What Women Want Erika Brown, Forbes Magazine, November 12, 2001

Leslie Blodgett uses QVC to sell cosmetics--and to reach out to customers who tell her what sells and what doesn't.

Leslie Blodgett loves the 3 Million or so women who tune in to her program on QVC every other month. And not just because they buy up to $1 million worth of eyeliner, blush and lipstick during her shows--nearly a quarter of the expected $30 million in sales this year for her Bare Escentuals. Cosmetic groupies are also guinea pigs for new products.

They are women like 43-year-old Christa Conner in Maui, who invites friends over to watch Blodgett's show. Credit cards and cell phones in hand, they sit on her living room floor hoping to get through the busy phone lines. Conner has chatted with Blodgett five times on the air.

In another on-air call, Blodgett, 38, asked a viewer what she didn't like about Bare Escentuals. Answer: eye shadow sparkles that fall out of the container. Blodgett is looking into a filter that prevents spillage. "Leslie wants to know what touches the customer. If they're not satisfied, she wants to know why," says Conner. Blodgett's fans saved her from launching a perfume they hated. "If they don't like it, we won't launch it," says Blodgett.

Conner is one of 1,000 women Blodgett contacts by phone and online when considering a new line. She has met many requests, including reviving discontinued cosmetics.

Customer ideas can turn into big sellers. Last fall a woman asked for a travel-size brush kit. Blodgett checked it out with ten other fans before going ahead. Six months later she sold $67,000 of the kits per minute on air. Customer suggestions are also responsible for one of the company's most popular lipsticks and a self-tanning lotion. "I've seen the 'ivory tower' thing at big companies, and I won't do that," says Blodgett, who worked in product development and marketing at Max Factor and Neutrogena before joining Bare Escentuals in 1994. "They ruin brands because they are so far away from the customer."

Blodgett seems to have the growth factor figured out, selling through 21 boutiques and 100 Ulta beauty supply outlets nationwide. Keeping in contact is tougher. Customers are already complaining that their e-mails go unanswered for several weeks.