Nu Skin

Case Study 4 Nu Skin International

Introduction

Founded as Nu Skin International back in 1984, Nu Skin Enterprises is a global direct selling company that is primarily engaged in the development and distribution of personal care and nutritional products. Going international during the 1990s and currently expanding globally, NSE had 2004 revenue of $1,140,000,000 from its operations worldwide. The company has three divisions: Pharmanex (maker of natural nutraceutical products), Nu Skin (markets personal care products) and Big Planet (marketing technology services). The company is headquartered in Provo, UT.

Strategic Marketing

The objective of Nu Skin International is to recruit people who want to become entrepreneurs, by selling merchandise and signing up new distributors. They collect commission income and bonus, and have the chance to build their own sales network. The focus of the market segment is to sell to the public through independent distributors. This is accomplished not only in the United States, but internationally also.

The Issue

The question in the case of Nu Skin is whether it is a multilevel marketing business, or not. The purpose of multilevel marketing is to sell the product to the customer, through service distributors. According to the case, Nu Skin International selling pyramid is being questioned as to whether its main objective is to sell to customers or recruit more distributors. The distributors have to meet certain requirements when