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The introduction of the catalog into the Depot Manager's Sales Kit in 1896 proved critical to sales expansion in the early days of the CP Company. Before this, representatives generated sales primarily through demonstration of "in-hand" products carried in Demonstrator/Sample Cases. A letter sent to Depot Managers, dated 2 November 1896, announced the publication of the company's first product CATALOGUE [sic]. One hundred thousand copies of this initial text-only document were produced and intended not only for the Depot Managers, but also to be placed in the hands of every CPC customer—so that sales might be generated outside of the periodic visitation by the representative. And therein defined the distribution and use/purpose of all of the smaller catalogs through 1916. A quick overview of the progression of the catalogs: the 1896 catalog was text only with product descriptions and testimonials. The 1897 through 1900 catalogs possessed some/few hand-drawn product illustrations along with text descriptions and pricing; the testimonials were exchanged for informative stories (e.g., The True Perfume - how perfumes are made; and others). The 1901-1915/1916 catalogs contained many more, and more accurate, product pictures; the earlier stories were either phased out or completely removed in favor of increasing product-inventory illustrations and descriptions. One key point to remember about the earlier small catalogs is that they were distributed to the CPC customers as well as being a essential element within every Depot Manager's display kit. The much larger Color Plate catalogs were produced from 1915 through 1929: full color lithographs of almost all products offered by the California Perfume Company. Use of the Color Plate catalogs met with HUGE success and resulted in substantial sales increases! From 1930 through 1957 the company used smaller catalogs (approximately 2/3rds size of the Color Plates) containing full color pictures of all the company's standard products. On particular note, the catalogs produced from 1930 onwards consistently depicted the most current product variation—container, label, and packaging.
Lastly, as World War I raged in Europe during 1915-1916, exorbitant price increases (20% to 1000%) were thrust onto the California Perfume Company. One cost cutting measure was to cease the production and distribution of the smaller catalogs. An article within the May, 1916 Outlook explains to the representatives that the smaller CPC Book catalogs were not to be given to the customers any longer, but they were to be used by the representatives for supplemental product descriptions. The need for this supplemental information was because the earliest (1915 and 1916) Color Plate catalogs only contained pictures and prices. Consequently, the Color Plate catalogs produced after 1916 then incorporated product descriptions along with the pictures and pricing. Beginning in 1926 and continuing well into the Avon era, the company once again produced customer handouts in the form of the For You and Your Home catalogs and brochures. |
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The following catalogs are available for view in PDF format: 1896 Also see CPC and Avon Outlooks, CPC
Bulletins, and more in the |
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Please note: Catalogs pictured on this page maintain accurate size compared with each other!
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 The CPC Book Mail Order Catalog ~1921 32 pages of product illustrations and descriptions, but no pricing information. Price lists were made available to the customer upon written request Dimensions: 6 in. x 4 3/8 in. Note: No begin and end dates have been established for the Mail Order Catalogs. Thus far, the range appears to be 1921 to 1927. |
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