Mums in Kalgoorlie like to party, party, party.
Mums in Kalgoorlie like to party, party, party.
I am invited to three a week during busy times. I am not invited for my sparkling conversation but for my membership of one of Kalgoorlie’s biggest, cashed-up and time-available consumer groups. I am a stay-at-home-mum and the parties are party plan selling.
In Kalgoorlie you can buy everything from meals to jewellery through party plans.
The sales reps are almost exclusively stay-at-home-mums, just like their customers, and the wholesalers report Kalgoorlie is one of their best markets.
Kalgoorlie is a direct sellers’ dream for a few reasons. First, there is a ready supply of distributors.
Excuse me for making a broad generalisation, but the menfolk in many Kalgoorlie families earn a higher-than-average income, which means they can afford to raise children with only one partner working.
It is a luxury, to be sure, but many of the parents who stay at home want a sideline interest, and if it includes making money, all the better.
If the sideline happens to fall within their area of interest, such as their children, caring for their families or keeping up with fashions in Perth, it is ideal.
Child education products, kids’ clothing, meals, linen, traditional Tupperware and jewellery sell well through party plans.
Second, Kalgoorlie residents believe they don’t have access to the variety of products stocked in shops in Perth and other Australian cities.
They can buy over the Internet, but there is widespread caution about the practice. Regardless, Victoria-based direct sales education product company Learning Ladder managing director, David Brownlow, said Internet sales now surpassed sales by direct mail.
However, Learning Ladder will not use the Internet while Mr Brownlow is boss because he preferred face-to-face contact with customers.
A good alternative is buying through a party plan and there are advantages to this method other than the relative security.
For instance, your friend or your friend’s friend is probably the distributor of the product, which means she is going to get a slice of the action.
This makes the buyer happy. Goldfielders are notoriously parochial. If someone is going to make money out of the purchase, it may as well be a local and a friend.
Third, customer service in Kalgoorlie is notoriously bad. Direct selling is the personal touch that customers yearn for when they part with their hard-earned. They can talk to the sales rep before they buy.
Fourth, people in Kalgoorlie will spend the money if they find something they like.
Perth jeweller Phoebe Designs owner Phoebe Longwood said she sold more in the Goldfields city through one party plan distributor than she did in her home city.
She said orders from Kalgoorlie were usually large, totalling as much as $2,000 per party.
Why? Because Phoebe’s customers were young, fashion conscious and there was a lack of competing products in Kalgoorlie shops.
In addition, the market is small enough for word-of-mouth advertising to be effective.
Let’s face it, life is a party in Kalgoorlie and the host is not the one cleaning up.
• Based in the Goldfields, Sharon Kemp is a former reporter, most recently with The Age newspaper.
