Case Studies
The Business Case: Recognizing Women's NeedsThe 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 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.
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 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."
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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, 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.
