I mentioned a couple of months ago that Amway’s E.Funkhouser New York range was being phased out and what appeared to be a new, lower cost, Amway brand was going to be introduced. This has now been confirmed with articles in European Amagrams and websites. The Amway UK website says –

To help grow the Amway business and further benefit you and your customers, Amway is looking for the biggest opportunities within the beauty market. Our key focus will remain on the ARTISTRY™ Brand and in 2010 we launch an exciting new beauty brand, beautycycle™.

beautycycle products will further enhance your beauty business opportunities, by opening the doors to those customers who currently do not purchase ARTISTRY products and are looking for a simpler, more affordable approach to beauty.

This is a truly exciting time for beauty within Amway; not only are we introducing the new beautycycle Brand but our power-brand – ARTISTRY – will be strengthened and elevated through refocus on the advanced science technologies found within the products and also new launches, for both skin & colour.

To ensure that we optimise the opportunities and focus on these two key brands, it has been decided that the E FUNKHOUSER™ NEW YORK Brand will be discontinued globally.

For this reason Color Collection C010 will be the last collection from the E. FUNKHOUSER Brand. The Professional Product Series will be available for the length of this Collection (C010), however, with varying stock levels, some products may run out quickly.

The ARTISTRY Brand offers products to women who are looking for prestige cosmetics with the latest technology. The beautycycle Brand meets the needs of women who are interested in simple, yet effective solutions. Together these two beauty brands will be powerful tools to truly grow your business.

This new brand is a “more affordable” one, obviously designed to expand Amway out of the “prestige” category inhabited by Artistry. Amway appears to have had some success introducing some lower cost brands into markets like India and South America, it will be interesting to see how it goes in wealthier countries. There’s always the risk it could damage Artistry sales rather than create an entré into a new market segment, however it would seem to me to be a direct challenge to direct selling competitors Avon and Mary Kay. Some shots of some of the products (right) seem to support this, with a, well “lower cost” look 🙂 than Artistry has.