Avon branching out with male salesmen and products for men
Anti Aging for Men / Men Skin Care / Men Spa
Are you marketing to your male spa goers?
This Avon rep wears a hard hat and carries a pile of company catalogs to his day job on a construction site, encouraging the men to buy their ladies a little something.
Perfume and lingerie are his top sellers. Oh, and he won’t go a day without the women’s wrinkle cream.
Meet Bobby McKinney. Your local Avon man.
“Forget the product, forget it’s Avon. This is a very viable business,” says the 58-year-old fire code inspector from Winter Haven, Fla. He made about $800,000 in sales last year along with his wife and has about 170 sales reps under him.
McKinney is one of a growing number of men selling products from the New York-based beauty company. It’s also part of a strategic move by Avon to broaden its appeal.
Sales to men and an increasing number of products for them have helped Avon’s bottom line, with sales growing from about $6.2 billion in 2002 to $8.7 billion in 2006.
Yankees star Derek Jeter worked with the company to create Driven, his own line of products that includes cleansers, cologne, aftershave and deodorant. His cologne became Avon’s best-selling men’s fragrance of all time.
Avon recently produced its first men’s catalog, which features a PROExtreme skin care line, boxer shorts and power tools.
“Anti-aging is very intriguing to (men),” said Regina Dinisio, public relations manager of Avon fragrance. “They want no-hassle products, but they want to see the real benefits.”
Industry experts say the men’s market is ripe.
“We have seen that men are more interested in pampering themselves and taking better care of themselves overall,” said Karen Grant, senior beauty industry analyst at market research company NPD Group Inc.
Fewer than 13,000 of Avon’s 650,000 representatives in the U.S. are male, though that figure is rough because applicants are not required to state their gender. Competitor Mary Kay says 5,738 of its 700,000 sales reps are men.
Anti Aging for Men / Men Skin Care / Men Spa
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