Follow in footsteps of ‘Avon ladies’
THE legendary “Avon ladies”, who made a living going door-to-door marketing their products, might hold the key to South Africa’s crippling unemployment crises, says former Nelson Mandela Bay-based brand researcher Peter Steenkamp.
Steenkamp, who worked with more than 100 small, mostly township-based Bay entrepreneurs before taking up a lecturing post in Cape Town, said South Africans were well-positioned to take advantage of new business opportunities because the country had a high incidence of “phenomenal, world-class entrepreneurs”. Steenkamp partnered with the Uitenhage Despatch Development Initiative (UDDI) and the Uitenhage Self-employment Centre (USEC) before taking up the post of marketing lecturer at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. He is working on his doctorate in business-to-business services branding in the insurance industry and is also an independent non-executive director at Port Elizabeth-founded national network marketing insurance company Multisure Corporation.
He said that to alleviate the high unemployment rate, business models – such as the network marketing model used by Avon – needed to better cater for the communities crying out for work.
“Most people end up as entrepreneurs due to not having any other alternative to survive. They become ‘survivalist entrepreneurs’, not entrepreneurs by choice.”
As proven by the legendary Avon ladies, network marketing was a solution to unemployment and poverty, Steenkamp said.
“We need to reorganise the entrepreneurial landscape by having ‘survivalist entrepreneurs’ linked to leading entrepreneurs. Franchising is a good example of this, but it is too expensive for most survivalists.
“A proper network marketing model can give survivalists affordable access to structured entrepreneurship with support, personal development and motivation from leading entrepreneurs.
“This will provide ‘bunches’ of entrepreneurs who are educated by those with more experience. This will in turn improve sustainability and empowerment.”
Multisure managing director Denton Goodford said the increased demand from people wanting to become “independent consultants” – marketers of the company’s insurance products – had meant it has had to open up more offices nationally.