Mary Kay and Diverisity Campaign 2009

By: Angenene Kendrick

Near the end of February, 2009, Mary Kay announced that for the first time in history they will begin television advertising in March. I was thrilled that the TV ads showcased a colorful heritage of a diverse sales force and customer base.

As an independent beauty consultant since 1997, I've met some amazing people from all over the world. Each summer we are invited to gather in Dallas at Seminar to celebrate our successes and to catch visions of higher dreams.

A few years ago, I attended a banquet with National Sales Director Emeritus Rhonda Burnsides. I sat with my friends from Southern Oklahoma and a new friend from Michigan. We were already diverse at our table, but the real fun started when the sales directors from Miami, Fla. took the stage. Very few of them spoke English. (I had already learned a lot of Mexican Spanish through meeting people in Mary Kay.) I was surprised that I could keep up with most of the Cuban-based Miami Spanish. Then we danced. We were together to celebrate -- it didn't matter from where we came, the color of our skin or our native tongue.

During some of the lunches -- can you imagine dining with over 8,000 of your sisters? -- we had the pleasure of visiting with other consultants and directors from all over the world. It was after one of these meals where I got to take part in a translation chain that I will never forget.
Some of the consultants from Spain wanted to purchase some Mary Kay sales materials, but the company representative was trying to refer them back to the Mary Kay Europe division so that there would not be issues with Spanish customs. There was a problem with the conversion from Texican Spanish to Castilian Spanish. I stepped in and asked if any of the Spanish consultant spoke French. One of them did. Within a matter of minutes, we had everything smoothed over -- from English to French to Castilian Spanish.

My director always taught me that the only qualification a prospective customer or business associate should have is "does she have skin on her face?" Diversity has been a way of life and business. According to the company's website, there are over 35 markets on five continents -- 20 of these markets were added since 1990. With an international sales force of over 1.8 million, similar products are distributed all over the globe.
Vice President of U.S. Marketing Yvette Franco explained that the new commercials purposely include diverse models.
"In fact, we will have three commercials that target our diverse general population, Latinas, African-American women. Remember these groups are the fastest growing population segments, " Franco said.

My Mary Kay experience has not only taught me about the importance of God first, family second and career third, but also about diversity. I have learned that folks are just folks. We are all sisters together on a quickly shrinking world. Language, cultural tradition and national political background shouldn't matter. We all have skin on our face.

Dream Job? Yes Please!

Dream Job? Yes, Please!
By Michael Maldonado

As graduation creeps nearer and the job search becomes increasingly daunting, I have to ask myself one thing. “What do I really want to do with my life?” There are so many decisions to make and so little time to make them in. I have several immediate options that can assure me food on the table and a roof over my head. However, I’ve never been a fan of taking the easy way out. I want a career in public relations and I want to start it right away.

The easiest option would be to move back my home town, The Colony, at an all-inclusive resort known as Chez Maldonado where my mother is the landlady. I could have a job as a sales associate or possibly a manager position at one of the many north Texas branches of my current employer. As much as I’d love to be a townie and have my mother know my exact location at all times, I have my sights set slightly higher.

I want to be a global citizen. My dream is to work for an international public relations agency or organization that will take me around the world. I want to see how other people live and be forced to learn at least two more languages. When I have not been studying or working this semester I have been exploring how I can get a job in the United Kingdom. The process is actually a lot more difficult than I had imagined.

In order to get a work visa in the United Kingdom, an American has to have an employer sponsor them for the visa. However, most of the time a company does not sponsor people who are not European Union nationals unless they are already staying for an extended period of time. The next best thing for a graduating student to do is to get a temporary six-month working visa through a program called BUNAC. This looks to be the route I will be taking.

In my fantasy, I will make it to the UK by March or April of 2008 with my BUNAC visa and a couple thousand British pounds (which is a couple-couple American dollars). I will have a place to stay with one of the many friends I made during my year abroad in Sheffield. If I must I will get an immediate but temporary position at a GAP in the city I am living in. After a few weeks I will use my two advantages, geography and a well-tailored CV, to get a job with a PR agency that will sponsor me for a 2-year work visa. This company will be pretty notable and have several international offices.

I will then work my way up the PR ladder. After a few years, several PR publications will do feature stories on me and the way I revolutionized the world of branding and consumer PR.

Sounds pretty simple, yes? I will hopefully update everyone in about 10 years from my chateau in Paris or my villa in Barcelona.

Globe-Trotting

Globe-Trotting

To many students of public relations, working for an international agency sounds like a dream job filled with endless travel to exotic locales, priceless cultural experiences and rare opportunities to communicate to publics across the globe. However, as with most dream jobs the initial task of entering into this arena seems incredibly daunting (if not impossible). How does one just pack up and move to an entirely different country and get an entry-level position at an international agency? Not to mention all the worries that come with housing, food, insurance, visas, student loans, bank accounts, travel expenses and an almost endless list of other things that are normally taken for granted when just getting a job in one’s home country. For the purposes of this post, let’s just explore the first steps of getting the dream job. After all, in order to get the housing, food, insurance, visas… etc, one must have a job opportunity waiting for them.

The PRWeek website has a job search feature that is available to any registered user. There is a PRWeek site for the US, the United Kingdom, Germany and people in the Asian-Pacific region as well as affiliates in Russia, Argentina and Poland. This is perhaps the most straight-forward way of stepping closer to an international career. A similar job search tool can also be found at the Monster.com Global Gateway which has an ever-expanding list of job opportunities from a variety of countries.

Another International Public Relations site features links offering information on global agencies, communicating across cultures and PR organizations all over the world.

A blog called PR Conversations gives fascinating perspectives about the PR industry from bloggers around the world. Staying up-to-date with global trends of this nature could be very beneficial in the interview process for a world-renowned company.

I, personally, would like to begin my international career in the United Kingdom. However, it would not be in my best interest to send a possible employer my traditional one-page resume. This is where a curriculum vitae (CV) would come in handy. Any employer located in a member state of the European Union will expect an applicant to provide a CV.

It may seem as though finding a job on the other side of the world is just a pipe dream. However, with some research and motivation, anyone can be on their way to becoming a globe-trotting PR practitioner. As the world becomes more connected through advancements in technology (particularly in the realm of communications) it is becoming increasingly important for public relations practitioners to expand their skills to communicate with publics globally.

-Michael Maldonado, 9/10/07