Avon
As of November 1999, Avon was experiencing economic troubles. Avon’s growth rate of annual sales was less than 1.5 percent during the greatest economic boom in history. This prompted a transfer in leadership which appointed Andrea Jung as CEO. Since that time, Avon has experienced remarkable growth.
Under the direction of the new CEO, a new strategy was developed to reinvent Avon’s image, improve customer satisfaction, and to increase profit margins and market share. Avon has gained an outstanding reputation as the best direct seller of beauty products. Through the continued efforts and achievements of its sales representatives, Avon is now known worldwide. Avon’s core competence has mainly been its direct selling busniess model. This led Jung and the management team to implement a Sales Leadership program that provided incentives to acquire, train, motivate, and retain the number of active sales representatives it needs to sustain significant growth. Avon also has a representative development program that focuses on the professional training of representatives. This enables the representatives to provide valuable information on Avon brand products. Avon also keeps its superior customer service in other ways of distribution such as the Internet and in the department store sales by having a timely and correct order delivery, one on one information exchange and personalized professional advice.
Forces of Competition
Rivalry among competing sellers in the CFT industry is strong. The creation of innovative products is crucial to success. This industry focuses on continually developing cutting edge products using the latest science and technology. Rivalry is stronger when customer’s costs to switch brands are low. Switching costs in the CFT industry are very low, due to the large amount of different brands of similar products. This cost is due to the higher number of competitors in the CFT industry and their tendency to copy new products in order to stay competitive.
Another Avon objective that aims to alleviate pressures coming from competing sellers includes consists of reinventing their antiquated image. The organization had been a major player in the CFT industry for decades. However, Avon’s management took a reactive approach and failed to evolve with the changing times. Because the CFT industry centers on mage conscious consumers, Jung d...
... middle of paper ...
...na. Also, because the only sales in China are generated through retail outlets, Avon should further develop their Beauty Advisors training.
Europe should also be a continued focus for Avon. Industry leader, L’Oreal’s attributes 50% of their total sales to the European market. Avon has had a successful growth rate in Europe but only 23% of the total 2003 sales came from Europe. There is still room to expand in this market.
Based on one of the industry’s key success factors, product innovation, Avon should focus even more resources on R&D especially in the areas of anti-aging products and teen products. Because 23 million teenagers have an average weekly disposable income of $85, Avon should continue with innovative teen marketing such as the current “mark” brand but also work on products for problem teen skin.
Being ahead of the industry in introducing new products combined with the company’s already strong market position could further improve Avon’s brand equity and therefore revenues. In particular, Avon should continue to integrate sales representative into all aspects of sales. This is Avon’s own key success factor and what sets them apart from their competitors.
As the salespeople’s immediate supervisor, it is the primary responsibility of the manager to provide proper training to enhance the salespersons’ effectiveness and improve their skills. Given the importance of having a productive and enthusiastic sales team, the manager needs to develop and manage effective reward and compensation packages to ensure a highly motivated and satisfied sales force. Sales managers also ensure that the company 's standards of professionalism, image, and branding are consistent with the sales team’s interaction with company customers. The manager 's presence also makes customers feel valued as well as provide credibility on behalf of the company (Pilling, Donthu, & Henson,
She taught at universities both in Australia and the United States. Connell highly disagreed that the ideas about what established masculinity are ethically definite. In other words, masculinity is important to whom is referred to. For example, “if women are seen as weak, passive and emotional, then men are supposed to be strong, aggressive, and rational” (Seidman, 221). Additionally, masculinity is based on how people interact with each other in which correlates with their race, class, and sexuality. With this said, Connell said, “to recognize diversity in masculinity: relations of alliance, dominance and subordination… This is a gender politics within masculinity” (Seidman, 223). To point out Connell’s theorizing masculinity, she believes that diversity defines masculinity has its own relationships with authorities. In our text, Seidman gave a brief example of how the roles carry out to the social authority such as President, Senator, CEO, General, media executive, or surgeon. It is stated that while there are many senators, executives, or CEOs who are women, it is definite identify as masculinity because people think those high authorities is only for a male role. In our text, Connell has mentioned that “every society has a dominant or a “hegemonic” type of masculinity” (223). This means that she believes men has the power or control type of their masculinity in the
Footlocker’s marketing plan entails selecting the target market, integrating the best marketing tactic to reach as many customers as possible, and customer retention initiatives. Essentially, this customer-driven marketing blueprint is classified as the marketing concept, which does not rely heavily on promotions to procure sales. Instead, the company learns to pinpoint what the customer wants before he or she does, to accommodate existing and future needs. Moreover, within the past five years, a new store entitled House of Hoops has made its debut in the same mall as Footlocker, which has caused the veteran shoe store to experience a decline in sales. This suggests that Footlocker may need to modify its sales strategy to help the company attract more customers to the store. “House of Hoops has a variety of shoes, and a large store front,” stated the interviewee, “customers are drawn to the store because it is new and possesses a
Under Andrea Jung's direction, Avon is focusing on developing nations especially China. Many developing countries are more receptive to direct selling by women since jobs with Avon are opportunities for women who want to be independent in the male dominated cultures. Avon has also recognized that the demographics has changed and recruiting younger women to sell to the younger customer base.
Rivalry among established firms is fierce. There are several factors that illustrate this: established market players (6.1). The product is highly standardized and the switching costs of the customers are low. Players are aggressive (6.2)
Another reason is because fewer women in the United States are as receptive to Avon’s direct sales method as they once were. Furthermore, the pool of part-time job-seekers – in other words, those who are willing to sell Avon door-to-door, is also drying up in the United States. This is not the case in other parts of the world, however, which is why Avon is focusing on these particular areas. What’s interesting, however, is noting the difference in distribution in some of the countries – Japan, for example, enjoys a huge mail-order business while Avon has beauty centers in Argentina.
competitors include Mary Kay Inc., and Revlon, Inc. The company’s top foreign direct selling companies of beauty products are L’Oréal (France) and Infinitus (China). AVON sold their North American division, as 90% of sales come from non-U.S. markets. These companies are the top competitors for AVON, due to the similar product base within the cosmetic environment, price points, and target market audience (Wood, 2013). AVON has lost domestic market shares to Revlon, who has increased their marketing campaign against the company. AVON has a challenging foreign market to infiltrate between rivals in respected countries such as L’Oréal and Infinitus. The threat of substitutes is highly competitive within foreign markets in an already competitive industry to
On the following report, customers’ needs analysis, five forces analysis and complementors, companies’ performances as well as the potential impacts on expected changes in the cosmetics retail industry will be discussed in detail.
After studying the cosmetic market we can identify a series of needs in this market:
I think due to Avon’s extensive history that they unquestionably have the capabilities to become a top seller, however I think only focusing on direct selling is hurting the organization. I think direct selling should still be Avon’s strong point, however Avon needs to seek different business opportunities. I also feel that Avon is managing their resources ineffectively. “The company manufactures and packages almost all of its beauty products.” (Coulter, 2013, p. 92) The issue is Avon purchases their raw materials
Motivate the Avon business to reach its goals of promoting its products and gaining sales through advertisements, sales competition, participating in conventions and endorsing franchise. Advertising is the key to attracting consumers and the outcome is high sales. Such advertisement is done through media (television), mail, or the internet. The more awareness from the public of the company the more likely to attract more buyers and the outcome is high sales.
More than just a sale promotion strategy Lisa and her team have built lasting relationships
We live in a world where society has defined masculine and famine characteristics and features that have influenced our culture. Men are seen as:
Clarissa Dalloway, the central character in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, is a complex figure whose relations with other women reveal as much about her personality as do her own musings. By focusing at length on several characters, all of whom are in some way connected to Clarissa, Woolf expertly portrays the ways females interact: sometimes drawing upon one another for things which they cannot get from men; other times, turning on each other out of jealousy and insecurity.
Sex and gender are attributes to our identity. Sex describes the physical and biological factors we are born with, for example male or female genitalia, as quoted from blackadder “A boy without a winkle is a girl” (Elton and Curtis 1998). Whether we have oestrogen or testosterone hormones also tells us if we are man or woman. Gender however is in relation to stereotypes of masculinity and femininity, and expectations of what characteristics men or women should portray. Anyone given the opportunity to describe men, they would say words like dominant, non emotional, macho, aggressive, and to be the provider and protector of his family. This essay sets out to examine if masculinity is socially constructed and to do this the theories of gender, media, historical societies and even sexuality will be analysed throughout.