Posted on 06/13/2007 3:50:01 PM PDT by Mr. Brightside
Amway, again: Alticor announces name change
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
By Chris KnapeThe Grand Rapids Press
ADA TOWNSHIP -- Amway is coming back.
Alticor Inc. today confirmed it is in the process of dumping the 7-year-old Quixtar Inc. label and relegating the Alticor name to the back burner as it focuses on rebuilding the Amway brand in North America.
Employees received the news in an internal memo from company chairman Steve Van Andel and President Doug DeVos last week, though no public announcement has been made.
"We are going through a global transformation of our business," the memo read. "This includes rethinking our global approach to products, training, brands, and how we operate in all the countries in which Alticor operates. As part of that, in 18 to 24 months, we're planning to begin using the Amway name in North America to unite our business opportunity under a single global brand."
The company has not made a formal public announcement about the change largely because it expects the transition to take time.
"This is not an overnight change -- the public won't see the Amway name on the front of our North American business for another 18-24 months," the memo said. "That's because this is -- this has to be -- more than just a name change. We want other key elements of the transformation initiative to be in place before we invite customers in to see the new Amway."
Spokesman Rob Zeiger said he does not expect the changes that accompany the name switch to cost any jobs.
The company dropped the Amway name in the United States and Canada in 2000 as part of an overhaul that took what had started as a door-to-door vitamin sales business into the world of online sales via Quixtar.
The move also was widely viewed as a way of helping the company shed some of the negative connotations the Amway name had acquired.
Over the years, some of its "Independent Business Owners" have been accused of focusing more on high-pressure recruiting tactics and selling highly profitable motivational events, tapes and books -- known as "tools" -- rather than selling Amway's products.
But the Quixtar name never resonated with the public.
"Research has shown us that the Quixtar name is weaker and less known in the U.S. and Canada than we ever expected," the memo said. "Meanwhile, even eight years after leaving North America, the Amway name is stronger and better known than we realized."
The memo notes there are still some lingering negative connotations associated with the name that the company will need to overcome.
The Amway name has enjoyed a resurgence overseas as the company focused on expanding operations under that banner in Asia. Amway China last year accounted for more than $2 billion of Alticor's $6.3 billion in annual sales.
The Amway name began to reemerge in the United States last year when the company bought the naming rights to the arena where Amway co-founder Rich DeVos' Orlando Magic play.
The company also launched a television advertising campaign using the slogan "I am Amway" during Dick DeVos' gubernatorial campaign. Dick DeVos is eldest of Rich DeVos' children and was president of Amway and Alticor until 2002. Dick DeVos led the company as it adopted Alticor as an umbrella name for the corporation controlling Quixtar, the small Pyxis Innovations division, Access Business Group, which handles contract manufacturing for other companies, and Amway.
The response to that campaign, despite DeVos' loss in the race, got the company thinking.
"That was one campaign in one state -- in an environment where Amway was under attack -- and the public showed they were willing to believe in us again," the memo said. "And it made us think: What if we put everything we had -- all the resources of this business -- into establishing one name around the world?
"We're going to find out. And believe us, you will hear a lot more as we go along."
Did someone have a “new” revelation?
Well, it looks like too many people found out what it was.
Gotta start over with a name no one knows...
Same s***, different shaped turd.
Oh, really?
I like the Quixtar online ordering system. I used it for a few years, but I didn’t see enough benefit for the cost, so I started going to Costco, instead.
To all of you who are slamming or are going to slam the Alitcor organization or Amway - stop now.
What a bunch of scum.
My daughter’s sixth grade math teacher contacted me over the summer to ask if I wanted to help him with “an internet project.” Since that’s my field and my daughter respected him as a teacher I agreed to meet with him.
He began a long rambling spiel about how his project was just like “amazon.com”. Then started talking about how I could save money by purchasing products through his system.
I immediately smelled a scam and went home to Google the “company” that he was supposedly “working” for.
Needless to say, he got one VERY nasty e-mail from me after that.
“eight years after leaving North America, the Amway name is stronger and better known than we realized.”
Yes, it is. Just like Edsel, Segway, Enron, and Ponzi.
“I have a business opportunity to tell you about, but I can’t do it here...When can I come to your house?”
How many times have you heard a variation of that? LOL
These losers prey on people with the lure of quick and easy money. Then they get these people to “sign up” their friends. Its nothing more than a pyramid scheme that manages to barely be legal.
The name should be Multi-Loser-Marketing
Are you the new hall monitor?
Can I see your badge?
(BTW, (Sc)amway and alitcor both suck...so there.)
Red flag, meet bulls.
Why they tried to scam me into joining and have done so to a few of my friends (while in college)!
“To all of you who are slamming or are going to slam the Alitcor organization or Amway - stop now.”
Amway sucks! Amway sucks! Amway sucks! Amway sucks! Amway sucks! Amway sucks! Amway sucks!
Can I have your address to send you some chain letters?
Please do not break the chain. You know what might happen.
Many years ago, someone phoned from the police department, inviting me to a meeting at the Holiday Inn of “community-minded citizens,” or some such expression. You know where this is going . . .
Great. Now all my “friends” will suddenly start asking me to attend “Marklar, Inc.” or somesuch meetings in their living rooms.
Say, have they used “Kramerica” yet?
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