Former Quixtar Executive Diamond and TEAM founder Orrin Woodward has announced his next venture – he’s joining MonaVie. MonaVie is a multi-level marketing company that promotes a drink based on a blend of 19 different fruits, the primary one being the açaí berry. The berry, and the drink, reportedly have health benefits.
Interestingly, MonaVie’s top distributor is reportedly Brig Hart. Hart is a former Quixtar Double Diamond who was involved in various "tools" related lawsuits against Amway and other IBO organisations. The most important of these was dismissed by a Federal Judge last week.
It will be interesting to see how former Quixtar IBOs associated with TEAM react to this news. Woodward and other TEAM leaders were highly critical of Quixtar’s pricing structure, and reportedly cast a vision to their group of being "the Wal-Mart of the internet", based on generating high volumes at lower prices.
One week’s supply of MonaVie, a 75ml bottle, retails for $45. A 28 day supply is $18.
For comparison, Amway/Quixtar’s "elite" Nutrilite Double X nutritional supplement, a blend of 2 different plant concentrates, retails for $78.5 for a 31 day supply.
Marketing a $45 bottle of fruit juice, no matter what it’s quality, isn’t exactly a "Wal-Mart" type model.
One thing I do like about MonaVie, and have mentioned before, is their Income Disclosure Statement. Unlike Quixtar’s poorly defined "Average Incomes", MonaVie’s averages explicitly exclude folk who are primarily "distributors" to take advantage of better pricing. From the disclosure statement –
A “Distributor” is defined as any person who: (1) executed a MonaVie Distributor Application and Agreement; (2) has sponsored at least one person; (3) has received at least one non-retail commission check; and (4) has been active in any of the eight weeks preceding the commissions period (“active” is defined in the MonaVie Compensation Plan as having generated 1 PV (Personal Volume) in a four-week period). Note that this excludes retail customers, preferred customers, retailers (those who have received a retail bonus only), pre-enrollees, distributors who did not renew, and customers, retailers, or distributors whose relationships with MonaVie were revoked. An individual who has executed a MonaVie Independent Distributor Application and Agreement, but has not fulfilled the four criteria enumerated above is not a Distributor. That person is simply a customer. If, and only when, all four criteria are satisfied does that person become a distributor. Accordingly, the status of an individual can, and sometimes does, change throughout the course of a year.
Amway and Quixtar has suffered numerous public attacks over the years, , including by government authories such as BERR in the UK, with regard to the supposed "average income" of distributors/IBOs and low "retail sales". It’s my view that Amway could address this by simply doing the obvious and sensible – don’t consider someone a business owner unless they’re actually building a business, and consider a "retail sale" to be exactly the same as laws around the world define it, a sale to an end user.
Introducing something similar to MonaVie’s sensible definitions would be a good place to start.
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Very interesting points you raise. I’d like to know more about how Amway might continue avoiding legal issues by redefining incomes to match those of us IBOs who are really building the business.
It makes me curious, but I’m sure Amway leadership as our top-the-line provider have reasons.
Thank you for all the news and perspectives.
Amway already promotes an “average income” that is significantly under the income actually achieved by people building the business, indeed they even exclude the significant yearly bonuses earn by high achievers from the calculation. Given this “underselling” by Amway I don’t think there’s a problem there per se. What might be a problem is IBOs overselling how “easy” it is. It’s like any startup business – it’s hard work, amplified by the fact most people are doing it on top of a full-time job.
WELL WELL!!!
ALL I KNOW ABOUT NETWORK MARKETING IS THAT BY 50 YEARS OF A SOLID BUSINESS DOESNT MEAN ALL THAT. BECAUSE FIRST THE MAN WHO MADE MONAAVIE WAS A CROWN ON AMWAY, HE WAS DOING SOMETHING ILLEGALY AND THE CORPORATION FOUND OUT BY HIS SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER AND AUTOMATIC KICK HIM OUT AND CANT NEVER ENJOY IT AGAIN.HOW SOMEONE COULD DO SOMETHING ILLEGALY BY GETTING MORE THAN WE EXPECT TO THINK.AND WITH THAT MONEY HE BUILD THAT CORPORATION AND OTHER THINGS THAT HE HAS AND NOW HE IS SAYING THAT HE GOT ALL THAT BY (MAMA VIVI) OR (LA MONA) THATS A LIE COMMON PEOPLE OPEN YOUR MIND DONT COMPARE A TACO SHOP TO A MAC DONALDS CORP.