Many new technologies require a demonstration. These new fangled gadgets are often so revolutionary that a brochure isn’t sufficient to explain the benefits to the customer. Like many technologies, once the product becomes ubiquitous, a demonstration no longer becomes necessary. We all know what they do and what features we want. The discovery becomes a commodity and competition becomes fierce.

Companies who do not shift their marketing with the times are doomed to fail. Like the vinyl record industry, if you didn’t convert your manufacturing facilities to produce CD’s, you were doomed to go out of business.

If you base your sales strategy on in-home demonstrations, you better be ready to shift to mass marketing and sales once your product no longer requires a demonstration-right? In the case of Electrolux, they did the opposite. They expanded it.

In 2000, Electrolux re-branded their company. Instead of focusing on the products of vacuum cleaners which made them famous, they realized that the real BENEFIT they provided was clean air in the home. That is, after all, what vacuum cleaners do; they remove the dust and dirt from our floors and provide a cleaner environment for our homes.

Aerus Review

They added a full line of innovative Healthy Home products (including air and water purification systems) as Aerus L.L.C. Named after the Greek term for “air,” the purpose of Aerus is to help others live well by producing clean, pure air and creating healthier indoor environments. This dramatic shift from an emphasis on products to a customer focus on healthy environments not only allowed them to purge the image of  the “June Cleaver” vacuum, but create an image that is synchronous with today’s emphasis on green living and healthy living.

As any marketing student knows, word of mouth advertising is the least expensive and most effective method of distribution. In home demonstrations became as rare as an honest politician as more and more women returned to the workforce. It is difficult to do in home demonstrations when nobody is home! By keeping a direct sales force model as a core component of their distribution, they not only kept a toehold on the marketplace, but allowed their customers to be their sales force.

The statistics for Aerus exemplify their success:

Wholesale Corporate Revenue: $300 million
Marketing Style: Not available
Compensation Plan: Single-level hybrid and multi-level
Products: Vacuum cleaners, air purifiers, cleansers, allergy control products, nutritional supplements and electronic equipment
Markets: 28
Distributors: 5,000

With over $300 million in revenue, Aerus has not only made the transition from canister vacuums to healthier indoor environments, they’ve set themselves apart from their former competitors who still perceive themselves as manufacturing vacuum cleaners.

What kind of MLM do you want to work with? When a company is “product focused” their product line better be diverse enough to grow and change with the times. When a company is “customer focused” their products will automatically adapt to the needs and desires of their customer.

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