Guthy-Renker ( ) is a

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

-based

direct-response marketing Direct marketing is a form of communicating an offer, where organizations communicate directly to a pre-selected customer and supply a method for a direct response. Among practitioners, it is also known as ''direct response marketing''. I ...

company that sells health and beauty products directly to consumers through

infomercial An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of di ...

s, television ads, direct mail, telemarketing, e-mail marketing, and the Internet. Many of its products are endorsed by celebrities, including actresses and musicians. The company started marketing self-help products endorsed by

Fran Tarkenton Francis Asbury Tarkenton (born February 3, 1940), nicknamed "the Scrambler", is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons, primarily with the Minnesota Vikings. He is wi ...

and motivational speaker

Tony Robbins Anthony Jay Robbins ( Mahavoric, born February 29, 1960) is an American author, coach and motivational speaker. He is known for his seminars, and self-help books including the books '' Unlimited Power'' and ''Awaken the Giant Within''. Early ...

, previous products also included exercise equipment such as a

pilates Pilates (; ) is a type of mind-body exercise developed in the early 20th century by German physical trainer Joseph Pilates, after whom it was named. Pilates called his method "Contrology". Pilates uses a combination of around 50 repetitive e ...

program, called the "''Malibu Pilates system''", endorsed by actress

Susan Lucci Susan Victoria Lucci (born December 23, 1946) is an American actress. She is best known for portraying Erica Kane on the ABC daytime drama ''All My Children'' during that show's entire network run from 1970 to 2011. The character is considere ...

and Instant Abs by model

Heidi Klum Heidi Klum (; born 1 June 1973) is a German and American model, television personality, producer, and businesswoman. She appeared on the cover of the ''Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue'' in 1998 and was the first German model to become a Vict ...

. Guthy-Renker was founded in November 1988 by Bill Guthy and

Greg Renker Gregory Renker (born 1957), is best known for cofounding Guthy-Renker with partner Bill Guthy. He was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1957 and had eight siblings. Growing up, Renker's family moved a lot due to his father's work managing country clubs ...

. In 1995, it began distributing the acne treatment program

Proactiv Proactiv is an American brand of skin-care products developed by two American dermatologists, Katie Rodan and Kathy A. Fields, and launched in 1995 by Guthy-Renker, a California-based direct marketing company, that was endorsed by famous cele ...

, which became responsible for more than half its revenues by 2005. The company also created seven subsidiaries in the late 1990s for different products and advertising channels. In 1996, it founded infomercial channel, ''GRTV'', which was sold to

TVN Entertainment Corporation Vubiquity, Inc. is a Burbank, California-based provider of content monetization, distribution and processing technology used by entertainment and media companies. The company ensures its client's video content is properly formatted, licensed and ...

in 1999. Guthy-Renker's revenues grew from $400million in 2001 to $1.5billion by 2009. It formed a joint venture with

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 20 ...

Skin Health in 2016.

History

Guthy-Renker was founded in November 1988 by Bill Guthy and Greg Renker. They met at the Indian Wells Racquet Club and Resort in

Indian Wells, California Indian Wells is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley. Incorporated in 1967, it lies in between the cities of Palm Desert and La Quinta, California, La Quinta. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 c ...

. They considered starting an infomercial company after an order was placed at Guthy's cassette duplication company, Cassette Productions Unlimited, for 50,000 copies of a real estate lecture to be sold through infomercials. At the time many infomercials mimicked talk shows and investigative news specials, raising concerns among consumers and policy makers that the programs were misleading. To avoid the controversial practice, Guthy-Renker disclosed that their infomercials were paid advertisements at the beginning of each program. It made professional-quality productions. Renker was invited to testify to a Congressional subcommittee in 1990 regarding ethics in advertising, which led Guthy-Renker and others to form the National Infomercial Marketing Association to create industry standards. The following year, the firm had to cut back operations, because news coverage of the

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drew viewers away from infomercials.

Ronald Perelman Ronald Owen Perelman (; born January 1, 1943) is an American banker, businessman, investor, and philanthropist. MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated, his company, has invested in companies with interests in groceries, cigars, licorice, makeup, ca ...

of Forbes Holdings Inc. bought a 37.5percent share of Guthy-Renker in 1993 in exchange for $25million and priority access to air-time on Perelman's television stations. At the time, Guthy-Renker had grown to $60million in revenue. In 1996,Rotenier, N. (1996)
Operators are standing by
Forbes, 158(10), 278. Perelman's stake in the company was resold to

News Corp The second and current incarnation of News Corporation, doing business as News Corp, is an American mass media and publishing company headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company was formed on ...

and Guthy-Renker bought it back. In 1998, a Japanese trading company, Nissho Iwai Group, bought a 17percent portion of Guthy-Renker's Asia subsidiary for $9million. Guthy-Renker created a television station for infomercials called GRTV in 1996, which was sold to

in 1999. From 1995–1997, the firm created seven new subsidiaries. These included Guthy-Renker Radio, Internet, Select Network, International and Fitness, as well as subsidiaries like an online dating service and a psychic business that did not perform well. Guthy-Renker partnered with National Media Corp. to help market some of its fitness products, which led to a legal dispute that was settled with undisclosed terms in 1997. Guthy-Renker claimed National Media Corp. excessively aired infomercials for an exercise machine, the Fitness Flyer, and started selling an unauthorized imitation of the original. National claimed Guthy-Renker had not provided enough Fitness Flyers to meet demand. In May 1999, Guthy-Renker formed a strategic partnership with search advertising company

LookSmart LookSmart is an American search advertising, content management, online media, and technology company. It provides search, machine learning and chatbot technologies as well as pay-per-click and contextual advertising services. LookSmart a ...

, who acquired some assets of Guthy-Renker's

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile co ...

division for $3million. Guthy-Renker grew to $400million in revenue by 2001 and $1.5 billion by 2009. In 2008,

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

bought a stake in the company that valued Guthy-Renker at $3billion. In 2011, Guthy-Renker acquired a portion of Paramount Equity Mortgage, a solar energy, insurance and mortgage loans company. In 2015, the firm moved from its longtime headquarters in

Palm Desert Palm Desert is a city in the Coachella Valley region of Riverside County, California. The city is located in the Colorado Desert arm of the Sonoran Desert, about east of Palm Springs, northeast of San Diego and east of Los Angeles. The populat ...

El Segundo, California El Segundo ( , ; ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located on Santa Monica Bay, it was incorporated on January 18, 1917, and is part of the South Bay Cities Council of Governments. The population was 17,272 as of t ...

Products

Motivational Products

Guthy-Renker's first products were self-help and motivational courses. The founders bought the rights to a self-help book they were both fans of, ''Think and Grow Rich'', for $100,000 and aired their first infomercial selling the book in 1988. The infomercials were hosted by former football quarterback

and grossed $10million in sales. Another early product marketed by Guthy-Renker was

's "Personal Power" series of motivational lectures.

Beauty and fitness products

The company started to sell cosmetics and skin-care products in 1991, starting with the "Principal Secret" cosmetics line endorsed by actress

Victoria Principal Vicki Ree Principal (born January 3, 1950), In the 1990s, the company started marketing housewares, the "Perfect Smile" teeth whitening product and fitness products like the "Fitness Flyer", "Perfect Abs" and "Perfect Buns and Thighs". By 1996, 40percent of the company's revenues were from fitness products. Guthy-Renker uses infomercials, television ads, direct mail, telemarketing and the internet to sell products directly to the consumer. The firm's infomercials have production costs exceeding $1million and usually feature celebrity endorsers. In 2010, Guthy-Renker sold 15 different products. Approximately half of Guthy-Renker's revenues in 2005 came from the

acne treatment, and 30percent of its revenues were from international sources. Guthy-Renker markets the "Meaningful Beauty" anti-aging skin care system endorsed by model/actress

Cindy Crawford Cynthia Ann Crawford (born February 20, 1966) is an American model. During the 1980s and 1990s, she was among the most popular supermodels and a ubiquitous presence on magazine covers and runways, as well as fashion campaigns. She subsequently ...

and developed by Algerian-French cosmetic surgeon and chemist

Jean-Louis Sebagh Jean-Louis Sebagh is an Algerian-born French cosmetic surgeon/doctor who is known for his anti-aging surgeries, and use of botox, collagen and vitamin injections specifically on the face and neck. Sebagh's high profile clients including numerou ...

. The "Sheer Cover" brand of mineral makeup is endorsed by talk show host

Leeza Gibbons Leeza Kim Gibbons (born March 26, 1957) is an American talk show host. She is best known as a correspondent and co-host for ''Entertainment Tonight'' (1984–2000) as well as for having her own syndicated daytime talk show, ''Leeza'' (1993– ...

. The company also manages the "In an Instant" line of skin care products endorsed by model

and the "Malibu Pilates" exercise equipment endorsed by actress

. Guthy-Renker’s

line is endorsed by celebrities, including

Jessica Simpson Jessica Ann Johnson (née Simpson; born July 10, 1980) is an American singer, actress, and fashion designer. After performing in church choirs as a child, Simpson signed with Columbia Records in 1997, aged seventeen. Her debut studio album, '' ...

and

Kelly Clarkson Kelly Brianne (born Kelly Brianne Clarkson, April 24, 1982), known professionally as Kelly Clarkson, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. Rising to fame after winning the American Idol season 1, first season of ''Ameri ...

. The brand reports annual revenue of $1 billion.

WEN haircare

In January 2015, it was announced that actress

Brooke Shields Brooke Christa Shields (born May 31, 1965) is an American actress. A child model starting at the age of 11 months, Shields gained widespread notoriety at age 12 for her leading role in Louis Malle's film ''Pretty Baby (1978 film), Pretty Baby ...

would endorse

Wen Hair Care Wen Hair Care, stylized as WEN Hair Care, is an American hair care brand founded by Chaz Dean. History Wen Hair Care was founded by celebrity hairstylist Chaz Dean. The company is most well known for producing cleansing conditioners marketed t ...

developed by Chaz Dean.

European Business

Guthy-Renker made its first foray into Europe in 1997, establishing a London office for Guthy-Renker International. An office was opened in Weisbaden, Germany to service Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The company made a strategic purchase of TV Shop from Sweden-based Modern Times Group (MTG) in 2007 to enable Guthy-Renker to better penetrate the Scandinavian and German markets, and an office was opened in Malmo, Sweden to service the Scandinavian market. In 2014, Guthy-Renker AB closed its Sweden and German offices and consolidated its European business in London once again. In 2016, a joint-venture was entered into with Nestlé Skin Health, which acquired a majority stake in Guthy-Renker's European business. The company was renamed The Proactiv Company and all other product lines were discontinued. Nestlé then incorporated Proactiv into its acquisition of Galderma from L'Oreal. In 2019, Nestlé exited the skin health business and sold Galderma and Proactiv to a private equity consortium. Proactiv global assets were sold to Taro Pharmaceuticals in 2022 and renamed Alchemee.

References

External links

Official Guthy-Renker website
{{good article Direct marketing American companies established in 1988 Marketing companies established in 1988 Companies based in Santa Monica, California 1988 establishments in California