The Estée Lauder Companies' employees spend every day working to understand the aspirations of our consumers. This ability to anticipate what our consumer wants before she knows herself is one of our greatest strengths. Whether imagining a breakthrough skin care technology to stop time in its tracks, or creating a world of fantasy and color for a consumer who lives in the moment, we cultivate and encourage our employees to imagine what our consumers need, and more importantly, what they desire. Through many creative and imaginative forms of outreach, our extraordinary portfolio of brands touched half a billion consumers globally in fiscal 2009.

In this difficult economic environment, our consumers' definition of value is rapidly changing. We responded with exciting point-of-service solutions and new ways of utilizing social media to reframe our messages to address the consumers' new mindset. Many of our brands created new ways to reinforce their numerous strengths, including an emphasis on product quality, performance, average cost over time and the personal service provided by our highly trained beauty advisors and makeup artists.