ALIGNING WITH AN OLD-LINE RETAILER IS A SMART MOVE
ON A RECENT trip to Africa from her home near Washington, D.C., Bluemercury co-founder and CEO Marla Malcolm Beck discovered a novel way to make the 17-hour flight more bearable: She watched all the film trailers in languages she couldn’t understand. Another pastime: studying university syllabuses. “You can see where things are moving based on the newer topics being taught,” she explains. She doesn’t merely observe, though. In 2015, after noticing the success of the iPhone and Apple’s nearly all-white stores, she redesigned the template for Blue mercury, the luxury beauty store and spa she launched in 1999 with now-husband Barry. Goodbye, maple and marble; hello, white walls, brushed aluminum, and the company’s signature royal blue.
This is an entrepreneur
