The story
In 1927, Shinpachiro Nishimura founded the Kintsuru Perfume Corporation. After the success with a pomade called the Tancho Stick in 1933, Kintsuru Perfume Corp. began to focus its future efforts in men's care. By 1959, the success of the Tancho Stick led the company to change its name to Tancho Corporation.
Tancho's efforts with expanding outside Japan was further boosted in 1970, when the company launched a new line of men's care products, called Mandom, which took its name from a combination of the words "human" and "Freedom". An advertising campaign featuring Charles Bronson became the first of a long series of Japanese ads to feature top Hollywood stars. Within weeks of airing the commercial, Mandom become the No.1 selling male toiletry brand in Japan. Tancho then changed its name again, to Mandom Corporation, in 1971.
In 1976, Mandom's success and the creation of their flagship brand, Gatsby, encouraged them to move into direct sales of their products. However, despite the success of the Gatsby brand, the move was disastrous; by 1980, the firm gave up the direct sales model and returned to wholesale distribution.
Mandom went public in 1988, selling shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's over-the-counter market. In 1989, the firm introduced Lucido-l, a new cosmetic line for women. Into the early 2000s, the firm expanded its international presence by establishing the Gatsby and Lucido-l brands as its flagship global brands.
From Wikipedia’s article on Mandom, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4