Avon Products Redesigning it's supply chain

Essay by gottschalkUniversity, Bachelor's February 2006

download word file, 15 pages 1.9

1. INTRODUCTION

Avon Products Inc. is the world's largest direct seller of beauty products, with now close to $ 8 billion in annual sales mainly addressed to women. Avon's product lines include the well-known brands Anew (skincare), Skin So Soft (personal care), Avon Color (make-up) and Fragrance. In addition to these cosmetic products the company also offers a wide range of gift items, including jewelry, lingerie and fashion accessories. Avon sells to customers in far more than 100 countries mainly through nearly 5 million independent sales representatives. Avon is the world's largest direct seller and among the largest global beauty companies and now also selling via retail and web. [Avon Annual Report 2004 and Avon Products Homepages]

You can have a company with great products and a strong brand and excellent marketing communications but if the supply chain management is weak, the customer will experience bad service and have a negative buying experience due to poor fulfillment; this would dilute the equity in its brand.

Some executive managers spend too little time concerning about the company's supply chain. But in this world's increasing customer demands and impatience, it is the supply chain that often represents a critical opportunity for the company to build or damage its brand equity. Lack of coordination between marketing and the supply chain can create big problems with the brand and customer satisfaction. First - under Andrea Jung, the CEO, BPR - Business Process Redesign was initiated in the mid/end of the 90's with following focus on its supply chain on every aspect of order fulfillment, supplier relations and warehousing. In a global corporation, appropriate supply chain gives opportunities for global sourcing, supplier relations, accelerated cycle times, more accurate sales forecasting, better inventory control, freight and logistics providing improved product availability. This can be adding...