Revlon
Legend has it that, jobless in New York City in the depths of the Depression, Charles Revson become a cosmetic salesman by the toss of a coin tails, he'd apply for a job selling household appliances; heads, he would answer an ad for a cosmetics salesman. It was heads, and in 1931 Revson began selling Elka nail polish to beauty salons. He painted his own nails with different colors so he would not need a color chart.Revson and his brother decided to start their own nail polish company. So with $300.000 they had saved and with nail polish supplier Charles Lachman, in 1992 they began Revlon (the "L" in the name came from Lachman). Revlon grew rapidly and by 1937 Revson was selling his nail polish in upscale department stores. Seeing nail polish as a fashion accessory, Revson introduced new colors twice a year, giving them, and the matching lipsticks introduced in 1940, names like Kissing Pink and Fifth Red. More opportunist than innovator, he let his competitors do the research and make mistakes, and then he would make a better version of the product, outpackging and outadvertising his rivals.
Fundamentals of Corporate Finance (textbook), Ross Westerfield,Jordan. Fundamentals of Corporate Finance (textbook), Ross Westerfield,Jordan. Exhibit 2.1 shows Revlon's company beta as .737 and its industry beta as .908. This shows that Revlon has low beta and therefore has a low systematic risk and low return when compared to the cosmetic industry, which has a higher beta, a higher syatematic risk and a higher return. An unsystematic risk is more company specific whereas a systematic risk affects the market. Since Revlon's beta is very low it would fall under the unsystematic risk and the industry's beta, which is higher, will fall under the systematic risk.
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Approximate Word count = 1645
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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