Housewives profit from plastic paradise
Collegian Features Editor
.ROCHESTER,N.Y. More than 300 student and
professional journalists assembled at the Americana Hotel in
Rochester, N.Y. last weekend to receive awards, exchange
ideas and discuss ethics. But the focus was not on New York
Times foreign correspondent Sydney Schanberg, or on Boston
Herald photographer Stanley Forman, or even on
Philadelphia Inquirer cartoonist Tony Auth.
Instead, the spotlight fell on 600 women clamoring for
bicentennial-colored juice glasses and unbreakable ketchup
dispensers. Hailing from New Hampshire, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York, they had
congregated there for a regional Tupperware convention.
That weekend, the printing press was smothered by plastic
~ With fervor that would rival a Billy Graham Crusade, and
; gimmicks borrowed from “Let’s Make a Deal,” Tupperware
.executives urged a ballroom full of company managers to
push their products.
Company profit was almost a dirty word. In keeping with
the Billy Graham-like sales pitch, the women were told that
the rewards for increased sales were reaped by those who did
. the most sowing.
' ' s „ best incentive-oriented selling program in the
world,” remarked one Syracuse husband who accompanied
his wife to the convention. <
Apparently, Tupperware philosophy maintains that the
American female, despite the women’s liberation movement,
still prefers to spend her days at home caring for her
children,, pleasing her husband, running a typical, efficient
American household. But the company gameplan also upholds
the idea that American females are happiest when their
typical, efficient American home is filled .with “pretty
things.”
Tupperware allows the typical, efficient American female
to do.both.
‘ Marcie Booke graduated from college several years ago
• with an accounting degree. During a Tupperware party the
: at-home social where products are demonstrated and ,
/ sold Marcie was approached about entering the business.
“I was highly,insulted when,someone asked me'to sell
1 -Tupperware,” she said. “I always thought they women
“who couldn’t get jobs.”
Today,Marcie Booke’s career as an accountant is far behind'
:her; she has entered the Tupperware ranks. Today, Marcie
- Booke works five hours a day, five days a week and earns
: $14,000 a year.
, As a Tupperware manager a position that took her 11
weeks to achieve— Ann Marie Paige, Shewsbury, Mass.,
receives a new car every two years. Her insurance, tires,
. maintenance and repairs are paid for by the company. Her
.home, she claims, is almost totally furnished by gifts she
received from Tupperware for an impressive sales record.
“I haven’t bought Christmas presents in years,” she boasts,
<-i‘ , l just giveaway things Tupperware gave to me.”
“A friend of mine has nine color TV sets,” she continues.
; “She says she won’t know what to do if they give her another
! one she’s running out of rooms to put them in.” •
“They’re very good 1 to us,” remarked another manager.
' “I’ve had six new cars in the past six years all station-
I wagons. "Our conventions look like Ford conventions. There’s
; so many stationwagons in the hotel parking lots ’ ’
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' By JANE C. MUsXLA
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.Collegian living
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Pushing pldStlC Donning a garter belt and crocheted shawl, and arming himself with tempting
bonus prizes, a Tupperware executive urges his managers to increase their sales.
The pitch was part of a regional Tupperware convention held in Rochester, N.Y.
last weekend.
This year Tupperware celebrates its 25th anniversary.
According to Murray Scott, company executive, “Tupperware
has grown every year since its beginning in 1951," even in
periods of national economic decline. The company’s success
is unique, 1 , he says, in that until recently, Tupperware has
never recruited salespersons through k any. ’of, ttye,rational
media. •: ' - • 1 - ’ ■
Clockwise from left: Tumblers, jello molds and celery bins are old favorites in
the Tupperware repertoire of plastic products; after finishing a stirring rendi
tion of the Tupperware theme song, managers pick up sales kits and bonus
prizes; tupperware manager Lily Benton, of Concord, N.H., proudly flaunts
the awards she received for an impressive sales record. At the conclusion of
the Tupperware convention, company executives introduce the product “every
household has been waiting for” a hot dog storage case.
' Photos by Ira Joffe and Julie Cipolla
In place of a mass commercial ad campaign, Tupperware
relies on three cornerstones of American' society for ex-.
posure: the housewife, the telephone and, most important, the
•‘party.’’
According to Northeast Regional Coordinator John
Nelson, the party,plan concept originated in,the 1940 s vyith-
Stanley Home Products and was imitated by other shown-in-
A weekly look at life in the
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the-home companies.'
“Our products need to be demonstrated," Nelson said.
“Today you’re lucky to get a store clerk to write up your
receipt, let alone tell you what to buy and how to use it.”
The major strength in the party concept, he says, is that it
'takes a personal approach to the product.
In essence, what the party does is bring women into a neigh
bor’s home, feed them cheesecake and coffee, give them a
free set of plastic measuring spoons and let them play games
reminiscent of a bridal shower.
Somewhere amidst the frivolity, a Tupperware represen
tative demonstrates lettuce crispers, cake savers and ham
burger makers a plastic paradise designed to make the
housewife's job run a little smoother.
A typical party, says one conventioneer from Plainfield,
Conn., yields about $l2O in sales, 25 per cent of which goes to
the managers. In addition, managers receive a five per cent
commission on sales made by persons they have recruited to
host parties.
Although 98 per cent of Tupperware’s managers are women,
Tupperware executive agree that male managers usually can
sell more.
“A group of women won’t feel as pressured by a man,” says
Pauline Joyal. “Women are more critical of other women.
They’ll sit at a party and think about the saleswoman’s clothes
instead of what she’s saying. ’ ’
For Joyal, Tupperware is a family affair. Not only does her
husband share her profession as a Tupperware manager, but
her mother and father met each other while working on a
Tupperware assembly line.
While Joyal’s lineage may be somewhat unusual, the family
nonetheless remains paramount in the company idealogy.
Shades of Marabel Morgan’s “Total Woman" philosophy
filter through the company’s ranks.
“In Tupperware, the family has to come first,” says a.cum
laude graduate of Moravian College who now sells Tup
perware. “The family must be happy or the saleswoman will
not be happy.” »
“It’s a husband -wife thing,” her husband adds. “The wife
may hold the parties, but the husband is right there to support
her.”
The couple explained that support is often needed when the
manager attempts to recruit dealers to deliver the pitch at
parties.
"Often women will object because their husbands want
them at home or are afraid to have them out at night. Or
they’ll resist because they don’t think they can get a
babysitter,” he says.
“That’s where I come in. I’ll talk to the husband and tell him
I had those same objections and things worked out. ’ ’
And so, the convention continued, with slap-stick skits and
multi-media exhibits of stereos and dinette sets. The women,
clad in look-a-like blue polyester suits or sailor-style blazers,
squeal with delight when a new product is announced or a new
prize is introduced. ’ /
They are veterans their bosoms decked with medals'and
honor pins and they emulated enthusiasm no political
convention could match.
Soon, however, tumblers and trophies are packed away. The
Tupperware conventioneers leave, dreaming of another 25
years of plastic prosperity.
BeSt'wishes.JHappy-'Ahhiversary, Sydney Schanberg, we
apologize.