Try it at home: Avon and gender in Brazil, 1958-1975

Shawn Moura

Business History, 2015, vol. 57, issue 6, 800-821

Abstract: This article examines the entry of US-based cosmetics firm Avon into the Brazilian market from 1958 to 1975. Avon's direct-to-home distribution model and family brand strategy gave the company a competitive advantage in the Brazilian cosmetics market. However, Avon's branch managers had to adapt the company's marketing strategy and recruitment practices to accommodate Brazilian standards of feminine respectability and in response to saleswomen who expanded distribution beyond the company's original target markets. Avon's Brazilian branch excluded women from management positions, and the company's marketing materials emphasised conservative gender roles for women. Nonetheless, Avon sales increased many women's economic agency.

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2014.982103

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