Interview with Ms. Carmela Smith (Marketing Specialist)and with Mr. Randy Tucker (I.T. Manager) at Amway-Canada
-To foster good relationships with our distributors by building a strong foundation based on trust, integrity, support, and financial reward.
- What are Amway’s main marketing objectives?
-To provide customers with products that simplify and enrich their lives (create value for our customers).
-To strength Amway’s brand image through product innovation and consumer awareness.
-Improve access to our productby expanding our direct-selling system.
-A 25% incremental expenditureto update the look and functionality of
Amway’s web site.
-Amway’s marketing activities offline are much more extensive than our online initiatives. Amwayprides itself on providing a strong support network for our distributors. It does so through numerous motivational seminars and distributor meetings. Our seminars contain an enthusiasm and energy that just cannot beduplicated online. Also, most of our new member recruits come throughour current members and most of our publicity comes through word of mouthand throughour annual publications.
- What are the differences between your marketing activities online and offline?
-From my understanding, e-business consists of promoting your business over the Internet and selling your products online. I think that e-business will be very important to Amway because right now that market trend is toward online shopping. Amway’s main goal is to provide our distributors with the resources and opportunities to be successful both professionally and personally. We believe that the Internet has tremendous potential and in the future could be one of our main marketing tools. However, right now our marketing plans are more focused on people rather than technology but we are trying to explore ways of integrating both of them.
- Do you know what e-business is and how would it be of use to you?
-No. I am not familiar with that term.
- Have you considered fostering an online-community to integrate both people and technology?
-Like I previously mentioned the Internet is a growing trend and becoming a necessity among businesses inorder to gain a competitive edge. We created our web page as a fountainof information for people who were unfamiliar with Amway and the productsweoffer. Having a web page also helps increase our exposure and helpsus stay closer to our distributors.
- Why did Amway develop a web page?
-I would like to Amway-Canada to have access to its catalogues online just like our U.S. counterpart. I would also like to hear feedback about our website from our visitors so there should be a discussion/suggestion box. Lastly, I would like to see more success stories as that is Amway’s main objective and to have a calendar of upcoming events so that everyone is kept up-to-date. I am also very open to any suggestions your group will make regarding ourwebsite.
- What improvements or additional functions would you like to make to your web page?
-Amway is a member of the Canadian Direct Sellers Association. We also partner with companies such AT&T, Cantel, Rubbermaid… Also, Amway is involved in numerous sponsorships such as Junior Achievement Canada Inc., Easter Seals Canada, and variousother artistic, environmental and athletic initiatives within our communities.
- Does Amway have any industry associations?
-Not that I am aware of. In the beginning a number of people had trouble accessing our website but I believe our IT professionals in the U.S. dealt with that a while ago.
- Have you had any major problems with your website?
- We plan to continually expand our website. One initiative that we are working on is to increase the security for our website as we have had a few problems with hackers in the past.
- Does Amway have any future plans for its website?
-Yes.
- Does your website have any cookies so that it can keep track of the users that visit your website?
Thank you note was sent to both.
Second interview
Summary of discussion with Mr. & Mrs. Gustafson; Amway independent business owners
We contact Mr. & Mrs. Gustafson in order to get a user point of view. After reviewing the web site, they stated that it contains very general information and that it was easy to navigate around the web site because of its simplicity. They personally would not visit the web site more than once as it did not have any new or relevant information. What they did like about the web site was they were able to contact Amway specialists in an efficient and costeffective manner.
Email from business relation coordinator at Amway Headquarter
In order to ascertain how quickly and effectively Amway responds to email sent by the web site user, we sent them a mock email as included below. Their response came within the same day and effectively addressed our questions. We also like that they asked us for more information in order to follow up on our initial question.
Dear Rhea:
Thank you for your interest in knowing more about the Amway business
opportunity. In order to become an Amway Independent Business Owner, youmust become registered by one of the Independent Business Owners (IBO). It is up to the IBO to show you how the Business Ownership Plan works.
We can put you in touch with an IBO in your area if you can let us know your full address and telephone number.
Once again, thank you for your interest.
Regards,
Tassy Papadopoulos-Dunbar
Coordinator, Business Relations
From: Rhea Leitao
Email Address: 96leitao@scar.utoronto.ca
Reply Wanted
Date and Time: 11/27/00 3:53:48 PM EST
Remote Address: 142.150.161.207
Message:
Hi,
I'm from Canada and I am a University student who is interested in earning extra money through Amway. I would like to learn more about the Amway opportunity but I don't know any Amway distributors in my area.
Could you please let me know how to become a Amway distributor and about
Amways Sales and Marketing Plans for its distributors.
Thanks a lot.
Back to Table of Content
Back to Home