The applicability of the five marketing orientations to Avon's operations: The production orientation focuses on the efficiency and quality of production, with little emphasis on marketing. Avon's core competence is providing low-cost beauty care products to individual customers through direct sales. Their advantage over other beauty product companies is the variety and quality of their products. Avon's cost savings come from reducing infrastructure as they don't maintain many actual stores, and from savings from not having to purchase shelf space for their products. Although according to the text Avon is attempting to reduce the number of products supplied, an overall flow in some core products to achieve production efficiency could hinder the success of the Avon operation. Therefore, a strictly production-oriented marketing plan would not be a successful choice for Avon. Sales orientation focuses on selling abroad the same product sold domestically with the idea that if it sells here, it will sell there too. Due to the individual requirements of beauty care products, one product will not be sold effectively worldwide. For example, skin care products used in temperate climates will be less effective in humid or arid climates. Although some products can sell well internationally for Avon to remain competitive, they cannot use a pure sales orientation. Customer orientation focuses on geographic areas or consumer bases for sales. When a market is identified, the marketing and products do not change. Given the diversity of consumers, customer orientation could be effective for Avon. Strategic orientation combines aspects of production, sales and customer orientation. This is the orientation that A...... middle of paper ...... calculates millions in revenue and can severely damage a company's reputation or shareholder value. Works CitedAvon, (2010). Earnings/Press release. Retrieved from http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=irol-newsArticle&ID=1214457.Newsweek.com, (2011). Women: the answer. Retrieved from http://www.newsweek.com/2009/09/11/women-the-answer.htmlDaniels, J.D., Radebaugh, L.H., & Sullivan, D.P., (2011). International business: environments and operations. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.Canedy, D., (1997). With the great success of Makeover, Avon turns many heads. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/04/business/with-makeover-a-big-success-avon-turns-a-lot-of-heads.html.The Manufacturer, (2010) . Avon Products, A River Runs Through It. Retrieved from http://www.themanufacturer.com/us/profile/1657/Avon_Products
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