Avon Case Study

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1HISTORY

Avon, a global beauty company which is currently one of the largest corporate philanthropy globally was found in the year 1886 by David H. McConnell. Before the established of this company, Mr. McConnell used to sell books from door to door in order to sustain a living. During this process, he used to provide samples of perfumes to his female customers. One day he realized that the women preferred his perfumes rather than his books, so he got inspired and opened the first company which was known as 'California Perfume', with the help of his beloved wife, Lucy. The first product to be introduced in the market was named 'the little dot perfume set' which contained five different fragrances. Overtime the company became more successful thus produced more products. After 51 years of successful operation, Mr. McConnell passed away and his son David McConnell Jr. took over in 1937 thus renamed the company to Avon products (Essortment, 2011).

1.2 INDUSTRY

Avon is among the few companies with well-established brands in the toiletries/cosmetics and household non durable industry. Avon product company which is a beauty creator, takes multi-task approach in the sense that it offer in the market products like makeup, hair-care products, toiletries, jewelry, fragrances, home furnishing and even apparels that are of high quality, appealing and made from hi-tech technology to all its consumers all over the world (Fergie, 2010).

Product photos

Cosmetics

Apparel

Jewelry

Fragrances

Toiletries

1.2 OPERATION

Avon is a global company which operates in over 100 by making maximum use of 5.8 million independent representatives and approximately 42,500 associates. The major selling mode implemented by Avon include direct selling of its products, whereby the representatives usually distribute brochures (a pamphlet that contains a list of items sold by Avon) to families, friends, houses, or even popular areas that have waiting areas i.e. take-out restaurants, saloons, hospitals, airports etc. other methods include the use of mall kiosks and web-based stores. Web-based store is similar to the traditional retailing; the only difference is that process is carried out online with little input from the representatives. Usually, the representatives