Direct Marketing Strategies Of AVON

Gaurav Singh

Direct Marketing

• Direct marketing is the use of consumer-direct channels to reach and deliver goods and services to customers without using market middlemen, wholesalers, advertisers and retailers.

• Direct selling can be conducted one-on-one, in a group or party format, or online.

• According to the World Federation of Direct Selling Associations (WFDSA), 87 million people, roughly the population of Vietnam, are part of the global, direct-selling sales force. Direct sellers around the world have $132 billion in sales annually

Direct Marketing Channels

ABOUT AVON

• Avon Products, Inc. is a world’s No. 1 direct seller of beauty products Avon offers its customers not only a wide assortment of cosmetic products but also jewellery, home decoration items, accessories and wellness products.  

• It was founded in 1886 by a 28-year-old David H. McConnell who sold books door-to-door and gave out perfume to entice women to buy his books.

• It started with California Perfume Company (CPC) in New York. In October, 1939, the company was changed officially to Avon Products,Inc.

•  As the world's largest direct seller, Avon markets to women in more than 100 countries through over 6 million active independent Avon Sales Representatives.

• Avon has been responsible for breaking the conventional mould and bringing the cosmetics counter to our doorsteps.

Avon Enhancing More Of You

With More Shades

Mission statement and its element

• Avon's mission statement is to be the company that best understands and satisfies the product service and self-fulfillment needs of women, globally.

• The three most important elements, however, are the focus on women, on being global, and on the additional opportunities for Avon in self-fulfillment.

• At Avon, the "direct" part of direct selling also refers to the personal component of this sales channel; it’s about building relationships with people and offering them a high level of service and personal attention.

The Principles That Guide Avon

1. To provide individuals an opportunity to earn in support of their well-being and happiness;

2. To serve families throughout the world with products of the highest quality backed by a guarantee of satisfaction;

3. To render a service to customers that is outstanding in its helpfulness and courtesy;

4. To give full recognition to employees and Representatives, on whose contributions Avon depends;

5. To share with others the rewards of growth and success;

6. To meet fully the obligations of corporate citizenship by contributing to the well-being of society and the environment in which its functions; and

7. To maintain and cherish the friendly spirit of Avon.

Avenues of growth identified by Avon:

From a global perspective, three avenues of growth were identified by Avon management:

geographic growth,

leveraging distribution channels in emerging and developing markets, and

marketing in developed industrial areas.

Avon’s competitive strategies.

Avon Ladies

Since its core element is its focus on women worldwide so who else can understand the needs of women better than another women.

Hence in order to retain customers and garner a good customer relationship they hire women representatives widely known as AVON LADIES. It gave them a competitive advantage over their competitors.

AVON LADIES

Cross category or bundle selling• Bundle selling ,also known as up selling and cross-selling is a

practice of marketing, promoting and selling an additional related or unrelated product with the main product. Thus it ensures economies of scope by reducing average cost of marketing of two or more brands of the same company.

• Avon representative make it a virtue to promote and market secondary products in addition to the product being demanded.

• And since high customer interaction leads to better understanding of customer`s additional needs and wants bundle selling is bound to be more successful in direct marketing as proved by Avon.

Advertising in local businesses

• It is one of the ways Avon agents manage to reach a larger customer base. They do this by offering to deliver products that customers purchase online to local businesses such as book stores, coffee shops and restaurants. This effectively results in saving the shipping costs which is borne by the customers. To make this arrangement a lucrative proposition for the local businesses who store and hand out Avon products, the agents offer them a part of their commission.

Internet Marketing• Another popular and cost effective sales strategy adopted by

many Avon dealers is writing informative articles in websites such as Associated Content and Ezinearticles.com. These articles are linked to their Avon business website. This is an excellent way to drive traffic to websites and increase sales.

Business website for representative

About Business Website• Customized social media environments for Representatives to

reach customers and other Representatives.• A personalized eBrochure widget to ensure that customers are

never more than a few clicks away from ordering, sharing the eBrochure with friends and creating a viral sensation.

• Online training and sales tools.• A new application for Sales Leadership Representatives to

more effectively monitor their Representatives’ orders.• “Intelligent ordering,” which makes it easier for Representatives

to place their orders with Avon and ensures that they receive special product offers that are relevant to them.

• A widget which lets Representatives embed the latest Avon TV advertisements and videos into their own social media platforms.

Avon Beauty Bucks

Multi Level Marketing

It is a marketing stregy in which the sales force is compensated not only for sales they personally generate, but also for the sales of the other salespeople that they recruit. This recruited sales force is referred to as the participant's "downline", and can provide multiple levels of compensation. Other terms for MLM include pyramid selling, network marketing and referral marketing

Doing Good: The Other Face of Beauty

• Corporate Citizenship is also an important aspect of the company that continues to give back to the community. It has been a part of Avon since the company's inception, and has played an extremely important role in Avon's desire to be a part of the societal affairs.

• The company has dedicated great funds for cancer research and even to eliminate abuse of women worldwide, giving back to the community.

References

• http://www.trefis.com/stock/avp/articles/45972/its-the-people-not-the-products-that-drive-avon-stock/2011-03-26

• http://www.avoncompany.com/earningsopportunity/whysellavon.html

• http://www.squidoo.com/How-To-Sell-Avon-Marketing-Ideas

• http://beautywagon.wordpress.com/tag/avon-representive/