Promoting Women’s

Economic Empowerment:
The Learning Journey of Tupperware Brands Corporation

“We provide [the sales consultant] with a

Main Lessons business template that offers a meaningful
n Business initiatives focused on earning opportunity and place her with mentors
women can succeed when they so that she has a clear path to follow and
rely on the personal information
networks that women already
guides to show her the way.”
build among themselves.
– Rick Goings,
n Women’s economic Chairman & CEO
empowerment can be a strong,
differentiating and flexible brand
element for certain consumer
product sales.

n One size does not fit all. Products Established in the United States in 1948, the name “Tupperware” today is synonymous in many
and initiatives should be adapted
languages with the idea of convenient, durable, sealable, plastic food containers. But while this
to local tastes and needs. The
best way to do this: listen to and $2 billion business began with one great invention that would revolutionize food storage and
trust local teams.
safety, the company’s history and business model is also a tale about women: their careers,
n When women are engaged as family needs, and what can be accomplished when women are empowered to improve their lives.
employees and consumers, then
corporate social responsibility
(CSR) and community
engagement are important
motivational factors.

Win-Win Situation for Business and for Women

n Tupperware Brands, a publicly traded company selling products for kitchen and home,
as well as beauty and personal care.
Contents
n Partneringwith 2.4 million independent sales consultants/dealers—mostly women—in
Sales Model Innovation: 2 nearly 100 countries.
By Women, For Women
n A meaningful earning opportunity for women, without educational barriers or high
The Business Case: 2 entry costs.
Recognizing Women’s Needs
n Flexible
and “acceptable” employment that allows continued focus on family for those
Global Impact 3 who need it.

Lessons Learned 4 n Training,mentoring and recognition programs to build confidence and support each
associate as she builds her business.
Sources 4
 The Learning Journey Of Tupperware Brands Corporation
Sales Model Innovation: By Women, For Women
Tupperware Brands today sells products
for the kitchen and home, as well as for
beauty and personal care, in nearly 100
countries. The company relies on sales
consultants—mainly women—to sell wares
directly to consumers through a “party plan”
approach. The consultants arrange social
parties at their homes, or in the homes of
willing customers, where in addition to games
and entertainment they demonstrate and
sell the company’s products. Consultants
are paid through commission on their sales:
they are independent businesswomen and
not Tupperware Brands employees. Party
hostesses are rewarded with gifts from the
consultants. Meanwhile, guests enjoy an
opportunity to network with other women and
possibly buy items of interest, without having
to go to a store.
The Business Case: Recognizing Women’s Needs
The development of the original party plan
system is credited to Brownie Wise, a divorced
American mother who in the 1940s developed
a track record as a direct sales agent for
Stanley Home Products. She understood
intuitively that women enjoyed getting together
in groups and that they relied on each other
for information. She also understood that Earl
Tupper’s “wonder bowls” needed personal
demonstration if women were going to trust
and buy them. Plastic food receptacles were a
new idea. Their benefits for food storage and
2
Tupperware Brands was not the first American
company to use a direct sales model. It was,
however, the first to rely almost exclusively on
women to drive revenue with a standardized
approach to mentoring, training, recognition,
and peer recruiting that resonated
strongly with its female sales force.
Above all, the business model and
branding depends on the idea that any
motivated woman can be successful at
building her own direct sales business
and can change her life if she is given
confidence and assistance through the
power of example.
While the Tupperware story is an old
one in the U.S., the model continues
to replicate and adapt with success,
particularly in developing countries.
transport were not widely known. Meanwhile,
correctly applying the then-patented and now-
famous “Tupperware seal” on the products’
lids—which would allow people to store food
longer and keep it fresher—was not intuitive.
Brownie and a number of Stanley colleagues
convinced Tupper that a party plan approach
could work for his company. His products were
not selling well in retail stores. Brownie and
others had been selling them independently,
however, through their own direct networks
and parties. In 1951, Tupper pulled
all his products from the stores and
put Brownie in charge, hiring her as
general sales manager of the new
Tupperware Home Parties Division.
There were skeptics. At the time,
only about one-third of American
women worked outside their homes.
Women in management positions
were rare. In senior management,
About 85 percent of company revenue now
comes from outside the U.S. and 50 percent
comes from emerging markets, including
Argentina, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico,
Russia, Turkey, and South Africa.
they were almost non-existent. But Earl Tupper
knew that women were his customers who
listened to each other, and no one could sell
his products better than Brownie.
By 1954, Brownie had recruited 9,000
consultants and product sales had multiplied
to the point that Tupperware became famous
and even notorious on a national scale.
Brownie inspired women with her own career
story, motivated them with lucrative prizes,
and lauded high achievers with a kind of public
recognition that many American housewives
craved. Her plan offered them an opportunity
to earn money selling quality products, while
setting their own hours and timelines so they
could maintain a focus on the family. At the
same time, she encouraged consultants to
share their new confidence and success by
recruiting and training their friends.
This marketing and human resources plan
produced sustained growth and profits. It
Promoting Women’s Economic Empowerment
Global Impact
Tupperware Corporation and later Tupperware
Brands have replicated this model again
and again, increasing sales while helping
women learn skills, create networks, and
share information. Since the early 1990s,
there has been rapid expansion into
developing countries where women often face
steep educational and cultural barriers to
employment.
In India alone, the company’s 100 percent
female sales force is more than 50,000
strong and growing. Local currency sales
growth was 40 percent in the year ending
2008.
Asha Gupta, managing director for India,
recalls that when they first started out
in 1996, they often had to convince
was also part of a larger cultural revolution
of women’s role in society. Party-based sales
among friends and neighbors were more
acceptable to women than door-to-door sales,
which were successful for some products but
for cultural and security reasons were a male
domain. To husbands who were threatened
by the idea of their wives earning money,
Brownie sometimes explained that they were
still “bringing home the cake” whereas the
wives were simply “putting on the icing.”
In fact, some women were able to earn as
much or more than their husbands. They
became loyal brand ambassadors and
fervently shared their “life-transforming”
experience as Tupperware ladies. While
the company became associated with
stereotypical suburban housewives, author
Bob Kealing notes in his book Tupperware
Unsealed that “in a very pragmatic and non-
threatening way, the Tupperware phenomenon
was having just the opposite effect. One
sale at a time, housewives were finding an
economic niche outside the household.”
conservative husbands and in-laws to allow
their wives and daughters-in-law to try this
effectively and ensure that they achieve set
sales and recruitment levels. They earn money
job. Today, it is easier. According to Asha, immediately. I’ve realized that this motivates
“There is a palpable societal change that them to work even harder to grow.”
we are engineering to empower women to
become confident—by offering them financial The impact on women extends beyond the
independence, identity, exposure, and a improved circumstances and confidence
secure future for them and their families.” of the sales consultants. A critical part of
the “meaningful earning opportunity” that
Full-time consultants in India can expect to Tupperware Brands promotes is basic
earn at least as much as a nurse or teacher. networking and information-sharing among
Some have become quite well off. Others women. This supports product sales but also
prefer to work part-time. Each woman has gets to the heart of home and family matters.
the opportunity to attain “manager” status,
with increased commission levels and an Health, for example, is an important platform
expectation that they will recruit, train, and that Tupperware Brands addresses via
motivate a new team. product demonstrations, company meetings,
and literature. Asha explains that in India,
In South Africa, team leader Leah Modiane where the company’s positioning message is
describes how she develops new managers. “Wealth of Wellness,” the teams are able to
After promoting them out of her immediate focus on many hygiene and nutrition matters,
group, she has special meetings where she from water purification, to healthy microwave
teaches them how to complete paperwork cooking and children’s diet issues. In a way,
and set targets. She challenges them to focus she says, our “women have become de facto
and rewards them when they do. “For the health and nutrition consultants sharing a
first month,” she says, “I work closely with powerful message that helps families live
them to make sure they manage their unit better ….”
Lakshmi Rajendra in Chennai, India
Lakshmi Rajendra has been in business with
Tupperware Brands for six years. Before Tupperware,
she and her husband struggled financially, borrowing
funds to send their daughter to an English-language
school. “My monthly income was 600 rupees,” she
explains with emotion, “and with that money we could
not educate our child.”
For Lakshmi, joining Tupperware “changed our lives.
After that, I became confident for the first time. I did not know anything about Tupperware in
the beginning but I still joined. I consider it to be the biggest achievement in my life. Now my
daughter is an engineer. I paid her engineering school.”
Today, Lakshmi earns more than 20,000 rupees per month. She is a saleswoman, a
manager, a motivator, and her own boss. Just as important as the income is the feeling of
pride and recognition she gets from Tupperware and her family. She is a role model for her
daughter. And she laughs when she tells that she has “even been able to go abroad because
of Tupperware. None of my relatives have even boarded a plane!”
3
 The Learning Journey Of Tupperware Brands Corporation
Lessons Learned
Tupperware Brands has adapted with the
times, especially after a downturn in sales
and recruitment hit the company hard in
the 1980s. In many countries, consultants
are now akin to franchisees, with their
own websites, shopping mall kiosks, and
creative event planning businesses. Online
training from “Tupperware University” is also
available to them, offering information and
tips in many areas of interest, such as food
safety, environmental issues and sustainable
living, community involvement, health and
nutrition, and of course, business tips and
management techniques.
The key lesson over decades is that women’s
economic empowerment is a core brand
element that is good for business. It is a
differentiating factor for Tupperware Brands
in both developed and developing markets.
It is also a flexible concept that can adjust to
different cultural situations given the localized
nature of the company’s business model and
corporate management.
“Corporate mandates are adapted to the
cultural nuances and traditions in each
community,” notes Yolanda Londoño, vice
president of global social responsibility for
Tupperware Brands. In many countries, for
example, women are encouraged to work as
consultants so that they, and their customers,
can feel comfortable. In China, where home-
based sales are not allowed, store-front
facilities work well.
Relying on, and listening to, local teams is
a second important lesson. Women remain
of organic community gardens in Uruguayan
schools. The company even bestows
the main consumers of the company’s awards on teams that embrace community
products and the female sales consultants engagement and social investment as an
know what will make their clients happy. Each integral part of their business plans.
market has a corporate managing director,
a marketing person, and a regional factory To Yolanda, these efforts are part of the
that is connected culturally. In this way, the business and are in essence what the
company can easily anticipate, develop, and company stands for. “We are all potential
adapt products to different tastes and needs. change agents,” she says. “I believe we are
In Japan, Kimono Keepers are part of the all embedded with extraordinary skills that,
product line-up. In Latin America, empanada more often than not, flourish when times
makers are very popular, in addition to the are tough. We have seen this time and time
standard container bowls that keep both dry again.” Indeed, that is the Tupperware story.
and liquid foods in a safe, leak-proof manner. And that is good for business, women, and
development, everywhere.
Finally, the company has learned that
its very business model and the fact of
women’s interest in their own communities
mean that corporate social responsibility
and community engagement cannot be an
afterthought. They are an integral part of
Tupperware Brands’ motivational strategy
for consultants and consumers alike. The
recent Chain of Confidence campaign
embodies this effort. It is a global movement
that celebrates women helping other
women, their strong bonds of friendship
and the confidence they gain through these
connections. As part of Chain of Confidence,
Tupperware Brands made a $1.5 million
Date: August 2009
donation to the Boys and Girls Clubs of
America to support their SMART Girls View this case study online at:
program—a program dedicated to teaching http://pslforum.worldbankgroup.org/
girls important life skills and ensuring a casestudies/tupperware
confident next generation of women. Chain of
Confidence also has a rich online community
where women in many countries are sharing
stories, learning, motivating
each other, and encouraging About the Global Private
both personal and community Sector Leaders Forum
action. The Forum is an initiative of the World Bank Group
Gender Action Plan to engage private sector leaders
in promoting women’s economic empowerment. It
Through its foundation,
is one of World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick’s
Tupperware Brands also six commitments on gender equality. Its members
encourages locally driven are committed to creating opportunities for women
efforts that focus on the in core business, corporate social responsibility or
health and welfare of women diversity and inclusion initiatives.
and their families—ranging
For more information, visit our website:
from literacy programs in
http://pslforum.worldbankgroup.org
South Asia to the support