Avon is the world’s largest cosmetics and perfume company. It’s also one of the oldest. It was founded in New York in 1886 by a door-to-door book salesman David H. McConnell who gave away perfume to encourage sales. The perfume became more popular than the books so he established the California Perfume Company. Since then it has become a multinational corporation, employing over 40,000 people in 140-plus countries across the globe, and has annual sales in excess of $10 billion. The company uses a mix of sales strategies, relying on door-to-door selling, catalogues and retail stores. Traditionally, the trademark ‘Avon lady’ would come to customers’ doors. The company is expanding quickly into China and Russia and has also targeted the market for male cosmetics.