At the recent U.S. DSA Global Summit, Monica Vaca of the Federal Trade Commission Marketing Practices Division talked about the current regulatory conversation of direct selling companies’ need to meet a demand in the market versus the selling of a product or service purely for reward or some form of compensation. Many distributors in the industry started off consuming the products they sell, and there is nothing wrong with that practice. Yet, that personal consumption of the product cannot be an “excuse” for lack of pure retail sales.
From a public relations functional perspective, the directive is clear—create a greater demand for company product or services. Robust retail programs benefit the company and distributor—PR can create demand and thus create a larger market for distributors to sell products and services and grow their

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