Party plan

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The party plan is a method of marketing products by hosting a social event, using the event to display and demonstrate the product or products to those gathered, and then to take orders for the products before the gathering ends.

The party plan is largely regarded as primarily the invention of Brownie Wise, who developed it for the Tupperware company in the early 1950s. The success of Tupperware was widely emulated. In this system, full-time commissioned representatives of the sales organization, almost invariably women, approach other women about hosting a social event in their homes during which a product will be demonstrated. In consideration, they will be given hostess gifts and a portion of the proceeds from the amount of goods sold. Usually all in attendance will be given a token item of nominal value as an incentive to attend.

This plan has been used primarily to sell items whose main appeal is to women, such as Tupperware itself (a food-storage system), kitchen utensils, home decor items, jewelry, skincare, cosmetics, and similar products; recent additions to the field include lingerie and sex toys. Especially in the case of these items, the system of taking orders for later delivery of products has in some instances been replaced by the direct sale of items out of an inventory.

Much has been made of the decline of the number of women with no employment outside of the home and its implications for the future of this form of marketing, but numerous organizations are still using it and have no plans to discontinue it.