Seminar on products to be held today

Press, 23 August 1983, Page 8

Seminar on products to be held today

A seminar on Total Image products , will be held at Noahs Hotel today at 7 p.m.

The organiser is Mr Steve Harris, an Australian who has been involved with the company in Australia. He said yesterday that he was considering staying in New Zealand “as a long-term thing.” , The seminar has not been publicly advertised. Mr Harris said that about 50 to 100 people were expected, all of whom had been advised of the seminar through personal contacts. The seminar would deal with the Total Image range of products and the marketing system. Mr Harris said that if the Trade and Industry Department was looking into Total Image’s selling system it should also look into systems of door-to-door selling and party selling. "They have exactly the same system,” he said. The only difference was that Total Image products were not sold on a door-to-door basis or at parties. “It

is all done by referral. “We are not selling distributorships,” Mr Harris said. Anyone could come into the company as a distributor on payment of $2O, which got them on to the computer list and entitled them to a subscription to the company’s monthly magazine.

Mr Harris said that for getting people to become distributors he got nothing at first, but if enough came into the company it would increase his chance of becoming a manager and of receiving a 5 per cent overriding commission. He said that he had every confidence in the product he marketed. It had proved itself in Australia, after being launched in the United States. One woman who had bought the diet product had reduced weight from 102 kg to about 84kg in two months, and was much happier now and still taking the product. The diet product contained minerals, vitamins, and some protein, but no

carbohydrates. It was sold with a usage chart and consultants explained how to use it.

It was not recommended for use over a prolonged time. Most who used it did so in consultation with their doctor, he said. Mr Harris said that he doubted that the Royal College of Physicians of London had looked into the Total Image diet product. Extracts from the report were quoted to him, but Mr Harris said that he thought the diet product fell into a different category. “I would not say it is similar,” he said. It was possible that people had used the diet product without proper consultation and may not have eaten other foods.

“That is why we are direct selling, so that you do not get that sort of thing happening,” he said. “You need roughage fibre and protein foods. If you take a high-protein liquid diet and do not eat, obviously that is going to do a lot of damage,” he said.