The global beauty business permeates our lives, influencing how we perceive ourselves and what it is to be beautiful. The brands and firms which have shaped this industry, such as Avon, Coty, Estee Lauder, L'Oreal, and Shiseido, have imagined beauty for us.

This book provides the first authoritative history of the global beauty industry from its emergence in the nineteenth century to the present day, exploring how today's global giants grew. It shows how successive generations of entrepreneurs built brands which shaped perceptions of beauty, and the business organizations needed to market them. They democratized access to beauty products, once the privilege of elites, but they also defined the gender and ethnic borders of beauty, and its association with a handful of cities, notably Paris and later New York. The result was a homogenization of beauty ideals throughout the world.

Today globalization is changing the beauty industry again; its impact can be seen in a range of competing strategies. Global brands have swept into China, Russia, and India, but at the same time, these brands are having to respond to a far greater diversity of cultures and lifestyles as new markets are opened up worldwide.

Avon has come a long way since handing out its first perfume sample back in 1886. The company, long famous for ringing customer doorbells, is now the world's largest direct sales organization-with almost five million representatives in more than 140 countries.

AVON: Building the World's Premier Company for Women is the first book ever to show how this cosmetics juggernaut achieved such incredible success, while revealing secrets any business can use to effectively market products of all kinds-especially to women.

Through this entertaining journey, you'll not only learn the colorful Avon story, but also see how every company, big or small, can benefit from its unique approach to sales and product development.

"With it's "Real beauty" information and marketing campaign, the Dove brand struck a chord with women skeptical of unhealthy or absurd standards of attractiveness. But did the campaign have the widespread impact Dove intended? And what are the implications for the global cosmetics and fashion industries? This program investigates consumer reactions against the idealized images of beauty promoted by TV, movies, and glossy magazines, while exploring the complex relationship between corporate strategy and feminine self-esteem. High-level insights concerning Dove, L'Oreal, and advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi provide a fascinating departure point for a socioeconomic discourse"