Merle Norman Cosmetics Inc. or simply known as Merle Norman, is an American multinational

cosmetics Cosmetics are constituted mixtures of chemical compounds derived from either natural sources, or synthetically created ones. Cosmetics have various purposes. Those designed for personal care and skin care can be used to cleanse or protect ...

company that manufactures

skin care Skin care is a range of practices that support skin integrity, enhance its appearance, and relieve skin conditions. They can include nutrition, avoidance of excessive sun exposure, and appropriate use of emollients. Practices that enhance appea ...

and

makeup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

products founded in 1931 by Merle Norman. The company is known for pioneering the "try before you buy" philosophy, letting customers try on products for free before purchasing. It sells its products through its

beauty store A beauty store, beauty supply store or cosmetics store is a specialty retailer that sells cosmetics, hair-care products and/or beauty tools. The term "beauty store" (without "supply") is often associated with large chains that provide a large- ...

outlets and

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...

, as of 2021 the company had 1,007 locations throughout 8 countries worldwide, primarily in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

History

Merle Norman, with her education in

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

, started making makeshift cosmetic products in her home kitchen to sell to her neighbors while her nephew,

J.B. Nethercutt Jack Boison Nethercutt (October 11, 1913 – December 6, 2004) was an American entrepreneur and car collector. He co-founded Merle Norman Cosmetics in 1931 with his aunt Merle Norman and started as a delivery peddler for her early products, later ...

, worked as the delivery

peddler A peddler, in British English pedlar, also known as a chapman, packman, cheapjack, hawker, higler, huckster, (coster)monger, colporteur or solicitor, is a door-to-door and/or travelling vendor of goods. In England, the term was mostly used fo ...

. Growing in local popularity, in 1931 she opened her first official cosmetics studio in

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...

for $150 during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. By 1934, the company had expanded to dozens of independently owned studios across the

contiguous United States The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...

which were predominately owned by women. By the 1940s the company expanded overseas to

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

, marketing in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

. During the American involvement in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the company produced gun oil and war paint. In 1963, Norman stepped down as chairman and passed down the company to J.B. Nethercutt. In 1969, the company changed to be

publicly traded A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (list ...

on the

American Stock Exchange NYSE American, formerly known as the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), and more recently as NYSE MKT, is an American stock exchange situated in New York City. AMEX was previously a mutual organization, owned by its members. Until 1953, it was know ...

(AMEX). The company sold 400,000 shares at $25.Going Private
The Yale Law Journal. Vol. 84: 903, 1975. The company opened secondary factory in Sylmar, Los Angeles in 1971 and a forward distribution center in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

for its East Coast studios in 1973. In 1974 the family bought back all the public stock due to a lack of demanded trading interest, and the company reverted to being privately held. In the 1980s, Merle Norman was named one of the ten largest American cosmetic companies by ''

People A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...

magazine''. The company started its first national advertising campaign, having previously only used

word-of-mouth marketing Word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM, WOM marketing, also called word of mouth advertising) differs from naturally occurring word of mouth, in that it is actively influenced or encouraged by organizations (e.g. 'seeding' a message in a networks rewardin ...

regionally, including sponsorship of the 1981

Met Gala The Met Gala, or Met Ball, formally called the Costume Institute Gala or the Costume Institute Benefit, is an annual fundraising gala held for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute in New York City. It is popularly ...

. The company experimentally expanded to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

in 3 countries, but would leave the continent by the next decade. In 1999 the company redesigned its studios to have a common interior. In 2004, Nethercutt passed the company down to his son, Jack Nethercutt II. In 2007 the company was ranked No. 21 in ''

Entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

'' magazine's

Franchise 500 The Franchise 500 is an annual ranking of the top 500 franchising companies in the U.S. and Canada, compiled by ''Entrepreneur'' magazine through a submission and review process. The ranking is based on an evaluation of each company's costs and ...

. Merle Norman expanded to the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

by 2011. Later in the year, the company unveiled a new separate logo emblem with an updated

wordmark __notoc__ A wordmark, word mark, or logotype, is usually a distinct text-only typographic treatment of the name of a company, institution, or product name used for purposes of identification and branding. Examples can be found in the graphic iden ...

along with a redesign of product packaging. From 2012 to 2019 the company had a decline of 269 studio units. In 2018 the company announced its beginning of

day spa A day spa is a business that provides a variety of services for the purpose of improving health, beauty, and relaxation through personal care treatments such as massages and facials. The number of day spas in the US almost doubled in the t ...

services to select studio outlets in the United States and Canada. In 2019 Merle Norman's products were available for purchase online through

. The company produced

WHO Who or WHO may refer to: * Who (pronoun), an interrogative or relative pronoun * Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism * World Health Organization Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Who, a creature in the Dr. Seuss book '' Horton He ...

hand sanitizer during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Operations

Merle Norman is a

privately held A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

family owned company by the Nethercutt-Richards family. The corporate headquarters is located in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. The primary manufacturing plant and distribution center is located in

Westchester, Los Angeles Westchester is a neighborhood in the City of Los Angeles and the Westside Region of Los Angeles County, California. It is home to Los Angeles International Airport, Loyola Marymount University, Otis College of Art and Design, and Westchester ...

and is connected to the corporate headquarters. In 1971 a secondary plant was opened in Sylmar, Los Angeles which produces the containers and packaging for its products. The company is a member of the

Personal Care Products Council The Personal Care Products Council (PCPC) is an American trade association. The PCPC was founded in 1894 as the Manufacturing Perfumers' Association, renamed the American Manufacturers of Toilet Articles (AMTA) in 1922, and renamed again as the C ...

Product testing

Merle Norman is certified by

PETA Peta or PETA may refer to: Acronym * Pembela Tanah Air, a militia established by the occupying Japanese in Indonesia in 1943 * People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an American animal rights organization * People Eating Tasty Animals, an ...

cruelty-free In the animal rights movement, cruelty-free is a label for products or activities that do not harm or kill animals anywhere in the world. Products tested on animals or made from animals are not considered cruelty-free, since these tests are often ...

. The company uses non-

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. ...

ingredients.

Locations

Below is a list of current studio outlet locations, totaling 1,007 worldwide: *

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

Merle Norman Spa

Merle Norman Spas are select specialized outlets throughout the United States and Canada that offer

services, including

facial A facial is a family of skin care treatments for the face, including steam, exfoliation (physical and chemical), extraction, creams, lotions, facial masks, peels, and massage. They are normally performed in beauty salons, but are also a comm ...

treatments and massages from trained

estheticians Cosmetology (from Greek , ''kosmētikos'', "beautifying"; and , ''-logia'') is the study and application of beauty treatment. Branches of specialty include hairstyling, skin care, cosmetics, manicures/pedicures, non-permanent hair removal such as ...

Sponsorship

Merle Norman was the primary sponsor of the 1981

with the event's theme of The Eighteenth-Century Woman. The company sponsors the

USC Trojans The USC Trojans are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC), located in Los Angeles, California. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ''Trojans'', the women's athletic teams are referred ...

and funded Merle Norman Stadium for the school's new

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...

beach volleyball program in 2012. From 2020 the company sponsored the Arizona Cardinals Cheerleaders in the NFL.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Merle Norman Cosmetics Inc. 20th-century establishments in California 1931 establishments in California Cosmetics companies of the United States American companies established in 1931 Franchises Cosmetics brands Nethercutt-Richards family Family-owned companies of the United States