‘We Have Moved To A 100% Digital Approach On Our Brands This Year'

Direct selling firm Amway India recently completed 20 years in India.The Rs 1,800 crore brand is looking to clock around Rs 6,000 crore in brand growth from its India operations by 2025.Investing heavily in the Digital and influencer marketing space, the brand now seems to be focusing on expanding in a big way. Sundip Shah, Chief Marketing Officer, Amway India talks about the brand’s marketing focus, growth drivers and explains why Digital continues to play a big role in all its campaigns

- Misbaah Mansuri

Q] Amway recently completed 20 years in the Indian market. As a direct selling company, what are some of the big challenges you have faced over the years here in India?

One big challenge that we have faced in markets across the globe is that the general public and the government are not familiar with direct selling.Currently the lack of clear direct selling laws prevent the law enforcement authorities to distinguish between direct selling and fraudulent schemes that masquerade as direct selling companies. Effective and efficient legislation will allow Indian direct sellers to focus on growing their business through product sales and simultaneously protect consumers from fraudulent enterprises. While there has been some confusion regarding the direct selling business model in India, both the consumers and the government are beginning to understand the business model better. Industry bodies like Indian Direct Selling Association (IDSA) have been working closing with the government to bring direct selling guidelines to address this challenge and we are happy that the Ministry of Consumers Affairs has issued guidelines on the direct selling industry and now slowly each state is adopting it. Additionally, of course, at the heart of Amway’s model is people, so another challenge is how do we enable people to represent our brands and products, especially the youth segment, who are today’s opinion-makers and influencers in our society and more open to experimentation. Amway is currently working on making its interface simpler, intuitive, more exciting and relevant for the exponentially growing youth population.