Introduction

The di erence between indirect and direct marketing representatives - is the di erence
between the cost of selling a product and the cost of success. The growth of
individualisation of marketing communications, determined by the individualisation of
satisfaction of needs, is increasingly in uencing the process of transformation of the
nature of relations between manufacturers and consumers regarding the purchase and
sale of goods. The result of such transformations of business communications is the
transition from the classic monologue of mass marketing to a dialogue with the buyer or
market.

The art and science of direct in uence on the consumer in order to sell a product or
service and develop direct relationships with a client is called direct marketing (Feinberg,
1997).

Thus, in this pitch I would like to present my own vision of implementing direct marketing
concepts in the scope of «Avon» shampoo products and discuss the e ectiveness of
such strategy for product advertisement.

Strategic positioning
Let me brie y describe the main means of communication used by «Avon» for advertising
purposes.

The rst mean of communication is television. Its indisputable advantages are a massive
audience, cost-e ectiveness and relatively low costs for product presentation per
consumer. According to Kotler (2016) it also has good design opportunities for product
display, as movement, colour and visuals can be fully exploited to accurately express
ideas. However, there is one problem with overall costs. And since this is a mass media
outlet, the message mostly reaches those for whom it is not intended. Respectively,
although the cost per unit of presentation of a product (i.e. to one consumer) is really
minimal, the total cost is quite high, since it is impossible to tune in speci cally to a
potential buyer.

Another method of communication used is radio broadcasting, which is bene cial for its
cost-e ectiveness and e ciency. The composition of the audience is determined by the
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 broadcast time and the pro le of the radio station. Radio stations have a geographically
local audience, therefore, campaign could be focused on a certain demographic group of
the population in a small area. Using only sound can create an e ective mental image. In
a way, comparing to television, where movement on the screen could distract from
creating an image in the mind of the viewer (Kotler, 2016). The viewer may pay attention
to the commercial that he saw or which amazed him, but he is unlikely to remember
which product was discussed.

Magazines also have a number of advantages in terms of advertising. Most importantly,

e ciency, as they are most often placed by addresses, so it is possible to determine the
number and main characteristics of subscribers. According to Kumar (2006) the readers
of the magazines, as a rule, share a common hobby. It can be said that journals of certain
pro les are addressed to people with a common interest.

The last two additional means are the most interesting, as they are targeted on direct
contact with the consumer - direct communications by mail and by phone. Direct mail is
the process of composing, producing and sending an advertising message to speci c
individuals who are interesting as potential consumers (Evans, 2001). This is usually a
fairly expensive method per product presentation. However, the high rate of returning
customers after preliminary work makes it very e ective. Using the phone to inform
potential buyers about a product with possibility to sell it, is called telemarketing. This is
also a fairly expensive tool, but it makes possible to focus only on those who should
receive the advertising message at the rst place. The fact is that currently Avon does not
use e-mail or telemarketing when communicating with customers, they only use mailing
lists of its catalogs and magazines.

Target audience
According to the study of Coughlan (2017), the most active customers of Avon products
are young people aged from 18 to 35.

1. 48% of shampoo consumers belong to the age group from 18 to 25 years

Those are mostly students, who are young, neat, self-su cient people, and who are
always in the centre of attention. Advertising has a great in uence on the choice of
shampoos. Of all the types of advertising, this group of consumers is most in uenced by
advertising in the catalogs of the «Avon» company.
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The purpose - to always be well-groomed and fresh. Buyers of this group prefer goods
with good qualities. Factors such as price and practicality are considered, but do not play
the key role. It is a common practice when the buyer prefers product of a well-known
brand, even if its price is a slightly higher than the price of a product with similar qualities,
but less known.

2. The next largest group of shampoo consumers is the age group from 25 to 35 years
(33%).
This age group includes women and men with higher education, who work on a
permanent basis and who generally gained progress in the career. These are energetic
people who care about acquiring and elevation of their status. When buying shampoo,
they focus equally on both advertising and the advice of friends and colleagues. It can be
determined that this group of people buys goods for practical reasons.

3. 11% of shampoo consumers belong to the age group under 18 years.

Those are the adolescents, who are positive and open for experiments. Their motives and
behaviour when buying perfume products are largely similar to the behaviour of
consumers of the rst group.

4. The next group of shampoo consumers is insigni cant from 35 to 55 years (5%) and
older than 55 years (1%). These groups can be combined into one group over 35 years.
This group of people mainly uses shampoos of other manufacturers, which are sold in
nearby stores or corner shops. When choosing a shampoo this group, rst of all, looks at
the ingredients, in order to nd vitamins herbal extract. And since Avon shampoos are
ordered from catalogs, the composition is impossible to see.

In general, «Avon» shampoos have a great demand, are not seasonally a ected, and have
reasonably high level of quality, despite that the price is lower in comparison with
competitors, such as L’Oréal, Kimberly-Clark, etc..
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 Creative approach
Direct marketing is a marketing method that uses all advertising media and all available
distribution channels (Doyle, 2011). An aspect that requires improvement is a mechanism
to maintain interest in «Avon» products. At the moment, the catalog system of orders is
most often used and apart from issuing a quarterly magazine, «Avon» does not acquaint
customers with new product and brand trends.

In order to increase the e ectiveness of «Avon’s» advertising activities, the campaign will
include:
- Intensi ed work with journalists on the placement of corporate advertising in the media;
- Organisation of a monthly press release and their targeted distribution;
- Increased budget on printing and souvenir products;
- Development of direct forms of advertising.

I believe that the rst e ective tool in building relationships with clients would be, the
issuance and distribution of various proprietary corporate publications and bulletins,
re ecting the latest news in industry and its development trends in the near future. Due to
this, a single information eld of «Avon» is created, within which the company that
publishes such a publication becomes more and more attractive and gains new
customers, showing them that it is the brand, which will help satisfy their needs and keep
up with emerging trends.

According to Kumar (2006) «Avon» encourages family business to partner and open their
own businesses with which the company could maintain a contractual relationship. In
such cases, «Avon» acts as a sponsor, opens bank accounts, provides other support,
promoting there is an understanding that the people working for the rm are the
backbone of their business. As the result, this creates additional issues. Since virtually
any person can subscribe and become a distributor, therefore the quality of advertising
and presentation of information su ers. Poorly conducted direct marketing generates
distrust towards Avon and creates its negative image. Consecutively, poor coordination of
direct marketing with company operations, product distribution or corporate strategy can
lead to a loss of customer loyalty. On my opinion, the occasions when distributor's
messages in the direct marketing system con ict with other marketing messages (for
example, with mass advertising of the same company), should be strictly avoided and
banned.
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 The next approach is the expansion of the client database, which would occur:
- in depth - the number of records for each client increases;
- in breadth - the number of customers increases due to regular promotions.
In order for direct marketing to work e ectively, it would be necessary to develop its
strategy in detail, covering the activities and methods that are most suitable for achieving
the goal. According to Lusch (2006) strategy development requires making decisions in
ve areas: 1) o er, 2) information delivery, 3) message, 4) timing and order of actions, 5)
customer service. The style of the o er, the content and the design of the message to the
customer can be critical to the success of a marketing campaign. An important factor of
success is also the correct choice of the information delivery medium and the model of
the message itself. Respectively, the following six means of delivery of information are
used in the campaign: 1) direct mail, 2) mailing of catalogs, 3) direct marketing media, i.e.
printed publications, television and radio programs that provide the possibility of
immediate direct response or direct placement of an order, 4) information programs -
commercials made in a documentary style for 30 or 60 minutes with addresses or phone
numbers for feedback and a detailed description of the ordering procedure, 5) interactive
media (eg online shopping) and 6) telephone marketing. Communication strategies should
take into account the needs of the target audience, the goals of the company, and factors
such as repeatability, memorability, and others.

Media strategy
It should be noted that, according to King (2001), documentation of customer responses
is rarely performed by «Avon». As it seems to me, building relationships with customers is
impossible without a comprehensive study of the characteristics and consumer properties
of the product, as well as nding out the degree of customer satisfaction and the
availability of personalised information. This means that during this campaign «Avon»
should be processing and analysing responses to various promotions. After all, the results
of such an analysis will help to get a clearer picture of the functioning of the market. By
processing responses, the company will be able to nd answers to the following
important questions:
- Which market sectors are promising for the economic growth of the company, and
which do not provide signi cant growth or are static, and, nally, which are in crisis?
- Which sectors give the most pro t?
- What are the characteristics of the main segments of the market?
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 - Who are the main customers in each of the sectors?
- What products, in which market sectors are in greatest demand, what other products
can be o ered in these market sectors?

In turn, several adaptations are needed for organising the processing of responses.
The organisation of the processing of incoming responses should begin not after the
advertising campaign, but before its start. In the process of planning a DM campaign, we
need to think about what types of responses may be to the message and what are the
methods of standardising them for subsequent analysis. This could include a
questionnaire, containing a few questions that company would like to ask the client.
These may be questions aimed at forming a more accurate "customer pro le", the needs
of customers, etc. It is crucial to choose what information is most important, because the
practice shows that the more questions there are, the less likely they are to be answered,
and, as the result, this could leave a negative impression about the company. In the case
of performing a long-term DM campaign, the questions can be altered depending on the
market sectors that the campaign is currently aimed at and on the text of the message.

The responses could be received by the following means: phone calls, online and E-mail
queries, or personal visits from clients. According to Mallin (2007), over 50% of all direct
marketing responses are received by phone. Subsequently, the share of online responses
will increase, but the current trend indicates that the phone is one of the most promising
tools in DM for now. If the response is planned to be received by mail, it should include a
return form in the mailing. The return form or response envelope takes on the function of
an incentive. It immediately becomes clear to the recipient of the message that he must
send it back and express his reaction, which brings about 5 times more responses than a
postal item without such elements.

E ectiveness
A great advantage of such campaign would be the ability to accurately measure the
number of contacts with an advertisement and the response of the target audience.
We can always accurately calculate the costs of applying this strategy and the nal
income. The result obtained with the correct choice of the eld of potential and existing
customers testi es to the primary bene t of the direct marketing campaign, which
undoubtedly explains the signi cant growth in the popularity of its use, especially in
recent years.
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 The e ectiveness rises with the number of communication means utilised in one
campaign. For example, with one-stage mailing, an average of 3% of responses are
received, and all this happens within about three to four months after shipping (Mallin,
2007). If the situation does not allow waiting for responses for so long, besides, the
expected percentage of responses is not enough to master the market, then telephone
marketing has its prime importance. Post-mailing phone marketing helps to achieve
several goals at once. This action con rms that the person concerned has received your
message and read it. The operator calls, with the question "did you receive the letter?"
would be a nudging factor and should encourage the recipient not only to read the
message thoroughly, but also to show a more active reaction. Returning to our example,
stacking a telemarketing to mailing and e-mailing should potentially increase the number
of responses in several times.

As a result of telephone marketing, it is also possible to get a list of companies that

received the message and expressed their degree of interest, followed by a schedule of
contacts with potential customers. The availability of additional information about those
customers who responded to the message with a refusal is also a highly e ective
practice. This makes it possible to identify typical reasons for refusing to cooperate and
to track responses in various market sectors.

Conclusion
Concluding the above, we can say that in modern conditions, direct marketing, which
occupies a special place in the system of integrated marketing communications, is
becoming an increasingly important mean of promoting the company's goods or services.
Hardly any other form of marketing has developed so rapidly and changed so
dramatically over the past decade. Its use has allowed many companies to fundamentally
strengthen customer con dence, expand the eld of real and potential customers, bring
them the necessary information faster, more fully and signi cantly increase pro ts.

The dynamics of the development of direct marketing in the world convincingly relate to
the shift in emphasis in favour of communications based on direct contacts, with the
possibility of feedback and building long-term relationships with consumers (Feinberg,
1997). Organisation of direct marketing in personal enterprise is the orientation of the
business to the buyer. Many people are primarily concerned about the result, the short-
term and pro tability of which are not always mutually exclusive things.
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 Many people associate direct marketing exclusively with lea ets in the mailbox and the
work of call centres, in fact, direct marketing is a strategy for building long-term
relationships with a client, and not a tactic for conducting individual promotions and
campaigns. In fact, under this term it is possible to combine all methods of advertising
in uence, where direct contact with the consumer is used.

References
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1. Coughlan, A. and Goldman, E. (2017), "Mary Kay Inc.: Direct Selling and the
Challenge of Online Channels", Kellogg School of Management Cases.

2. Doyle, C. (2011), A dictionary of marketing, Oxford University Press.

3. Evans, M., Patterson, M. and O’Malley, L. (2001), The direct marketing‐direct

consumer gap: qualitative insights, Qualitative Market Research, Vol. 4

4. Feinberg, R.A. and Eastlick, M.A. (1997), "Direct marketing in the USA: past failures
and future promises", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol.
25

5. King, S. (2001), "Marketing Generosity: Avon's Women's Health Programs and New
Trends in Global Community Relations", International Journal of Sports Marketing and
Sponsorship, Vol. 3

6. Kotler, P., Keller, K.L. (2016). Marketing. Management., Northwestern University: Kevin
Lane Keller, Dartmouth College.

7. Kumar, S., Massie, C. and Dumonceaux, M.D. (2006), "Comparative innovative

business strategies of major players in cosmetic industry", Industrial Management &
Data Systems, Vol. 106

8. Lusch, R.F. and Vargo, S.L. (2006), “Service-dominant logic: as a foundation for a
general theory”, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, NY.

9. Mallin, M.L. and Finkle, T.A. (2007), "Social entrepreneurship and direct
marketing", Direct Marketing: An International Journal.