Avon had an insert in Glamour magazine this month for their new line of skin care. When I first laid eyes on it I though it was about Mary Kay products. Looking at it more closely I realized it was Avon. The reason for this mistake is because the name of this new line is called mark. just like that with the dot at the end, using the same type face as MK. Also, the bottles of the various skin care are white with pink lettering. On each bottle it says mark..   

I was wondering if anyone else saw this and also felt it was bordering on rip off? I have felt for a long time that Avon has been copying MK but this is really too much. If I were the MK company I would think about suing them instead of some poor consultant who is just trying to get rid of her products.

mark. has been around for at least 5 years now, if not more.  When I was in MK I also went to Curves (the exercize place) which has some affiliation w/ Avon.  I always looked through the Avon and mark. catalogs and guess what?  They had things just like MK but about 1 or 2 quarters before MK.  It was like clockwork, as if MK had a spy in the Avon marketing meetings.  Right down to the roll-up bag, except Avon wanted about 10 bucks for theirs, and you didn't have to fill it with $199 worth of crap to get it.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not vouching for Avon or saying anything good about them, just that both co.'s are probably trying to stay "on trend" but Avon seems to beat MK to the punch every time. 

Hey!
I know exactly what you're saying.  I've always thought that Avon copied Mary Kay in their advertising style.  I've reviewed their catalogs and you really can see the likeness to Mary Kay.  It would be interesting to see how the Mary Kay Company deals with competitors such as Avon.
Pat

I agree with you. Avon did not have the whole MLM thing going for it. It was just Avon reps going door to door and/or passing out catalogs. They did not do skin care classes and they did not have heavy emphasis on recruiting or building your team. Somewhere along the line they started to put a heavy emphasis on the whole building your team thing, etc. Also, MK started to do advertising in magazines and TV ads and then Avon started to go heavy on the advertising, especially the TV advertising. I know a few who sold Avon and they got no help or training that I could see. I am not trying to defend MK but, since I sold MK for about 12 years I was able to monitor when MK came out with products and advertising and when Avon did and it seemed to me that Avon was the one copying. I could be wrong but that is just my observation.

What really caught my eye was the fact that the skin care bottles of mark are patterned after MK skin care bottles, if they had a pink cap it would be hard to tell which was which.

One of the main draws to Avon was that I wouldn't have to do parties or recruit. But that seems to be more and more a part of the Avon experience. They have party kits listed for rep tools, and they also endorse certain party/recruiting products through Avon Advantage. So maybe it's finally trickled down to Avon.

It's hard to say who copies who, because just about everybody is on it now. I've been to a few "parties" and presentations, and the only thing different is the name of the business.

As for the skin care packaging similarities, well...I'm in no position to comment on similarity or lack of it, or intent or lack of it. Maybe it's just perceived as more "on trend" or just more cost-effective. 

I also went to the site and indeed the bottles have black on them.  In my opinion they don't look alike.  Avon has a fragrance similar to the MK's Today mist (no longer available).  I heard once that MK has something to do with Avon.