Avon Ingredient Lists

Why Did Avon Remove Its Ingredient Lists?

Avon, Where's the "Beef"?

Dear Avon,

I went to your website to look up the ingredients in your new Clinical Advanced Line and Wrinkle Corrector only to see that you've stopped providing ingredient information.

I refuse to put anything on my skin without knowing what it is.

I've applauded you many times on this website, and in my blog for providing such vital consumer information.

I thought it was the beginning of a very positive trend. I hoped you, being the biggest kid on the block, would drag the competition (kicking and screaming) along.

Instead you wimped out and have removed the nice ingredient list feature from your website. Consumers who prefer marketing hype to facts would never click on the ingredient link anyway, so what do you think you're gaining by withholding this information from consumers who want to be informed before they purchase?

The first type of customer won't even notice the difference. The rest of us will be annoyed and less likely to try your new products.

Oh well, there are plenty of other skin care companies on the block. I'm going to be looking around.

Yours truly,

Jean

Age Warriors are a Fickle Breed

I chastised Avon for removing the nice ingredient information for all their products from the Avon website. In the meantime, I've been reading some cosmetic industry analyst reports and I think I understand why Avon decided to do this.

Every time a new anti-aging ingredient is announced, we Age Warriors read up on it and, if we're impressed, we go in search of the new fountain of youth.

The product we loved yesterday gets pushed to the back of the medicine chest and sales of all those products that were "best in class" are left behind like summer loves.

Very few have the staying power of StriVectin SD and Peter Thomas Roth Unwrinkle.

New products are launched with great fanfare (and at great expense). They enjoy their "15 minutes of fame" and hopefully sufficient profit to justify all that went into creating and producing them before the fickle Age Warriors abandon them for the latest cosmeceutical wonder.

It's a Competitive Jungle Out There

I'm not a marketing guru, but speaking simply from a consumer's perspective, I think Avon blundered by removing ingredient information from its website.

My guess is that Avon is trying to move consumers' focus away from the science behind their products. It will be interesting to see what marketing approach the company takes now and whether other companies follow.

The anti-aging marketplace has become a real competitive jungle. This is a good thing for consumers unless disreputable companies and snake oil salesmen, chip away enough market share from reputable companies like Avon to force R&D budget cuts. This would slow the development of new, more effective products to the detriment of aging consumers.

Monopoly is bad, but so is a marketplace so fragmented that no one can afford the basic research which makes better products or the quality control which makes products better. The anti-aging cosmetic marketplace is being dragged down by fragmentation.

What can Age Warrior consumers do in the face of this chaos?

Become more educated consumers. Demand ingredient information. Knowledge is power. Educated consumers will select better, more effective products and disreputable snake oil salesmen will be left to wither on the vine.

The cosmeceutical industry needs a shake-out. Age Warriors, fall in for duty!