| DIRECT MARKETING: Undaunted by slow growth, Amway unleashes a TVC and a slew of new products.
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| The direct selling industry in India has seen sporadic growth over the last few years. A number of players have entered and exited, while some have made their base even stronger.
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| Amway, one of the first entrants in the market, is looking to consolidate its position and enter more product categories. Also on the agenda is its first television campaign, going on air this July.
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| According to William Pinckney, managing director and CEO, Amway India, the idea of the campaign is to tell buyers about the superior Amway products and create more awareness about the brand. So far, the company has been advertising in the print media alone.
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| “We have seen that a lot of people have misconceptions about buying Amway products. We want to address that problem and there is no better way than to go on TV and reach out to the maximum number of people.” The company will spend around Rs 12-14 crore on promotional activities in this financial year.
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| It has been almost eight years since Amway came into India. The Rs 700-crore company has gradually diversed into a slew of product categories, but now wants to focus on its health and beauty products.
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| Pinckney claims that health and nutritional products contribute close to 50 per cent of product sales. There are plans to launch six to eight products by the end of this year.
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| The direct-selling industry in India is currently pegged at around Rs 3,500 crore. However, Pinckney feels that this is just the tip of the iceberg and that the industry has the potential to grow far larger.
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| “The biggest factor in the slow growth has been the lack of awareness about how the industry functions.”
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| Amway plans to open more training centres and conduct more sessions for its existing and potential business owners. As of now, Amway has about 4.5 lakh business owners and, while the company is looking to add more of these, it’s not too worried about the somewhat negative impact that some might create.
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| “It might look easy from the outside but direct selling is a lot of hard work and, just like in any other business, you have got to earn your bucks!” |
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