外国人最想和你聊的名人话题：雅诗兰黛夫人

　About Josephine Esther Mentzer　关于雅诗兰黛夫人
     Estée Lauder was the American co-founder, with her husband Joseph Lauder, of Estée Lauder Companies, a pioneering cosmetics company. Lauder was the only woman on TIME magazine's 1998 list of the 20 most influential business geniuses of the 20th century. She was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was inducted into the Junior Achievement US Business Hall of Fame in 1988.
     Estée Lauder was born Josephine Esther Mentzer in Queens, New York, to Max and Rose (Schotz Rosenthal) Mentzer, a Hungarian immigrant with a French Catholic mother and Jewish father. Rose, who lived until age eighty-eight, warned Estée about the harmful effects of the sun; she always wore gloves and carried a parasol to guard against its rays. Estée remembered this lesson but also remembered how embarrassed she was by her mother's parasol, her thick accent, and both her parents'immigrant behavior. Estée wanted to be one hundred percent American. She was the youngest of the Mentzer children, who grew up Jewish in a mostly Italian neighborhood. Two children had died by the time Estée was born. Her sister, Grace, whom the family called Renee, was two years older than Estée.
     Estée Lauder was an exceptionally talented and successful promoter. She was a pioneer in giveaway promotions, always including a lipstick in the gift package. Women tried her products, liked them, and told other women about them. Much of her initial success came from this word-of-mouth advertising. She called her strategy "Tell-a-Woman"marketing. Eventually, she invested in larger marketing concepts, using beautiful models to sell her products. Estée Lauder chose carefully the models for advertising her products, selecting the Estée Lauder kind of woman, rather than a movie star. The photographer Victor Skrebneski published a book of his photographs of women who modeled for Estée Lauder products.
     Explaining her success, she said, "I have never worked a day in my life without selling. If I believe in something, I sell it, and I sell it hard."This attitude, together with an uncompromising belief in her product and the beauty in all women, made Estee Lauder a respected household name.
     从一个贫民区的小孩成为曼哈顿府邸、棕榈海滩别墅、伦敦寓所等世界各地很多套豪宅的主人，与温莎夫妇、美国前总统里根夫人南希私交甚密，雅诗兰黛的一生堪称传奇。她在1985年的自传中为自己做了总结："经商是纯粹的戏剧--只有结果才证明一切。"雅诗兰黛走了，就像一个真正的贵族。雅诗兰黛则被收入美国《时代》周刊编纂的"20世纪一百位最重要的风云人物"。
     也许兰黛夫人留给世人最重要的精神莫过于她的这一信念：若要销售成功，就必须接触顾客。她投入许多时间心力给予顾客意见并指导美容顾问，她经常提醒业务人员："我不是靠祈祷或希望而成功，而是努力实行。"兰黛夫人的领导方式启发了成千上万的人们。她曾荣获多项殊荣，包括美国总统自由勋章、法国荣誉勋章。然而，兰黛夫人最喜欢的经验，就是在店内为女性顾客提供建议。她最喜欢的一句名言是："打电话，发电报，转告女友。"意思是不要忽视女性口耳相传的威力。因为她知道一旦女性试用过雅诗兰黛产品，就会爱上产品并迫不及待地与友人分享。