this book was pleasant to read! To be honest I hought it would be prettier ( more visuals, images, greater impression quality) but the content is nice. Quick read

As a makeup lover and marketing expert I was very excited to read this book and it did not let me down.

I am a second year Public Relations student (yes- it's possible to get a degree in PR. Maybe not sensible, but definitely possible). I have a massive interest in both Marketing and the cosmetics industry and had this book lurking on my "wishlist" for a number of weeks. However because of the £16 price, I put off buying it. I'm so glad I eventually did.Articulately written, detailed and interesting, this book looks into the history of many of the big "household name" cosmetics brands we know and love (such as L'Oreal and Max Factor) as well as luxury aspirational brands (think Clarins and Caudelie) and also some you may not have heard of. Tungate covers their conception, growth, marketing and advertising strategies and also, often, looks into the science and appeal of their products.Whether you are interested in working or expanding your knowledge in the industry, or just like makeup, this book is a great non-fiction read. In the final pages I found myself wishing it was either longer, or was part of some kind of series or had a sequel. I massively enjoyed it and have recommended it to any like minded friends.

Nothing new has been told here, but the author tells us in an informative and easy/fast-to-read way how some leaders paved the way to modern Marketing. For example, it shows how Esthée Lauder started her techniques approaching men through marketing or how Anita Roddick got interested by organic products. What's interesting is to discover the path and personality of those individuals and how they made it through...

the idea of the book promises to be very interesting, and in parts, it is. it has obviously been researched to a high degree, however this is not reflected in the content which is repetitive and skims over many interesting areas. not altogether a bad read, but does not live up to the promise of it's description.