The brief was to redesign Avon’s sales-rep focused portal so they could track orders, order product and maintain their CRM. As we began the project, I didn’t know much about Avon, except my Mom had briefly been an “Avon lady” back in the 1970s. I learned that where sales reps were concerned, the average annual turnover was close to 180%. That meant the odds of success for any given Avon rep was very small. Most of it was because most reps had no real sales skills. For many women, Avon was their first job outside the home.

I realized that the best thing we could do for our reps was to give them a feeling of control over their destiny and their Avon business. In addition to the functionality of the portal, we designed easy to understand information graphics, a pink color scheme that was more subtle and professional than what had gone before, and images that wee glamorous, but showed empowered women. We wanted at every turn to encourage them.