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Direct Selling companies boom in emerging markets! |
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published by Netcoo Editorial Office
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Thursday, 11 August 2011 |
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 Global network marketing companies like Herbalife, Nu Skin and Tupperware seem to have gotten it right in emerging markets. In developing countries teeming with opportunity-hungry entrepreneurs to-be, they have succeeded in establishing their marketing model to everyone’s advantage, providing low-seed capital business opportunities to millions of distributors who would otherwise face unemployment while achieving record-breaking sales and growth rates that boost their value on the stock exchange.
The New York Stock Exchange listed dietary supplement network Herbalife has increased in value almost tenfold since its 2009 bear-market low. Shares of the wellness and beauty network Nu Skin have better than doubled in two years and are up 33 per cent in the last three months. Their stocks are at historic highs, and are in no way overvalued.
Their success is to a large extent a result of the phenomenal growth rates recorded in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Hundreds of millions of people there have been given the opportunity to start their own businesses with very little seed capital. Extensive family networks and real hunger for financial freedom paired with solid marketing know-how have proven a real business booster. What is more, direct selling uses channels of distribution that are largely unscathed by official corruption.
This not only has a positive impact on the livelihoods of, for instance, the 14 million independent distributors found in India alone – it has also changed the way in which many of the large network marketing companies have positioned themselves globally. In Herbalife’s most recent quarter, 79 per cent of its net sales came from outside North America. For Tupperware, this figure was 70 per cent. |
