Women selling cosmetics to women directly in their home has been a winning formula that has resulted in the present day Avon having a presence in more than 100 countries with a total revenue of $8.1bn (£4.2bn) and more than 5.1 million reps worldwide.
This unique way of selling cosmetics came about by chance.
In 1886 a book salesman David Hall McConnell was giving out free perfume to housewives to encourage them to buy more books.
However, his customers were more interested in the perfume than the books so Mr McConnell decided to forget about the books and concentrate on making and selling his own perfume.
His eureka moment came when he decided to use women to sell to women at a time when they did not even have the right to vote.
To sort it out, Avon is committed to doubling its global advertising budget and Andrea Slater, Avon’s president in the UK and Republic of Ireland says the UK “is certainly going to get their fair share of that”.
Avon is gearing up its advertising efforts
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Ms Slater also now feels that Avon is at a stage when it has to “step it up a level and really focus on the brand building pieces”.
While one in three women in the UK are regular customers, Andrea is keen to ensure they “spread the word to the two in three that perhaps don’t know Avon that well”.
Global campaigns are complex — so keep ’em simple.