Category Archives: Amway Products

Avon closing in Australia and New Zealand

 

It was less than a decade ago that cosmetic’s direct selling company was the largest and most successful direct selling company in the world, an honour now owned by Amway. This week comes the shocking news that Avon is closing down in Australia and New Zealand.

Direct selling is having significant challenges with rapid changes in technology and having to compete against the likes of Amazon and EBay, and this has been reflected in Amway’s own sales downturns the past 4 years. Something that may have turned around.

Amway Australia seems to be still having some success, with 10 new Platinums and Founders Platinums recognized last month, and recent new Diamonds Patrick and Joyce Mahakkapong and Hemant and Smitha Sahela.

Artistry, Amway’s premium cosmetic brand, continues to rank globally as one of the top 10 of all premium cosmetics brands.

It’s sad to see Avon’s struggles, but I’m sure the nearly 24,000 Avon reps in Australia may represent an opportunity for Amway?

What do you think?

Why Nutrilite? Here’s why

Study: Many Herbal Supplements Aren’t What the Label Says

ALBANY, N.Y. — Bottles of Walmart-brand echinacea, an herb said to ward off colds, were found to contain no echinacea at all. GNC-brand bottles of St. John’s wort, touted as a cure for depression, held rice, garlic and a tropical houseplant, but not a trace of the herb.

In fact, DNA testing on hundreds of bottles of store-brand herbal supplements sold as treatments for everything from memory loss to prostate trouble found that four out of five contained none of the herbs on the label. Instead, they were packed with cheap fillers such as wheat, rice, beans or houseplants.

Consumers sold short on omega-3 oil

Analysis finds most brands contain only 68% of fatty acid amounts listed on label

Nearly all fish oil supplements marketed in New Zealand contain much less of the brain-boosting omega-3 fatty acids than their labels claim, an eye-opening study has found.

When researchers at the University of Auckland’s Liggins Institute tested 36 different brands of fish oil capsules, just three contained the same concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids as listed on the label.

They found that over half had oxidised to a level higher than the recommended limit – and this had nothing to do with the best-before date, price, or country they came from.

Amway Product Review: Artistry Skin Refinisher

artistry skin refinisherThe basis of any business is having products that have a market demand. If you have that, then you have a business. Critics of Amway and other companies that use MLM as a marketing strategy regularly claim the products are “over-priced junk”. Remarkably, when I’ve asked them how many of the products they’ve actually tried, the answer is almost always none. They’re judging the quality and value of products they’ve never tried.

So I thought I’d help them out. Look Magazine in the UK recently reviewed Artistry Advanced Skin Refinisher. The called it  –

The Skin Refinisher That Will Change Your Life

And as for the price?

At £53.35 per 30ml bottle, it’s tonnes cheaper than a trip to the dermatologist’s, yet gives an impressively similar result.

Impressive.

So, if you’re a person evaluating Amway or Amway’s products, it’s a simple question. Who do you believe about the quality and value of Amway’s products? Someone who has never tried them, or expert evaluations by people who actually have?

You choose.

And here’s a thought – why not try them out? There’s a money back guarantee if you don’t think they’re good value.

 

Great video from Nutrilite and Kurt Warner!

You may know that Kurt Warner is two time winner of the NFL Most Valuable Player award, and also winner of a Superbowl MVP award. What you might not know is that in 2010 he won the Bart Starr Award for “outstanding character and leadership in the home, on the field and in the community”. While people like Howard Megdal may be clueless about Amway (see my post a couple of days ago!), people like Kurt Warner are not, which is why he’s a spokesperson for Amway’s Nutrilite brand.

He’s also got a great sense of theatre!


Does Amway or Nutrilite use GMO crops?

I’ve occasionally received questions about whether Amway uses genetically modified organism (GMO) crops in their products, in particular in Nutrilite products. I’m personally not overly concerned by GMO if it’s from a company I trust. In past years “gmo” had a simpler name – farming! We’ve been genetically modifying our food supply for thousands of years, through transplanting and interbreeding of different plants and animals. Now we can just do it faster and in a more controlled situation.

Still, I understand peoples concerns. On the weekend though, there was a surprising article posted in China’s People’s Daily Online –  Is Amway Nutrilite protein powder as addictive as heroin? The article is a bizarre, non-scientific hit piece, against both Amway and GMO. It cites some studies that found problems with some GMO animals. That’s kind of like saying you shouldn’t eat strawberries (a man-made hybrid fruit) because breading a donkey and a horse will give you an infertile mule. Just plain silly.

But it gets sillier. The article says, about Amway protein powder …

“people really feel better to take the Nutrilite protein powder but feel not as good  as before if stop taking it”

… and claim this is evidence the product is addictive and creates dependence like heroin! Right. So if I give a badly dehydrated person water … they’ll feel better. If I stop it and let them get badly dehydrated again, they’ll feel even worse.

Bad water! Bad bad water!

The article has obviously been written or sourced from an Amway competitor, and there’s a big clue to this when we go back to the discussion on GMO –

 “Industry insiders said that the Amway Nutrilite protein powder sold in China contains protein from GM soybeans grown in the United States.”

Industry insiders” huh? That’s code for “competitors”. Still, I was interested if Amway was using GMO so I started googling around, and I found several documents of interest. One was the All Plant Protein Powder FAQ, produced by ” TECHNICAL REGULATORY SERVICES, Access Business Group, South Africa”. Access Business Group (ABG),  a part of Alticor, is responsible for manufacturing Amway products. The FAQ says –

42. How do we verify that we use non-genetically modified soybeans? 

We follow the European Union standard for providing non-genetically modified ingredients. The supplier of our soy protein isolate has a
stringent quality control system in place to ensure they provide us with non-genetically soybeans. We also ensure this requirement is being
met by using a test known as polymerase chain reaction, or PCR testing. This advanced methodology can test for the presence of genetically
modified DNA.

This makes it pretty clear this product has no GMO. But is it perhaps different in different markets? I also found, from the same group at ABG, an FAQ on Nutrilite and Organic Farming

22. Do Nutrilite farms utilize GMOs or GMMs?
Nutrilite has a long tradition of using organic farm practices on its farms. This policy includes using only traditional
farming methods and natural methods to control insects and prevent crop disease, and has been extended to preclude
the growing of GMO and GMM plants on any Nutrilite farming operation. It reflects Nutrilite’s commitment to providing
customers with products that address all of their concerns

So, Nutrilite farms don’t use GMO/GMM and in Europe/South Africa at least, they follow EU standards for suppliers. The final nail in the coffin for the People’s Daily claim is this, the Nutrilite Global GMO Policy, which states –

All ingredients for Amway core branded products (Nutrilite, Positrim) will be non-GMO or IP with a recombinant DNA threshold of 0.9% with the exception of
flavors, and subcomponents with no function or presence in the final formula.

So there you go. With some minor exceptions, Amway and Nutrilite don’t use GMO ingredients.

Amway and Euromonitor

Most IBOs would be aware of various “claims” about Amway’s products and sales that are backed up by research done by Euromonitor International. I’ve just discovered Euromonitor actually has a page on their website describing some of the claims and their methodology. Worth a look! The claims listed are –

  • Since 1959, Amway has paid out more bonuses and cash incentives to its distributors worldwide than any other direct sales company in history.
  • In 2010, Amway paid out more bonuses and cash incentives to its distributors worldwide than any other direct sales company.
  • In 2011, Amway paid out more bonuses and cash incentives to its distributors worldwide than any other direct sales company.
  • In 2011, more people renewed their Amway business than any other direct selling company in the world.
  • Amway is the first leading direct selling company in Brazil to empower its distributors with exclusive Facebook tools to manage their business.
  • Nutrilite is the only global vitamin and mineral brand to grow, harvest, and process plants on their own certified organic farms.
  • Artistry is among the world’s top five, largest selling, premium skincare brands.
  • Artistry is among the world’s top ten, largest selling, premium cosmetics brands.

 

Can a positive review be a bad thing?

Today on my Facebook feed a post came up from Nutrilite US about Nutrilite Energy Bars getting a positive review in Triathlete Magazine –

“That’s great!” I thought. I’ve competed in triathlons and have a few friends who continue to do so. So I eagerly clicked on the link through to Amway’s News website and looked at the PDF of the Triathlete Magazine Review.

The magazine highlights four energy bars for “when you need an extra shot of energy to keep going on a long ride or run”. The four are Honey Stinger Waffles, Iron Girl Energy Bar, Nutrilite Energy Bar, and Clif Bar. All four are given glowing reviews, which is great for Nutrilite. So where’s the problem? There’s two. First is this –

Honey Stinger Waffles – $1.39
Iron Girl Energy Bar – $0.99
Nutrilite Energy Bar – $20.97 for box of 9 bars
Clif bar (coconut chocolate chip) – $1.39

You have to do the math, but that puts the Nutrilite Energy Bar at  $2.33/bar – nearly 70% more expensive than the next most expensive bar, and 135% more expensive than the cheapest!

If you were a triathlete, would you check out the Nutrilite bar first or last? Now, I’ve learned a lot over the year about The Nutrilite Difference, and often even though a Nutrilite product may be more expensive, it may be a significantly better product and better value. We don’t have Nutrilite Energy Bars where I live and so I’ve never tried them and don’t know much about them. So I went to Amway.com to learn more. And that’s where the second problem came up –

Hopefully it will change soon, but right now two of the three flavours, indeed the two that were mentioned by Triathlete Magazine, aren’t even available! Hello? Even if you can’t help when Triathlete magazine promotes something, why on earth would you be promoting a product on Facebook that people can’t even order? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to wait until the products were in stock?

In any case, I went to amway.com to see if I could learn more about these bars and if there was any information to help a consumer make the decision to purchase these over the other three bars, or indeed for an IBO to market these products against competitors. Unfortunately, under “competitive info” I found only some nutritional comparisons with Power Bar. Reading through the rest of the info the only thing that stood out was “Exclusive NUTRILITE® C-Lenium Blend provides antioxidant protection from harmful free radicals generated by intense exercise”.

Was that the Nutrilite Difference? I don’t know. It sounds good – but is it worth paying more than double the price compared to an Iron Girl energy bar? I don’t know that either. If anyone from Nutrilite or Amway, or an IBO, can help explain it, I’d love more information. What I do know is that it’s unlikely that many triathletes are going to be turned on to Nutrilite by this review. All the information they get is from the magazine, and then the Nutrilite Health and Amway websites. That tells them these products are expensive, and out of stock.

Is that what you want from being highlighted in a magazine?

UPDATE: Even worse, anyone checking out this product after September 2 (two days from now), will see another price – $22.65 for a box of 9, or $2.52/bar. So a potential customer checking out the product is going to get yet another “sticker shock”. Unless there’s something incredibly special about this product – and if there is, both IBOs and customers need to be educated about it, the only way I can see this being successfully marketed to customers is by IBOs putting big discounts on the suggested retail price. Even at base IBO price the bars are still significantly more expensive than the competitors. At least though they’d be marketable. Is Amway US slipping back to the old habit of targeting product pricing at IBOs instead of customers?