Monavie Shoots Self in Foot With Inability to Control Distributors

Every so often, a great concept with a great product comes along, and it takes the market by storm. MonaVie, a provider of an all natural fruit drink consisting of the acai berry and 18 additional exotic fruits, has grown faster than nearly any other MLM is US history, but its integrity is being undone by its own distributors.

Several years ago Monarch Industries launched a new product to market called MonaVie. The team they assembled to create the product was second to none. The leadership was a collection of powerhouse veterans ready to take the US market by storm. The product actually works wonders for people who have a hard time getting their 3-5 servings of fresh fruit a day. (Nearly everyone) The endorsements by people across the country are amazing. Video sites like youtube are loaded with testimonials, as well as the internet chat rooms. The product has been all over the news. Acai has been featured on Oprah and many other shows touting it as the world’s number one super-fruit. You know you are doing something right when advertisers of other products start buying google adsense words with your name in the title to try to get people to look at theirs.

MLM is the method of marketing that Monarch chose to sell their product. It has been proven to be a very effective and profitable method to move a health related product in the US, and it has worked well for them. They became a nearly 700 million dollar company in about 3 years. Very impressive indeed. The concept seems to be simple: Drink it, feel it, share it. .

For less that $40, an individual can sign up as a distributor of the MonaVie product and market it themselves. They can sell it retail, they can sell it wholesale, and they can sign up additional folks to do the same. With an aggressive compensation plan and tremendous stories of health benefits spreading like wild-fire, it seemed that the sky was the limit. That is, until, MonaVie became unable to keep its own distributors in check. One of the very first stipulations of becoming a distributor is agreeing to never marketing the MonaVie product through any auction type of website, Ebay, Amazon, or the like. Although internet marketing is powerful, it has the potential to destroy the “secret wall” that exists with an exclusivity that comes from being a distributor. The walls have now come down and MonaVie’s pricing structure is revealed.

How can you maintain your exponential growth when people interested in trying your product, but don’t want to pay $45 retail for it or $40 to sign up to first become a distributor, can find that MonaVie is available to buy for about $20 on Ebay?

In order to get that type of deep discount going through MonaVie directly, you literally have to buy about $1,000 worth of product, and in some cases, go pick it up yourself. Most people are not ready to buy what would equate to a year supply of juice in advance to get those prices. And why would they when they don’t have to pay to become a member, won’t have the negative perception of being involved in an MLM opportunity, and don’t have to recruit others just to get a good product? And why would they spend $1,000 in bulk when they can buy it a few bottles at a time on Ebay at the same rate?

Why would MonaVie distributors blatantly disobey rules that protect the pricing structure that creates their profit, enhance the value of their product with “exclusivity”, and essentially bite the hand that feeds them? How can they get away with it if the penalty is losing your distributorship? Obviously it has not been enforced. Obviously greed has taken over, and the move product at all cost mentality has pervaded the distributor workforce.

At the writing of this article, over 260 auctions for MonaVie will end in the next few days on Ebay alone. Auctions will end that will sell 2-3 bottles of MonaVie product at 48 bottle bulk order “member” prices. Monarch Industry’s inability or unwillingness to enforce their own policies has begun to cripple their own distributors’ ability to market their product with an air of integrity or a straight face. “Why would I pay this much to get it from you when I can get it over here for less? And why would I pay $40 to sign up for a multi-level marketing opportunity if I don’t have to.” And more importantly, “Why would you try to talk me into this when you know I can get it for less over here?” “Do you care about my health, or do you care about the money?”

Monarch has put its own distributors in the crosshairs of a skeptical public. Most Americans have an aversion to buying MLM products due to the fact that past MLM giants have conducted themselves in a sneaky and unethical manner. “Just come to our meeting about “an incredible opportunity.” Although their approach is far from that, how different is it when you can buy it for less online for better prices, and they know it, but yet continue to insist their own distributors sell it at inflated prices? Integrity is any business is essential to success, and Monarch will need to recapture theirs in order to continue its phenomenal growth.