Estée Lauder Companies

Strategic AuditKim Howard

Jamie OlanderScott Bristol

Mgt. 496University of Nevada, Reno

1

Table of Contents

Executive Summary…………………………………………………………………………………………..3

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….....…4

Company Overview……………..………………………………………………………..……….5

External Industry Analysis………………..…………………………………………...…..………6

Industry Overview…………………………………………………………………….…..6

Threats……………………………………………………………………………………..7

Internal Company Analysis…………………………..………………………………....................8

Business Model…………….………………………………………………………..…….8

Strategy……………...…………………………………………………………………….8

Longitudinal Analysis…………………………………………………………………......9

Cross-Sectional Analysis………..………………………………………………….……10

Strategic Recommendation…………………………..…………………….…………….10

Evolving “High-Touch………………………………………………...…………..10

Digital Shopping……………………………………………………..…………….11

Travel Retail……………...…………………………………….…..……………..11

Local Relevance………………………………………………..…………………..12

Developing Countries……………………………………….……………………..12

Creativity and Cost Savings………………………………………………………12

Portfolio of Brands ………………..……………………………..……………….13

Appendix………………………………………………..……………………………14-16

References……………………………………………………………..………………....17

2

Executive Summary:

The purpose of this strategic audit was to analyze Estée Lauder Companies business from all areas. This report details the different strategies that the company implements to drive their success, for today and into the future. The report is broken down into four different sections, Company Overview, External Industry Analysis, Internal Analysis, and Strategic Recommendations.

The Company Overview provides a brief history of the company as well as information on the various brands that Estée Lauder Companies sells all over the world.

In the External Industry Analysis, the beauty industry is analyzed. The various opportunities that are available in the beauty industry as well as the changes that have taken place in this constantly evolving market are detailed. This section also examines the various threats that Estée Lauder faces as well as the continuous competition that they must overcome in all of their markets. Key success factors for selling in the beauty industry are explored in this section as well.

The Internal Industry Analysis provides insight into Estée Lauder Companies’ business model and strategy. A financial section examines the companies’ finances from a cross-sectional and longitudinal level.

To conclude the report, we have provided a Strategic Recommendation section that will provide Estée Lauder with an action plan to continue to improve and increase sales in the future. This section reflects on various opportunities that Estée Lauder will capitalize on to improve in the future.

3

Introduction:

The Estee Lauder Companies is an organization which engages in the manufacturing, marketing, and sale of several beauty products. The company is divided into four sectors, skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care. The skin care sector is comprised of moisturizers, creams, sun screens, lotions, and anti-aging products. Makeup is made up of lipstick, lip glosses, nail polishes, and other makeup products. The fragrance sector is comprised of various colognes and perfumes for both men and women. Through their fragrance line, they hold the licenses to distribute several brands of cologne, perfume, and sprays. Lastly, the hair care line consists of shampoos, conditioners, hairsprays, and other hair products.

Estee Lauder is based in New York City and currently employs 32,300 people. They are a global company with locations in over 140 countries around the world. The products are mostly marketed through department stores, specialty retailers, upscale perfumeries, pharmacies, salons, and spars. Additionally products are sold at company owned free standing stores and through e-commerce in selected countries. The company is still controlled by the Lauder family, which controls about 70% of the voting shares. Estee Lauder’s grandson is currently the chairman of the board of directors.

Estee Lauder focuses on a global strategy with an emphasis on research and development. They invest over 80 million dollars into their research and development program that is located in the United States, Belgium, and Japan. Additionally, the company has several manufacturing facilities in these countries along with Canada, Switzerland, Germany, and China. Each facility is strategically located near the markets in which they will distribute their products to.

This organization has been able to maintain a positive net income throughout the global recession and beyond. With their wide variety of brands, they emphasize the idea that they have a little something for everybody. They aim at occupying every market niche from the low end all the way into the high end while keeping costs low and sales revenue high.

4

Company Overview:

Estée Lauder, the founder of the $8 billion dollar company, Estée Lauder Companies started her business with four skin care products and a simple thought: that every woman can be beautiful. With her philosophy, drive, creativity and passion she changed the entire cosmetics industry.

She began by creating face creams in her kitchen, and later selling them in beauty salons. In 1946, she and her husband launched the Estée Lauder Company. She pioneered the gift with promotion strategy and gave away samples of her products with every purchase. Estée believed that if women liked her products they would tell their friends which resulted in one of her most famous quotes, “Telephone, Telegraph, Tell-a Woman.” Mrs. Lauder believed that in order to make a sale, you had to touch the consumer, to show them results first hand and explain the products, this lead to the company’s strategy of using personal High-Touch service.

Estée Lauder established three core values– creativity, entrepreneurship, and integrity. They remain the focal point of The Estée Lauder Companies, who is now the global leader in prestige beauty, where High-Touch is the central feature of its service.

Today, Estée Lauder is a company that manufactures and sells skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products in 140 countries. Its products are distributed through a variety of channels, from large department store retailers, to smaller boutique retailers, and salons and spas. Estee Lauder also distributes through direct-selling through company-owned stores, over the internet, and infomercials. Estée Lauder Companies owns Estée Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, Prescriptives, Lab Series, Origins, M-A-C, Bobbi Brown, Tommy Hilfiger, Kiton, La Mer, Donna Karan, Aveda, Jo Malone, Bumble and bumble, Darphin, Michael Kors, American Beauty, Flirt!, GoodSkin™ Labs, Grassroots™ Research Labs, Sean John, Missoni, Tom Ford, Coach, Ojon, Smashbox and Ermenegildo Zegna. EL also owns global licenses to market fragrances under various brand names. These names are those such as Tommy Hilfiger, Donna Karan Cosmetics, Sean John Cosmetics, and Aramis.

According to their most recent annual filing, the future is bright for Estée Lauder Companies. CEO and President Fabrizio Freda explains their accomplishments for 2011 “We experienced many outstanding achievements during the past year. First, we grew sales by 13 percent—three times the growth of global prestige beauty. Additionally, we saw double-digit sales increase across our largest product categories of skin care and makeup, as well as in our geographic regions. We had our best year in North America in a decade, achieved prestige beauty leadership in China and became the leader in skin care in travel retail, the fastest-growing category in one of the fastest-growing prestige beauty channels”

“Today, we remain focused on our vision and are pleased to report that we are the number oneprestige skin care, makeup and fragrance player in the world.”

5

External Industry Analysis: Industry overview: Analysts at Goldman Sachs estimate that the revenue of the global beauty industry can be broken up by various segments. Skin care: $24 billion; make-up: $18 billion; hair-care products: $38 billion and perfumes: $15 billion. This industry is growing at up to 7% a year, which is more than twice the rate of the developed world's GDP. This growth in the industry is being led by the aging baby-boomers and the increase of income in the west as well as the growing middle classes in the developing countries. China, Russia and South Korea are quickly turning into increasingly popular markets. Although the industry's customers are predominantly women, there has been an increasing shift to market to men as well. The industry has also begun to consolidate. Younger brands are being bought out by the giants. Estée Lauder owns many smaller brands such as Prescriptives, Origins, MAC, Bobbi Brown, Darphin, La Mer, and Tom Ford. Unable to challenge their rivals financially, the traditional beauty companies are trying to out-innovate. They are striving to have more credentials and the industry has begun to market a new category of products that comprises cosmetics and non-prescription drugs called "cosmaceuticals".

When making purchase decisions, Brand identity is the most important factor that consumers consider when purchasing. 92% reported their focus on brand. Pricing is the second most important factor that affects consumer buying decisions which reflects the complexity of the hair care and skin care cosmetic shoppers decision process.

It is therefore imperative that companies in the beauty industry implement a strong corporate strategy on establishing their brand identity. Pricing is also an important factor so companies must stay in tune with their competitors and their pricing strategies. These consumer products must also continue to be innovative and continually advancing.

In 2011, l Estée Lauder spent $2,345.8 million in Global net expenses for advertising, merchandising, sampling, promotion and product development costs to further their brand recognition. Excluding the impact of purchase with purchase and gift with purchase promotions, advertising, Merchandising, sampling and promotion expenses included in operating expenses were $2,160.7 million in 2011. To continue their mission of always innovating, Estée Lauder spent $85.7 million on Research and Development costs for 2011.

Estée Lauder companies is ranked number 5 on Fortune 500’s Household and Personal Products list and ranked 307 overall for Fortune 500 companies. Net earnings have been positive since 2007 and are at an all-time high at $700.8 million for 2011.

Threats:

6

Competition: Estée lauder’s brands face severe competition in the cosmetics industry. However, its professional makeup brands, M.A.C. and Bobbi Brown face significantly less competition because of their target marked of specialized clientele. Estée Lauder’s all-natural products face competition from Bare Esentuals. Its mid-end products compete against Revlon, Avon, and Elizabeth Arden. Many cosmetic companies in the industry also face competition from small private companies with specialized products.

Main competitors are displayed:L'oreal (LRLCY)Avon Products (AVP)Revlon (REV)Elizabeth Arden (RDEN)Bare Escentuals (BARE)Economic downturn:

The recent economic downturn has affected the beauty industry in distinctly different ways than any other CPG market segments. Activity in the hair care, skin care and cosmetic beauty markets has been uneven. To deflect unit declines, especially in the hair and skin care segments, pricing action was taken.

As consumers plan and budget for hair, cosmetic, and skin care purchases they implement the “Trade off” strategy. Some shoppers are remaining loyal to their favorite beauty brands, purchasing less. Others are shifting to value brands.

Nearly one fourth of consumers that were surveyed stated that they are trading in their usual products for lower-priced brands as well as shopping at different stores. This has increased the amount of consumers at supercenters and mass outlets for beauty products.

Department stores are seen as offering higher-end beauty care options and advice for consumers, suffered a 4.5% dollar sales decline in the 52-week period ending September 2009 (source for department stores information is NPD and the BeautyCross Channel Monitor).

Internal Analysis:

7

Business Model:

The Estee Lauder Companies is a beauty company based in the United States. The company consists of four main business segments; Skin Care, Make Up, Fragrance, and Hair Care. The fiscal year 2011 Skin Care accounted for 42% of net sales, Make Up accounting for 38%, Fragrance 14%, and Hair Care representing 5% of net sales. Furthermore, the company spans a geographic presence in 140 countries around the world. The Americas is the largest market representing 47% of net sales in 2010. Europe, Middle East, and Africa accounted for 39% of net sales, and Asia/Pacific captured 14% of sales.

Estee Lauder’s main business is manufacturing and marketing all their products and licenses. EL distributes its products through carious channels appropriate for the market position and audience of the products. Some of the channels include department stores, specialty retailers, pharmacies, and salons. Currently Estee Lauder operates of 600 single branded-branded free-standing stores and over 100 multi-brand stores worldwide. Additionally, they also sell their brands through e-commerce in the United States, Canada, The UK, France, Germany, Australia, Korea, China, and Japan. The company manufactures many of their own products in the United States and Canada but also have manufacturing facilities in Belgium, Switzerland, and the UK.

Strategy:

Estee Lauder is very much a global company with a global strategy to follow. The company markets products that they know will sell in each country depending on research that has previously been conducted. However, with such a variety of brands, this has become extremely easy. They aim to target different market niches in each region. They follow the marketing strategy of “Bringing The Best To Everyone We Touch.” As previously mentioned, this has become extremely easy with their vast market appeal.

The Skin care brands Clinique and Origins are marketed to appeal to customers that want natural, organic, and allergen-free products. Makeup lines MAC and Bobbi Brown are targeted for the higher end fashion savvy customer. These brands appeal to both teens and middle aged market and offer professional-grade makeup and tools. La Mer and Darphin are targeted at their high-end market and have substantial brand recognition as the prestigious skin care and makeup brands. Lastly, Estee Lauder positions its AmericanBeauty and Flirt brands to the low-end consumers. In offering a product to nearly every market niche, Estee Lauder has been able to get through the global economic downturn while still positing profits each year.

Estee Lauder’s overall strategy also includes heavily investing in Research and Development. In order to have the most advanced products that consumer’s desire they feel that this is a necessary expense. Additionally the company does not conduct animal testing or have anyone do so on their behalf. They test each and every product on a panel before releasing it to the public. As of June 30, 2011 Estee Lauder had approximately 550 employees engaged in R&D costing 85.7 million dollars.

Corporate Strategy:

Estée Lauder’s corporate strategy is broken up into four parts:

8

Committed to Growth: Estée Lauder Companies’ long-term strategy is achieving higher levels of sustainable and profitable growth that will allow them to remain a leader in global prestige beauty. They are committed to continuing to innovate in all aspects of their business. They put a greater focus on consumer insights and they integrate their brands, regions and functions to leverage scale and efficiencies. The four areas that are being strengthened to distinguish their company are:

Key Initiatives: 1. Creativity and Innovation- They are focused on creating fewer, but more successful

products. They are motivated to be “creativity-driven and consumer-inspired.” Their muse is the consumer, who is used to create beauty products that they couldn’t have imagined needing.

2. High-Touch- Their High-Touch personal service allows the company to create an emotional connection with the consumer and inspire more brand loyalty. They implement a customized educational approach that comes from beauty advisors and makeup artists. They have also adapted it for online use, using direct response television and self-assisted formats as well.

3. Local Relevance- Estée lauder strives to be locally relevant to consumers everywhere they live. They do this by creating certain products for specific markets and altering their marketing depending on the region, this allows them to speak to consumers in a more culturally relevant way.

4. Enhancing Digital Capabilities- they are immersed in the online world and continue to invest resources in everything digital. Many of their brands interact with consumers via Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. They have also established global e-commerce sites that create powerful viral marketing campaigns.

Improvements:

Estee lauder has also been working to strengthen the department store channel as a fundamental part of its business. In fiscal 2011, they had their best year in a decade in North America. One way they did this was by creating highly innovative products that were backed with more effective advertising mixes, therefore increasing department store traffic. Once consumers ventured into the store, they leveraged their signature High-Touch experience to personalize product selection, educate consumers and create an emotional connection to foster brand loyalty. To enhance their merchandising they created compelling new counter designs to further increase store traffic and drive sales.

Longitudinal Analysis:

Estee Lauder has achieved above average growth relative to themselves and the industry. Since 2009 the company has experienced an average revenue growth of 9.76%. In 2011 revenue was 8.81 billion compared to the 7.8 billion dollars in 2010, a growth of 12.95%. Additionally in 2010 revenue was up from the 7.32 billion in 2009, a growth of 6.5%. Furthermore the company’s ROA continually growing due to acquisitions of smaller companies. In 2011 the ROA was 16.34% up from the 12.9% in 2010. The ROA nearly doubled from 2009 to 2010; in 2009 the ROA was 6.62%. This is due to a combination in both revenue growth and company-wide expansion.

9

Estee Lauder also experiences a much higher ROE than the Personal Product industry. The 2011 average ROE was 23.5%. However, Estee Lauder was over 15 percent higher than this with an ROE of 39% in 2011. In 2010 their ROE was 35.33% and 20.9% in 2009. Lastly, as revenue continues to grow and the company streamlines its production and marketing processes, the company has nearly doubled its net income since 2009. This increase in net income has come without laying off employees too. From 2009 to 2011 the number of employees has grown from 31,300 to 32,300. Net income in 2011 was $700,800,000 up 46.5% from 2010 net income of $478,300,000. Net income grew 119% percent from the 2009 net income of $218,400,000.

Cross-Sectional Analysis:

When comparing Estee Lauder to its closest competitors, Proctor & Gamble and L'Oreal. The ROA for each company is relatively good; however, Estee Lauder still gets the most out of their assets with an ROA of 16.34% in 2011. This is the same for 2010 as well. In 2010 P&G’s ROA was 11.74%, L'Oreal’s was 12.11 while Estee Lauder’s was 12.90%. The same is true for the Return of Equity. In 2011 the industry average was 23.5%. P&G had an ROE of 24.62% while Estee Lauder’s was 39%. Estee Lauder is dominating not only its closest competitors, but the industry overall. This can be attributed to their large contributions to research and development as well as their vast market appeal. With nearly double the amount of brands than its competitors, Estee Lauder dominates the beauty market.

Strategic Recommendations:

The economic recession has taken a toll on all industries, including Estee Lauder, However during these difficult times Estee Lauder has been able to still increase revenues and lead in the prestige beauty market. Estee Lauder looks to stick to their core business strategy of: creativity, entrepreneurship, and integrity in many parts of their company to continue to increase profits and lead the beauty industry as it has for the past 60 year and for the next 60 years to come.

Evolving “High-Touch”

Estee Lauder’s High-Touch program is a key differentiator from the rest of the beauty industry. Looking into the future the company will look to take their outstanding service, expert education, and deep personal customization to the next level. This will to continue to strengthen their competitive advantage in the industry. One way they look to capitalize on this service is through consumers’ use of in store Ipads and other technologies, which will enable consumers to personalize their skin care assessment each time they enter into retailers. The company will look to re-invest in their High-Touch experience for customers; allowing consumers to feel that they receive the same treatment no matter how they purchase products.

Customers are quickly become more digitalized and Estee Lauder has committed to staying in touch with these customers in the same regard as in their stores. Estee Lauder will look to continue connecting the High-Touch system with their digital shoppers, so to continue their strategy of “Bring the Best To Everyone We Touch” no matter where the consumer is.

10

Digital Shopping

Winning in the digital market is going to be important for Estee Lauder to continue to lead the beauty industry. Looking towards the future, more and more people are beginning to “live online”, and this will change how consumers perceive, select, try, and purchase beauty products. Estee Lauder looks to make online services a competitive advantage for them in the future. By being able to communicate with the consumers in real time, and to continue their High-Touch system will be essential for the company.

Continuing the use of social media sites and video to educate and communicate with customers are investments that Estee Lauder will continue to implement. Also, through digital marketing Estee Lauder will look to strengthen their apps on mobile devices that will further connect them to their consumers.

Estee lauder looks to change about 80 percent of their advertising to the digital market over the next 10 years. Since they feel that their consumers will start “living online”, this will give them an advantage in the digital world of the future.

Travel Retail

With extensive upgrades in airports and an increase in air travel, Estee Lauder is seeking to invest more in travel retail. 30 to 40 percent of travelers look at duty free magazines while on airplanes, and about 10 to 15 percent of those are potential customers. Estee Lauder wants to change this, by catching their attention more with more retail outlets in airports as well as increasing marketing on traveler sites and in the duty free magazines. Offering innovations supported by High-Touch services, Estee Lauder looks to expand advertising for travelers online and offline, as wells as outside and inside of airports. They look at the traveler’s journey as an experience, not just an opportunity to make a quick impression on a customer.

Estee Lauder is implementing a service to provide special offers for travelers. This will include offering exclusive products only in duty free magazines and in airport retailers. This will increase their market to include customers who are traveling along with consumers who purchase products in department stores.

Due to the volatility of the travel industry, this sector will be analyzed closely and adjusted as needed. Estee Lauder sees the travel retail market as an excellent platform for global product launches and they will look to increase local sales from this market for the future.

Local Relevance

Estee Lauder will seek to become more global brand in the future. To achieve this goal, Estee Lauder will adapt their products to fit the needs and wants for each regional market. Increasing their overall ability to understand the concerns and preferences of the local consumers

11

to develop locally relevant products is their main focus concern. They will change the way they communicate with consumers in order to become a more culturally inclusive company. Estee Lauder looks to achieve this through different marketing strategies such as the “Every Women Can Be Beautiful”, but also by learning and communicating in the languages of the countries they are in. Adapting Estee Lauder’s High-Touch system to each culture is an essential part of the company achieving success globally.

Having an attuned attitude toward cultural differences will lead to inspire innovation and communication with different cultures. This will not only drive up profits, but also there will be an increase of 30% for global beauty business in the next 3 years. So Estee Lauder feels that taking the initiative to start understanding the wants and needs of a culture will pay off immensely in the future.

Developing Countries

With this increase of 30% over the next 3 years, Estee lauder has already taken steps towards improving their understanding of different countries preferences. They have already started increasing stores in developing countries such as Russia, Brazil, and China. China is one of the fastest growing beauty markets in the world and with their wealth quickly increasing; the market for beauty products will increase as well. This is why Estee lauder has built an Innovation Center in Shanghai, which Estee Lauder uses for research and development of new technologies and product preferences for the Chinese consumer.

Brazil becomes Estee Lauders is another developing country that Estee Lauder is looking to expand into. Brazil is the 3rd largest beauty market in the world and Estee Lauder is looking to capitalize on this. Consumers in this country spend a significant part of their income on beauty products, and many Brazilian consumers have taken a liking towards Estee Lauder’s brand already. Estee lauder has opened 50 free standing stores to continue to build the brand loyalty of these consumers, and looks to build more stores as the country continues to develop into the future.

When focusing on Russia, Estee Lauder has already discovered what consumers want most from the beauty industry and that is fragrance. Taking advantage of the fragrance market, to build brand loyalty with consumers in Russia, Estee Lauder looks to strengthen the country’s want for prestige beauty products. They look to do this by having high talented organization and a strong infrastructure in Russia to develop with the increase in the prestige beauty market.

Estee lauder has also positioned itself in other developing markets such as the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Turkey, South Africa, and Latin America. Already they have seen a 30% revenue increase in the Middle East despite all the turmoil. In Latin America, Estee Lauder has expanded distribution and looks to build more stores in those countries. Estee Lauder looks to developing countries as an avenue to increase sales in the future.

Creativity and Cost Savings12

Estee Lauders entrepreneurial talents have lead them to build the strength in creativity, innovation, and impeccable product quality; which has distinguished them from their competition and enabled them to lead the beauty industry. This creativity has translated into innovations and designing products and services that capture the imagination of the consumer, and create excitement in the market of the future. Their advantage in creativity stems from Estee Lauder’s understanding the wants and desires of their customers, which leads to breakthrough innovations in the beauty industry.

Estee Lauder has better aligned its organization with the strategy of being an innovative, entrepreneurship, and ethical company in the past two years. Estee Lauder is now more prepared for cost saving expenditures in the future. Estee Lauder looks to use their Strategic Modernization Initiatives to address the needs for more sustainable operations, which will enable Estee Lauder to continue to deliver new processes and infrastructure to the support corporate strategies. Both of these initiatives are directed at driving out non-valued-added cost to increase investments towards activities that will bring the greatest returns in the future, like digital sales and products in developing countries. However, in the end, the strength of the company comes from their strong brands they offer to their consumers.

Portfolio of Brands

Estee Lauder’s cost savings initiatives are also directed at acquiring new brands to continue strengthening their brand portfolio for their consumers. Even with Estee Lauder’s highly selective process, they are looking to make at least one to possibly two acquisitions a year. This will bring more offerings for their consumers, as well as keep them at the head of the beauty industry.

Also Estee Lauder will look to continue improving their brands they already offer. They have already made launches off the different Bobbi Brown and M.A.C products into new regions after past success. So the company will look to launch new skin care and other beauty products that have seen successes in other regions, and move them into different regions. Estee Lauder looks to continue building their strong portfolio and expanding it into new regions for the future.

13

Appendix:

Exhibit 1:

Exhibit 2:

Exhibit 3:

Estee Lauder Companies Inc.

14

2011 2010 2009

Revenue $8,810,000,000 $7,800,000,000 $7,320,000,000

Net Income $700,800,000 $478,300,000 218,000,000

ROA 16.34% 12.90% 6.62%

ROE 39.00% 35.33% 20.90%

Profit Margin 11.64% 8.83% 4.68%

Gross Margin 81.40% 79.88% 77.75%

Exhibit 4:

2011 2010 2009

Estee Lauder

ROE 39.00% 35.33% 20.90%

ROA 16.34% 12.90% 6.62%

Proctor & Gamble

ROE 27.46% 24.62% 22.84%

ROA 10.98% 11.74% 10.69%

L’Oreal

ROE N/A 21.21% 18.18%

ROA N/A 13.11% 10.61%

Exhibit 5:

2011 2010 2009

15

Estee Lauder

Revenue $8,810,000,000 $7,800,000,000 $7,320,000,000

Profit Margin 11.64% 8.83% 4.68%

Proctor & Gamble

Revenue $82,600,000,000 $78,920,000,000 $76,750,000,000

Profit Margin 18.4% 19.06% 18.79%

L’Oreal

Revenue N/A $26,100,000,000 $25,200,000,000

Profit Margin N/A 16.17% $14.14

References:

Deputato, John, and Tim Ressmeyer. BRANDING THE BEAUTY SHOPPER. IRI, 2009. Web. 16 Jan. 2012. <http://www.symphonyiri.com/portals/0/articlePdfs/IRI-POV-

16

BEAUTY_FINAL.pdf>.

Edwards J. Beauty At Any Price: Cosmetics Still Strong. Brandweek [serial online]. October 6, 2008;49(35):007. Available from: Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed January 16, 2012."Estee Lauder Companies." Wikinvest.com. Web. 16 Jan. 2012. <http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Estee_Lauder_Companies_(EL)#_note-2>."Estee Lauder Companies Inc. (THE)." Mint Global. Web. 16 Jan. 2012. <https://0-

mintglobal.bvdep.com.innopac.library.unr.edu/version-2012110/Report.Build.serv?_CID=234>.

"Fortune 500 2011: Industry: Household and Personal Products." CNNMoney. Web. 16 Jan. 2012. <http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2011/industries/217/index.html>.

"Industry Browser." Yahoo! Finance. Yahoo.com. Web. 16 Jan. 2012. <http://biz.yahoo.com/p/323conameu.html>.

"Investor Relations." EL Companies. 2012. Web. 18 Jan. 2012. <http://investors.elcompanies.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=109458&p=irol-irhome>.

"L'OREAL SA." Mint Global. Web. 16 Jan. 2012. <https://0-mintglobal.bvdep.com.innopac.library.unr.edu/version-2012110/Report.Build.serv?_CID=54>.

Pots of promise - The beauty business. (Cover story). (2003). Economist, 367(8325), 69-71.

"Proctor and Gamble CO." Mint Global. Web. 16 Jan. 2012. <https://0-mintglobal.bvdep.com.innopac.library.unr.edu/version-2012110/Report.Build.serv?_CID=54>.

SWOT Analysis: The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. Rep. no. 61339774. Business Source Complete. Web. 2012. <http://0-web.ebscohost.com.innopac.library.unr.edu/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=8&sid=7c97f1b2-a6e8-489d-9226-8ecd26a67771%40sessionmgr12&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=bth&AN=61339774>.

17