Is Kangen Water A Scam?

When I first started researching Enagic USA, I was skeptical about all the claims made about their “kangen water”.  As with most all MLM companies, my research brought up a lot of negativity surrounding both Enagic and their products.  They introduce themselves as a leader in the water purification and wellness industry, but who are they really?  Let's take a close look…

Enagic – A Brief History…

The company itself has been around since 1974, which is quite a long time in terms of network marketing.  The company started in, and is still headquartered in Tokyo, but today they have offices in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Honolulu, Canada, Germany, and Mexico. Recently in 2006 Enagic USA was enrolled as an official member of the DSA.  With offices worldwide, a 35+ year history and a company that is now a member of the DSA it looks so far like Enagic is obviously no fly by night operation.
It would be incorrect to say Enagic is in the water purification business. What makes their units unique is how they ionize and change the pH level of the water.  The term “Kangen Water” was coined to describe the uniquely altered water that is produced by their technology.

So what is the big deal with “Kangen Water”?

Generally speaking most of our bodies are acidic due to diets primarily consisting of processed foods.  It is a widely known and heavily studied fact that an acidic ph level is not healthy.  The old school way to balance out your ph level would have you eating a healthy serving of fresh greens with every meal.  The concept with Kangen Water is that it has been altered to an alkaline state and by drinking it you can help bring your body back to a balanced ph level.

I found a good presentation of the product @ www.kangendemo.com that would be worth checking out if you have not seen the product demonstrated before.

The Japanese Association of Preventative Medicine for Adult Disease endorses Enagic as their leader in water purification. In addition, “Kangen Water” is the only water product or technology approved for its health benefits by the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare, which is comparable to the FDA in the United States.  While neither of these endorsements do much for us here in the US, it is highly uncommon for the product of a network marketing company to gain such an endorsement from any government organization of any country.

Enagic has 7 main units, however the company's iron horse is the Leveluk SD501, which accounts for about 98% of all sales.  One of the beauties of Enagic is the simplicity of its product line, they are not out to sell everything to everybody, they are focused on excelling at the one thing they do best.

Thoughts on the Industry & Competition

The topic of competition is an interesting one to breach because Enagic is sort of a market creator.  Of course there is plenty of competition for water purification but Enagic is not really a water purification company.  The broad market for Enagic would be the health and wellness industry but how does a water device that claims to turn normal water into healthy water compare with traditional supplements?

Based on my research, Enagic is clearly the market creator for the healthy water concept.  Success breeds imitation however, and Enagic has certainly attracted its fair share of competitors.  Being the market originator, Enagic is maintaining their status as the premium quality standard.  Of course, doing so also means they also carry the premium price tag.  They have plenty of competition saying their product does the same thing for less money, but this is nothing new.  Every premium priced nutritional supplement must compete against the argument that Wallmart's brand does just the same thing, which is rarely the case and obviously has not slowed the growth of MLM, an industry dominated by nutritional companies.

Let's ignore the competition for a moment and taking a look at the marketability of the core product itself.  Enagic's flagship product, the SD501, is a $3,000 investment.   This is not chump change, especially in today's marketplace.  There is a good financing plan in place allowing consumers to purchase the product without having to shell out the entire amount, but the bottom line is that this product is a big financial decision for most people.

In many cases people are sold on the unit after seeing a detailed demonstration, in other cases a distributor will lend “Kangen Water” to the individual for a period of days/weeks so that the prospect can “try before you buy” so to speak.   In either case I think there is a good deal of salesmanship that needs to take place to convey the importance of the product and justify the investment.

From what I've seen, building a business with Enagic would be a bit different than building with most other consumable MLM companies.   There is no residual ongoing purchase with Enagic so to keep making money you either have to continue making sales or have a team that is doing so for you, either way building an income requires more ongoing sales activity.  This is not a negative per se, simply an observation.  I would imagine that your typical Enagic distributor has a bit more sales experience than your average network marketer selling juice or lotion for some part time income.

Enagic Compensation Plan

The thing that struck me first about Enagic is how product driven they are.  As I was doing research it was very difficult to find much information on the opportunity, not even having a business presentation on their website.  The lack of opportunity “sizzle” is honestly a breath of fresh air.  I contend that most MLM companies focus on the opportunity to a fault.

In keeping with the product focus I am also extremely happy at how the compensation plan is not structured to allow “front loading”, a major flaw of most MLM companies selling high dollar products.  With Enagic, when a distributor sells a product, it is shipped directly from the company to the consumer.   At no point is it encouraged to stock and deliver product, the tell tale sign of “front loading”.

Enagic has designed a unique type of compensation plan where there is no annual renewal, no sign-up fees, no monthly or yearly fees, and no monthly qualifications. This is a great move on their part because most companies have all kinds of fees associated with joining.

I won't bother going into detail on the comp plan other than to say it is structured very legally.  It only pays commission on the movement of product and not on recruiting.  The commission from a product sale is divided into eight slices (points) which are paid out to the selling & upline distributors based on rank.

Without a consumable product, there is no residual income.  This is just the nature of the beast.  Here is the upside: commissions made from each Enagic sale can be worth more than the commissions from a year's supply of a consumable product in most MLM companies.  These commissions are paid daily; essentially when a sale comes in the commission is cut and sent to the various distributors earning any combination of the 8 points.  In the end what you have is a very unusual and very product driven compensation plan which passes the legality test with flying colors.

Parting thoughts…

Enagic is without a doubt a very legal and legit network marketing company.  Anyone saying it's a scam is quite simply misinformed, because they pass the scam test with flying colors. The company looks strong everywhere from the leadership, to the product, to the compensation. Enagic is a company with a solid product that can without a doubt compete with its competitors.  As always if you looking to join any company, dedicate yourself to it for a whole year, or don't give it a DAY.