Amway Media Blog is the official news blog from Amway Corporation.
Business is booming at Amway India, leading our affiliate to triple production at a Baddi facility to keep up with consumer demand.
We’ve operated in India for 10 years and are now among the biggest fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies there.
That makes us a fast mover in a market that’s moving fast.
Our Nutrilite brand is now the top selling vitamin and dietary supplement brand in India.
Nutrilite is already the world’s best selling brand of vitamins and crossed the $3 billion annual sales mark in 2008.
Being tops in India is Nutrilite’s latest accomplishment in 75 years of helping people live healthier lives.
William S. Pinckney, managing director and CEO of Amway India Enterprises, opened our business there in 1998 and today is an active leader in some of India’s leading business forums.
Bill is part of Confederation of Indian Industry national committees on consumer affairs and “fast moving consumer goods” and is former chairman of the Indian Direct Selling Association. He’s also an increasingly prolific writer on business topics, having penned opinion pieces for major Indian newspapers.
In The Economic Times, India’s leading business and financial newspaper, Bill recently wrote:
By 2015, India’s consumer market will match that of Italy’s in absolute terms and by 2025 it will trail only those of the U.S., Japan, China and the U.K. Any body who is somebody has opened shop in India.
Bill’s not only got the dateline for India but the byline as well.
Many of us take clean drinking water for granted.
Yet each year, 1.8 million children worldwide die due to diarrhea-related illness, largely caused by unclean water and inadequate sanitation. Around the world, 400 million people do not have access to safe drinking water.
It’s clearly a serious issue, and one a couple of Amway affiliates are committed to doing something about through their One by One programs.
Amway India has installed water purifiers in schools, orphanages, and institutions in 52 cities through the Amway Opportunity Foundation’s “Project Sunshine.” Since its launch in January, Project Sunshine has made a difference in the lives of 3,350 children in India.
Amway Korea sent a One by One team to Bangladesh earlier this year, and among other things, installed 30 water pumps and toilet facilities in Ghatail.
Installing toilets, water pumps, and purifiers might not make headlines, but the impact these projects will make in the lives of children is clear.
Just a stone’s throw from the British Museum, which hosts 6 million visitors per year, sits one of our favourite London attractions… the Amway Flagship Experience Center.
The Centre opened in May, and Marketing Week UK recently covered its role in a greater plan to educate consumers about Amway’s power brands and business opportunity. With a beauty styling bar and makeup play station, it’s Amway made fun and relevant to everyone from the Amway business owner to the curious passerby. There’s always a connection back to Amway’s business owners, as commissions from sales made at the Centre are attributed back to them.
This sort of brick-and-mortar approach to increasing brand awareness has worked for us in markets like Australia, China, Germany, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, and Turkey to name a few. Amway India is also planning to turn a number of distribution centers into showrooms.
In the United States and Canada, mobile brand experiences travel to high-profile events to take the story of Amway’s power brands to the masses.
But back to the UK, where the British Museum contains fragments of the seven wonders of the world, and just a few blocks away, the Amway Flagship Experience Center contains wonders all its own.
Each year Amway opens its doors to about a dozen groups of journalists from our markets all over the world. We also host individual media who visit our world headquarters in Ada, Michigan.
Media get behind-the-scenes tours of our manufacturing facilities, access to our leaders and experts, and the opportunity to ask whatever they want about our company, business opportunity, and products. These journalists run the gamut from managing editors to television reporters to business writers.
Case in point: A tale of two visits this month. A week or so ago we hosted 12 high-level journalists from some of India’s most influential media. They spent time with Amway chairman Steve Van Andel and other top execs to understand the company’s history and vision. Stories already have appeared in media like The Telegraph, India Retailing and The Economic Times about the future of Amway in India. There’s more coverage to come.
Meanwhile, our local Fox TV affiliate spent time touring our cosmetics facility to get the scoop on how ARTISTRY cosmetics and skin care are developed. The coverage aired locally and is viewable online. (Click on the “Amway’s Artistry Plant [#1-4] 7.22.09″ segments).
Both are examples of how we invite journalists in to learn about our business and products. We host these visits not just to encourage news coverage but to help journalists understand our business and accurately cover us. They ask us tough questions and get candid answers. And in just a few days they can see our facilities, hear from our scientists and experts, and get access to company leaders who may not travel often to their home countries. We can’t bring our mile-long manufacturing facility to Makati, but we can bring Filipino journalists to Ada. And we will later this year, along with media from Japan, Thailand, Turkey and Ukraine.
So, we roll out the welcome mat for journalists—or the maligayang pagdating banig, as the case may be.
Amway India recently hit the airwaves on Radio Misty 94.3 FM, the first radio station to broadcast in North Bengal and Sikkim. Diptarag Bhattacharya, vice president for Amway India’s eastern operations, discussed the Amway Opportunity Foundation and Project Sunrise, which makes health care and safe drinking water accessible to children in need, as well as unique strategies to market our Artistry and Nutrilite brands across India in 2009.
Our “Diamond” level distributors in India also earned a brief bit of praise for partnering with a major tea company to help market green tea to Indian consumers that prefer black.
India’s prestigious Economic Times takes a shine to the changes and global expansion afoot at Amway during a turbulent worldwide economy.
The Times recently interviewed Amway president Doug DeVos, who noted in part that our company’s private ownership structure as well as our deep-seated inroads in India, China and Russia gives us a leg up on our competitors. China’s success, in particular, hints at changes to come at other Amway affiliates around the world. To Doug’s point in the article, change will help Amway to thrive over “the next 50 years and beyond.”
While we might nitpick a few points in the article, we gladly accept the Times’ pat on our back.
Remember the “Bangkok briefs” post when we pointed out those nifty “Shine like new” ads for our car polish?
Check this latest spot for Dish Drops out of Amway India. It’s mind-bending—or at the very least, coffee cup-contorting.
The Business Standard reports of Amway India’s growth strategy in 2009, as well as a new e-commerce platform for consumers.
Bill Pinckney, managing director for Amway India, also comments on renewed marketing and advertising efforts throughout India, one of our strongest markets.
