Posts Tagged ‘marketing’

I find it ironic that last week I had a conversation with a new Arbonne rep. Naturally, they were trying to recruit me and during that conversation it was stated that “Arbonne is a multimillion dollar company that has no debt! Zero. 100% debt free“.

I ask at that time if they were sure about that because I had heard from trusted sources that the company might be in financial trouble.

Sure enough, despite the propaganda the company was passing down as fact to their distributors, the sad news of a chapter 11 comes down today.

According to Arbonne….

Arbonne has a direct sales network of 750,000 independent contractors and the company said they would receive their pay and compensation as usual during the bankruptcy.

Given that they have already been playing a little fast and loose with their facts I have my doubts about anything resembling business as usual when it comes to paying their distributors.

I truly hope I’m wrong!

UPDATE 2-Nature’s Gate shampoo, soap maker seeks bankruptcy | Reuters.

Till Next Time

Avon Calling!

The LA Times reports AVON has selected Zoe Saldana as the face of it’s latest product.

Appearing in recent box office hits such as “Pirates of the Caribbean”, “Star Trek”, and most recently “Avatar”, Zoe has been getting a lot of major box office face time lately.

Clearly AVON has taken notice and made a wise decision in making her the face of it’s newest product, “Eternal Magic”.

As reported by the LA Times….

January 13, 2010 | 11:32 am

You may not have recognized her as the 10-foot, bright-blue warrior princess Na’vi in James Cameron’s sci-fi blockbuster “Avatar,” but statuesque Hollywood starlet Zoe Saldana is otherwise hard to miss.

And come April, she’ll be even more visible — as the face of Avon‘s newest fragrance, Eternal Magic, which, according to the company press release, “takes inspiration from the rare Princess Monaco Rose.”

The 31-year-old actress, who’s been floating around Hollywood for a decade starring in endearing movies such as “Center Stage” and “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Star Trek,” also will be featured in Avon’s brochure as a face of the company’s cosmetics collections.

This is the actress’ first major endorsement deal (and “Avatar” is her first billion-dollar movie). She also joins the illustrious ranks of past Avon spokesmodels, which include Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Hudson. Looks like the tide has finally turned for the talented screen siren.

Source: LA Times

Here we go again!

After two failed attempts, a third law suit has been filed in Illinois against Your Travel Biz, (YTB).

In this latest action against the company, the plaintiffs are seeking $100,000,000.00 in damages and stating, (among other things), that YTB has….

“perpetrated an illegal pyramid scheme that represents one of largest fraud(s) in the history of the State of Illinois and the history of this nation.”

OK, I agree that YTB is a pyramid scam. 70%+ of the revenue is generated from recruiting and feeding off of their own reps and less than half ever make a dime from the travel “product”.

But here’s the issue I see at the moment. This law suit may very well be to broad.

Consider that quote above that TYB is the biggest fraud in the “history of this nation”. Getting a court to agree with that is asking a lot.

We’ll keep you posted as this latest legal action develops but on first look, I suspect that it will be thrown out on the same grounds as the first two.

Next Time

Pyxism is the latest travel MLM opportunity in pre-launch. On first look, and not supprisingly, there are some missing details about the product.

My take was that for $325.00 you get a spot in the matrix and a vacation valued at, “at least” $300.00.

There was no mention of how this vacation was delivered so I must assume that it is in the form of a voucher or coupon. If so, this makes the business model very much like TVI or Juugo.

This is another matrix pay plan. And for those of you that are new, there is only one company that has survived the test of time with a matrix plan. Melaleuca.

This matrix calls itself a cycling “follow me” matrix. According to the information I’ve seen, it is designed to keep “teams” together as opposed to splitting them up ever cycle. I’ll admid that this has a certain appeal. Allowing a group of people to work together and stay together is at least a step in the right direction.

However, I see no evidence that this business has a “retail clause”. No requirements for sales outside of the matrix itself. In fact, it could be argued, (and will be I’m sure), that this company has no product at all. If that is the case then all the money is being rolled into this from the matrix and there’s going to be trouble!

Not having all the necessary information on Pyxism, I’m not going to call it a scam… Yet..

But I will say that if the FTC were to look at them right now I doubt they would survive.

More as it becomes available.

The world of testimonials and endorsements in advertising has changed!

Everything from television ads to internet squeeze pages must now be a great deal more clear, (and honest), when making claims or offering endorsements, (implied or otherwise).

One example is from the text document…

Example 2:

An advertisement disseminated by a company that sells heat pumps presents endorsements from three individuals who state that after installing the company’s heat pump in their homes, their monthly utility bills went down by $100, $125, and $150, respectively. The ad will likely be interpreted as conveying that such savings are representative of what consumers who buy the company’s heat pump can generally expect.
The advertiser does not have substantiation for that representation because, in fact, less than 20% of purchasers will save $100 or more. A disclosure such as, “Results not typical” or, “These testimonials are based on the experiences of a few people and you are not likely to have similar results” is insufficient to prevent this ad from being deceptive because consumers will still interpret the ad as conveying that the specified savings are representative of what consumers can generally expect. The ad is less likely to be deceptive if it clearly and conspicuously discloses the generally expected savings and the advertiser has adequate substantiation that homeowners can achieve those results. There are multiple ways that such a disclosure could be phrased, e.g., “the average homeowner
saves $35 per month,” “the typical family saves $50 per month during cold months and $20 per month in warm months,” or “most families save 10% on their utility bills.”

Read the entire text document.. CLICK HERE

Some say that the government is trying to legislate common sense and that anyone that naively believes exaggerated claims deserves to be taken in by unethical companies. (Caveat emptor and such).

All I know is that if we don’t clean up our own industry the US government will do it for us. This is a step in that direction.

Pay attention to ethics and your reputation!

Micah

The ubiquitous Trump is partnering with Ideal Health, a 12-year-old Massachusetts-based nutritional products company, and renaming it “The Trump Network,” though the partners won’t specify what their financial relationship is.

The products will be sold via multilevel marketing — a method of selling products through a network of distributors. Marketers receive commissions for the products they sell, along with a cut from products sold by other salespeople they’ve recruited.

Critics of such programs say that most of the products are bought by the distributors themselves, and that few of the salespeople actually come out ahead in the end.

via The Associated Press: The Donald’s new gig: selling nutritional products.

The numbers are moving in the right direction. Sales are increasing and looses decreasing.

Quarterly gross profit increased by 7.6 percent to $1,265,176 for the three months ended September 30, as compared to $1,175,645 for the three months ended June 30, as gross profit margin improved to 59.3 percent from 55.6 percent.

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2665083/

The Dallas Morning News and WFAA, the Belo Corp. owned, ABC television affiliate in D-FW, and an online shopping mall featuring more than 400 well-known retailers. It also includes a cash-back program that pays members when their friends and family shop online through the site. Other features include videos and music, free retro games, sports and entertainment news.

Blastoff Network Partners With The Dallas Morning News and WFAA to Launch.