Ethics

Amway Attempts a Comeback

By Ed Brayton

After trying to change their sullied public image by changing their name to Quixtar, Amway is now reversing course, retiring the new name and trying to resurrect the old Amway name and rebuild the business here.

In 2000, after Amway become part of an umbrella company called Alticor Inc., the Amway name was dropped in the United States and Canada. The hope was that the company could emerge wholly remade in the world of online sales under a new moniker: Quixtar.

Now, as Amway's 50th anniversary approaches in May, Alticor is retiring the inert Quixtar label and pouring millions of dollars into reviving the Amway brand in North America with market research, national television commercials, and ads in newspapers and magazines and online. The company will use a transitional name, Amway Global, before reverting in about a year to Amway.

"We thought, well, if we're going to build a brand, build the brand that everybody knows already," Alticor president and co-CEO Doug DeVos said. "It's going to be much more successful and cost a lot less and happen a lot faster."

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on January 10, 2009 (boomark / email).