CASE STUDY

Case Study



Avon Calls on Foreign Markets

Introduction

Being an organization that has been delivering goods to its customers for over 125 years, Avon is truly a household name and has left a deep impact on the lives of millions of people throughout the world. It was one of the first beauty product manufacturers that applied the use of direct marketing and direct selling for their products. It sells its products directly to distributors as well as customers without having intermediaries or trading companies interfering in between. Through this, it manages to have a stronger control strategy and can perform custom marketing functions without having to deal with outside factors. This method has helped launch Avon to heights of success and contributed heartily in ensuring Avon's longevity in the market. In the case study, “Avon calls on foreign markets”, issues such as the company's global presence and its current strategies relating to pricing, branding and promotion are discussed. I will be analyzing the company's shortcomings in these regards, as well as the factors that help it in maintaining a streak of selling methods that are successful.

Discussion

Avon is famous for its marketing methods, more commonly, their standardization in marketing and its relation to marketing principles. Standardized branding allows Avon to form an image of global quality, all the while saving the costs it incurs through the usage of ingredients as well as packaging. Although this method has been successful in some countries, such as Thailand, it may not have the desired effect on other foreign markets since it cannot use standardized methods for all nations and hope that they apply perfectly everywhere. The barriers in uniform branding are certainly apparent, but Avon seems to not be aware of them with regards to this case study. Language is one of the biggest barriers for Avon to overcome, since uniform branding means everyone must be aware of the unambiguous meaning of products. This does not work out in reality however, since a word could mean something in one language while something else in another. The flaws of uniform branding are likely to come across like this, and the risk that a product remains ambiguous to a certain market is a big one for Avon to take. There is no guarantee that a brand name doesn't translate into something derogatory or offensive in a local market, thus making it an undesirable brand altogether and killing Avon's appeal. Apart from this, pronunciation matters in this scenario as well, since some languages do not even have the same sounds if a brand name, rendering it useless in a global market. Globalization strategies have ensured a lot of the base principles change in transferring a brand to another market but the fact remains that this is a risk that may cost Avon.

As told by Daniels et all(2011), pricing of a product must be low enough to be affordable to locals but high enough that it generates a flow of funds that is necessary for costs incurred through ...