Lightyears Collection
Avon
(California Perfume Company)

Company Background

Before it was Avon, it was the "California Perfume Company," and before it was the California Perfume Company it was Union Publishing Company. The Avon story is the story of a marketing company. While Coty ws appealing to city woman, David McConnell (1858-1938) built a perfume, cosmetics and personal care enterprise that addressed the aspirations and needs of middle class white women in rural America.

"At the turn of the century, about 80 percent of the California Perfume Company's "Depot Agents" — sales women — lived and sold in communities of less than 1,000 (white) population."

David McConnell, farm boy from Oswego, New York, age 19, began working for the Union Publishing Company in 1877 "selling magazines, greeting cards and book sets door-to-door." In time, he became a "General Agent," recruiting and supervising sales people. He earned $40 a week plus commission and traveled from Maine to Georgia, New York to Chicago, supervising 30 to 40 "traveling agents."

In 1886, McConnell purchased half of the Union Publishing Company for $500, from one of the owners who was moving south. In 1892, McConnell's other former employer, now his partner, had moved to California and — when McConnell announced his intention to sell perfume — suggested to McConnell that "I call [it] California Perfume Company, because of the great profusion of flowers in California."

While I don't have solid facts on this, it would appear that the Union Publishing Company was quite a small operation run by two partners out of New York City. To a farm boy from upstate New York — no doubt recruited by an advertising notice — the "company" probably seemed substantial.

When McConnell took over the Union Publishing Company, it is likely that its assets consisted of a disspirited sales force and perhaps some hard to sell, left over inventory. The true asset was probably that it existed and possessed a method of making sales and business methods that provided a solid foundation.

While McConnell may have paid cash for the first partner's share, it appears that the second partner may have been paid off, at least in part, through the (meager) cash flow of the ongoing business.

Years later, when McConnell visited Shakespeare's home at Stratford-On-Avon in England and commented how alike the region was to his own home territory of Suffern, New York, the company began to use the "Avon" name.

The Switch From Books To Perfume

Books, it appears, were always a hard sell. In a 1903 autobiography, McConnell confessed that The book business was not congenial to me, although I was, in every sense, successful in it, but there were many things that were not pleasant.

But McConnell had noticed that his female prospects had responded to perfume samples that Union had used to soften the women up for their book sales pitch. McConnell noticed that perfume was a product that was consumed — so if women liked it, they would buy more of the same. This was in contrast to books, where each title was a one-time sale. (It was more like Union's magazine sales business where, if the woman liked the magazine, she might continue her subscription for years.)

Perfume, at this time in history, referred to a blend of floral fragrance with alcohol. If pure ethyl alcohol was used in the composition (rather than today's "denatured" alcohol), you could either anoint yourself with it or drink it. Other major perfumers of the day selling floral scented alcohol included Colgate in the United States and Guerlain and Houbigant in France.

McConnell himself blended all of the company's perfumes up until 1896 when he hired an experienced perfumer, "the best perfumer I could find." In all likelyhood, the "perfume" was composed simply by mixing fragrance oils (available from wholesale fragramce houses) with alcohol. We do know that, at this time, French manufacturers and wholesalers from the Grasse region were actively making sales in the United States.

In 1886, when McConnell started his project to market perfume, it is not clear what name he used on the packaging or whether the new products were offered to the salesman who had sold books for Union, or whether they were even interested in selling perfume. We don't know what tests and failures there may have been in the early months of the business. Undoubtedly there were some jolts in the transition.

The "official" history of the California Perfume Company starts with a single product and a single sales person: Mrs. Persus Foster Eames Albee (1836-1914) and the "Little Dot Perfume Set."

"Mother of the California Perfume Company"

David McConnell called her the mother of the California Perfume Company. Mrs. P.F.E. Albee of Winchester, New Hampshire, had sold books for him with Union Publishing. She was the president of the Winchester Literary Guild. It was into her capable hands that the first Little Dot perfume set was entrusted and Albee's contribution proved to be more than just a few sales.

Albee — age 50 at this time — is credited with showing McConnell how to build his sales network to sell perfume. California Perfume recruited women (Depot Agents) who would not have to travel but would sell in their own communities. What McConnell was now selling was a business opportunity for women — women who needed money — usually older, married women — who could sell to other women through their network of social relations in their own communities.

Their close link to the community in which they sold gave them a credibility with their neighbors whereas the traditional traveling salesman tended to be met with more suspicion.

Other women, who, through circumstances (unmarried or widowed) could travel, became the General Agents who traveled from town to town recruiting new Depot Agents.

The genius of the system was the McConnell was able to reach an underserved segment of the population with minimal capital, overhead and operating expense. The downside was that, unlike Coty — who made himself a millionaire within a year or two of launching his business in 1904 — California Perfume did not see it's first $500 day until 1897 — eleven years after its startup.

Marketing Theory

In his 1903 autobiography, McConnell speaks of putting quality "into the goods themselves." As for packaging, "just enough money in the package to make them respectable." This was farm boy thinking. What McConnell was missing here was a changing social trend that was already accelerating by 1900. Women's "place" in society was changing. What was "socially acceptable" for women was changing. Already, in Europe, fashionable women were beginning to smoke cigarettes. Poiret was designing comfortable dresses. Women were taking up sports ... and learning to curse.

Slowly these trends were taking hold in North America. Women like Florence Graham ("Elizabeth Arden") were leaving the farm and moving to the big cities in search of opportunity. Communications were improving between rural America and the cities. Women in rural areas were looking for glamour! McConnell finally discovered — around 1915 — that women would pay more for cosmetic goods in stylish packages!

From "California Perfume Company" To "Avon"

The story goes that, when visiting Shakespeare's home at Stratford-On-Avon, McConnell was taken by the way the countryside resembled that around his home in Suffern, New York. The "Avon" name stuck with him and, in 1928, the company began to use this name on their products in addition to the California Perfume Company name, now in small letters. (See example.)

In 1930, 19-year-old David McConnell, Jr., having graduated from Princeton, took over as vice president of the company. In 1939, two years after his father's death, he renamed the company "Avon."

Sales rose during the depression and again during the Second World War. Avon went public in 1946.

If you have any information on Avon or the California Perfume Company, please share it with us using the message sender below.

• Bruce Baryla, 04/08/2021. I recently acquired a phonograph record I believe will be of interest to California Perfume Company and early Avon historians and collectors.
  
  It's a CPC promotional record featuring Lucille DuPont giving tips on skin care. I believe it dates to 1929, the time when CPC was just starting to phase in the Avon name. CDC product names are mentioned, such as Gertrude Recordon's Cleansing Cream, but Avon is not mentioned.
  
  I've put it up on Discogs.com, the online database for record collectors, with a full write up that gets into some of the details:
  
  https://www.discogs.com/release/18181045
  
  I'd be interested to know if a CPC/Avon record from this era has ever surfaced before and how it might have been distributed. And, would appreciate correction of any errors I may have made in my analysis.
  

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• Nancy Riggs, 03/15/2019. No info but I do have a beautiful small dusplay cabinet marked California Perfume Company. It came from a small general store in rural Arkansas upon closing.
  

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• M B 2, 03/15/2019. I have an old square bottle with a partial label on it. The label indicates: "Vanilla Flavor, Vol 16 ozs, California Perfume Co., New York"
  
  

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• Douglas H Von Ins, 07/18/2017. Good Morning Phil,
  
  Well, the story goes, and I know it to be true, that my great grandmother,
  Susanna Von Ins, actually named the Avon company. She immigrated to this
  country as a girl of fifteen in about 1886, and eventually married my great
  grandfather, Alfred Von Ins. She became a sales rep for the California
  Perfume Company, and would sign her sales orders as "Mrs. Avon Ins. There
  was a contest to rename the California Perfume Company in, I believe 1890,
  and she submitted the name Avon, taking the first letter of great grampa's
  first name, A, for Alfred, and the first half of our last name, Von, for
  Von Ins, again, as she signed her sales orders. As I understand it, it
  wasn't until several years later, I believe 1914, that she got word that
  her submission of Avon, had been accepted. My great aunt, Iva, Susanna's
  daughter, who was a neighbor when I was a boy, (I'm now 69) was there when
  Susanna received the letter, and a prize of some dishes, and some other
  small gifts.
  
  I was first told this story by my great uncle June many years ago. Susanna
  was his mother. Well, if you new uncle June, you would also know he tended
  to be a "teller of tall tales." So, one day, I mentioned this to my aunt
  Inez, (Susanna was her grandmother) and she verified this as an absolutely
  true story. Well, if aunt Inez said it, it was the truth! My aunt Inez was
  a school teacher, married to a minister, and would not tell a lie, under
  any circumstances. Talking to other relatives of that generation, the story
  was verified over and over. One of inez's daughters's, Charla, did a
  genealogy of the Von Ins family, going back to the fifteen hundreds, and
  tells this same story in her very detailed report. Suzanne Barchers is an
  other daughter of Inez, who could verify the story. If you Google Suzanne
  Barchers, you will find that she is a very accomplished author, with over
  270 books in publication. Or, go to Amazon, and enter her name, and you see
  page after page of her books for sale. You could contact her, and she will
  also verify the story.
  
  Well, Phil, I hope I gave you some useful and interesting information here.
  History tends to lose many of the the facts if what once was. I'm certain
  that many of the younger members of our family have never heard about this,
  and eventually it may be lost to our family as well. If you have any
  questions about this, I will be more than happy to answer them, if I can.
  
  
  Have a Great Day, Douglas H Von Ins

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• Douglas Hans Von Ins, 07/17/2017. The way Avon got it's name has nothing to do with jolly old England. If you want the true story, let me know and I will be happy to share it with you. It has been lost to history, apparently, but not to our family. If you look at my last name, you will see a clue.
  
  

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• THERESA Currie , 05/15/2017. I really enjoyed reading about the California perfume, company and how it became Avon.

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