Avon - a Profile of the Cosmetic Giants

I remember as a kid my Mom and all her friends could regularly be seen leafing through Avon catalogs, perusing the pages and ordering whopping amounts of cosmetics for very little cost. As I grew older, the scent of cheap perfume seemed to vanish and I assumed that the company no longer existed.

Fast forward to present day, and it turns out they are in fact alive and well and absolutely booming. I recently left the relative comforts of stay-at-home Dad to get back into the workforce and ended up being hired at the Avon warehouse, here in metro Atlanta. I was amazed at the scale of the operation and even more stunned to discover that the cosmetic kings (or should that be queens, given their catchphrase, "a company for women"?) are an 8 billion dollar a year company.

What I also found surprising was they do not just limit themselves to make-up and perfume anymore, but have an extensive collection of products encompassing everything from clothing and shoes, to jewelry, to toys, to a whole host of helpful little knick-knacks like cell phone chargers, car trunk extenders, and electronic coin counting banks.

They have also done a masterful job of shaking off the persona as being a company that caters solely to old ladies and bored housewives by introducing a couple of new product lines. "Mark" is the name of their new cosmetics line aimed at the teen generation and, so far it has been an unmitigated success. Add to that their entry into the male cosmetic business, led in no small part by a line of Derek Jeter endorsed products called, "Driven". The addition of the baseball star's name to the title gives it an instant credibility and won't make the average guy, myself included, feel unmanly for wearing an Avon product.

The celebrity endorsements don't stop there as Reese Witherspoon was recently signed to be the voice of Avon in upcoming advertisements. This kind of star power can only add to the success of a company that is the unmitigated leader in its industry, operating in 135 countries worldwide and is now exploding in Russia and China, two massive markets that should add huge numbers to the bottom line.

So, the next time you see an Avon catalog sitting in the doctor's office waiting room, pick it up and take a look. I think you'll be as pleasantly surprised as I was.