Avon’s New Refrain : Now Representatives Can Sell Wherever They Please--at Home or in the Workplace

With her makeup perfectly applied and her black hair piled high on her head, Cathy Ortega stepped confidently from the elevator of a Mission Hills medical building, the scent of spring flowers trailing behind her. She nodded to a receptionist as she passed through an open door, then headed toward a narrow foyer to peddle her wares.

Employees soon clustered around her. Fifteen minutes later, she emerged from the office, neatly tucking $120 worth of orders for perfume, cosmetics and accessories into her purse.

Welcome to the world of the modern-day Avon lady.

With women firmly ensconced in the workplace, that old cliched refrain--”Ding, dong, Avon calling”--has become increasingly rare.

Only eight of the 235 Avon representatives that Vicky Martinez supervises in her San Fernando Valley district still sell door-to-door.

“Times have changed,” said Martinez, 46, who began working for Avon 21 years ago. “Ninety percent of the women are working. It’s hard to find them home.”

Avon, troubled by declining profits in the early 1980s, revamped its marketing strategy. The company adopted a “metro plan” four years ago that allows representatives, once assigned to sell door-to-door in specific territories, to sell anywhere they please--to friends, relatives and colleagues--no matter where they live.

“Many were selling that way for some time,” said Rolene Dinsdale, who used to supervise the division stretching from San Diego to the Valley. “We’ve just recognized it. And we had to change.”

Territories, typically made up of 100 homes, still exist in some areas. And although anybody can request one, they are generally the domain of veteran representatives who have established a steady clientele over the years. Newer representatives generally prefer to sell in the workplace, Martinez said.

To prevent overlap, sellers are prohibited from going door-to-door in someone else’s territory, although they may sell to friends or colleagues who live there.

“Ten years ago, we didn’t know who our core customer was,” Dinsdale said. “But research tells us that she’s the woman between 24 and 50 with a total family income of $30,000 or under and she probably works.”

To capture this market, Avon has added designer jewelry, lingerie, videotapes and educational toys to its more traditional makeup and gift lines. The company even markets its own version of Garfield the cat--a toy frog called Leapin Leonard. Like its popular counterpart, Leonard comes with plastic suction cups on its feet so it can be affixed to the windows of a car.

Perhaps most important, however, has been Avon’s attempt to capture the Hispanic market. The company advertises on Spanish-language television and in Spanish newspapers. It produces purchase orders in Spanish and provides Spanish overwraps for its catalogues.

A growing number of Avon employees are also Spanish-speaking--60% of the representatives in Martinez’s district, compared with 10% five years ago.

“The Hispanic consumer likes Avon products,” Martinez said. “I think they think it’s a treat.”

High-priced cosmetic lines typically found in department stores are beyond the reach of many women, Martinez said. Avon, she added, offers comparable products at a fraction of the cost, complete with a money-back guarantee.

A tube of mascara that costs more than $10 in department stores was advertised in a recent Avon catalogue for $2.99, marked down from the regular price of $4.50.

“I think Avon is trying to be competitive,” Martinez said. “The products are great . . . and the packaging is great.”

Avon’s modest beginnings date to 1886 when door-to-door book salesman David H. McConnell started what was then called the California Perfume Co. in Suffern, N.Y., after noticing that his female customers paid far more attention to his free fragrance samples than to his books.

Mrs. P. F. E. Albee of Winchester, N.H., was the company’s first direct sales representative, traveling by train and horse-drawn carriage. Since then, more than 40 million women, and a small number of men, have sold Avon products, generating more than $3 billion in sales for the company last year.

During the same time, Avon’s laboratory grew from a room measuring 20 by 26 feet to a modern assembly line in Suffern that turns out 250 lipsticks per minute or more than 300,000 in a single day.

Ortega, 38, is typical of the contemporary Avon representative: a single mother who began selling Avon products to supplement her income as a hair stylist. Her sales totaled $22,000 last year, and she earned a 50% commission.

A corner of her aunt’s My Fair Lady Beauty Salon in Arleta, where she works four days a week, is devoted to Avon. The shelves are lined with the company’s newest attractions, from fragrances to scarfs and other accessories.

“Our Fifth Avenue smells like Giorgio and the Serenade smells like Chanel,” Ortega said. “But our prices are great.”

With her Avon earrings and necklace, her Avon eyeliner and shadow, Ortega is a walking advertisement for her employer.

“My nails are always done,” she said proudly, displaying 10 perfectly polished, rose-colored fingernails. “And my makeup is always on.”

Most of Ortega’s customers come to the salon to place their orders, although she serves two medical buildings in Mission Hills, stopping by about 20 offices every other week to drop off Avon catalogues, pick up orders and deliver products.

She also manages a staff of six “subsellers” who do business for her in other parts of the city. They receive free products or a small commission in exchange.

Every six weeks, she arranges a breakfast meeting with her best customers to show them what’s new.

“For part time, I think I do very well,” said Ortega, who has been selling Avon since 1983. “I can make $500 a month. That’s very good for me.”

Delia Thundermeyer, 33, started selling Avon in 1986 when her daughter was 6 months old. She, too, needed more money, but wanted to work from her Sun Valley home.

She sells more than $13,000 worth of products a year, a business boosted by advertising in Laundromats and “prospecting” in shopping malls and other public places.

After first getting permission, Thundermeyer positions herself near the entrance of supermarkets or crowded shopping centers and distributes Avon samples and brochures.

Aside from generating new customers, she has recruited 100 Avon representatives that way, earning $20 for each recruit.

As one of the Valley’s top representatives, Dee Clark of Pacoima sells more than $500,000 worth of Avon products a year.

In addition to her commission, Clark has won trips to Hawaii, the Bahamas, Washington, San Francisco and Orlando, Fla., all courtesy of Avon.

“I started out very small,” said Clark, who is entering her 11th year with Avon. “My first order was under $50.” Today, she manages a staff of 18 subsellers, has about 200 regular customers and rarely turns in an order of less than $2,500.

To assist her subsellers, Clark produces a six-page newsletter chock full of product information, sales tips and motivational techniques.

“If they slam the door in your face, don’t get upset,” she advises. “Don’t take it personally. Things happen in people’s lives. Try again. That’s the very first thing that was taught to me years and years ago.

“But if they slam the door in your face two or three times, go to the next house and forget them. Some people you’ll never win over.”

Clark, 51, is an Avon representative in the old tradition, catering to a steady core of customers in predominantly one area: Sunland-Tujunga. But she’s added a new twist, operating her home-based business more like a store. Her customers come to her.

She has an “open” and “closed” sign that she hangs on her front door, right next to her hours, which are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week.

“My husband thinks I live, eat and breathe Avon,” she confided.

Every other Thursday, a white van pulls up to her house and unloads between 60 and 100 boxes, enough to carpet her entire living room. Then she and a helper spend most of the day unpacking, sorting and bagging the products.

On Mondays, Clark and her husband Bob drive through her territory, tossing the newest Avon catalogue on doorsteps and delivering whatever merchandise her customers have neglected to pick up.

“Ninety percent just call this answering machine and leave their order,” she said. “They know that in two weeks, they will get a card from me that their order is ready, then they come pick it up.”

The key to her success, she said, is giving regular customers and employees small gifts and discounts on their purchases. She even trims the tab for customers who pick up their orders so that she doesn’t have to deliver them.

“People love to get something for free,” she said.