Avon is a direct selling company founded in the United States in 1886 by David H. McConnell. Today, it sells in more than 100 countries with more than 6 million independent sales representatives. Its annual turnover is approximately 10 billion dollars.
Summary: Avon is a beauty company that has existed for over 130 years. In 1886, David MacDonald, the founder of Avon, would give away free samples of perfume while selling books. When women became more interested in free perfume samples than books, he started making perfumes and hired a group of women to sell his perfumes. This is how Avon and its perfumes were born...
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Avon founder David McConnell got his start in the 1880s by selling books door-to-door. McConnell was traveling all day long, introducing his books to housewives in particular. Whether he was selling or not, he was giving women small gifts and giveaways. The young entrepreneur, who made an agreement with a local pharmacy, gives away tiny perfume bottles to his customers; In return, he asked customers to listen to a summary of the books he was trying to sell.
When women showed more interest in perfume than in books, he quit selling books and entered the perfumery business. In 1886, he founded a perfumery company called California Perfume Company in New York. This company began to be called Avon after 1928. (The name Avon was inspired by the birthplace of the famous playwright Shakespeare.)
Selling perfumes door-to-door was the ideal business back then. McConnell also took the perfumes he produced to the surrounding provinces and states. He even went to remote villages where women were unable to go to other cities. We wouldn't be wrong to say that women's lack of freedom to go places to buy perfume and jewelry is one of the factors underlying McConnell's success.
Increasingly successful, McConnell later hired a female sales representative. This woman, named Persis Foster Eames Albee, the mother of two, is known as the person who invented Avon's distribution system.
McConnell realized that the best way to sell was to hire more women. The women recruited were trained by the company's first female marketer, Persis Albee, and that's how Avon's massive female sales representative network was born.
In the 1930s, in other words, during the Great Depression, Avon reduced product prices and sales increased by 70%. In World War II, Avon opened its factory to the US army for the production of gas masks and medicines. Avon began selling war bonds as well as perfume and cosmetics.
In the 50s, the famous Avon commercial known as "Ding-Dong, Avon Calling" was released. This ad, which is one of the longest running and most successful ad campaigns in the history of advertising, was used continuously between 1954-1967.
In 1955, the Avon Foundation was established. This foundation, which defends women's rights such as breast cancer and combating violence against women, continues its activities today.