1 2012 Direct Selling News. All Rights Reserved.

Material may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without written permission. | www.directsellingnews.com
SPECI AL REPRI NT EDI TI ON
Volume 8, Issue 4 April 2012 Serving the Direct Selling and Network Marketing Executive Since 2004
Company Prole
Founded:2011
Headquarters:Dallas
Co-Founders:Jeff Olson, CEO; Dennis Windsor,
President; Renee Olson, Corporate Liaison; and
Amber Olson, Director of Marketing and Culture
Products:Anti-aging and skincare
Success rarely comes as a surprise. It is
typically the product of years of hard work and
dedication, arriving as the ultimate reward for
a life well lived.
Real Ingredients
for
Success
B
ut occasionally, success can arrive in a different form than was expected.
This is the story of Nerium International, one of the youngest companies
in the direct selling industry that is tackling one of its oldest issueshow to
hold back the hands oftime.
The Accidental Company
Nothing about Nerium International has beenpredictable. In fact, the genesis
of the company arrived through an accidental discovery in the labs of Nerium
Biotechnology Inc., an international research and development company. While
researching the potential uses of the Nerium oleander plantpreviously considered
little more than an ornamental plantthe scientists of Nerium Biotech discovered
that the plants extract delivered remarkable age-defying results when applied to
theskin.
We had a eureka moment in our research labs when we stumbled upon what
Nerium oleander could do for skin, says Dennis Knocke, Chairman and CEO of
Nerium Biotechnology Inc.
Nerium scientists then developed a proprietary process to extract the beneficial
ingredients from theNerium oleander plant in a way that preserved the unique
components and beneficial properties of the plant. The resulting product is now the
critical ingredient in NeriumAD, a first-of-its-kind, age-defying night cream that
is being marketed as the launch product for NeriumInternational.
However, when the extract was first being developed, the leadership of Nerium
Biotech was not even considering a direct sales strategy for distributing the product.
Rather, they were speaking with traditional retail channels, direct marketing
channels such as infomercials and sourcing companies who would source Nerium
by Jeremy Gregg
Nerium International
2012 Direct Selling News. All Rights Reserved. Material may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without written permission. | www.directsellingnews.com 2
Nerium International
Features
oleander into products. Ultimately, they
determined that the strongest opportunity
would be to develop their own product based
ontheir proprietary extractiontechnology.
Once they made this decision, a member of
Nerium Biotechs board of directors expressed
an interest in potentially partnering with
one of the existing direct selling companies
to marketthe product for them. As they
embarked on the discovery process for this
strategy, they met veteran network marketing
leader Jeff Olson in Dallas.
Olson was consulting in the industry at
the time, having enjoyed a long and successful
career in a number of other direct selling
companies. He had even written a best-
selling book, The Slight Edge: Turning Simple
Disciplines Into Massive Success, but had
recently declined several offers to lead other
MLM companies. Olson agreed to pursue the
offer from Nerium for one reason:
Integrity. I knew who these guys were and
knew they were legitimate. I also knew that if
what they were claiming was real, it would be
a game-changer within the industrynot just
within the anti-aging industry, but within all
of skincare.
The Nerium Biotech team presented
Olson with a stack of peer-reviewed studies
on the extracts effects on the skin. Impressed
but also aware of how critical it is for direct
selling companies to defend their claims about
their products performance, he demanded
that they verify the findings with third-party
clinical trials: I knew that we needed to prove
that this company was the real deal. One of
the mantras that Ive adopted is to Go Slow
to Go Fast. I wanted to ensure that we built a
company that was worthy of thisproduct.
Once the results came in, Olson was
convinced. He then worked with Nerium
Biotech and their subsidiary, Nerium
Skincare, to form a partnership to market the
product. This partnership became Nerium
International, which is more than 30 percent
owned by Nerium Biotech. Olson became
Founder and CEO of Nerium International.
Nerium Biotech is not our supplier; they
are our business partner. This keeps Nerium
International grounded in research and
focused on the mission of changing lives, says
Dennis Windsor, President and Co-Founder
of Nerium International.
According to several of the leaders at
Nerium International, this is the opposite
process that most direct selling companies
follow. Nerium Biotech began first with its
product, and then arrived at the direct sales
process later. The result is a partnership
poised for rapid growth within one of the
largest and most competitive markets in the
skincare industry.
Nerium Biotech spent two years searching
for the best way to market this revolutionary
product that they had discovered, and
network marketing stood out as the best way
for the company to expand globally while
retaining control over the brand and the
quality of the product, says Amber Olson,
Co-Founder and Director of Marketing and
Culture for Nerium International, aswell
as the daughter of Jeff Olson. Nerium
International nowhas globally exclusive rights
to the proprietary ingredient that makes this
productuniquelysuccessful.
Windsor adds, This truly was an
accidental discovery, and we are building
(Left to Right) Nerium International Founders Dennis
Windsor, Renee Olson, Jeff Olson and Amber Olson.
One of the mantras that Ive
adopted is to Go Slow to Go
Fast. I wanted to ensure that
we built a company that was
worthy of this product.
Jeff Olson, Founder and CEO,
Nerium International
2012 Direct Selling News. All Rights Reserved. Material may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without written permission. | www.directsellingnews.com 3
Nerium International
Features
a company whose success will be
parallel to the real breakthrough. We
are rapidly expanding nationally and
building our global presence.
The Key Ingredients
Like its signature product,
Nerium International has a unique
ingredient that sets it apart from its
competitiona formal partnership
with a globally recognized biotech
company. According to the companys
website, Nerium Biotechnologys
scientists established the worlds
only commercial farming operation
for the cultivation of the Nerium
oleander plant. With strict biomedical
field protocols, the farm provides a
dedicated and renewable biomass
resource reserved exclusively for
researchandproduction.
Joel Curtis, Director of
Farm Operations for Nerium
Biotechnology, says, Our team takes
very seriously the scientific protocols
that are followed in establishing this
biomedical orchard. We are passionate
about what comes out of these fields
because it is truly impacting peoples
lives. This is more than a field of
dreams; this is a Field of Life!
Windsor adds: There is a huge
barrier to entry to get into this
market. Nerium Biotech has made
an enormous capital investment in
getting this product launched and
developed a proprietary process for
extracting the essential ingredients
from this plant that is difficult to grow
and difficult to cultivate. They could
have gone retail or sold this product
through an infomercial, but they chose
direct selling as the best way to get
thisproduct to market.
Even after this significant up-front
investment, Nerium Biotech invested
another 12-18 months in developing
Nerium International into its
marketing partner. The senior staff
members were in place for nearly
a year before the company took its
first application from a potential
distributor, or BrandPartner.
Another key ingredient is the role of
third-party evaluators, such as ST&T
Research in San Francisco. This firm
recently completed a comprehensive
analysis of the impact of NeriumAD
by using a face-mapping technology
to gauge the impact of the products
on reducing the signs of aging on
skin; this same technology was
originally used to detect imperfections
inmicrochips.
The result was a rigorous scientific
study that proved that NeriumAD
delivered an average 30 percent
reduction in the appearance of
wrinkles and other signs of aging
within 30 days. In decades of research
and testing, ST&T had never seen
results of this magnitude. These
results were also confirmed by a third-
party plastic surgeon, who reviewed
the results of ST&Ts tests and gave
positive reviews to NeriumAD.
The company is so confident in its
results that it has even posted videos
on its website to present them along
with a public Facebook page that
allows any of Nerium Internationals
customers to post their own
before-and-afterphotos.
This is the real differentiator
for Neriumour product works
better than any others out there.
NeriumAD truly sellsitself, says
Renee Olson, Co-Founder and
Corporate Liaison. The simplicity of
our product line also allows our Brand
Partners to carry a single product.
This means that they dont have to buy
a massive inventory to be successful.
We focus on equipping people to be
very successful, very quickly. We want
to make it as simple as possible to
succeed.
Nerium International also benefits
tremendously from what Amber
Olson describes as a seed-to-bottle
form of vertical integration that allows
complete control of the product. This
also allows the company to charge a
price point that is comparable to its
competitors whose results cannot
compete with those of NeriumAD,
she says. Our price point is around
$80 for a product that would be sold at
around $200 through retail. We keep
the price as low as possible to create a
The Slight Edge, by
Jeff Olson
Nerium International is
led by Jeff Olson, a veteran
leader in the direct selling
industry and the author of The
Slight Edge: Turning Simple
Disciplines Into Massive
Success. In his book, Olson
outlines a way of thinking
and a way of processing
information that he believes
are critical to making the
daily choices that lead to success in life and in
business.
The book illustrates what he calls The 7 Slight
EdgePrinciples:
1. Show Up
2. Be Consistent
3. Have a Good Attitude
4. Have a Strong Desire
5. Plant, Cultivate and Harvest
6. Be Willing to Pay the Price
7. Have Integrity
Nerium International includes a copy of The
Slight Edge in every launch kit ordered by one of
its Brand Partners. According to Olson, the book
establishes a common philosophy that defnes
our culture. Every great direct selling company
eventually has to defne a culture, a rhythm and
a language for their company. The book has
allowed Nerium International to do this from
dayone.
The CEO and Founder of Nerium International,
Olson has built several multimillion-dollar sales
and marketing organizations, hosted seminars
in every major city in the United States, and
produced more than 900 television programs
centered on personal development. Over the
past 20 years, Olson has helped hundreds of
thousands of individuals achieve better levels of
fnancial freedom and personal excellence.
2012 Direct Selling News. All Rights Reserved. Material may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without written permission. | www.directsellingnews.com 4
Nerium International
Features
large footprint, something that we can do since
we are not sourcing ingredients from a supplier
but essentially sourcing them ourselves
through our partners at Nerium Biotech.
Jeff Olson added, Every day thousands of
people walk into thousands of department
stores across the country and pay more for
products that produce far inferior results
thanours.
According to Windsor, nine of the top
10 companies in the direct selling industry
are in the beauty segment, and age-defying
skin treatment is among the top two or three
markets within that segment: The bulls-eye
is anti-aging skincare.
During its development phase, Nerium
International invested significant time and
resources in developing a way for Brand
Partners to get started quickly, affordably
and successfully. Thecompany offers a very
robust starter kit that Windsor describes as
being designed to wow the spouse who is used
to asking, Are you in another one of those
network marketingdeals?
The companys compensation plan includes
a generous offerto provide Brand Partners
with free products for their ownpersonal
use or to help them further build their
business.For example, when three customers
sign upfor a monthly auto-delivery, the Brand
Partner will receive a free shipment of their
own monthly supply. Brand Partners also
receive freebottles of the product for every
auto-delivery order that they sell, allowing
them to quickly build asizable inventory
ofproducts that can be used to make
furthersales.Windsor says, Our products
really sell themselves.
Amber Olson outlines three primary
reasons why Nerium International has been so
successful since its launch: First, the product
excites peopleand the customers are
becoming an active salesforcethemselves.
Second, the leadership is very dedicated
to the ultimate success ofthe companys
Brand Partners; they have over 150 years of
combined direct selling experience, with an
average of at least 20 years.
Third, the company works very hard to
keep the culturereal.
Amber Olson beams with pride as she
describes her jobas being focused on building
community among the BrandPartners
and their customers, centered on a product
thatprovides true results: We want them to
feel like this istheir home, like they belong
here atNerium.
Keeping It Real
When we were first starting the company,
we put one word on the wallREAL,
saysWindsor.
Despite the youth of the company, this
strategy has already led to some very creative
and highly effective marketing campaigns.
Rather than relying entirely on the
professionally produced before-and-after shots
that similar companies employ within their
marketing materials, Nerium International
has a public Facebook page where it invites
customers to post their own photos. The
company has a dedicated employee focused
exclusively on social media, which recently
allowed them to have a Bottom Drawer
campaign in which their customers were
encouraged to take a picture of the bottom
drawer in theirbathroom.
The tongue-in-cheek campaign confirmed
some important assumptions for the company.
According to Amber Olson, the photos
frequently had five to seven half-empty bottles
of similar products that had disappointed
customers. Our goal is to provide a single
product that replaces all of these while
delivering superior results.
Prior to joining Nerium International,
Amber Olson owned and operated a medical
spa; the experience provided her with a
deep understanding of the competitive
landscape and how NeriumAD stands out
as a product. All of the products that we
sold were essentially the same ingredients in
different packages. NeriumAD contains a
groundbreaking new ingredient, allowing our
product to truly sell itself.
She goes on to say, Our customers
previously had to use four to five different
products to achieve anything close to these
results. We can now give them a single night
cream that can deliver the best results theyve
ever had in improving discoloration, reducing
the appearance of wrinkles and fighting the
signs of aging.
Having a product that
stands on its own merits
allows the company to have a
much more authentic form of
branding and a less aggressive
form of sales, continues
Amber Olson. In addition to a
Real Results Party that is similar to the group
sales events other MLM companies employ,
Nerium International equips its Brand
Partners with the ability to give their potential
customers a Five Day Experiencedropping
off a weeks worth of products and taking a
photo of a person, then returning five days
later to take another photo and show them
the comparison results. It is easy to gain loyal
customers when you lead with a product that
wins, and not asalespitch.
Nerium International is now in every state,
as well as the U.S. territories of Guam and
Puerto Rico. To build their global presence,
the company has hired Senior Vice President
of Global Operations, Trevor Scofield who has
experience working in 30 different countries.
At least six countries are slotted to open
their doors to Nerium International in the
nearfuture.
In six months we have accomplished
success that historically only 1 percent of new
companies achieve, says Jeff Olson. We are
very proud of the customer acceptance of
NeriumAD, because long-term customers
are the foundation of a long-term business for
our Brand Partners.
Launched with NeriumAD as its only
product, the company now has over eight other
products under development. These niche
products, such as an eye cream and a targeted
age spot product, will complement the core
product of NeriumAD. Windsor continues,
The top concern in the world when it comes
to beauty is keeping skin looking younger for
longer. This is no longer just for older people.
Our market is 18+ since the alertness is a lot
higher about skincare.
We have the right team with the right
hearts and the right experience. We have a
product that is one of the best breakthroughs
in the past 20 years, but we want to be more
than that. We want to integrate the best of
personal development into everything. We
want to build one of the best direct sales
companies in the world. DSN
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