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Sankar Radhakrishnan

With a highly literate population, Kerala is quickly emerging as a very important market for India's direct marketing companies.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Nov. 11

IT begins with a telephone call from a friend with an invitation to attend a meeting that will "give you a chance to earn some extra money during your spare time".

Accept the invitation and you are one step closer to becoming a network marketer, a growing tribe in Kerala today.

With a highly literate population that is also rather consumption-oriented, Kerala is quickly emerging as a very important market for India's direct marketing companies.

According to Mr William Pinckney, Managing Director & CEO, Amway India, Kerala is among the top 10 markets for the company in India.

The company's growth in the State has been very satisfactory, he added.

"It is among the fastest growing markets in the country. We expect Kerala to be among the top five markets in the near future."

Mr Samir Modi, President & Managing Director, Modicare, said: "We are doing well in Kerala. It is our number two market both in volume and value terms."

The company is clocking a growth rate of around 20 per cent per month in the State, he added.

For Modicare, Kerala is a location that has attracted a fair amount of investment in infrastructure.

With three `Success Centres' spread across the State, Kerala has the largest number of Modicare centres in a single State, according to Mr Modi.

The `Success Centres' are complemented by a distribution network with approximately 58,000 of the company's 800,000 consultants.

Amway on its part has three of its `Pick Up Centres' (PUCs) in the State, in addition to a local ordering centre in Kozhikode.

However, Mr Pinckney refused to divulge details of the number of distributors in Kerala, only stating that the company has around 310,000 active distributors across the country.

At Modicare, the emphasis is on training.

Mr Modi said that the company's `Success Centres' are at the core of this training effort.

"The training modules that are run out of these centres include the new consultant orientation programme, as well as other courses that impart skills in specific areas such as sales and leadership."

The distributors use these centres as their point of contact with the company.

According to Mr Modi, these centres are a source of information for the company's consultants, who also bring customers to introduce them to the company's entire range of products.

The `Success Centres' serve as a venue for the company's "showcases".

At these day-long events, prospective distributors are introduced to the company and its operations.

The company conducts an average of 20 such programmes every month in Kerala.

Amway's PUCs serve as the hub of the company's operations in Kerala.

The company's distributors - also known as independent business owners - can collect products from these centres, check on their performance and keep themselves abreast of company and product-related information, Mr Pinckney said.

Amway distributors also have unlimited free access to training at these PUCs, he added.

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