An anonymous reader asks,
I’ve been approached by a friend to join up with MonaVie acai juice—it’s a “superfood” juice that’s sold through “network marketing.” I actually do like the product, and this is a friend I trust, but my alarm bells are still going off. I don’t want to get sucked into a scam, obviously. There’s nothing about this company on your site, so I thought I’d drop you a line and see if you had any advice.
Here’s our advice: don’t do it! When you look at the business details and filter out the friend-of-a-friend stories, it’s not worth the hassle.
MonaVie—a concoction of acai and other fruit juices, and sold in wine bottles for $40 a pop—is the latest in a long line of mysterious and exotic cure-alls, and no, no you should not “sell” it. We use quotation marks because the majority of distributors are their own primary customers, according to Newsweek’s Tony Dokoupil. The juice is loaded with good things and is certainly not unhealthy for you. But before you decide to shell out $40 on a bottle, or help your friend reach his or her sales quota by becoming another member in the company’s multi-level-marketing (MLM) business model—funny, when you chart that model, it looks like a pyramid!—you should find out more about how the sales look from the top, and what’s actually been verified about its health benefits.
Dokoupil points out that those people reportedly making millions of dollars in sales commissions are members near the very top of the pyramid.
Most of the million-strong sales team is really just drinking the juice, according to MonaVie’s 2007 income disclosure statement, a federally required printout of their distributor earnings. More than 90 percent were considered “wholesale customers,” whose earnings are mostly discounts on sales to themselves. Fewer than 1 percent qualified for commissions and of those, only 10 percent made more than $100 a week. And the dropout rate, while not disclosed by MonaVie, is around 70 percent, according to a top recruiter.
So that’s the reality from a profit perspective. As far as health benefits go, most of the claims about its ability to cure cancer, eczema, general pain, anxiety, autism, and a case of the stupids, is gossip and hearsay. (In fact, it may cause a case of the stupids, we’re guessing.) Newsweek points out that because unsalaried MonaVie salespeople are out making the ridiculous health claims and not the company, MonaVie stays within FDA guidelines, and doesn’t have to worry about backing up such claims.
Wikipedia cites a few nutritional studies that place acai berries somewhere in the mid-to-high range on antioxidant protection. It’s definitely a great fruit, and if you can find an affordable source of acai berries, go for it.
But even if acai berries were filled with God’s own tears, it turns out that a $40 bottle of MonaVie isn’t 100% acai juice, and the company won’t disclose the ratio of acai to its other ingredients. In fact, their product page presents an amazingly content-free but fancy description that avoids any real details:
While the açai berry serves as the foundation for each of MonaVie’s vital formulas, with literally thousands of phytonutrients and antioxidants found in nature’s fresh fruits, MonaVie didn’t want to focus on just one at the expense of others. This led to MonaVie’s scientists and product development team selecting additional fruits whose synergistic union would reach far beyond what any single fruit could accomplish. These specially selected fruits have been exclusively combined to create MonaVie’s premier balanced blends.
In other words, “Just trust us!”
We think instead of lining the pockets of MonaVie’s savvy head promoters, you should just shop around for 100% pure acai products, which will be much cheaper. Or just keep eating a variety of cheaper fruits, buy a decent $12 bottle of red wine, and lay off the health food fads altogether.
“MonaVie Acai Juice: Cure-All or Marketing Scheme?” [Newsweek]
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The system is totally fucked. It’s *possible* that at some point these fuckers *might* get shut down for running a pyramid scam but in reality the worst that will probably happen is that they may be forced to weaken some of the language of their claims. Meanwhile, the guys running this show are preying on the gullibility of these poor saps and becoming extremely wealthy as a result. I suppose I’m bitter I didn’t come up with it first.
A buddy of mine got into this through the Amway splinter-sect he was already a part of. I’ve been avoiding his sales pitches for a year now.
Also, at a wedding I had a cousin try to draw me into his MLM, all the time saying “It’s not a pyramid scheme!” When he drew a little diagram on the back of his business card to describe how the business worked he drew a…wait for it…pyramid!
@Rev-E:
Did it go something like this?
[ca]
+ Watch video
When I was a freshman in college 6 years ago, I went to a couple presentations for this MLM organization that sells a product called Reliv. I knew better than to get into it, but the structure of the presentations were still somewhat interesting.
What struck me about the people I talked to who were already in this was how brainwashed many of them seemed. A few of them were amazed that I was “getting into this” at such a young age (18 at the time). It was interesting.
Definitely a pyramid scheme.
I’ve tried the product (for free from a ‘friend’ who wanted me to sell for them). It tasted OK, but was no miracle cure for my ailments…however, some people I know swear by it and claim it has cured everything from depression to helping them lose weight. I say it’s the placebo effect. Regardless, it’s not pure juice and definitely NOT worth $40 a bottle!
I’m astounded that people still fall for these MLM scams.
I had to deal with a guy who was pushing for me to sell it, also claiming that he was taking the stuff and he was feeling better and he was expecting it to help with his cholesterol.
His doctor gave him the reality check smackdown about 2 months later when he got bloodwork done and was shown there was no improvement (some numbers may have gotten worse)
So he finally dropped the MonaVie and now takes kung fu and tai chi classes instead for his health
The issue with MLM I have seen is that most “uplevel” or higher ups (or whatever you call the earlier people who buy in) always seem to have these side lines of selling motivational materials or sales aids etc which they sell. That alone convinced me that they were not making the huge money from the product but the recruiting and selling the motivational crap.
Last Amway err I mean Quixtar (or whatever it is) folks I encountered I shut right down when I asked about the product profit margins to me. They had no clue so I had to explain that if I couldn’t buy for 66% or less of the sell price I wasn’t interested…
When I first started reading the article I thought it was describing Mona Vie Anal juice.
Guess I was right after all.
A woman I worked with was having this stuff shipped in by the case on a regular basis. Then she got fired last year for embezzlement. And her creditors continue to call our office. These observations are probably not coincidental.
I’m not getting the whole “shaped like a pyramid == bad” reference. Aren’t most large companies shaped like a pyramid, just from each employee having on average more underlings than bosses (low level employees excluded)?
@BobCoyote: The difference is that in a company the people on the bottom make a living wage, instead of $0 or a negative amount.
@BobCoyote: One difference is that in these schemes/situations, the main customers of the business is the business itself. Most comapnies are structured employee wise like this, just like an army, but their business plan isn’t. Ford employees don’t make money based on how many Fords they themselves sell. Plus, they don’t have to pre-buy the cars before they sell them. The “employees” in this “business” buy the product up front, then have to “recruit” employees of their own, whom purchase their product from the person who recruited them. Then the process has to be repeated for the new employee to make money. The only ones who make real money are the people who move MASSIVE amount of product, which are the higher levels.
I am a distributor for MonaVie but I’m just a consumer. I will say that this product had near miraculous results for me. I have Lupus and since beginning to drink MonaVie I have been able to get up in the morning without muscle stiffness and pain that I had before. It really is a good product, but I don’t buy into the hype of the “business”.
@JaniceEosphorus:
shes prob dead now
Has anyone here heard of “SomaLife”? Yep, it’s another vitamin brand being sold by a MLM. I had a friend who kept trying to push these on me, until I told him off. For some odd reason, these scams seem to be quite rampant in Ottawa.
If the dropout rate is 70%, you may be able to buy the bottles cheap on ebay. Pyramid schemes usually involve requiring members to buy large ammts of stock that they can’t sell; PinkTruth.com says lots of “recovered” Mary Kay sellers unload their stock on ebay.
Hmm, same story here- parents did the Amway thing for about 2 years, maybe a little more. Spent far more on motivational conferences, seminars, books, and tapes (dear god the tapes) than they even did on product or ever sniffed in profit.
Back then at least, the Amway system was basically, Buy everyday products for 10% over retail. Then, if you buy enough, we give you 2% back! Con enough OTHER people into buying for 10% over retail, and you’re in for a taste! Are you listening to tapes?
I know the S hit the fan a little while ago when it came out that the muckety mucks were making more on tapes than they were on the actual system.
I know they lost a few friends on the way. But they’re trained to just shrug it off- well, a friend who won’t listen and make a smart decision isn’t really a friend, is he?
network marketing = Stuff won’t sell on its own merit
I went to whole foods and bought a bottle of Acai juice for 10 bucks. Tasted way to funky to drink on a regular basis but 40 bucks is significantly too much.
Aren’t these people who get into these things embarrassed? I would be so humiliated going to my friends and family and asking them to get involved. Is it really worth the shame of being a jerk to (possibly) make a little extra money on a fly-by-night operation? I really just don’t get it.
I mean, I suppose I could go to all my friends and family and get $20 out of each of them and walk away with some extra cash. But you see, I still have SOME dignity left and so I’m not going to do it.
People are just so, so sad.
Conversation with an MLM jackhat at a gas station, as he fills up his old Lexus with gas: “Hey man, noticed the out of state liscence plates…nice! I just bought this car today, made a ton of money from a business opportunity, need to spend it so I don’t give it all away in taxes (what??)! You interested?”
Me: “Car dealers aren’t open on Sundays and you’re a dumbass”
Nice way to relieve stress after wasting my morning explaining why plane-spotting isn’t violating any laws to a GOAA rentacop!
“The juice is loaded with good things and is certainly not unhealthy for you.”
Uh, Chris, how exactly do you know this? Most of what’s assumed about the drink is nothing more than technobabble. And the fact that it’s being sold through pyramid schemes doesn’t really help with anything. In fact, the pyramid scheme makes perfect sense, because people who lack critical thinking skills (potential buyers) might be swayed by anecdotes about the drinks’ “mysterious powers.”
It’s only a pyramid “scheme” if you want it to be. The guy that’s scamming people and lying about it to sign up more people under him should be ashamed. A friend of mine ‘sells’ it and like the article says he’s really just a reseller so he can buy it himself at the discount rate… I assume most people that sign up do it this way. He gave me 4 bottles and told me to try it; if I liked it pay him and if not dont worry about it. I told him I’d be interested in signing up under him so I could sell it to my friends as well and he didnt really seem interested… He said I could just go up to the website and sign up. Some people may give MLM a bad name but the idea is sound.. think I’m joking??? How many times have you convinced your friend to buy a product because you used it and thought it was great?? That’s MLM, you just didnt get @*#% for your testimonial and helping a company sell a product… NOW who’s crazy!?
P.S. I havent signed up with MonaVie yet… I might, I might not… I didnt think the juice realy did anything for me (then again I’m a healthy 26 year old that’s active and already eats very well) I just needed to comment because it annoys me when people knock MLM (and no.. I dont belong to ANY other MLM either)
@aguyinphoenix:
your a shill, how many times do you buy something and then give it to someone telling them they can pay you back if they like it. Its a pressure tactic and you got suckered in and now will prob do the same to others.
I tried some of this stuff (local convenient health food store does sampling of crap), and, OK…it’s $40 per bottle, with no nutritional info, no studies, nada? And, you’re trying to get me to be a member of some MLM? Uh…yeah. I’ll take my Aloe and Dr. Bronner’s, and leave now. Bye.
If I want good juice, I get a Knudsen “Just “, which are expensive, but nothing like $40 per bottle!
While I was in the USA a coworker tried to convince me to join and be the first brazilian seller of monavie – Selling a $40 açaà juice bottle on the land where açaà is from, where more than 30% of the people are below poverty line… And where you can get the same ammount of açaà juice for $1.50 in every corner. Go figure.
Btw, açaà is great, tastes good, but it’s not magical.
I was appraoched by someone and was very skeptical as well. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and did my research. I put together a spreadsheet with the following assumptions – I recruit 1 distributor below me each month, they do the same. Attrition is about 75% each month. I assumed each person below me buys 6 bottles a month. I moved the numbers around just to see the possibilites and none of the realistic numbers came out favorably. In the end I showed that it takes 12 months to break even and at the worst point I am over $2,000 in the hole. By twelve months I started making a decent montly income but that assumes I have over 500 distributors under my pyramid which I considered unlikely given the people I know that are willing to buy this and the flood of people selling it in my area right now especially given the hefty price tag. There is the possibility to make a lot of money but you need to recuit over a thousand in your chain to make up for the people that quit or don’t produce. Just like any MLM or pyramid, the people above you make money as long as people buy the product and you have to buy it to give samples and market it. The numbers that were in the brochure showed that 90% make $83 a week or less. For the few it is very profitable but for the rest they will find themselves well in the hole and quit before making a profit if they ever do. I also showed that through the first year my hourly rate was about $5 an hour.
Oh cool, the MonaVie Active study is published on PubMed.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed&cmd=search&term=monavie+active&log$=activity
Couldn’t find any studies for any other nutritional beverages, what are the odds
funny thing is is not a pyramid scheme..Im a distributor and i can tell you its no scheme. Most people are not going to put in the work to see the benefits. But i do, and make money and i am not at the “top” i just got in 2 months ago and am already making money. People that have never tried the product cannot bash it, you have no clue what you are talking about. Do you think the Boston Red Sox would have it as their official drink 2007-2009 , and proudly shout it for all the world to hear? Do you think Tomas Sheketer would be driving the No.19 Monavie Racecar in the Indy500[ was a distributor and drink before he became sponsored] & Its not 40 a bottle unless you buy 1 bottle..one case[last one month] is 130..thats less than 5 dollars a day if you break it down..i dont see you people bashing the people that spend 5 dollars or more on a pack of cigarettes that will more than likely give them CANCER! You are telling people not to take a product that is one of if not the healthiest drink they can possibly take? Or go buy a couple red bulls everyday..get real people and quit bashing a product you know nothing about except the crap you read from other people who have no clue what they are talking about..
@David Cook:
you are a shill
@David Cook: Anything compared to a Red Bull or pack of cigarettes has to be better.
Red Sox = paid sponsorship
Tomas Sheketer = paid sponsorship
Yawn David Cook, you are a bad shill.