marketing founded 1988 headquarters el segundo california area served worldwide key people bill guthy and greg renker founding principals and co chairmen rick odum ceo revenue 1.8 billion 2012 website www.guthy renker.com guthy renker pronounced guh thee ren ker is a el segundo california based direct response marketing company that sells products directly to consumers through infomercials television ads direct mail telemarketing e mail marketing and the internet . as of 2014 it has 8 different product groups with an emphasis on celebrity endorsed beauty products . guthy renker was founded in 1988 by bill guthy and greg renker . in 1995 it began distributing the acne treatment proactiv 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 . it founded an infomercial channel grtv which was sold to tvn entertainment corporation in 1999 . guthy renker s revenues grew from 400 million in 2001 to 1.5 billion by 2009 . it formed a joint venture with nestle skin health in 2016 whereby nestle now manages proactiv . contents 1 history 2 products 3 references 4 further reading 5 external links history edit guthy renker was founded in november 1988 by bill guthy and greg renker who met at the indian wells racquet club and resort in indian wells california . 1 2 3 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 . 1 2 4 at the time many infomercials mimicked talk shows and investigative news specials raising concerns among consumers and policy makers that the programs were misleading . 5 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 . 6 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 . 2 6 7 the following year the firm had to cut back operations because news coverage of the persian gulf war drew viewers away from infomercials . 6 8 ron perelman of forbes holdings inc. bought a 37.5 percent share of guthy renker in 1993 in exchange for 25 million and priority access to air time on perelman s television stations . 9 10 at the time guthy renker had grown to 60 million in revenue . 11 in 1996 11 perelman s stake in the company was resold to news corp and guthy renker bought it back . two years later goldman sachs bought a stake in the company that valued guthy renker at 3 billion 12 and a japanese trading company nissho iwai group bought a 17 percent portion of guthy renker s asia subsidiary for 9 million . 13 guthy renker created a television station for infomercials called grtv in 1996 which was sold to tvn entertainment corporation in 1999 . 6 from 1995 1997 the firm created seven new subsidiaries . 2 these included guthy renker radio internet select network international and fitness 2 as well as subsidiaries like an online dating service and a psychic business that did not perform well . 4 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 . 14 15 16 guthy renker grew to 400 million in revenue by 2001 17 and 1.5 billion by 2009 . 18 in 2011 guthy renker acquired a portion of paramount equity mortgage a solar energy insurance and mortgage loans company . 19 products edit guthy renker s first products were self help and motivational courses . 20 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 fran tarkenton and grossed 10 million in sales . 9 21 another early product marketed by guthy renker was tony robbins s personal power series of motivational lectures . 12 a proactiv acne treatment package the company started to sell cosmetics and skin care products in 1991 starting with the principal secret cosmetics line endorsed by victoria principal after market research showed that 70 percent of guthy renker s audience were women . 2 3 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 . 22 by 1996 40 percent of the company s revenues were from fitness products . 6 guthy renker uses infomercials television ads direct mail telemarketing and the internet to sell products directly to the consumer . 3 the firm s infomercials have production costs exceeding 1 million and usually feature celebrity endorsers . 18 23 in 2010 guthy renker sold 15 different products . 12 approximately half of guthy renker s revenues in 2005 came from the proactiv acne treatment 23 and 30 percent of its revenues were from international sources . 24 guthy renker also markets the meaningful beauty anti aging skin care system endorsed by cindy crawford and developed by jean louis sebagh . 25 the sheer cover brand of mineral makeup is endorsed by leeza gibbons . 26 the company also manages the in an instant line of skin care products endorsed by heidi klum and the malibu pilates exercise equipment endorsed by susan lucci . 12 24 guthy renker s proactiv line is endorsed by celebrities including jessica simpson and kelly clarkson . 27 the brand has average annual revenue of 1 billion . 28 in january 2015 it was announced that brooke shields would be the new celebrity endorser for wen hair care developed by chaz dean . 29 she was reportedly a fan of the brand s cleansing conditioner . 30 references edit a b leavitt neal august 1997 . q & a with guthy renker . responsetv . a b c d e f gladwell gina august 1997 . guthy renker 10 years of trailblazing in direct response marketing . responsetv . a b c pamela danziger 1 january 2005 . let them eat cake marketing luxury to the masses as well as the classes . kaplan publishing . pp. 126 . isbn 978 0 7931 9307 3 . retrieved 23 january 2013 . a b orton charles may 2001 . the guthy renker story pdf . response magazine . williams scott august 4 1990 . infomercial producers form trade group . associated press . retrieved february 15 2013 . a b c d e pederson jay 2000 . international directory of company histories . 32 . st. james press . isbn 1558623914 . vazzano sherri november 23 1990 . tv ads policing own act . chicago tribune . retrieved february 15 2013 . weiner steward april 2002 . excellent ad venture . palm springs life . p. 66 . retrieved october 22 2013 . a b richman louis october 31 1994 . pioneers of a new way to sell . fortune . pp . volume 130 issue 9 . retrieved january 23 2013 . bird l. 1993 nov 15 . perelman buys stake in maker of infomercials . wall street journal . retrieved january 23 2013 . a b rotenier n. 1996 . operators are standing by . forbes 158 10 278 . a b c d rose lacey november 3 2010 . shill shocked . forbes . retrieved january 24 2013 . brennan judith may 19 1998 . japanese firm buying stake in guthy renker . los angeles times . retrieved january 23 2013 . cleland k. 1997 . fitness flyer . advertising age 68 26 s30 . retrieved january 23 2013 . business news in brief . philadelphia inquirer . april 1 1997 . pp . d03 . flyer strider suits settled with guthy renker corp. . the wall street journal . april 1 1997 . pp . b 11 4 . access date requires url help lowry brian january 5 2001 . infomercials an easy sell celebrities and tv stations . the los angeles times . a b remy stern 6 october 2009 . but wait ... there s more . harpercollins . pp. 78 . isbn 978 0 06 197111 2 . retrieved 23 january 2013 . finkelstein brad april 18 2011 . mortgage news guthy renker buys equity in paramount check url value help . retrieved january 23 2013 . williams scott august 4 1990 . infomercials industry forms trade association . associated press . retrieved january 23 2013 . mary lou roberts ; paul d. berger 1999 . direct marketing management . prentice hall . pp. 58 . isbn 978 0 13 080434 1 . retrieved 23 january 2013 . fussell james february 8 1999 . as seen on tv fitnes fads thrive on variety . the kansas city star . pp . d1 . a b arndorfer james may 2 2005 . guthy renker gives the infomercial street cred . advertising age . retrieved january 23 2013 . a b brown rachel september 3 2009 . van de bunt outlines guthy renker growth plan . women s wear daily . retrieved january 23 2013 . mckay hollie . ageless supermodels older and sexier than ever . how do they do it . fox news . retrieved february 19 2015 . for example in 2005 crawford created a line of beauty products with dr. jean louis sebagh called meaningful beauty for guthy renker sheer cover . retrieved january 20 2015 . proactiv s active ingredient celebrity . forbes.com . retrieved january 20 2015 . 10 best selling infomercial products . mental floss . retrieved january 20 2015 . brooke shields is the new face of wen hair care and there are 3 key reasons she s a resurgent beauty icon . bustle . retrieved january 20 2015 . brooke shields is the new face of wen hair care and there are 3 key reasons she s a resurgent beauty icon . bustle . retrieved january 20 2015 . further reading edit johnson emma october 2012 . as seen on tv . success magazine . external links edit official guthy renker website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title guthy renker & oldid 740433170 categories direct marketingcompanies based in santa monica californiaamerican companies established in 19881988 establishments in californiahidden categories pages using citations with accessdate and no urlpages with url errorsgood articles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutsch edit links this page was last modified on 21 september 2016 at 01 41 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view