AVON Calls on Foreign Markets Term Paper

This strategy of investing face-time has continued to scale extremely well in the U.S., yet has faced many challenges in other nations that value data, hard numbers and strong methodologies to validate the claims of products. One nations' buyers of cosmetics in particular, the Japanese, are more focused on the specifics of the how a product is produced and want to know in great detail what the ingredients are in specific measures. The level of data analysis presented by cosmetics providers in Japan is often taken as a measure of the elegancy and exclusivity of a given cosmetic product over another (Grammenou, 2009). Due to these wide variations in how cosmetics are sold, Avon continues to excel in westernized cultures with the U.S. being their flagship market. In Asian cultures were the depth and sophistication of data is an indicator of exclusory and elegance, Avon continues to struggle in other nations and cultures, a point inferred from the case analysis.

Assessing Avon's Supply Chain And Its Implications On Performance

The highly fragmented and distributed nature of the new product development process within Avon is putting exceptional stress on the supply chains of the company as well. These are hidden costs however, as the time and resources lost in negotiating with suppliers of comparable ingredients, packaging and services is hidden from one subsidiary to the next. Further complicating the performance of the Avon supply chain and contributing to its increased costs is the fact that each product is in a completely different stage of its lifecycle across each nation or region globally. This staggered performance of the product lifecycles are different across each culture and nation, which adds exponentially higher levels of stress and costs on their supply chains. Adding even greater urgency to fixing this strategic issue with their supply chains tis the rapid change occurring in their core Gen X, Y and Baby Boomers markets (Prior, 2010). The Avon supply chains need to be transformed into a competitive advantage by being more responsive to Gen X, Y and Bay Boomer customers (Tozzi, 2010).

References

Shoshanah Cohen, & Joseph Roussel. (2004, November). Avon Gets Its (Supply Chain) Makeover. Fortune, 150(9).

Grammenou, E.. (2009, April). WHAT'S NEXT? FOR COSMECEUTICALS AND NUTRICOSMETICS. Global Cosmetic Industry, 177(4), 38.

Hill, John S., & Still, Richard R. (1990). Organizing the Overseas Sales Force: How Multinationals Do It. The Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 10(2), 57.

Molly Prior. (2010, March). Avon Launches Environmental Effort. WWD, 199(57), 5.

J. Alex Tarquinio. (2004, September). Aging Gracefully at Avon;. Kiplinger's Personal Finance, 58(9), 49.

Tozzi, J.. (2010, December). Borrowing from Avon and Dell to Sell Shirts. Business Week,1.

Amy Tsao. (2004, October). A…