I haven't had much business experience yet, but as a child, I helped my mother sell AVON products as a door-to-door salesman (er, salesboy) for a bit of payment. Of course, being only 10 or 11, I wasn't interested in who the products were targeted for, or what the consumers wanted - the only thing I was concerned with was walking door to door, shoving a catalog in an unsuspecting victim's face, and exclaiming, "Buy something! They're real good! And plus, I get money!". Of course, half of the time, it would result in the potential customer thinking up of an excuse on their toes... "I'm sorry, I don't have that kind of money," "I'm terribly sorry, I don't wear make-up," "I'm very sorry, my credit card was just stolen by a wild pack of frothing garden gnomes and my bank refused to reimburse me for the money lost because my ex-husband's lover was on Jeopardy."
I'll admit, AVON had quite a plethora of high quality products, ranging from mascara to lipstick and everything in between. As we all know in business though, the concept of supply and demand is highly crucial to successful sales. The problem was - AVON had a lot of supply, but unfortunately, my neighborhood had little demand, not to mention little money and little motivation to cosmetically enhance their appearance. It's like selling a computer to a house with no electricity; yeah, sure, it's cool and all, but the consumer will have absolutely no use for the product. I'm sure AVON focused on demographics when developing their products, but that isn't to say that their targeted audiences are slightly adjusted to every single neighborhood, every single person across the nation. A natural balance and average consumer demand must be reached, and my neighborhood just happened to be one of those few neighborhoods that had absolutely no need for any of AVON's products. Needless to say, sales were down in my neighborhood and I was back to spending my summer evenings counting the blades of grass outside.
My first and only pseudo-business adventure was a complete failure, but that's to be expected. Hopefully I'll gain a bit of success (and money) with my next business pitch - catching and selling edible golden walruses around the world. The first ten customers recieve a free T-SHIRT that says "I'm cool, cuz I rock" and an exclusive Jon Bobble head, finely crafted out of already chewed gum with unsurpassed detail.
That's all for now, be sure to check back as more assignments come up!
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5 comments:
hah, i enjoyed reading your blog. I used to do the door2door thing to when I had to do fundraisers, and its amazing the excuses you hear. it sounds like you've defenitely got a creative mind, and if you ever get that walrus business up and running...ill invest, simply for the fact of the bobble head and free t-shirt..
good luck with everything
That's interesting that your mom had her 10 or 11 year old son trying to sell makeup! Sounds like something my mom would do. She previously worked with Tastefully Simple, which sells food sorta the same way AVON does. But now she's with Jockey P2P because selling food wasn't that much of an income. Jockey sells clothes the same way AVON does too, so a lot more people need clothes, other than makeup or something. I know how it feels when all your mom wants to do is sell something!
I enjoyed reading your blog, with all your little jokes thrown in there =)
haha my favorite part was the lawn gnomes. they'll get ya! And my mom and i still get AVON, too bad you weren't in my neighborhood, my mom and I would have given you a whole lot of business!
I think you have to be a person with more money to buy avon products. Thats a hard market if your not in the right area i know i sure don't have the money to buy expensive make-up.
Haha so have you ever had a REAL job? That's okay, I never liked working either and always managed to some how not have a job for long ;)That's sweet that you helped your mom out though! She;s funny for having her 10 year old sell her makeup! hah!
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