We want to wish you all a merry Christmas and fantastic Holiday fun!  We are celebrating the Holidays in the Rocky Mountains of Utah.   It’s a beautiful time of the year, lots of snow, Christmas lights and smell of Giselle's wonderful food!

Before arriving in Utah, Giselle and I spent a few days in New York City to soak in the Christmas experience there.   I have to admit that I enjoy being caught up in the frantic, festive shopping and seeing which toy becomes the craze.

Every Christmas there always seems to be that one item hot gift.  We have seen them before, The Tickle Me Elmo, Teddy Ruxpin, Playstation 3 and Rockband. This year it's something called the Zhu Zhu pet! Yes, the Zhu Zhu pet!!!

A Zhu Zhu pet is a cute, interactive, electronic stuffed animal hamster made for children ages 3 and up.  We were having dinner at a terrific restaurant in New York City late one night with our good friend Sherry and she mentioned that she was looking for the hard to find zhu zhu pet.

After dinner we headed to Toys R Us and by pure luck they had these pretend hamsters.  But there were 2 conditions.  Only one person and we had to stand in a very long line.  Sherry got her zhu zhu pet and we bought a set for our granddaughters, Emma and Ellie.   

So, how the heck did this silly toy become the “it” present of the Christmas season?   I don’t think anyone knows the exact answer to that.  But personally I believe that clever marketing definitely gave them an edge. 

In addition to traditional advertising the company launched an interesting campaign that included many public relation events including sponsoring 300 in-home hamster parties where “influential mommy bloggers” could invite people over and experience these scampering little hamsters. Guests could touch and feel these pets but most importantly they could go home and start talking about them.

For Nu Skin distributors this strategy seems obvious.  This is exactly how Giselle and I started our Nu Skin business.  In home get togethers, personal interaction over a cup of coffee where people could touch and feel the potential of the Nu Skin business. The power of Word of Mouth advertising plays a mighty role in any business. It's interesting to see a huge corporation implementing what may be deemed as an MLM strategy to turn their business into a mega-sensation of the holiday season.