Nikken has a set of marketing rules for anyone who promotes the Nikken products on their website, and we have to stay in compliance with those rules.
One of my teammates received a phone call about his website from Nikken’s compliance department. I called Nikken back myself so that I could find out exactly what their current interpretation of the rules are.
- Limit product descriptions to a few sentences. The PWP site has full descriptions.
- All product images must come from the Nikken PWP website.
- All product videos must come from the PWP site or Nikken’s YouTube channel.
- No product documentation. They are all on the PWP for the customer to find.
- No product testimonials. There are some approved ones in the PWP site to link to.
- No medical claims regarding the products.
- All online orders have to go through the Nikken PWP website.
- The Nikken consultant logo must be prominently displayed on the page.
The stuff about medical claims, images, consultant logo and online orders hasn’t changed.
What Is a Medical Claim?
Making medical claims about the Nikken products is a big deal. This one comes from the FDA and is behind most of Nikken’s website compliance rules. A medical claim is any statement suggesting that a product can be used to cure, treat, prevent, or diagnose a disease or medical condition. Only doctors and drug companies are allowed to make medical claims.
People sometimes ask me if there are clinical studies showing that the Nikken products work for a specific use. I have to tell them no because even if there was a study, I wouldn’t be able to use it because that would constitute a medical claim.
Do you know why it is difficult to find medical studies to show that magnets work on the body? Medical companies don’t care about magnets because they can’t patent them, so they won’t fund a study. Companies like Nikken cannot use the studies, so it doesn’t make sense for them to fund the studies.
Nikken’s rules about the images, videos, documents, descriptions and testimonials make it easier for them to make sure that the distributors aren’t saying anything about the products that could get us and Nikken in trouble with the FDA.
The Nikken consultant logo is an attempt to satisfy the FTC rule that says that we have to disclose our financial affiliation with Nikken. Not allowing testimonials keeps us out of trouble with the FTC rule about them too.
With All the Rules, How Can We Sell the Product?
That’s an excellent question and one that I struggled with when Nikken Compliance called me three years ago about my website.
Back then the rule was for no descriptions what so ever. A year ago the rule was that we could copy the description from the PWP site exactly. Now the rule is only one or two sentences.
How are you supposed to keep up with changes like that? It can be a lot of work to go through your website and make those kinds of changes.
Descriptions Don’t Sell. Benefits Do
Think about where your website fits into the sales process.
You hear about most mainstream products through some kind of ad, and that ad is full of all the benefits of that product. How much easier it will make your life, how much time it will save you, how cool you will be when you are seen with it at work or at the mall. There is very little description.
You either go to the store or look online to find out about the product details.
Your website is the ad for the Nikken products. Focus on the benefits of the product and don’t mess with descriptions.
Which sells better?
- The twin Nikken Naturest mattress topper has 13 RAM disks laid out where you sleep.
- The Nikken Naturest mattress topper will give you that great night’s sleep that you have been dreaming of.
It may not be the best sales pitch ever, but the second statement is clearly better than the first one. It talks about the benefit of sleeping on 13 RAM disks without ever mentioning the disks themselves.
The purpose of your webpage is to get people to want to click through to the Nikken PWP website. Once there they can find out more about the product, read the documentation, and place their order.
Now, if you don’t mind, I have some work to do. Compliance says that my pages look OK but I think I know how to make my pages work a lot better now.
Wayne Woodworth
PS. To really amp up your ability to sell the products online, check out my Silver Challenge.
