Goodbye, Max Factor

From Ellen Byron in the Wall Street Journal:
Procter & Gamble Co. is wiping U.S. drug-store shelves clean of its Max Factor cosmetics, a line that isn't popular enough to hold its own in America anymore.
The storied beauty brand -- namesake of Max Factor, the pioneer of Hollywood makeup artistry -- will continue to be sold internationally, where it garners most of its $1.2 billion in annual sales. Max Factor ranks among the top brands in strategically important markets such as Russia and the United Kingdom, P&G says.
By pulling Max Factor from U.S. shelves, P&G hopes to focus extra resources on its more promising CoverGirl brand, which the company says has increased its U.S. market share for the past seven years.
P&G bought Max Factor from Revlon in 1991 as part of a billion-dollar cosmetics assets deal meant to build P&G's share of the mass-market beauty aisles.
But under P&G Max Factor never gained the same kind of traction with U.S. shoppers that the all-American, squeaky-clean marketing of CoverGirl secured for that brand. Meanwhile, retailers, hungry for efficiency in cluttered beauty aisles, became increasingly reluctant to make room for smaller, slower-growing brands.
As the brand was elbowed aside, Max Factor's presence dwindled in the fiercely competitive mass-market beauty aisles in the U.S.
The line is currently sold in fewer than 8,000 U.S. stores -- a fraction of CoverGirl's footprint, which spans an estimated 50,000 stores, a P&G spokeswoman said.
P&G still touts Max Factor as its "fastest-growing brand" in its cosmetics portfolio, albeit abroad. "Max Factor is a strong, profitable brand and remains one of P&G Beauty & Grooming's key engines for global growth," said Virginia Drosos, president of global female beauty at P&G. P&G tried overhauling the Max Factor brand in the U.S. in 2005, upgrading its products and packaging.
The company invested in edgy, high-fashion advertising featuring Carmen Electra and, most recently, supermodel Gisele Bundchen. Famed makeup artist Pat McGrath, who serves as creative director for P&G's beauty brands, has also weighed in on the brand's direction. Mass-market cosmetics remain a bright spot for P&G in the recession.
Chief Executive A.G. Lafley has repeatedly celebrated how P&G has reaped the benefits of department-store shoppers switching to cheaper options.
"Look at the [falling] retail sales numbers for department stores and specialty channels.
My belief is some of that is gone forever, and it's gone forever because [the consumer] has changed her pattern of shopping,"
Mr. Lafley told investors at a conference last week. Max Factor will begin disappearing from U.S. shelves in early 2010.