How Far Can Direct Selling Take a Brand?

Ndubuisi Eluwa

Creating the product or service is only the first stage in the life of a brand, especially in a competitive market. The next stage is to secure a market for the brand. This is where marketing communications, including advertising, promotions, public relations and direct selling, is deployed to adequately secure a place for the new brand and position it against competition.
According to World Federation of Direct Selling Association (WFDSA), direct selling is a dynamic and vibrant channel of distribution for the marketing of products and services directly to consumers. Sales are typically made through talk forums, one-on-one demonstrations, and other personal contact arrangements
Research shows that direct selling started as peddling, otherwise known as hawking. This form has assumed different dimensions and approaches in the Nigerian terrain. The most common ones include automobile, tricycle, bicycle, cart and human hawking. Multilevel marketing, and its many appellations such as viral marketing, network marketing or structure marketing, is another form of direct selling. This approach was popularized in Nigeria through international supplementary health networks such as Agel, GNLD, Forever Living Products (FLP) and Tianshi.
One of the benefits of direct selling is that it affords the seller the opportunity to make personal contact with the buyer. The consumer also benefits from the personalized attention in terms of extensive demonstrations and explanations and home delivery. In addition, feedback is usually immediate.
Direct selling provides a distribution channel for companies who cannot afford the enormous advertising and promotion costs necessary to gain shelf presence in conventional markets. It enhances the retail distribution infrastructure of the economy and greatly reduces the costs of marketing campaigns. This makes it a ready option for small and medium enterprises that cannot afford huge overhead costs. When properly deployed, direct selling is an effective tool in both communicating a brand and positioning it.
According to an industry expert, Mr. Maduako JohnKenneth, Marketing Manager, Light Level Ltd, direct selling requires no advertising as it provides an interface with consumers. “The oldest and crudest form of advertising is word of mouth or one-on-one communication and this is the major vehicle upon which direct selling rides,” he posits. He adds that brand loyalty sometimes follows a chain formation and this, in most cases, is achieved through referrals or emulation. Oftentimes, consumers buy certain things because a friend or close relation referred or introduced it to them and not necessarily as a result of influence by media advert. “A lot of times, loyalty chains are formed through direct selling because one party ends up influencing two or three more people and on it goes,” he reiterates.
Research shows that small and medium companies mainly rely on direct selling as the major channel for distributing and positioning their products. In the Nigerian environment, it is common to see small scale manufacturers engage in direct selling of their products to consumers. Financial brands also rely on direct selling to get their products across to target markets and many major cities are replete with vendors, sometimes in branded attires, hawking their products to passersby.
This confirms expert opinion that direct selling is a strategic means of gaining access into a market.

How Far Can Direct Selling take a Brand?
If direct selling is strategic to product entry into the market, can it be eliminated afterwards? Can it sustain products in a highly competitive environment?
Mr. Maduako explains that the type of marketing an organization wants to pursue will determine whether or not to discontinue direct selling. He however advises that this approach should not be eliminated because, “It is what ultimately sustains the life circle of the product in the market.”
Mr. Tolulope Fadulu, a staff of Susu Microfinance Bank, views direct selling more from a multilevel marketing perspective. In his opinion, direct selling can take a product from the level of being a mere commodity to brand status as long as the owners can sustain both the reward system and quality of the product. He draws instances from popular brands in the herbal products sector where he once had a network with Agel. In his words, “Many of the brands in the herbal products sector that are household names today got there via direct selling.” He also emphasizes that as long as quality, packaging and right pricing are sustained, the products will transit from being mere commodities to becoming viable brands.