Amway Products - The best of the best

Amway's product line grew from LOC, with the laundry detergent SA8 added in 1960, and later the hair care product Satinique (1965) and the cosmetics line Artistry (1968). Today Amway manufactures over 450 products, with manufacturing facilities in China, India and the United States, as well as Nutrilite organic farms in Brazil, Mexico and the United States (California and Washington State). In addition, Amway affiliates market products from hundreds of other manufacturers offering everything from books (e.g. Barnes & Noble, North America) to wine (World of Wine, Europe).

Household cleaners

Amway is best known in North America for its original multi-purpose cleaning product LOC, SA8 laundry detergent, and Dish Drops dishwashing liquid. In the January 2007 issue of Consumer Reports, SA8 with Bioquest was rated the best-performing laundry detergent, scoring 99 out of a possible 100 points.


Consumer Reports did, however, criticise SA8's pricing, a situation which was disputed by Amway. Consumer Reports conducted blind testing of detergents in 2010 and ranked versions of Amway's Legacy of Clean detergents 9th and 18th of 20 detergents tested. Consumer Reports program manager Pat Slaven recommended against buying the products because consumers can "go to the grocery store and get something that performs a whole lot better for a whole lot less money."

Health and beauty

Amway's health and beauty brands include Artistry, Beautycycle, Time Defiance, Artistry Essentials, Pure White, Satinique, Tolsom, Body Series, Glister, Moiskin (South America), Nutrilite, Nutriway (Scandinavia and Australia/New Zealand), eSpring, Atmosphere and iCook as well as XL and XS Energy drinks.

Artistry

Artistry is a brand of skin care and colour cosmetics, produced by Access Business Group and marketed by Amway in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide. Access, Quixtar, and Amway are part of the Alticor group of companies. Euromonitor International, a researcher and publisher of market reports, business reference books and online information databases, independently categorises Artistry as a prestige brand and ranks Artistry as one of the top five in sales in this category, alongside Clinique, Estée Lauder, Lancôme, and Chanel.Artistry is the only direct sales brand classified in the "prestige" category. 

Artistry was launched in 1968 as a product line of skincare under the Nutrilite brand and continues to utilise Nutrilite research and technology, including patented Nutrilite extracts which are organically grown.



As of 2000, the Artistry range included over 400 products.



Up to and including 2004, Ingrid Vandebosch of Belgium was known to be the face of Artistry. She was followed in 2005 by Canadian model Kim Tyo.


In 2005, Amway introduced Artistry's two sister brands NAO Cosmetics and Eddie Funkhouser. These brands are targeted to a younger audience, with NAO Cosmetics available in North America and Eddie Funkhouser in other Amway markets. Amway ceased marketing these brands in 2010.

In May 2007, it was announced by Skate Canada and Quixtar that Artistry Cosmetics would be the official skin care and cosmetics sponsor for Skate Canada events and the Skate Canada national team.

In 2008, Alticor announced actress Sandra Bullock as "the face" of Artistry Creme LuXury.

In 2010, Artistry and Amway became sponsors of the Miss America competition, with the winner taking the role of Artistry spokesperson.

The Artistry Essentials skincare line won AmeriStar’s 2007 Package Competition in the category of Health & Beauty Aids Artistry Créme Luxury (also known Créme L/X) won the Skin Care Prestige category in the International Package Design Awards (IPDA) in 2008 and was nominated as a finalist in the Best New Skincare Product of the Year category for the 2009 UK Beauty Awards.

Amway's Artistry products include skin care, cosmetics, and anti-aging creams and serums.

Nutrilite

Amway's largest selling brand is the Nutrilite range of health supplements (marketed as Nutriway in some countries), and in 2008 Nutrilite sales exceeded US$3billion globally. In 2001, five Nutrilite products were the first dietary supplements to be certified by NSF International. Surveys by independent group Consumerlab.com since 2002 have rated Nutrilite as having the highest customer satisfaction rating (96% in 2006) in the direct selling/MLM brand category.In 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 in the nutrient and health food category, Nutrilite won "Platinum" and "Gold" awards in Malaysia, China, Taiwan, Thailand, and Asia overall in the Reader's Digest "Trusted Brands of Asia" survey. In 2008 Nutrilite scientists, in partnership with Alticor subsidiary Interleukin Genetics won the 12th John M. Kinney Award for Nutrition and Metabolism for their research into the interaction between nutrition and genetics. In January 2009, Amway announced a voluntary recall of Nutrilite and XS Energy Bars after learning that they had possibly been manufactured with Salmonella-contaminated ingredients from Peanut Corporation of America. The company indicated that it had not received any reports of illness in connection with the products.

Nutrilite is a brand of mineral, vitamin, and dietary supplements created in 1934 by Dr. Carl F. Rehnborg. Nutrilite products are currently manufactured by Access Business Group, a subsidiary of Alticor whose products are sold via the Amway and Amway Global Corporations worldwide. The Nutrilite brand is known as Nutriway in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, Australia and New Zealand. Nutrilite has passed US$14billion in annual sales for the first time during 2010 making it the number one sold nutritional product, making more than double the second biggest nutritional company being GNC.

History of Nutrilite

Dr. Carl Rehnborg created the first multi-vitamin in the 1930s. His time in China between 1917 and 1927 or so exposed him to experiences in which he realized the role vitamins and nutrients impacted general health. He began selling his vitamins as the California Vitamin company and renamed it in 1939 to Nutrilite. In 1945, he invented the multi-level marketing, door-to-door, selling system to distribute his vitamins. Two men, Lee S. Mytinger and William S. Casselberry became exclusive national distributor in 1945 and operated a company to distribute the vitamins.
The founders of Amway, billionaires Jay Van Andel and Rich DeVos, began as independent distributors selling Nutrilite products in 1949, at a time when the product's previous distributors (Mytinger and Casselberry, Inc.) were involved in a dispute with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which accused them of false advertising. They rose rapidly to being top-selling distributors. Concerned about the FDA dispute, Van Andel and DeVos launched a new company, the American Way, (later known as Amway), to use the MLM system for other household products. The FDA/Mytinger-Cassleberry dispute, which was went to the United States Supreme Court, was resolved in favor of the FDA in the 1960s.
Amway bought a controlling interest in the company in 1972, and took over complete ownership in 1994.
In 2001, five Nutrilite products were the first dietary supplements to be certified by NSF International.
In 2007, the Simply Nutrilite (later renamed Nutrilite Trim Advantage Body System) line was introduced. The line includes health bars, anti-oxidant, and vitamin supplements.

Distribution and marketing

Nutrilite's vitamin and mineral products are distributed exclusively by Amway affiliates known as Independent Business Owners (IBO) in North America and 90 other countries and territories. Amway, Quixtar, and Access Business Group, are subsidiaries of Alticor.
As spokespersons for the brand, Nutrilite has signed 2008 Olympic gold medalist (4 x 100m relay) Asafa Powell of Jamaica; former 110m men's hurdles world record holder Liu Xiang of China; 2008 Olympic gold and bronze track and field medalist Sanya Richards, FIFA World Player of the Year Ronaldinho; and 2008 Olympic silver medalist in pole vault, Jenn Stuczy

Reception

Nutrilite Double X was tested by ConsumerLab.com in their Multivitamin and Multimineral Supplements Review of 38 of the leading multivitamin/multimineral products sold in the U.S. and Canada. Double X passed ConsumerLab's test, which included testing of selected index elements, their ability to disintegrate in solution per United States Pharmacopeia guidelines, lead contamination threshold set in California Proposition 65, and meeting FDA labeling requirements.

Regulatory and safety issues

In 1948, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration seized shipments of Nutrilite, then distributed by a California firm, Mytinger & Casselberry Inc. The FDA claimed that a booklet with the product made false claims that it would cure diseases. The distributor brought suit, claiming the seizures were unconstitutional. In 1950, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the seizure was constitutional.



In 1951 the FDA again acted against Nutrilite, issuing a landmark order forbidding 15,000 door-to-door salesmen of the product from making "extravagant" claims for Nutrilite. The FDA prohibited claims that Nutrilite had value in treating 57 diseases, including "cancer, heart trouble, diabetes, arthritis and rheumatism." The FDA said that such claims could endanger the public health when made "in the privacy of the home."
In 2009 Amway voluntarily recalled three kinds of Nutrilite energy bars due to potential contamination with salmonella from the peanut butter salmonella outbreak.

eSpring

Amway's eSpring water filter, introduced in 2000, was the first home water treatment system to incorporate a carbon block filter and Ultraviolet disinfection unit, becoming the first home system to achieve certification for ANSI/NSF Standards 42, 53 and 55. The unit was also the first commercial product to include sister company Fulton Innovations eCoupled wireless power induction technology. Fulton Innovation introduced the technology in other consumer electronic products at the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show. Companies licensing this technology include General Motors, Motorola and Visteon.In 2006 eSpring was named Product of the Year by the Poland-based non-profit World Foundation of Health, Heart and Mind.  eSpring has won numerous Gold and Platinum awards in the Reader's Digest Most Trusted Brand Asia surveys.

Atmosphere

In 2008 Amway's Atmosphere Air Purifier became the first air cleaner certified Asthma and Allergy Friendly by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America

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