Avon Background
Avon Products, Inc. NYSE: AVP is a US cosmetics, perfume and toy seller with markets in over 140 countries across the world and sales of $9.9 billion worldwide as of 2007.
Avon Products is a multi-level marketing company. Traditionally a direct marketing company[citation needed], Avon's fastest growing markets today are in China and Russia. The company's chairman and CEO is Andrea Jung, who was promoted to the position in 1999. Avon uses both door-to-door sales people ("Avon ladies," primarily and a growing number of men) and catalogs to advertise its products. In some markets (most notably China, which had banned all door-to-door selling before mid-December 2006) Avon products are sold primarily in retail stores.
Avon's product lines include lipsticks, foundations, bath and skin lotions, anti-aging cream, perfumes, as well as jewelry and clothing.
Although the company has always been more directed toward female customers, Avon's line of male products continues to expand, and its children's products (such as shampoos and toys) have also proved successful. Two brand diversifications, "mark." (targeted to younger, college-aged women) and "M" (an Avon catalogue for men), have helped the company reach out into markets it has not serviced. Mark proved to be successful in reaching a new generation of recruits, primarily young women ages 18-25, with a monthly "magalog" featuring award-winning products.
Avon's Great History
The company was founded in 1886 by then 28-year-old David H. McConnell who sold books door-to-door and gave out perfume to entice women to buy his books. His perfume became so popular that eventually that is all the women wanted. He then founded the California Perfume Company (CPC) in New York, New York in a 500-square-foot (46 m2) manufacturing and shipping office at 126 Chambers Street. As the company grew, he hired his first representative, Mrs. P.F.E. Albee. In 1897, McConnell built a small (3000 square foot) laboratory in Suffern, New York. In 1906, the West Coast office in San Francisco was destroyed in the Great Earthquake.
In 1914 the first non-US office was opened in the Canadian province of Quebec. The California Perfume Company was incorporated on January 28, 1916 by David H. McConnell and Alexander D. Henderson (businessman) in Suffern, New York. By 1918, five million units were sold in North America, and by 1928, sales reached $2 million. In October 1939, the name was changed to Avon Products, Inc. The company was taken public in 1946. By 1954, sales reached $55 million, and the "Avon Calling" advertising campaign introduced. By 1971 the lab would grow into the Avon Suffern Research and Development facility. By 1979, sales reached $3 billion, with one million direct sales agents. Today sales exceed $8 billion worldwide. In 2005 they opened a $100 million dollar 225,000-square-foot (20,900 m2) R&D facility to house its over 300 research and development scientists on the original site in Suffern, NY. Avon also has offices in Luzerne, Pennsylvania and Davenport, Iowa.
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Avon Company Snapshot
Type: Public : NYSE - AVP
Founded: 1886
Headquarters: New York, New York
Products: Cosmetics, perfume, toys, clothing
Key Executives and Founders: Andrea Jung, Chairman & CEO; Charles Cramb, CFO; Gina Boswell, COO |
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