Avon's calling to Millennials for an image update

Meet the new Avon lady.

Her name is Ivanna Diaz. She's 24, a college graduate, and the cosmetics company is pinning its hopes on finding a lot more young, fashion-forward women like her.

Now that the North American division of Avon Products has been spun off as a separate, private company, it wants to make a fresh start. That means finding a new legion of reps, with an emphasis on Millennials, to reinvent the Avon lady image.

The basic message: If you’re a Millennial looking for extra cash to get rid of college debt, or even a Boomer eager to be your own boss, Avon wants you. A new ad campaign, called “Boss Life," debuted on Facebook Thursday and is launching on TV, radio and in print over the next four days.

“There’s not one, single profile of an Avon representative,’’ CEO Scott White of what's being called New Avon said in an interview. “It’s focused on allowing a woman to be able to build their business around the flexibility of her own hours, the freedom to work full time, part time, or somewhere in the middle and to work wherever she wants.’’

The ad campaign is the public debut of the New Avon, which spun off as a separate company in March, as the global beauty business began taking steps to slash costs and update a brand that has been around for 130 years.

“We believe that the separation of Avon North America is the best way to ensure that both businesses have an unencumbered path to profitability and growth,’’ Avon Products’ CEO Sheri McCoy said in a statement last year when it was announced that Cerberus Capital Management would be taking a roughly 80% stake in the new company.

Avon is rebranding the 'Avon Lady'

The nearly 400,000 North American representatives currently selling  Avon products directly to customers are key to any resurgence. And the new marketing campaign is seeking to expand their ranks, turning the dated image of the “Avon Lady,” selling lipsticks and compacts door to door, on its head.

Ads feature a Millennial who paid off her college loans by selling the beauty products, a mother who is able to spend quality time with her children as a result of working from home, and a husband and wife who run their Avon-based business together.

Avon rep Diaz grew up seeing her mother sell Avon products and worked as a representative while she attended the University of California, Riverside.  “In the summer, I’d find my clients and grow my team,’’ Diaz says. “When I went back to school, I’d concentrate on school again. It was nice because I had residual income coming in though I wasn’t going to any part-time job.’’

Two years after graduating, Diaz continues to sell the beauty products part-time, earning $16,000 a year, and her sales team has grown to nearly 100 people.  Most of them however, are much older than she is.

“We do need more Millennials,’’ she says. “I think a lot of Millennials are scared because they think Avon is your grandmother’s makeup brand.''

Overcoming such perceptions is just one of the challenges facing New Avon.

Neil Saunders, CEO of retail research firm Conlumino, says that while the split from the larger global company “will certainly give Avon in North America the breathing space it needs to put the business right . . . the other thing it signals is that it was a very weak part of the business.’’

A pitch for more representatives is vital, he says. “They need to get those numbers up because that’s the lifeblood of the business,’’ Saunders says, adding that the number of Avon representatives in the U.S. has shrunk over the past five years.

But the company also has to directly appeal to consumers, who now have a vast array of choices, from Sephora to Ulta Beauty, which not only have large selections of products and services, but a growing number of stores and vibrant presences online.

“People who shop at Ulta online, Sephora and even Walgreens don’t really need Avon in the way they once did,’’ he says. “So it’s a very difficult business model to make work. They can try to market it but are they just throwing good money after the bad? It’s a very challenging market for them.’’

White emphasizes the close, personal connections its representatives have with their customers. And while sales can happen in living rooms or at a local Starbucks, the company is also helping representatives reach their customers online.  As soon as a representative signs up, he or she is given their own e-commerce site. And there are social media sites that can be tapped for help with marketing.

“Our marketing . ... selling tools, and training we provide to our representatives will continue to evolve (to fit) how people socialize and communicate,'' White says.

Diaz believes many in her generation may not realize the independence and flexibility that can come from being an Avon representative.  "We went through the recession,'' she says. "We have all this debt and were promised we’d have this career after college and a lot of us couldn’t find jobs. I’d rather depend on myself and decide what my future is going to look like instead of waiting on someone to hire me.''

Recently she says that her business has been attracting young mothers interested in earning some extra income. And Diaz says that the company’s offerings, from online shopping to trendier makeup, are getting more youthful.

“We turned 130 years old this year,’’ she says, “but I feel like the brand has never been younger.’’