Introduction
Avon is a company that started from door-to-door sales and personal contacts with female customers. The founder of the company, David McConnell, hired women who wanted flexible working hours, and this strategy is used today as well as the foundation of sales. To cover more people, Avon diversified its product lines and targeted not only women but also teenage females to meet their beauty needs. The investments in research and development allowed the company to earn more profits and become an international corporation. The direct sales were extended using telephone, fax, and mail-order options. Ultimately, online channels were also included, such as the official website and social media.
Main text
Avon’s strengths refer to its great variety of selling channels and its presence in the beauty market. The opportunity to use direct sales, stores, and online platforms allows the company to reach a great number of females and provide them with necessary products. For example, if a woman is busy at home with her family, it is possible to use her lunch break at work to shop Avon’s website. In addition, the beauty market is considered to be viable and highly-demanded, which makes Avon’s products important to meet the demand (Lapoule & Colla, 2016). Among the weaknesses, there is the reliance on the reps in the presence of strong competition from online retailers. One more weakness is associated with the need to constantly be engaged in research and development to remain aware of customers’ needs.
The main opportunity for Avon is to focus more on online shopping as it becomes the most convenient way to buy products. For example, it is possible to cooperate with Amazon to sell the products in a cost-effective manner (Steinhoff et al., 2019). A re-branding that was successfully used by the company in the process of its evolution can be applied again to drive customers’ demands. Strong competition is the key threat as Amway and other companies have effective market positions. It should also be stressed that the dependence on third-party suppliers and the change in customers’ purchasing behaviors can also be noted as threats for Avon.
The above strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats show that Avon is a company that values its customers and tried to continuously develop to provide them with the relevant products. Considering that the company is oriented to selling its products through various channels, one may state that it is open to change and innovations (Kingsnorth, 2019). However, the existing threats seem to be critical for the further success of the company. If Avon would not improve its competitiveness and invest more in research, it can lose many customers.
Conclusion
To conclude, Avon can be recommended to continue its selling strategy of relying on multiple distribution channels. At the same time, it is important to prioritize online sales and create more opportunities for customers. For example, the option of consultations with shopping assistants can be introduced via Avon’s official website. Feedback with customers can be initiated in social media to better understand what features are valued or disliked by customers. Today, Avon is one of the most demanded and effective companies in the global beauty market, but it needs to increase its research and development to remain successful. The implementation of a new re-branding campaign is likely to drive customers’ interest and increase sales.
References
Kingsnorth, S. (2019). Digital marketing strategy: An integrated approach to online marketing. Kogan Page Publishers.
Lapoule, P., & Colla, E. (2016). The multi-channel impact on the sales forces management. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 44(3), 248-265.
Steinhoff, L., Arli, D., Weaven, S., & Kozlenkova, I. V. (2019). Online relationship marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(3), 369-393.