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Andrea Jung on Branding and Marketing
Andrea Jung
President and CEO of Grameen America and Former CEO of Avon Products
- Longest-tenured female Fortune 500 CEO
- Formerly named one of Forbes magazine’s “Most Powerful Women in the World”
- Stories of how she tripled Avon’s profits and created an unparalleled corporate culture—plus the 7 qualities of successful leaders
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Andrea Jung is the former chairman of the board and CEO of Avon. Throughout her career, she ranked consistently among the top leaders in world on lists including Fortune magazine’s “Most Powerful Women in Business,” Forbes magazine’s “Most Powerful Women in the World,” and Financial Times’ “Top Women in World Business.” A role model and trailblazer for women, she was Avon’s first female CEO, despite the company’s 126-year history, and the first female CEO at a cosmetics company who was not also its founder. At the time, she was also the longest-tenured female Fortune 500 CEO in history. Jung is currently the president and CEO of Grameen America, where she is working to scale the organization to solve economic issues for women and their families across the country through microloans, training, and support. She is also on the boards of directors at General Electric and Apple.
Exclusively represented by Leading Authorities speakers bureau, Jung is a powerful speaker on leading a global business, business strategy and innovation, marketing and branding, and motivating teams. During her time at Avon as chairman and CEO, she was responsible for developing the company’s strategies, brand initiatives, and economic opportunities model for women, expanding around the world into more than 100 countries. She is credited with defining Avon as more than just a cosmetics company, leading it to become the company for women and enabling economic independence and self-sufficiency for millions of women worldwide.
Jung is lauded globally for her passionate dedication to empowering women, through economic earnings opportunities and through her pursuit of public-private partnerships to end violence against women and to stem the breast cancer epidemic.
Notable Awards. Among her other awards, Brandweek named her “Marketer of the Year,” Ladies Home Journal named her one of the “30 Most Powerful Women,” and she was listed at number eight in “Corporate America’s 50 Most Powerful Women.” She was also named one of the top “25 Women to Watch” by Advertising Age. She was given the American Advertising Federation’s Advertising Hall of Achievement award, and for her philanthropic work, she was awarded the Clinton Global Citizen Award for “visionary leadership in solving pressing global challenges.”
Work History. Jung joined Avon in 1994 as president, product marketing. She was elected president of global marketing in 1996, executive vice president in 1997, president and a director of the company in 1998, chief operating officer in 1998, CEO in 1999, and chairman in 2001. She was also the first female to serve as chairman of the Cosmetic, Toiletry & Fragrance Association and chairman of the World Federation of Direct Selling Associations.
Speaker Video
Leading a Global Business. With her vast experience as the longest-tenured female Fortune 500 CEO, Andrea Jung addresses how to lead a global business. She describes her seven qualities of successful leaders: passion, compassion, courage, humility, pride, perseverance, and impactfulness and shares stories about how they helped her more than triple Avon’s profits and transform the organization into the company for women. Leading a successful business in today’s rapidly-changing, globalized world requires all seven characteristics, and Jung shares the knowledge that allowed her to transform Avon’s operating model and cost structure, expand internationally, improve brand perception, reinvent corporate culture, manage change, take calculated risks, and succeed where others had failed.
Technology and Innovation. In order to turn Avon around and create years of double-digit growth, Andrea Jung prioritized strategy and innovation in her organization. She discusses the role that technology played in helping Avon stay competitive, the transformative role of digitization – in terms of integrating technology with geographically-dispersed, independent agents, and how Avon maintained its high level of touch with its customers while also becoming a high tech, modern, web-based businesses. She also addresses using technology to motivate teams.
Marketing and Branding. When Andrea Jung took the helm at Avon, the company was struggling. She injected energy into a tired brand, propelled it into a world of hip, young makeup products, and expanded into untapped demographics. Jung explains how she transformed the brand – the “ding dong” Avon Ladies evolved into modern entrepreneurs who are smart, savvy, and professional – and the perception of the products followed suit. Through focused marketing and branding, she positioned Avon not only to survive a harsh economic climate but to thrive once conditions improved. In her presentations, Jung shares stories from her time at Avon and explains how she put a youthful face on a mature company, proving to be the ultimate makeover artist.
Women in Business. Andrea Jung turned Avon into the company for women. Her goal was to make the organization both profitable and purposeful, and she helped her sales reps all over the world achieve economic self-sufficiency. The founding principle of the company, the direct selling model, has enabled millions of women to become financially independent. Repeatedly named one of Forbes “100 Most Powerful Women,” Jung discusses women in business and the challenges they face in part based on her experience getting originally passed for the CEO position in favor of a man.
