Neutrogena Marketing Pioneer’s Bright Ideas

I don’t often read obituaries but Lloyd Cotsen’s caught my eye.  At his father-in-law’s Los Angeles cosmetics company, the young college graduate was given the responsibility of marketing an unknown amber-colored bar of soap called Neutrogena.   To give the soap prestige, he persuaded upscale hotels to put the soap in guest rooms.  He invited dermatologists to wine tastings and gave them samples of the soap, hoping they would recommend it to their patients.  In today’s fast paced marketing world, these may not be ground breaking ideas.  Can they still work?  Probably not in a big city, but a targeted approach in America’s heartland can still work with some products.  Persistence and knowing why your product is different from competitors can make an old idea, a new idea!