• by Christine Bittar , February 7, 2007

Direct beauty seller Avon yesterday reported a 9.4% jump in revenue in the fourth quarter to $2.6 billion, on $184.1 million in earnings, or 41 cents a share--representing a small increase of a penny a share versus the year prior.

Product-wise, fragrance was one of Avon's bigger successes--with its new men's fragrance, Derek Jeter Driven, bringing in $10 million in sales, according to Avon. The partnership with the Yankee baseball player is one of Avon's first efforts with licensed fragrances.

The improved sales results come as Avon has been stepping up its ad spend. This last quarter, it boosted its media outlay by a significant $43 million to $89 million for the October through December period. The additional advertising was put toward new product introductions such as Anew Clinical ThermaFirm and SuperFull Mascara, in addition to its direct selling launch in China.

Avon's total media spend last year was $249 million--up 83% from 2005. The company's creative is handled through its in-house advertising department, and the planned increased advertising was meant to directly improve sales.

In fact, even as Avon had been cutting staff, it's also working to strengthen its global marketing and advertising function, with two new executive hires announced at the end of the year--one to oversee media planning and buying and the other to take charge of Avon's global image, from its brochure to packaging to creative.

In addition, in the last year, Avon has been restructuring, cutting staff, and stepping up other marketing efforts as well as luring new rep recruits.

The number of Avon reps--its major distribution channel--increased 5% globally in the fourth quarter and 1% in North America.

Previously, CEO Andrea Jung announced that one of the ways Avon would look to increase efficiency is by slimming down its product assortment, dropping as much as 40% of its SKUs this year via its "Product Line Simplification."