Avon Keeps Knocking

By Bernice Hurst, Managing Director, Fine Food Network

The armies of well-dressed, well-groomed ladies who used to ring the doorbell bearing samples of Avon cosmetics are about to be joined by a generation of new recruits.

The New York based cosmetic giant is pouring $340 million into a new Hello Tomorrow advertising campaign and signing thousands more Avon Ladies to sell its products. The campaign, which will feature Hollywood stars Salma Hayek and Jennifer Hudson, is the company’s biggest ever, larger even than the famous Avon Calling recruitment campaign in the 1970s.

Avon claims it sells one stick every three seconds. According to the London-based market research group TNS, the brand ranks among the top-selling manufacturers in the UK of fragrance, nail enamel, eye make-up and skincare, as well as those lipsticks 

But in the UK, apparently, perception is a problem.

Avon’s U.K. boss Andrea Slater told the Guardian that the reason two thirds of British women don’t buy from Avon is because they think of it as a relic of the past.

"Perceptions of Avon may still be rooted in the distant past of our 1970s advertising campaign," said Ms. Slater.

However, Avon is still using a ‘relic of the past’ approach–door-to-door selling–in order to reach its customers. The new recruits will join more than five million Avon Ladies–including 170,000 in the U.K.–selling more than $8 billion worth of products in more than 100 countries.

Although Avon was one of the first cosmetic companies to start selling online, the internet accounts for less than five percent of sales. Ms. Slater believes that having brochures and a trained saleswoman on the doorstep offers sufficient enticement to drag customers away from their computers and also provides a more personalized shopping experience than brick and mortar shops. She also said Avon’s shoppers, whose average age is between 25 and 45, are reluctant to buy cosmetics over the internet.

"It is relationship selling, direct to your door," said Ms. Slater. "Browsing through the brochure is ‘me-time.’ It is a nicer experience than sitting in front of a computer."

But one issue not addressed in the piece is when, how and where to reach those non-web using shoppers. In both the U.K. and the U.S., middle income women in Avon’s 25-45 target age range are usually out at work all day. Is Avon planning to put its ladies on the streets at night when their potential customers are likely to be at home? And is Avon’s version of "me-time" what those women are really seeking when their leisure time is already so full of conflicting demands?

Discussion Questions: Are there really enough women still at home during the day to justify this additional investment by Avon? If not, do women who are out at work all day really want someone knocking on their door during the evenings or weekends to sell them cosmetics? Is it really sensible or safe to encourage women to be out selling door-to-door during the evenings and weekends?
In my admittedly limited experience, it seems that (a) there are few women of the appropriate demographic for Avon at home during the day and (b) many women in that demographic share childcare with partners which means that the Avon lady ringing the bell really ought to have some men’s products in her bag as well as the women’s.

Facelift for Avon as it irons out wrinkles in its old-fashioned image – Guardian