How a Jewish business woman came up with brilliant marketing and conquered America
'23.12.2018'
Source: vc.ru
Stories of successful business are, in fact, stories of pioneers, innovators, that is, those who did not take the trodden path, but found the strength to create their own way. That's exactly what Lillian Vernon did - the creator of a unique at the time marketing model, which is still used by the vast majority of stores.
The future “catalog queen” Lilian Menashe was born in Germany in March 1927, in a wealthy Jewish family. Her father successfully conducted his own business, and it was he who gave the girl the ability to handle finances and build business properly, she says U-jew.
When Lillian was 5 years old, her family had to emigrate to Holland, and then to the USA, because of the growing fascist moods in the pre-war Germany. In the United States, Lilian’s father began his business from scratch, in fact teaching his daughter the most valuable lesson of endurance, perseverance and ability to adapt to circumstances. In the States, he established the production of leather goods, often developing new models on his own and putting them into production.
Over time, the family was able to integrate into American society. Lilian successfully studied, and in her free time she worked in the cinema as a ticket collector. It is this time that she herself calls the most important in her youth. She had to communicate with a variety of people, which finally deprived her of shyness, and the girl acquired such a necessary skill to speak beautifully and confidently. In 1947, the future businesswoman entered New York University in the department of psychology. But the soul did not lie in the chosen specialty, and the girl, without completing the third course, dropped out. She married and settled with her husband in the suburb of Mount Vernon.
In 1950, Lillian became pregnant and it seemed that life could not bring any surprises. But the young family was sorely lacking money, and the girl decided, without looking up from the housekeeping, to try herself in business, not counting on success. She decided to set up small-scale trading by mail, choosing for distribution those goods that could not be found in consumer stores. Lillian called her “Vernon Souvenirs”, according to the name of the suburb, with her own company with just one employee — herself.
It all started simply, because the girl did not have great resources for the grand launch of the company. All she had was two thousand dollars, presented to him and her husband as wedding gifts, and a restless desire to realize her idea.
Lilian made the first step into the world of business by purchasing a high-quality and carefully selected product for the available amount, as well as additionally spending five hundred dollars from the family budget to advertise in a fashion magazine then Seventin. She relied on the high quality of her chosen product, on its exclusivity and on her excellent taste. In addition, the girl offered a personalized design of the purchased souvenirs. It was an intuitive move, but it was he who turned out to be incredibly popular in a market full of logos.
The first results were staggering. The first year of sales brought Lilian 32 thousands of dollars in revenue, which more than paid back the initial costs. It was then that the love of her life — the love of business — was born in the soul of a girl. However, in order to make sure that success did not come by chance, the businesswoman decided to expand the range and introduced personal bookmarks for the books.
The effect was even stronger than the first one, and Lilian realized that the course that she intuitively chose would lead her to success. Then began the rapid expansion of the range. Using her intuitive sense of customer needs, she introduced brass nameplates and shipping bags for sale. They enjoyed the same success. Over time, the product coverage has expanded so much that Vernon Souvenirs customers could buy almost any product with their own engraving.
The slogan of the company sounded like “unique and possible”, which could not fail to introduce the euphoria of Americans accustomed to mass character and patterns in the 50s of the last century.
A significant event for the company was the first nominal catalog “Vernon Souvenirs”, released in black and white format from 16 pages. He instantly shattered in 125 thousands of copies throughout the US. He brought many new customers to the company and provided 155 with thousands of dollars in revenue by the end of 1955. Financial success was reinforced by the incredible popularity of Vernon products among Americans. This, finally, made it possible to officially create a full-scale company Lilian Vernon Corporation. Within five years, her income was estimated at a million dollars, and continued to grow.
However, success could not confuse Lililan, she continued to work with little or no days off, personally choosing products for sale, participating in the development of each of the new catalogs. Even then, she formulated the most important rules of her business:
- Go where others fear and step on foot
- Offer customers only the product that she would like to have in her home
- Squeeze the most out of every opportunity
About her strategy, she said:
"I never allow my mistakes to lead me to defeat or distract from the essence, on the contrary, I learn from them and move forward in the most effective way."
Such an attitude of success led Lilian to amazing results, because she was able to build the largest trading company from a small firm over 9 years and bring it to a million profit.
However, Lilian’s marriage was difficult to call successful. Back in 1951, when the couple saw the prospect of Vernon Souvenirs, they decided to work together, each contributing to the well-being of the family and company. It is this that eventually spoiled their relationship. They divorced in 1969 year, in fact at the peak of popularity and incredible financial success of the company. However, this did not greatly affect the acumen of Lilian, she and her husband peacefully divided the spheres of activity - he took over the wholesale sales, she also left the sales through catalogs. Already in 1970, Vernon re-married businessman Robert Katz, but marriage did not work with him. They divorced in 1990, and the businesswoman officially changed her last name to Vernon, as if making it clear that the greatest love in her life is business.
Today, Lillian Vernon Corporation has 12 millions of customers, including celebrities such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hillary Clinton and Steven Spielberg.
Despite the rapidly changing trends, the company confidently holds the leadership in the field of retail and wholesale trade. In her declining years, Lilian herself spoke with inspiration in many business schools, oversaw non-profit organizations such as New York University, Women's Center for Entrepreneurship, and Lincoln Center. She was a generous sponsor of many charity programs in the United States, and earned the prestigious Sunshine Award.
Lillian Vernon died at the age of 88 in her apartment in Manhattan.
She became the idol of many start-up entrepreneurs, who still breathe with the advice of a brilliant businesswoman, and build their business in accordance with its “golden rules”. Vernon has achieved more than just financial success. She turned the sales market to a new direction, making it customer-oriented, and put her name on the list of the most talented entrepreneurs in the world.
