With the passing of one hundred and eighteen summers since it first started knocking on the doors of American womanhood, Avon Cosmetics is likely in greater need of reincarnation than rejuvenation.
And it appears to have opted for the former. "We're redefining the brand for the next century," says Jill Scalamandre, Avon's group vice president, global marketing.
Stage one is a $100 million (€83.16m; £55.8m) global advertising campaign fronted by sultry Hispanic actress Salma Hayek. She will tout Avon's proprietary Intuitive Technology which claims to enable makeup to interact with a woman's body chemistry.
"Lipstick adjusts to moisture levels. Nail polish detects nail strength. Eye shadows change tint based on body temperatures," explains Scalamandre. "This [IT] was three years in the making," she says. "It's a huge global launch."
Avon has 4.4 million sales representatives worldwide and posted sales of $6.8 billion in 2003.
Data sourced from: USA Today; additional content by WARC staff
