What Is Mona Vie?
MonaVie is a juice blend manufactured by a corporation of the same name. Based on the rejuvenating benefits of the açai berry, MonaVie is formulated in several different varieties that target specific health concerns. The MonaVie product is only available through an MLM, or multi-level marketing, sales structure, and sells for $40 per bottle. While the company has many fierce fans and independent sellers, many see MonaVie as nothing more than an elaborate pyramid scheme. Does this Spark an idea?
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History
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According to the company's website, MonaVie was launched in January 2005 by Dallin Larsen. Since then, MonaVie has become a huge MLM with many supporters and detractors. According to a 2008 Newsweek article by Tony Dokoupil, "MonaVie claims to be one of the world's fastest-growing private companies, with inroads on five continents, and an army of drinkers and sales apostles signing up at a rate of 10,000 a week. Earlier [in 2008], the company announced that cumulative sales had topped $1 billion and that it had signed its millionth unsalaried sales person."
MonaVie Drink Features
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In the company's own words, MonaVie is concocted from "an exclusive blend of the powerful açai berry, found only in remote regions of the Amazon, and other nutrient-dense fruits, each selected for its specific nutritional properties." The most common variety comes in a wine bottle; the others are packaged in equally attractive vessels. The drink is sharp, darkly-colored and dense, and is meant for consumption in small amounts.
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About the MonaVie Business Structure
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The most striking feature of MonaVie is the questionable nature of its sales structure. The MonaVie MLM is very similar to a pyramid scheme, with a pointed focus on selling product to sales representatives, rather than the general public. Dokoupil notes, "More than 90 percent [of representatives are] considered 'wholesale customers' whose earnings are mostly discounts on sales to themselves." There is also a pointed lack of sales, with less than 1 percent of all MonaVie sellers actually making any commission whatsoever.
Geography
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MonaVie is sold internationally, with its biggest sales base in the United States. However, the açai berry drink field is becoming more crowded, with juice blends on sale at health food stores and supermarkets alike. The Nutrition Business Journal reported that "[MonaVie] claims to have surpassed $1 billion in sales for their superfruit products and say growth is occurring in both the United States and around the world, despite heightened media scrutiny and, in some cases, legal challenges." In the United States, the product is under great scrutiny by the FDA, which looks askance at user claims of miraculous healing through consistent dosing.
Warning
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While the MonaVie corporate website is the first result for a Google search of the term, the bulk of the links will point to critics and detractors. MonaVie may be popular in the closed world of network marketing and MLM, but many have lost money following promises of easy cash, better living and luxurious material goods.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Image by mr.smashy, from Creative Commons
Comments
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castrofg
May 20, 2010
I'm a MonaVie distributor and the close-minded and ignorant mind of the writer just threw me off. MLM/ network marketing produces the most valuable citizens of this country. The pyramid scheme is actually the corporate world, where you can never make more than your manager, even when you do the most work. A job is a corporate slavery structure made for us to pay the goverment almost half our paycheks! That's why this country is doom, wake up people!
