Avon

INTRODUCTION

The pursuit of beauty as achieved through cosmetics is a virtually timeless and universally enduring endeavor. For centuries women have utilized cosmetics to enhance or alter physical appearance, negotiate conceptions of femininity, combat external manifestations of aging, challenge societal gender norms, assert social status, and so on. For, “the urge to decorate ourselves is one of the most fundamental instincts in human nature,” and the act of acceding to such an urge can entail profound symbolic messages and societal consequences according to social context. The long history of cosmetics usage can be demonstrated by the fact that earliest archaeological indications of cosmetics date back to 10,000 B.C. Now, centuries later, we inhabit a societal context which has fostered and maintained the ascendency of the cosmetic industry – a context of increasing globalization, rampant consumerism, technological sophistication, lengthened life expectancy, and societal preoccupation with aesthetics and youthful image.

One of the major cosmetics company in the world is Avon. Avon Products Inc. is a multi-level marketing company. The company's chairman and CEO is Andrea Jung, who was promoted to the position in 1999. She has completed a decade as CEO and is the longest tenured female CEO among Fortune 500 companies. On December 13, 2011, it was announced that Avon had initiated a search for a new chief executive. Jung will remain as CEO until her successor is found. She will have a role in choosing her replacement and will also continue as chairman of the board for the next two years.

Avon makes use of both door-to-door sales people ("Avon ladies," primarily and a growing number of men) and brochures to advertise its products.

CORPORATE EVOLUTION

Historically, the first Avon Lady was actually a man, young salesman named David McConnell. He launched Avon Calling in 1886, offering women cosmetics in the comfort and privacy of their own homes, but...