news-record.com

GREENSBORO — Scottie Pippen was in the house, but the deafening fireworks had nothing to do with the NBA.

They were the booming launch Thursday morning of Market America’s 18th annual world conference, a four-day meeting the consumer sales company’s founders hope will launch it into a new phase of growth.

The rock-show lighting, giant video screens and music — complete with a cheering capacity crowd of company representatives from around the world — set the scene for this mash-up of pep rallies, seminars and networking.

“Together, we’re creating the economy of the future,” Loren Ridinger, senior vice president, belted out to the Greensboro Coliseum audience.

Scheduled appearances by NBA great Pippen, who will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Aug. 13, and reality-TV star Kim Kardashian only added to the glamour that Market America wants to project.

But the real action for this year’s conference is on the Internet. That’s where the Greensboro company hopes to reach an audacious goal of doubling its revenues to $1 billion a year by the end of 2011 through a new program.

For nearly two decades, Market America has sold its brands of cosmetics, nutritional supplements and other products through distributors who pay a subscription fee and buy products they sell to customers at a profit.

Some of those distributors set up other distributors and earn sales commissions. Others just sell products to people they know without paying any fees other than the cost of the products.

Its geographic reach includes Canada, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia and the Philippines.

The company’s products are distributed largely in the U.S. from its Greensboro headquarters and distribution center, which employ 600 people.

To boost the reach of those person-to-person distributors, the company has built each one a website to help promote products and sales.

The company wants to build on that by using the exploding popularity of such social networking sites as Twitter and Facebook to draw in new customers.

That’s why half the company’s 600 local workers are in web and technology jobs. The company says it has 180,000 customer managers worldwide.

This week’s conference has a heavy emphasis on training attendees to use technology for bigger sales. Before Ridinger stirred up the crowd, a company employee asked everybody there to send out Twitter messages saying the convention was about to begin.

Ridinger, the senior vice president, manages the company with her husband, James Ridinger, and brother Marc Ashley. James Ridinger founded the company and serves as president and CEO; Ashley is chief operating officer.

Loren Ridinger and Ashley talked about their plans backstage during the morning meeting. “We’ve both been social media addicts for some time,” Ridinger said.

“We think it’s a great way to reach a lot of new people,” Ashley said.

Through a Facebook page, a smartphone app and Twitter, Market America wants to become ubiquitous on the Web.

The company hopes its website — marketamerica.com — will become a primary portal for hundreds of sites owned by other companies. It is using a “cash back” program it hopes will build a network of online shoppers.

Individuals sign up for accounts at the Market America main site, then click and order products from such companies as Target and Walmart online. They receive a small percentage of cash back from Market America for each purchase. Market America collects a small amount from the retailers for each sale.

To expand the program, Market America offers customers who recruit other customers a half-percent of anything those other customers buy in the future.

Market America wants big retailers to seek out its help in driving online sales.

Getting the website right wasn’t easy, but Ridinger said it was necessary work.

“We hired an outside group of user/testers, which was a slap in the face,” Loren Ridinger said.

They told her about faults on the site. “Most people wouldn’t want to take that, but we’re, like, 'Bring it on.’”

Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com