Avon not just for women anymore

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Men are taking more interest in products for their skin care such as cleansers, cologne, aftershave and deodorants and now Avon is aiming to garner more of those sales.

As reported in 6News U.S. sales of men's skincare products totaled $68.9 million in 2006, up from $45.8 million in 2000. In comparison, women's skincare sold about $2.1 billion in 2006 and $1.7 billion in 2000, according to NPD.

Avon has just recently produced it's first men's catalogue with products just for the guys such as skin care products, colognes, after shave lotions, boxers and yes even power tools.

"We have seen that men are more interested in pampering themselves and taking better care of themselves overall," said Karen Grant, senior beauty industry analyst at market research company NPD Group Inc.

It is an expanding market that some men are stepping into after seeing the profits their female counterparts are bringing in every year.

Less than 13,000 of Avon's 650,000 representatives in the U.S. are male, though that figure is rough because applicants are not required to state their gender. Competitor Mary Kay says 5,738 of its 700,000 sales reps are men.

One such example of the male Avon reps is a corrections officer, Sal D'Amico, who at first just helped his wife labeling her brochures and then four years later they joined together and their sales which doubled, now are between $30,000 and $50,000 a year. With these types of results I can see why more men are joining the Avon team.

Another example of an Avon man, Bobby McKinney, has been in the field for three years also joined his wife who has been selling Avon for 20 years. His approach is a little different, he started teaching sales classes to the new reps.

"Forget the product, forget it's Avon. This is a very viable business," says the 58-year-old fire code inspector from Winter Haven, Fla. He made about $800,000 in sales last year along with his wife and has about 170 sales reps under him.

So in more ways that one, Avon is not just for the ladies anymore. Does anyone happen to have a catalogue handy? If not you could just check out the Avon website.