Is the Swiss market an appropriate place for launching Avon

(Avon is an American firm producing cosmetics for men and women that are distributed on the basis of multi level marketing, i.e. individual distributors personally market the products, since the latter should not actually be sold in stores).

Stage 1: Results from conducted secondary research.

The following data is from 2002 and is compared 1) to Swiss data from 2001 and 2000 and 2) in some cases to data from 7 other European countries, respectively, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Great Britain, The Netherlands and Belgium, in order to be able to make more meaningful comparisons.

• Population 7.3 million – the smallest of the 7 nations with a GDP of 273.1 billion USD, putting it in sixth place after The Netherlands, Great Britain, Italy, France and Germany. This suggests at first glance that there might not be a huge source of potential customers as compared to the rest of Europe but the other nations have much larger territory and population so this could be an explanation, but additional information is needed. 20.8% in Switzerland are foreigners, meaning that this would be a pattern of consumer behaviour that would be difficult to track b

Avon also has an available website in most of the countries where it has entered. The website is in the local language but there is a pervading structure and image pattern typical of all the websites, which allows clients to distinguish an Avon website whenever he/she sees it no matter what language it is in. Exceptions on the website are made only when the culture of the local market really requires it, like in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Dubai where the type of exposure of women that goes with the advertising of the products, is not accepted. This type of cultural barrier, however, does not exist in Switzerland so creating the website can conform to traditional patterns.

• Advertising and promotion of both the company and its products have to start in the early stages even before Avon staff has moved into the new office. In a country with such a high standard of living and so much competition, full coordination has to be achieved between the marketing mix tools. Advertisements should be placed in magazines and billboards, as was mentioned above, before the official launching of Avon to start creating interest and expectancy in both future clientele and future distributors. As was pointed out in stage one, Swiss law is strict when it comes to ecological aspect of the products, so one of the important characteristics Avon should stress on in the corporate message the company will be publishing, is that it was the first company to stop testing of products on animals. This message should also be clearly integrated in every aspect of the overall marketing plan that the company will create. Emphasis should also be laid on the Breast Cancer campaign that Avon founded and maintained throughout the years. This will help create confidence in Avon, preserve its image of a socially responsible company and be an indirect advertisement even to those products the proceeds from which do not go to the campaign.

Some topics in this essay:
France Germany, Avon Swiss, Avon Switzerland, French Italian, Germany Italy, France Italy, Corporate Codex, Swiss European, Switzerland Primary, Level Marketing, swiss market, direct selling, standard living, direct marketing, selecting distributors, corporate structure, future distributors, french italian, breast cancer campaign, transport system, additional information, cancer campaign avon, multi level marketing, primary research determine, french italian speaking,