Answered! Avon sells skin-care products as well as makeup and other items through a network of 5 million independent…

Avon sells skin-care products as well as makeup and other items through a network of 5 million independent representatives. Avon’s new executives and their new data were on display at the conference of industry analysts. The company provided a detailed explanation of what had gone wrong in many of its 114 worldwide markets. One revelation: The roster of products for sale in Mexico had ballooned to 13,000. Another: Decreasing the payoffs for adding new representatives had stalled the U.S. business. At times, analysts seemed amazed that Avon could have been so out of touch with the basic forces that drove its own business. Avon’s appeal to them is that it gets 70 percent of its sales outside the United States, much of that from still-developing markets.

Avon has been increasing its ad budget significantly in recent years (for example, $82 million in the first quarter of 2008, up 14 percent from the prior year), which seems to be helping drive sales growth. The company also invested heavily in its independent sales representatives through the Representative Value Proposition (RVP). Through the RVP, Avon has expanded its Sales Leadership program, increased sales campaign frequency, and improved commissions and incentives to representatives.

Avon is also doing more marketing to spark recruiting of new representatives including TV and newspaper ads supporting thousands of recruiting events in China. However, in China the government’s tight regulation of direct sellers poses a new viable market that must be taken into account.

#1: The __________ nature of direct selling methods creates opportunities.

d-all of these

#2-In China, the Avon brand is most likely __________ to its population.