Avon’s male founder, David H. McConnell started in sales back in the 1880s as a door-to-door book salesman. With few advertising outlets in those days, McConnell used a then-popular gimmick—offering a free gift in exchange for a moment of the potential customer’s time. Most of the customers McConnell dealt with were housewives, home in the afternoon hours while their husbands were away at work. This inspired McConnell to work with a local pharmacy to create a fragrance that he could give away in small quantities to those who were willing to listen to his book pitch. There was one problem with this method: customers started taking more interest in the fragrance than they did the books McConnell was selling.
With that in mind, McConnell embraced his fate, ditching the book business to sell perfume. Based in New York in 1886, he launched a line of fragrances under the guise The California Perfume Company. (The company started calling itself Avon in 1928, named after Stratford-on-Avon, the birthplace of McConnell’s favourite playwright, Shakespeare).
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The door-to-door formula for perfume sales was ideal for the time period. McConnell would peddle the line in neighbouring states and small towns, to stuck-at-home clients who had no means of traveling to shops that might carry such products. So it was, ironically, the dependency of women at the time that led to McConnell’s early his success. This dramatically changed when he hired his first female sales representative, Persis Foster Eames Albee, who was a wife and mother of two and is credited with creating the company’s system for distributing products.
McConnell had realized that the best way to market his products to women would be to hire women to sell them. It’s an obvious idea by today’s standards but hey, someone had to take that first leap. At age 50, Albee was hired to travel by buggy and train doing door-to-door business all around the northeast. Albee soon began to train a fleet of female salespeople to do the same—and the Avon Lady was born!
So what exactly is an “Avon Lady”? The term was coined by the company and has come to represent the unique aspects of the role. The company allows its employees to purchase products and literature, and resell the items on their own time in their own style—exactly what McConnell was doing as a book salesman. Avon’s first-of-its-kind approach to cosmetic sales is one that has allowed the brand to stand out for over a century. In 1887, just one year into his perfume business, McConnell, thanks to Albee, recruited a team of 12 female representatives to market his 18-piece fragrance line. In 1905 the company launchedOutlookmagazine, a publication for sharing advice to employees and keeping representatives up-to-date on company news. The following year, Avon had enough products to release a sales catalogue, a move that helped sales grow tremendously.
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By 1906 Avon’s first print advertisem*nt was published inGood Housekeeping, the same magazine that gave its seal of approval in 1931 to 11 Avon products, a record-breaking number for one company.By the time the ’50s came around, Avon launched its iconic “Ding-Dong, Avon (see below) Calling” ad campaign. It ran from 1954 through 1967, making it one of the longest-running and most successful ad campaigns in history. Around that same time (1955), The Avon Foundation was established with the mission of promoting humanitarian efforts for women, and today focuses mostly on fighting breast cancer and domestic violence. Avon has created jobs to help support women (and now even some men!) around the world; there are Avon representatives on five continents and in over 100 countries.The female-centric nature of the business over the last 125 years has been admirable (now the company is run by a woman!). From accidental perfume business to global beauty corporation, David H. McConnell achieved so much more than he ever set out to do, just by listening to his gut—and helped pave the way for women to own their own careers in the process.In 1959, operations began in the UK and today AVON is one of the top 3 beauty brands in the country with a growing share in the UK beauty market.
Avon at a Glance (2014):
- More than 32,000 Associates
- Six million independent Sales Representatives
- Available worldwide
- Nearly $9 billion in revenue
- Headquartered in New York City
Awards and Recognition:
- Avon has been ranked as one of Interbrand’s Best Global Brands
- Avon has been named one of Interbrand’s Best Global Green Brands for four consecutive years
- Avon has been named a Reader’s Digest ‘Trusted Brand’ in Poland three times
- In 2013, Avon received a Silver Edison Award for ANEW Clinical Pro Line Eraser Treatment with A-F33
- In 2012, Avon was named a top beauty brand in South Africa’s ‘The Sunday Times Top Brand Survey’
- Avon has beena Fortune 500 company since the list’s inception.
Avon Quick Facts:
- Around the world, four Avon lipsticks are sold every second.
- With its launch of the ANEW line, Avon was the first company to bring Alpha Hydroxy Acid (AHA) anti-aging technology to the mass market.
- Avon enjoys 90% brand recognition in most major markets.
- Avon global philanthropy has donated more than $957 million in more than 50 countries for causes most important to women.
- Avon’s two key global philanthropy programs are the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade and Speak out against Domestic Violence
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