|
||||
  
 
 |
There's gold in a spiny, lime-colored 'pinecone-potato' fruit from Tahiti, marketers find By
K. Lynn People pay a hefty price for noni juice -- it sells retail for about $42 a liter. That may be because it's found in Tahiti where private, thatch-roofed bungalows hover above turquoise lagoons, where giant palms shade secluded beaches, where candy-bar sized geckos swat mosquitoes with their tongues and where everyone wears a lei. Like bananas it comes from a fruit that grows in trees. For centuries, locals have called it the "fountain of youth." In the past, French Polynesians have used the noni fruit both externally and internally to treat a variety of ailments -- fatigue, a stonefish bite, sore throats, rheumatism and even syphilis. Grown throughout the islands of the South Pacific, the outside of this spiny, lime-colored fruit looks like a cross between a pinecone and a potato, and inside it resembles a kiwi. The taste and smell however are completely different from a kiwi. It's more like "rotten-cheese," says noni connoisseur Greg Tedrow, "when it's not ripe it has no taste, but after it has ripened the fruit tastes rancid." Fortunately, food scientists John Wadsworth and Stephen Story formulated a more palatable juice from the fruit with the help of noni specialist, Dr. Ralph Heinicke. They labeled it Tahitian Noni Juice, and in July 1996 introduced it to the world. Kyle Davis, avid Tahitian Noni Juice drinker, says, "It tastes extremely bitter, not sweet by any means." But, he says, "It's kind of refreshing in the morning. It's an acquired taste. I learned to like it by making it cold, almost crystalline." In order to market this new health-supplement to other users, Wadsworth and Story partnered up with network marketing gurus Kerry Asay, Kim Asay and Kelly Olsen. The three had over 30-years of combined health-supplement network marketing expertise. The five named their company Morinda after the noni plant's botanical name Morinda citrofolia. And, the founders chose to promote their product through independent distributors. Direct selling or network marketing has gained an often unscrupulous reputation, but Morinda saw redeeming value in the trade. Morinda believes, "If a product has a reputation of being worthless, it won't sell." According to a company press statement, "Tahitian Noni Juice is a unique product that needs to be explained by someone who has had a personal experience with it. Network marketing facilitates this process." And, network marketing has not hurt the company's sales. Headquartered in Orem, UT, Morinda sold $40,000 worth of Tahitian Noni Juice in its first month of business. The company finished its first year with $6.58 million in sales. It was during that same year that Kevin Baadsgaard learned about Morinda and Tahitian Noni Juice. Baadsgaard, a 20-year network marketer, heard about Morinda from an acquaintance and in turn shared it with his nephew Greg Tedrow. At first Tedrow says, "I was very impressed with the company." It still took him over two years to join the team. In August 1998 -- the day after he graduated from the University of Utah with a bachelor's in economics -- Tedrow moved to Japan to work as an independent distributor for Morinda. But, this wasn't his first experience in the country. Tedrow had lived in Kobe four years earlier when he served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He enjoyed the culture, people and food, but he relished in the challenge of mastering the language. Four years may have lapsed since Tedrow lived in Japan, but his Japanese language skills were better than ever. After returning from Japan in 1994, Tedrow worked in communications for NuSkin where he spent half of his time conversing in Japanese. Then, in the summer of 1996, Tedrow led Japanese tours through New York City for five months. And, when he completed his bachelor's, he only needed an additional three credits for a minor in the language. Moving back to Japan enticed Tedrow, but so did the potential that he saw in Morinda. To get things started, the company paid him $2,000 a month for three months. Tedrow didn't start promoting Tahitian Noni Juice alone; three others went with him to open Morinda's Japanese market. The four shared a two-room apartment in Tokyo and lived rather frugally, while trying to get business off the ground. Tedrow says, "We ate chunks of bread, rice -- rice is cheap -- and sandwiches." He laughs, "I lost a lot of weight." Even if he walked a little lighter, this 6-foot-4-inch, brown-haired, blue-eyed man stood like a Macy's Day Parade balloon next to the others on Tokyo's crowded sidewalks. Tedrow wasn't worried about the busy streets, he was anxious for a crowded appointment schedule. If the company was going to succeed, Tedrow expected it to take three months. He says, "I figured, if it doesn't get off the ground in three months, I'm coming home and getting a regular job." Tedrow and his team hit the ground hard. Instead of banging on doors, the team targeted businesses' competitor companies like Nature's Sunshine, NuSkin and Neways. Tedrow recalls, "We were giving it our all. All day, every day." He says, "At about the two month mark I was pretty sweatin' it. I was like this is the biggest waste of time in the world. What am I doing?" Tedrow's sweat subsided a month later when he started to earn about $2,000 a month in commissions. He recalls, "Things slowly increased monthly from there on." Juice sales couldn't have increased too slowly, since Tedrow shot like a champagne cork through Morinda's sales ranks. His title changed from Coral, to Jade, to Pearl, on to Diamond Pearl, to his current title of Triple Diamond Pearl in two years. Tedrow says, "Triple Diamond Pearl is the second to the highest position." Only the Black Pearl ranks higher in the company. He laughs, "it's so hokey to have these names," but they have to call the sales levels something -- "I guess they're creative." And creativity abounds when Tedrow's friend Kyle Davis, a Pearl distributor, jokingly calls him a "Triple Black Ninja Diamond Pearl." Davis began selling noni products in August 2000, and is one of 65,000 to 70,000 distributors working under Tedrow. Tedrow explains his business's growth as "kind of a timing thing, [the Japanese market] proliferated under three different people," he says. And, his timing in Japan was impeccable. Now, more than 95 percent of Tedrow's sales come from Japan and he estimates that half of Morinda's sales occur there. He states, "My growth directly reflects on Morinda's growth." Despite his company's impressive growth, Tedrow shies away from talking about the financial aspects of his company GRT Marketing. He admits, "Last year I did pretty well." He explains, "I intended to go to Japan and make between $5,000 to $10,000 a month, best case scenario. It's safe to say that I've done a lot better than that." Last year, Tedrow contributed to Morinda's total wholesale volume of $360 million. To maintain his Triple Diamond Pearl status, among other things, Tedrow must meet at least $45,000 of total sales for eight levels under him, plus have five qualifying Pearls who each do $24,000 in sales per month. Davis is one such Pearl. Morinda can thank Tedrow and Davis for company-wide global sales that surpassed the billion-dollar mark earlier this March. With increasing sales, Morinda has also expanded its product line to include a Tahitian Noni Facial Care System, Tahitian Trim Complete Shakes, skin supplements, lip balm, shampoo, conditioner, soaps and other noni based dietary supplements. Noni researchers have worked diligently to create new products while distributors have labored to introduce these products to the world. Morinda now operates in 20 countries including Venezuela, Norway, Germany, Malaysia, New Zealand, but its Tahitian Noni Juice is sold in at least 28 countries. Tedrow sought to expand his business too. "I tried to copy what I did in Japan in Germany and I failed because I didn't live there." Living in the country certainly helps. Despite monthly trips to Japan, about four months after moving back to Utah in April 2000, Tedrow saw his Japanese sales level off. Proximity helps in keeping a sales force motivated, even though he says, "there's no trick, everyone's different." He explains, "You just have to figure out what motivates that person -- training, new ideas, new marketing strategies, or just charisma." But, says Tedrow, "When you find the right people, it's not hard." As a whole, despite a personal leveling off in sales, he says, "I'm still very happy with it." He explains, "It's just the behavior of the market." And, Tedrow's group has continued to wrestle the Japanese market. He says, "Most of the people in my group make more money than me. I love it when people who work under me make tons more than me." And, he says, "Even though my group hasn't continued to grow in Japan, the country as a whole has grown, as far as country-wide sales." Tedrow enjoys working for Morinda. The company has structured its system to help distributors maximize their time. "The main goal is to get people to buy direct from the company," he says. "I don't even deal with profit margins and I don't sell anything for retail profit," he continues, "the company is great because they take care of it for you." The system is quite complicated, but Tedrow explains that off of the product's price, "the company takes out 47 percent for its cost and the rest is a profit margin for distributors." Although he likes the system, it's the "time and freedom" that Tedrow enjoys most about his job. And, he does not pucker at the taste of Tahitian Noni Juice like he did originally. Like Davis, Tedrow says, "I acquired a taste for it." Tedrow's tastes for the network marketing field haven't soured either. He plans to continue selling the juice and educating people about the trade. He does this by assuring people that it's not a "pyramid scheme," nor is it a "get-rich-quick" gimmick. "I think it's more an issue of educating people than anything," he says. Morinda must have done something right. The company reports, "Sales of Tahitian Noni products continue to grow every month around the world." Tedrow expects that the Japanese market will sustain his business for many years. For now, he's just looking for more of the "right people."
|
Archived Months:
January
1999 January
2000 January
2001 |
||