...Avon Case Study Brief information about the domain of the company Avon is New York based 125 year old beauty product manufacturer that appoints the manufacture and marketing of beauty and fashion products, which has for over a century left a mark on millions of people throughout hundreds of countries The Company covers primarily North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Avon’s products are classified into three categories: Beauty, Beauty Plus, and Beyond Beauty. The “Beauty” category consists of cosmetics, fragrances, skin care, and toiletries; “Beauty Plus” includes fashion jewelry, watches, apparel, and accessories; and “Beyond Beauty” comprises home products, gift and decorative products, candles, and toys. Avon earned a great reputation with its direct selling technique. This technique consists of selling the products directly to distributors or final consumers rather than trading companies or other intermediaries in order to accomplish greater control over the marketing function and to earn higher profits. The status of the company that led to its Determination that a change was necessary Several decades ago, Avon brought a perfect sagacity on many wives stayed at home, and some overprotective husbands didn't want them out shopping. Avon jumped up to the marketing arena with its growing fleet of representatives offering...
Words: 3292 - Pages: 14
...Le’Shundia K.Porter August 1, 2012 HRM 532 Assignment 2 Avon Products Dr. Sue Lowe Abstract Avon is the company that stands for beauty, innovation, and optimism, and above all for women. Avon Products, Inc. Avon is based in New York. The company appoints the manufacture and marketing of beauty and complimentary products primarily in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Avon’s products are classified into three product categories: Beauty, Beauty Plus, and Beyond Beauty. The Beauty category consists of cosmetics, fragrances, skin care, and toiletries; Beauty Plus includes fashion jewelry, watches, apparel, and accessories; and Beyond Beauty comprises home products, gift and decorative products, candles, and toys. Andrea Jung became president and CEO of Avon in 1999 and has totally makeover the company. Under her leadership, the company has updated its product line, launched new advertising, and created a new image. Avon’s sales have increased by 30 %, profits 40%, and the stock price has dramatically improved. Jung’s has been able to align the firm’s core capabilities with its strategic targets which has lead to outstanding results. It appears that Jung has been able to establish a clear vision for the firm that has been incorporated in every aspect of the firm’s operating system. This vision is shared by all employees and representatives of Avon motivate the company for continued success. Provide a brief description...
Words: 1638 - Pages: 7
...MERT CAN ODABAŞ Avon Company Overview The first Avon lady book salesman was David McConell. He launched Avon Calling in 1886 as offering women cosmetics in the comfort of their own homes, however, perfumes and hand cream were not McConnell’s products. When he was sixteen, he started selling books door to door. In his travels as a book salesman, McConnell made two important discoveries. Firstly, he noticed that his female customers were more interested in the free perfume samples he offered than they were in his books. He made these fragrances himself to serve as door openers when he traveled from home to home. Secondly, McConnell saw women struggling to make ends meet and recognized in many of them natural salespeople who would easily relate to other women and passionately market the products his new company would first sell perfumes. Then, the choices of customers affected McConnell and he established the California Perfume Company in the NY. Today Avon, the company for women, is a leading global beauty company, with over $10 billion in annual revenue. As the world's largest direct seller, Avon markets to women in more than 100 countries through approximately 6.5 million active independent Avon Sales Representatives. Avon's product line includes beauty products, as well as fashion and home products, and features such well-recognized brand names as Avon Color, Anew, Skin-So-Soft, Advance Techniques, Avon Naturals, and mark. Each representative distributes a product catalog...
Words: 2250 - Pages: 9
...Representatives’ opportunities by allowing them to showcase more products than they could carry in their sample cases. 1945 - The company launched one of the most memorable advertising campaigns of all time with the “Ding Dong Avon Calling” commercials. 1946 - With sales of $17.2 million and profit rising to more than $1 million, Avon became a publicly-traded company. 1959 - Avon launched operations in Western Europe, in the United Kingdom and Western Germany. 1969 - Avon entered Japan, expanding its operations to the Asia Pacific market. 2005 - Avon invested $100 million to build a new cutting-edge Global Research and Development Center in Suffern, NY, furthering the company’s commitment to stay at the forefront of the beauty marketplace, bringing leading-edge, technology-based products to women around the world. 2007 - Avon launched the Hello Tomorrow Campaign, a global marketing campaign that encompasses product and representative recruitment advertising; and the Hello Tomorrow Fund, which empowers women and improves society by providing individuals with cash awards that will allow them to pursue a project or initiative to better the lives of women of all ages. 2009 – Avon grew to 6.2 million Active Representative, as women worldwide recognized Avon could be the answer to a challenging global economic environment. BACKGROUND OF THE COMPANY Avon Cosmetics is one of the largest and well known companies producing cosmetics in the world and operating in direct...
Words: 1413 - Pages: 6
...Avon Products, Inc. – 2013 A. Case Abstract Headquartered in New York City, New York, Avon Products, Inc. competes as one of the world’s largest direct-seller firm, and is the largest direct-seller of cosmetics and beauty-related items. Most of Avon’s sales come from its 6.4 million independent sales representatives (considered independent contractors) that serve in 110 countries. Avon employs 39,100 people and only 4,800 of them are employed in the USA. Avon generates 85% of their revenue from outside of the USA. Avon earned a net income of $517.8 million in 2011, but reported a loss of $38.2 million in 2012. The company has recently slipped in revenue due to currency rates and North American sales with a 13% drop in active sales representative. B. Vision Statement Actual: To be the company that best understands and satisfies the product, service and self-fulfillment needs of women – globally. Proposed: To be the company that provides the best foundation for women by offering a wide variety of products that appeal to any women’s needs and tastes. C. Mission Statement Actual (in summary due to length): 1) Leader in global beauty 2) women’s choice for buying 3) premier direct-selling company 4) most-admired company 5) best place to work and 6) to have the largest foundation dedicated to women’s causes. Proposed: Our mission as a company is to provide a unique portfolio of beauty, fashion and home brands to satisfy women globally. We encourage utilizations...
Words: 2067 - Pages: 9
...[Type the company name] | AVON PRODUCTS CASE STUDY 1 | [Type the document subtitle] | | Pamela | [Pick the date] | Abstract Avon Products, Inc was a leading global cosmetics company, with over $8 billion in annual revenue in 2005. As the world’s largest direct seller, the company marketed to women in 143 countries via five (5) million independent Avon Sales Representatives. Avon product lines included numerous popular brand names, and an extensive line of costume jewelry and clothing. Although revenues increased in 2003, 2004 and 2005, Avon’s net income was $848 million in 2005. The company met with stiff competition in the US market from other cosmetic companies. In order to maintain its market share in the US while targeting other countries, especially China, the company drastically changed its global operating structure. This brought senior management closer to its key business geographies, strengthened global integration, accelerated information flow and positioned the company for sustainable growth. Avon expected to incur costs to implement these initiatives over the next several years, with a significant portion of the total costs to be incurred during 2006. Benefits from restructuring helped to fund a notable increase in consumer investment and improved the competitiveness of its direct selling opportunity. Additionally, the company increased investment in advertising, marketing intelligence, consumer research and product innovation. The cosmetics mogul...
Words: 1478 - Pages: 6
...Abstract This paper was created to provide a brief description of the status of the Avon products Inc. that led to its determination that a change was necessary. After, it identifies the model for change theory typified in the case study. Then illustrates the types of evaluation information that were collected and how they are used to benefit the company. And last, it speculates about success of the changes within the next five (5) years and how adjustments could be made if the results become less than ideal. In 2006, Avon Products success story turned ugly. After five straights years of ten percent plus growth and twenty-five percent operating profit growth under CEO Andrea Jung, the company suddenly began losing profits. One of the main reasons of this lost was the fast growth of Avon that couldn’t be supported by its employees. As with many growing organizations the structure, people and processes that were right for a $5 billion company were not necessarily a good fit for a ten billion dollar company (Goldsmith & Carter, 2010, p.2). There were weaknesses that hurt the effectiveness of the employees at the talent management practices. Decisions on talent movement, promotions, and other key talent activities were often influenced as much by individual knowledge and emotion as by objective facts. Neither managers nor Associates have any idea about how the talent practices work. Even the HR department wasn’t sufficient to answer basic questions that might be asked...
Words: 1162 - Pages: 5
...Avon Calls on Foreign Markets Case Study Introduction Avon is a 125 year old beauty product manufacturer, who has for over a century left a mark on millions of people throughout hundreds of countries. Avon is most popular for their direct selling technique in which the company sells products directly to distributors or final consumers rather than to trading companies or other intermediaries in order to achieve greater control over the marketing function and to earn higher profits. While this method has proven to be successful for Avon and has certainly contributed to their longevity in the market, there are still crucial factors imposing on the company’s global presence throughout the world. The case study “Avon Calls on Foreign Markets” shed light on issues related to branding, pricing, promotion, as well as distribution. Throughout this analysis, I have identified the shortcomings of Avon over the decades and have also provided recommendations for moving forward. Global Branding Avon is known for their standardized branding, which allows the company to create a uniform global quality image while saving costs by using uniform ingredients and packaging. While this method may be helpful in increasing sales in Thailand as consumers prefer to buy beauty products made by foreign companies, this may not necessarily always work out to Avon’s advantage. For instance, Daniels et al (2011) reveals several barriers to uniform branding that Avon should most certainly be aware...
Words: 1739 - Pages: 7
...RUNNING HEAD: Avon Products Inc. Case Analysis Taking Sides Avon Case Analysis MGT/578 - Strategy Formulation and Implementation December 18, 2006 Introduction – In the spring of 2000, Andrea Jung, president and CEO since November 1999 at Avon Products, Inc., faced the strategic decision of developing a growth strategy for a 115-year-old company (Pearce & Robinson, 2004). Not only was Avon experiencing a shrinking growth rate, but its earnings over the past few years had only risen in the low-single digits. Jung realized that not only had stagnant sales contributed to this but other factors as well to include changes in consumer spending habits, and limited distribution capabilities. Jung envisioned a grand strategy to get Avon moving in the right direction again. Her objective was to partner with JC Penney and Sears department stores to introduce new products in conjunction with direct selling. She presented her grand strategy to the Avon Operating Council and a bimonthly meeting. As a team, we will debate on whether Jung’s grand strategy is properly focused and directed or not optimal and needs to be refocused along with our unanimous decision. Side 1: Jung’s grand strategy is properly focused and directed (along with evidence to substantiate the arguments) Corina Andrea Jung President and CEO of Avon Products, Inc. has put together a grand strategy that is focused on improved product innovation...
Words: 1364 - Pages: 6
...Q1) Who is Avon's target market? How can it be segmented? Avon’s target market is the mass market of roughly 25 million woman aged 25-50 with average to below-average household income. Avon is targeting women who are also not internet savvy or women who want a personal/friendly connection for their purchase or need advice on purchasing beauty products in person and aren’t comfortable getting this advice in a public setting or the internet. These women prefer to meet someone in person who would take their order, give beauty tips in their own home and delivery the beauty products. There are a couple of ways that Avon segments the larger market of women. One segmentation is based on the products they buy (Fragrance, Lipsticks), geography (mainly rural vs. urban setting), purchase amounts/frequency (average purchase amount and number of purchases per year, to separate high buyers and low buyers), and on-line vs. representative access. Q2) Should Avon sell direct to the consumer? Why or why not? Avon should not sell direct to the consumer. They shouldn’t sell direct because most likely, as was the case when Avon tried to sell by direct mailings, the orders may be too small to meet Avon’s required profit margins. Additionally, Avon would have to make drastic changes to its current business model with regards to sales representatives. The sales representatives would either be completely cut out of the deal (which would not go over well within the company or with the...
Words: 661 - Pages: 3
...Avon Products By Laura Argo The main domain of subject study is Strategic Human Resources Management and is mainly aimed to conceptualize the concept of Talent Management. The Talent Management refers to the process employed in order to anticipate human resources requirements to an organization at particular time and include strategy formulated in order to meet that requirements (Groysberg, 2006). The talent management process includes distributing the responsibilities and accountabilities from human resources department and personnel to all departments throughout an organization. The strategic importance of locating and retaining employees around the business world has recognized this as “War for Talent”. This field of management is also termed as the Human Capital Management. 1. Provide a brief description of the status of the company that led to its determination that a change was necessary. The Avon Products, Inc. is one among the popular American based organizations dealing in personal care manufacturing and seller firm (Groysberg, 2006). The Avon Products, Inc. is a multinational organization operating in almost 140 countries around the globe with sales revenues from its operations more than $ 10.8 billion during last fiscal year. The Avon Products Inc. is the world’s largest firm selling its products directly and is standing at fifth spot among the firms dealing in beauty and care products (Gardner, 2003). In order to achieve subject study the Case Study of Avon...
Words: 1714 - Pages: 7
...Avon Case Study • For 113 years, Avon has used only direct selling. • In the late 1990s Avon was operating in over 135 countries with a sales force of more than 2.3 million independent representatives. • Avon Ladies – their representatives – handled 650 million customer orders and generate more than 2 billion US dollars in commissions per year. • The personalized, friendly customer service offered by Avon Ladies is considered a key competitive strength. • Company moved into China in 1990 and with the common cultural background and relatively new concept of direct selling in China, it appeared to be a promising opportunity. • Key issue/problem, which Avon encountered, was on April 21, 1998; the Chinese government announced an immediate ban on all direct selling. • In response to the ban in China, a course of action Avon could have taken would be to adjust their market strategy in order to continue their operations in China. • Once the ban was set into place by the Chinese government, Avon could have taken the time given by the government to obtain a retailers license. Opening a retail store, the Avon ladies could continue to apply the companies selling approach policy. • Although there could have been am alternative course of action for Avon, choosing to cease sales operations in China was the best course of action. • By ceasing sales operations, Avon was able to maintain their company policy, image, and their competitive strength. Questions: 1. Avon is seen as a...
Words: 614 - Pages: 3
...Avon, A Cut Above the Rest Nathaniel J. Wilson Dr. Robert Waldo HRM 532 – Talent Management May 4, 2014 Introduction A door to door merchandise company that began well over a century ago flourishes and then almost crumbles to its knees. Why you might ask, well it’s very simple; when major companies continue to grow faster than the structure will allow, they simply cannot keep up with the consumer demand. Avon Products Inc., a global cosmetics and fragrance company that have a rich history for well over 120 years tried to do the unthinkable or should I say the fundamental movement. As stated by Goldsmith & Carter, they tried to integrate globally while building a larger foundation (2). The company started with one man going door to door selling books and as a consolation would give women samples of perfumes to keep them buying; fortunately turned into a multi-billion dollar empire of women’s goods. Avon grew into a household name that is still very profitable today. While operating in over 40 countries the company never defaulted and stayed true to the brand. Unfortunately, they began to notice that they were unable to operate at the same structure as previously. Companies must evolve and change with the needs of the consumer and the need of the market. Fear of any company will develop imbalance in structure and leadership of the company. Not to be overshadowed by the changes the executives began to shift and restructure of the company for the betterment...
Words: 1825 - Pages: 8
...International Journal of Business and Management May, 2009 A Review of Theories on Transnational Transfer of HR Practice within Multinationals Tianyuan Yu Institute of Enterprise Management, School of Business, Sun Yat-Sen University International Finance College, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai Campus Jin Feng Road, Tangjiawan, Zhuhai 519085, China Tel: 86-756-6126-600 E-mail: tianyuanyu@gmail.com Nengquan Wu Institute of Enterprise Management, School of Business, Sun Yat-Sen University 135Xin Gang Xi Road, Guangzhou 510275, China Tel: 86-20-8411-4155 Abstract E-mail: mnswnq@mail.sysu.edu.cn This article discusses the process of transferring human resource (HR) policy and practice internationally within multinational companies (MNCs), and the factors that influence the transfer process. The first section thoroughly surveys the literature on why MNCs transfer HR practices across borders and generalizes three lines of arguments. The second section looks at “what to transfer” with regard to particular HR issues, and points to a gap in the literature. The next section briefly reviews three main methods of transfer adopted by MNCs. Finally, the results of transfer are discussed both prescriptively and descriptively in light of Kostova’s (1999) multilevel model. The arguments presented in this article have two main implications which are summarized in the conclusion. Keywords: Multinational companies, Human resource policy and practice, Transfer 1. Why transfer ...
Words: 4489 - Pages: 18
...The first season introduces two major groups of characters: the Baltimore police department and a drug dealing organization run by the Barksdale family. The season follows the investigation of the latter over its 13 episodes. An investigation into a large Baltimore based drug dealing is triggered when detective Jimmy McNulty meets privately with judge Daniel Phelan following the acquittal of D'Angelo Barksdale for murder after a key witness changes her story. McNulty tells Phelan that the witness has probably been intimidated by members of a drug trafficking empire run by D'Angelo's uncle, Avon Barksdale, having recognized several faces at the trial, notably Avon's second-in-command, Stringer Bell. He also tells Phelan that nobody is investigating Barksdale's criminal activity, which includes a significant portion of the city's drug trade and several unsolved homicides. Phelan takes issue with this and complains to senior Police Department figures, embarrassing them into creating a detail dedicated to investigating Barksdale. However, owing to the department's dysfunctionality, the investigation is intended as a façade to appease the judge. An interdepartmental struggle between the more motivated officers on the detail and their superiors spans the whole season, with interference by the higher-ups often threatening to ruin the investigation. The detail's commander, Cedric Daniels, acts as mediator between the two opposing groups of police. Meanwhile, the organized and cautious...
Words: 528 - Pages: 3
