Pass Papers Avon Case Study

They are women with incomes of $25,000 or more a year that care about their appearance and spend money on beauty products. They tend to have curly or frizzy hair. They are women that tend to use beauty salons and keep up with fashion and fashion trends.

Avon Corporation In order to begin to understand the industry in which Avon functions as well as the specifics around the introduction of the new EAS drive, I used the 5Cs analysis to outline the company’s current situation. Situation Analysis via the 5Cs:

The definition of true beauty continues to evolve as generations pass and new ones emerge. Ulta Beauty, a popular cosmetic store, sells products with the aim to make women feel confident in their skin. Their use of advertisements helps spread the word about new, improved product lines and reach out to potential buyers. Selling makeup is the obvious goal of a cosmetic store, but the kind of consumers they attract and how varies between different franchises. When a company displays their products in one shot instead of in a commercial, the task of conveying the message becomes harder. Ulta Beauty persuades women to purchase their products by pointing out buyers’ insecurities while still appearing to promote empowering feminist values.

Discuss how online marketing could provide competitive advantages in the industry you analyzed in question A.

Develop a marketing plan for the business that suggests how Helen’s may improve its performance.

3. Describe Family Dollar’s competitive advantages and disadvantages with respect to competition from conventional supermarkets and box stores.

There was significant variation within cosmetics. Some of this reflected differences between East and West, skin characteristic by ethnic group. And it was the reason why AmorePacific did not use a uniform strategy for France, the U.S., and China. AmorePacific established global business strategy by being internationally fragmented. Strategy for AmorePacific is essentially localization and about the diversity of approaches being taken in the three major countries that seems to be successful.

3. What is your assessment of the competitive strength of Kraft Foods’ different business units?

3. Describe the competitive strategies used by each of Williams-Sonoma’s competitors. Which of these are most effective?

Mary Kay, Inc. was founded in 1963 by Mary Kay Ash as Beauty by Mary Kay. Mary Kay is a direct sale type of company, with “independent beauty consultants” that sell and market Mary Kay products (2012 Corporate Fact Sheet). Mary Kay Ash operated with the mindset of “God First, Family Second, and Career Third,” and always adhered to the golden rule, do to others as you’d want them to do to you (Kerin, Et. Al). Mary Kay, Inc. first entered the global market in 1971 with its expansion into Australia. Today, Mary Kay is represented in over 35 global markets (2012 Corporate Fact Sheet). Mary Kay is challenged to ensure brand consistency across the world, despite differences in cultures from market to market. As such, Mary Kay would be considered a transnational firm. They tie the similarities between each market together while celebrating the differences in each market. This strategy allows them to offer Mary Kay’s core product lines globally where they’re most desired. In China, one of their most successful markets, Mary Kay applied their existing corporate message of women empowerment to attract Chinese women that otherwise wouldn’t be able to start their own business. Where China differs from the United States market is in product need. Chinese women don’t typically wear a lot of makeup, so

The cosmetics business is a billion dollar industry. Every year, women are responsible for consuming millions of cosmetic products. The cosmetics industry is so large because of several factors. The media is a huge contributor to the intense pressure to look a certain way. The idea that "sex sells" is evident in gossip magazines, movies, advertisements, music, and more subtly- in the business world. People first notice what race someone is, how beautiful or ugly they are and what clothes they are wearing. Beauty is skin deep; however, first impressions are usually what others use to base their

Estée Lauder has an extremely large presence as the global leader in prestige beauty with products being sold in more than 150 countries. This global success is attributed to their focus on cultural relevance, making sure that their products, signage, marketing etc. appeals to consumers in each local market.

Avon is so much more dependent on its foreign operations than on its home operations for many reasons. First, Avon realized that the level of competitiveness in the United States market has grown vastly. Furthermore, there is almost no "remaining untapped market for cosmetics, fragrances, toiletries. To grow rapidly in the

As stated in the case, the ban on door-to-door selling was lifted in 2005. Avon Products and Amway are taking advantage of this by using door-to-door selling as a method of marketing their products. The main advantage to using door-to-door selling in the sale of cosmetic products is that it is a cheap and cost effective method of getting products across to the customers. Companies do not incur the cost of setting up physical stores and hiring dedicated sales person when using door-to-door selling as the products are sold directly from the manufacturer to the customers via one level of sales representatives. Illustrating the success of this method of sales, Avon Products had already recruited 350,000 sales representatives by the end of 2006. We can assume that most of these sales representatives are being paid purely on a commission basis and Avon Products does not incur any other additional or fixed cost in employing these sales personnel thus making it a very cost effective method of selling products. This and the lack of intermediaries between the manufacturer and the customer mean that the

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.