Calling Avon's Lady; Andrea Jung: She moved a tired brand upmarket and created a global powerhouse. Now Jung's name is cropping up on shortlists for bigger jobs. Who'll be knocking on her door next?(Cover Story)

Publication: Newsweek

Bookmark this article Print this article Link to this article Email this article Digg It! Add to del.icio.us RSS

COPYRIGHT 2004 Newsweek, Inc. All rights reserved. Any reuse, distribution or alteration without express written permission of Newsweek is prohibited. For permission: www.newsweek.com

Byline: Ramin Setoodeh

Seated in her Manhattan corner office, Andrea Jung is talking up cosmetics like a seasoned Avon lady. She holds up a tube of shimmering burgundy lip gloss called Glow Baby Glow. "This," the chief executive declares, "has been heralded as one of the breakthrough ideas of the decade." The quantum leap? The packaging. Avon's new line puts an applicator on each end--one for the tube of gloss, and the other for mascara or concealer, so you can carry two kinds of makeup in one tube. A bonus is the product's name, which might make you blush without any rouge: Hook Up.

This is Avon calling? Ten years ago the world's largest direct seller of cosmetics was showing a lot of wrinkles; many women thought the brand was as outdated as their mothers' hot curlers and Tupperware parties. But when Jung took over as CEO in 1999, she gave the company an extreme makeover, pouring millions into research and development, pushing new lines of skin cream, expanding into overseas markets and developing snazzy ads with celebrities like Salma Hayek. Since then, sales have jumped 45 percent, from $5.3 billion to a projected $7.7 billion in 2004; the company's stock has risen 164 percent. Avon looks years younger, too. College girls are now peddling...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.