The Avon company was founded in the 1880s in New York City. In the 21st century, it is a globally famous company engaged in the production and sale of such products as perfumes, cosmetics, skincare and personal care products. However, few of these product consumers know that at the beginning of its journey, the Avon company was not involved in cosmetic products at all. It dealt with the sale of books. Read more at newyorka.
The bookstore
The history of the Avon company begins with a native New Yorker, David McConnell. He was born in 1855 and spent his whole life on a local farm. Although his family was engaged in agriculture, he received an education and became a teacher of mathematics. At the end of the 19th century, the work of teachers was not valued so highly and the salary was too low. Therefore, David was constantly looking for an additional source of income. While practicing teaching in the 1880s, he began working as a door-to-door salesman for a small New York bookstore.
The bookstore revenue was also not very large. That is why David once again decided to find a way to increase it. In particular, he invented a very smart marketing ploy. He gave a small bottle of perfume with an original fragrance to each buyer of books. This perfume was made by a pharmacist who was staying nearby.
The marketing trick of David proved to be very effective. Women began to buy books more often and not to read them, but to get a free perfume with an unsurpassed aroma. The fact that New York women preferred perfumes rather than books, greatly inspired David to create something more than perfume as a gift.
California Perfume Company
All this led to the fact that David, his wife and investor friend founded a company called the California Perfume Company in 1886. The name was given in honor of an investor friend who lived in California.
The very first product that the company released was a whole set of perfumes. It included five amazing perfumes with such fragrances:
- rose
- violet
- lily of the valley
- hyacinth
- heliotrope.
Perfumes were sold through direct sales. The company’s first sales representative was a widow, Persis Albee from Winchester. Before David started his company, she had helped him sell books in a bookstore. Soon Persis Albee created a whole network of agents for the California Perfume Company. For example, perfumes began to spread among the average housewives. They, in turn, sold products to the same women as themselves.
This strategy of selling products through housewives has become a true breakthrough and even revolutionary. After all, absolutely every woman could become a representative of the California Perfume Company. Despite the fact that at the end of the 19th century, women were simply discriminated against. They could not find any jobs.
The California Perfume Company has become incredibly successful in a few years. By the end of the 19th century, there were more than five thousand women among the company’s sales representatives.
The modern Avon company
The California Perfume Company got its modern name only after the death of its founder, David McConnell. When the company’s management moved into the hands of his son David, it was renamed Avon in 1939 in memory of his father. In particular, the company’s name derives from the city of Stratford-upon-Avon, where the famous poet William Shakespeare was born. His works were admired by the founder of the book and perfume company for many years.
In the 21st century, Avon is a global cosmetic corporation that sells its products to more than a hundred countries.