• Standard of living:.
People's income as well as national income has been rising steadily: People's income in 2000 - 246.3 billion CHF, 255.6 billion in 2001 and in 2002 - 261.6 billion. National income in 2000 - 352.1 billion CHF 2001 - 357.5 billion, in 2002 - 359.0 billion. On and off, for several years, Switzerland has held the number one place as the country with the highest standard of living. With an unemployment rate of 2.8% it last on the list of unemployment in the analyzed group. Hourly wages have risen by 1.7% as compared to 2001.
This evidence can now neutralize the effect of the small territory and population because it becomes evident that the population has very high income and, theoretically can afford to buy luxury goods. .
• Tariff information: No obstructive tariffs for cosmetics, however, documentation regarding quality and environmental protection is rigorously observed. A possible marketing strategy could be to stress on naturalness of products. No information on non-tariff measures, additional research, perhaps through foreign firms in Switzerland could help. .
• Importing from the US: 5.3% of Swiss imports come from the US, placing the US in fifth place after Germany, the EU countries, France and Italy. This could be due to further distances, which increases shipping cost making it cheaper to import from countries nearby. Should be an element of caution when analyzing whether Avon products can be competitive in terms of prices compared to beauty products imported from nearer countries.
• Existing demand: The Swiss spend 20-40% of their income on beauty products. Sales and earnings in personal care products have gone up by 1.5% - There is very good potential, but research will have to be done to segment these numbers further into product groups and also to determine product and brand preference as well as any other particular preferences.