Tom Ford Beauty

Tom Ford had run Gucci and Eve St Laurent through the late 1990s then walked away from the conglomerate at the start of 2004. He launched a beauty business 18 months later under a structure his peers had never used at this scale. Ford signed a licensing agreement with Estee Lauder companies in April 2005. The first product, Black Orchid Oda Puffarm, launched in 2006 with a reported $20 million global advertising campaign unprecedented for a fragrance. Black Orchid retailed from $140 US dollars and above. Ford reversed the order. Beauty became the volume business. The structural choice was the license. Ford supplied the brand and the creative direction. Estee Lauder absorbed manufacturing, global distribution and retail negotiation and Ford collected royalties on infrastructure he never had to capitalize.