Mark's young sales force will have e-boutiques on Facebook. Photo: Courtesy of Mark.
But the digital-savvy generation isn't likely to go door to door with brochures like Avon ladies of yore.
So Mark got smart and took a huge leap into the modern era of retail by being one of the first companies to launch a direct selling widget for online social media.
This allows for Mark representatives to socialize online and sell products via their customized Facebook e-boutique at the same time -- without having to worry about collecting money, delivering products themselves, or even leaving the couch.
The brand also has a free iPhone application allows the representatives to page through products on her phone rather than rely on a traditional paper catalog.
Said Annemarie Frank, Mark's head of e-commerce and digital media, to WWD about the Mark demographic: "We found that e-mail blasts have a 10 percent open rate. E-mail is a like dinosaur to them."
To continue their push to viral selling, Avon will introduce applications for representatives and Facebook members to create online wish lists to share with friends, product promotions that will pop up in Facebook news feeds, and possibly even shopping widgets that can be posted directly into sellers' blogs.
"Our rep is our store owner and our customer," said Claudia Poccia, global president of Mark to WWD. "She has to have a voice and be able to customize her business. Anything short of that is unacceptable."