Introduction:
There are many iconic brands all over the world that have created an impact that has lasted centuries, Levis and Coke are two major names that have been serving the consumers for a long time, however, one brand that created and impacted a revolution on how women’s relevancy was identified and laid a brick for ‘women empowerment’ is Avon.
The main landing page of the Avon website illustrates the iconic brands vision; beauty, pride, empower and strength and all the Avon brand claims very aptly communicated with the one liner ‘Beauty is the journey, empowerment is the destination.”
The journey started in 1886, by the founder Mr. David H. McConnell, has been delivering the brands promise by empowering women for 130 years and carving a niche destination for women globally (History, 2016).
As a travelling book salesman, Mr. McConnell, found that the women were more interested in the free perfume samples than the books and thus, the legend started with the name The California Perfume Company, that later changed to the iconic Avon Products.
The primary reason brands such as Avon survive the test of time is because they have a vision and they follow the path with certain guiding principles to achieve goals not only in a profitable manner but most importantly a sustainable way.
The ‘BIRTH’ of Avon started with setting up the values & principles that are illustrated as follows (Core Values & Principles, 2016):
Belief being the first one, in relation to the launch of the company at a time when women were not even allowed to vote and were give backing to be the best in what responsibilities they had to serve.
Integrity as a personality trait had to be the trademark of all associates, with high ethical values in relation to all aspects of relationships.
Respect in view of valuing differences and bringing the best out of a person.
Trust with open communications to make people to do the right thing.
Humility is being able to accept the fact one cannot have answers to all the questions.
The Principles are as follows:
Providing individuals opportunity to earn
Serving consumers with quality product
Customer service at its humble best
Recognition to employees and representatives
Sharing the rewards and growth
Obligations to well-being of the society
The spirit of friendliness at Avon to be maintained at all times
The values and principles and the business vision was initiated by Mr. McConnell’s idea of giving independent incomes to women by offering them jobs as sales representatives in the startup beauty company at the time and set on road to become the world largest direct seller.
Products:
The product line that transformed into brands for Avon started with perfumes and fragrances, and transcended into cosmetics, skincare, fashion and home, personal care and hair care products.
The evolution of Avon has taken total turn by the 1940’s in view of the fact that all the communication for the direct selling eradicated all references to the economic crisis that preceded the earlier decade and with the death of the founder David MacConnell in 1937 led new managers to take control of Avon in the leadership of his son.
The products and brands that Avon created only grew and it can be illustrated from the fact that, the direct selling model created relationships and loyalty, thus inculcating a repeat buy pattern amongst the consumers all along the century, thus the sales exceeded $1 million by 1920, $ 1 billion by 1972, and $ 10 billion by 2008 (Philip Scranton, 2001).
The 1940’s was the start of a golden era for Avon and with regards to the vintage 1940 Avon Catalogs showcases the amazing Pine bath salts, Lavender ensemble box, the very popular face powders (cotillion, ariel or vernafleur), make up trio set (astringent or skin freshener, lotus cream and cotillion), make up ensemble that had the combination of face powder, lipstick and dressing table rogue), The Avon bath duet, gift packages, perfume and cosmetic sets, purse size cosmetic items and much more (Avon Catalog, 2016).
Besides, for men Avon had cologne, hair lotions, shaving creams, soaps, talc for men, tooth brush, paste, handkerchief set, in essence the 1940 product line had all the product line to be showcased as a beauty company giant in the 1940’s.
As mentioned earlier, the communication and the marketing tactics were changed and this in the 1940’s, Avon started utilizing influencers to communicate the brands message effectively, thus endorsement from the stars of the era i.e. Loretta Young, Rosalind Russell, Joe DiMaggio, Claudette Colbert and Jimmy Stewart to name a few were the face of Avon products (Hitt et al, 2015).
Avon and WW2:
The World War 2 was the bloodiest in the history of mankind and thus the impact on the business on a global level in the beauty and cosmetics industry was disastrous. The effect was predominantly felt in Europe since the war started from there and America got involved at a later stage.
The cosmetics were available in the American market as opposed to the European market, the cosmetics became a major part of the era as, women encouraged by the society to retain the femininity the cost of the cosmetics was high in view of the shortage, however post war the prices came down significantly.
Avon’s role during the WW2 is iconic, as during the war the cosmetic giant converted, more than half of the set up to create materials for the war that included, kits for paratroopers, canisters for gas masks, pharmaceuticals and also the sales representatives sold war bonds.
The marketing communication done by Avon during the war was in relation to motivating and uplifting the morale of the country, “To the Heroines of America” campaign reflected the strength in women and their standing string with men during the war, as the tag line was “ For Freedom, For America, For Victory”.
Another marketing campaign that showcased Avon’s effort to uplift the nation by creating an escape was through Hurray for Hollywood campaign that focused on society woman and movie stars of the time all through the 1940’s.
The era made the sales representatives a star in themselves as most women even the stars look out for their advice on the utilization of the make up to make them feel and look beautiful (New Avon, 2016).
Marketing and Market Expansion:
The marketing acumen of Avon has been in tune with the times, rather, ahead of the times in view of the fact that, the hiring of brand ambassadors as mentioned earlier with huge names of the 1940’s to the major stars of the current era namely, Salma Hayek, Fergie, Zoe Saldana. Cher, Billy Dee Williams are some of the names marketing the fragrances, besides, the Global Brand Ambassador for the firm had been Resse Whiterspoon (Hitt et al, 2015).
The major tool of marketing that Avon utilized since its launch and through time is ‘direct marketing’, and they are attributed as the initiators of the concept in the beauty product industry and was utilized with great affect to expand the markets locally, regionally and internationally.
The marketing communication at Avon clearly knew their USP i.e. the sales representative in view of the vision of the company and post WW2, the communication focused on catchphrases, the most famous of them ‘Ding Dong, Avon Calling launched in 1955 is fondly remembered (New Avon, 2016).
The following campaigns focused on representatives and also beauty aspects depending on the markets the communication is catered for i.e. Latin America, one of the reasons of global expansion and success is Avon understands of the consumers pulse.
Avon Ladies:
The company changed its name from California Perfume Company to Avon Products Inc in 1939; however, the first product under Avon brand name was launched in 1928. The focus of the business was to help woman set up their own business and the idea, helped in developing an army of Avon Ladies with direct marketing as the primary tool.
The essence of the later marketing communication as discussed above focused on the pleasant and personal experience of the consumers with a home visit and experience shared by the ladies of Avon in relation to the utilization of the products in an effective manner.
At Avon the ‘Ladies’ are the key USP in making Avon products desirable, however, the 21st century makeover has seen teenage girls hired as representatives by launching a separate division for teenage girls, in view of the changing times and the relevancy of the target market for Avon products i.e. a focus on a more varied and fashionable consumer group (Avon Products Inc, 2016).
Still Around:
The reason that Avon is still around today, starts with the founders, ground breaking direct marketing technique with Avon ladies creating an emotive connect that lasted a century and still going strong.
Avon has always embraced the changing times, and with its sales reaching $750 million in the 1970’s, Avon truly is one of the first globalized companies to operate on a true global level.
Being a cosmetic company, Avon have eliminated operational procedures, that were detrimental to the environment and products, such as dropping environment damaging CFCs in its aerosol products, stopping of animal testing, truly activating the brands by setting up kiosks at malls to make the product more accessible and an ever growing fleet of Avon Ladies that touched 3.5 million in 2001 (Avon Products Inc, 2016).
Most significantly, Avon has diversified the brand portfolio and besides, offering beauty and make up precuts, they now also offer, stress management products, exercise equipments and nutritional supplements.
Marketing Mix:
Avon’s marketing mix, in view of the aforementioned researched report has changed over the century; however, the basics have remained the same.
Product:
The products as showcased in the Avon catalog of the 1940, had class and quality written all over it and being a market leader for more than a century nothing has changed and with the recent focus on anti-aging cream and diversification of products have enhanced the Avon’s product brand portfolio extensively.
As mentioned by Hitt et al, 2015, cosmetics, fragrance, personal care, hair care are the lines that were functional in 1940; however, it has included exercise products and equipments, and Silpada that is one of the largest home party silver jewelry.
Price:
The prices are not extravagant and are consumer friendly, tactical promotions have been a major part of Avon marketing and have been utilized since 1940 till now.
Place:
Starting with the Avon ladies and the endorsement of celebrities in events, the intent has always been to tap avenues to maximize the efforts of Avon ladies, and events and brand activation with setting up kiosks at malls. Being the pioneers of direct selling and with a global force of more 6.4 million active sales representatives the places and avenues to connect for Avon are aplenty and the process has been adapted and utilized with great effect since 1940 (Hitt et al, 2015).
Promotion:
Promotion is at the heart of Avon, since the concept of the company came from the understating of women liking free fragrance samples. The 1940’s and the following years saw the representatives in the communication with offers of free gift book (New Avon, 2016).
The company is facing difficult times and in view of the consistent decrease in stock prices, the pioneering direct selling method of direct selling model is one of the major reasons it hasn’t been able to post profits and thus new techniques in terms of marketing is required make Avon relevant again with the consumers.
Works Cited
Avon. “History”. About Avon. 2016. Date of Access March 05, 2016. http://www.avoncompany.com/aboutavon/history/
Avon. “Core Values & Principles”. About Avon. 2016. Date of Access March 05, 2016. http://www.avoncompany.com/aboutavon/history/values.html
Avon Catalog. “Presenting a Distinguished Group of Quality Products - Avon Catalog [1940]. Date of Access March 05, 2016. http://cdm16038.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15017coll20/id/1350
Avon Products Inc. “Salesman Starts Company. Reference for Business. Date of Access March 06, 2016. http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/businesses/A-F/Avon-Products-Inc.html
Hitt et al. “Strategic Management: Competitiveness & Globalization: Concepts and Cases. Chapter 1: Strategic Management Inputs. Case 3. Avon. pp. 30-41. 2015. Eleventh Edition. Cengage Learning.
New Avon.”Beauty for A Purpose. #TBT: A Look Back At 130 Years of Avon’s Iconic Advertisements. Avon Insider. 2016. Date of Access March 05, 2016. http://beautyforapurpose.avon.com/130-years-iconic-avon-advertisements/
Philip, S. “Beauty and Business: Commerce, Gender, and Culture in Modern America”. On beauty and the history of business. Avon. 2013. Rutledge.
