javita-coffee-company-logoEver since I first looked at Javita back in May, I’ve been actively following the company with a particular interest in how Javita choose to market themselves.

With a product as readily retailable as instant coffee sachets, I believed there was no excuse for Javita to go down the recruitment path. If the Javita product was strong enough, business success would naturally take care of itself and in the long term foster organic growth on the basis of demand.

Looking back at how Javita have chosen to market themselves however, and the incentives and training they have offered their members through their marketing arm, Javanomics – I think it’s pretty clear now that a focus on their coffee product and retail sales has well and truly taken a backdoor to focusing on recruitment incentives.

Initially Javita was off to a great start and, despite it being a major drawback due to financial investment for their members, they were promoting their coffee via sampling.

If the coffee was good, this would naturally lead on to sales and build a strong customer base. That should have been where the focus remained.

For whatever reason though (the product?), this seemed to not be working out and Javita then switched to autoship and recruitment incentives.

First we had the dubious marketing campaign asking the question ‘how would you like to add $16,000 per month to your income by finding one person per month by sharing coffee?’

I say dubious because, despite claiming to offer a $16,000 a month income by sharing coffee, the reality is you had to share the Javita business opportunity and ensure that each and every member you recruited (and everyone they recruited and so on and so forth), all brought in one new member and put them on autoship each month for twelve months.

Gone was the product sampling and ‘great tasting coffee’ focus, now it was just straight out recruitment.

Continuing this theme, last month Javita, through Javanomics, launched two marketing incentives for its members.

The first was a cash incentive awarded to the top 3 enrollers of the company each week.

The second was a draw prize of an IPod Nano to members. To get a ticket to the draw, members had to enrol a new member into Javita (entries were capped at one per existing member to keep things fair).

Despite the first competition ultimately judging the winner based on total business volume, the idea is clearly to get as many people on board and stick them on autoship and hope for the best.

The second… well, rewarding people with prizes for recruiting pretty much speaks for itself.

Keep in mind on their own there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with the above promotions, it’s just that they mark a stark departure from Javita’a prelaunch and immediate post launch marketing campaigns that focused on the product.

Moving into September, with the announcement of up and coming Star and Car Bonuses, it seems this initial message and focus on the retail side of things is all but lost.

The Star Bonus

To qualify for the Star Bonus, Javita members must first qualify as a ‘Star’. Members wishing to become ‘stars’ have two options open to them;

The Star Elite Rank

The Star Elite rank is achieved where upon a new member to Javita joins the company with the  ‘qualified business pack’ ($599) and within thirty days recruits two new members to Javita who also purchase the $599 pack.

Star Elite members are entitled to receive the Star Bonus, Car Bonus and receive ‘a waiver of the hold time for the Rank Advancement Bonuses at Consultant II and III‘.

The Star Bonus

Once members have qualified for the rank of Star Elite, they are then eligible to receive what is called the ‘Star Bonus’.

The Star Bonus is sort of like a mini 1×2 cycling matrix that pays members out each time it is filled.

The basic idea is that as a Javita member, you have two matrix positions under you. When you enrol someone into Javita and they purchase the $599 joining pack, you fill one of these two matrix positions.

If you fill both positions under you within a 30 day period, you ‘cycle’ and get paid.

The cycle payouts are as follows;

  • 1st cycle = $50
  • 2nd cycle = $100
  • 3rd cycle = $15
  • 4th cycle = $200
  • every cycle after the 4th = $200

The Star Rank

To qualify at the Star level (this will apply to existing members who have been with Javita for longer than 30 days or who fail to meet the Star Elite requirements), members must recruit two new members to Javita who join with the $599 pack.

Unlike with the Star Elite rank, there is no time limit on this criteria however Star members are only eligible to participate in the Car Bonus program.

The Car Bonus

Details are a bit sketchy at this point but the Javita Car Bonus appears to be your standard Car Bonus offering.

In a nutshell, as you advance your rank in the Javita Compensation Plan, you’re awarded an increasing payment on a new or used car lease.

Usually there’s specific requirements on the age and condition of the car and some companies even limit the color, make and model of the car too.

Oh and if you quit or drop down in membership rank the car lease payments are entirely your problem, not the company’s.

 

Update 5th September, 2011 – The car bonus is only available to US members of Javita and only American made cars (they haven’t specified which models yet) are covered. /end update

For those who don’t want a car payment or for members who live outside of the US, a ‘cash bonus’ option is available. The cash bonus option pays out 50% of the car bonus and is bundled with member’s monthly commissions.

The car bonus payouts are as follows;

  • Supervisor II and III – $300 (only available to Star Elite members)
  • Manager – $400
  • Director – $600
  • Partner – $800
  • Chairman – $1000

Conclusion

First and foremost, one would hope there is some way for existing Javita members to achieve the Star Elite rank, otherwise this appears to be a giant slap in the face to the existing Javita memberbase.

As it stands now, the Star Elite and Star Bonus appear to be open only to new members and exists for the sole purpose of encouraging them to go out and recruit new members to Javita.

Unlike the past promotions and incentives, the Star Bonus departs completely from a business volume requirement and solely focuses on recruiting new members to Javita.

This tells me two things;

Either Javita is not selling at all as a retail product, the company is failing as a MLM opportunity and is in desperate need of new members to bring in revenue, or both.

Whatever the case, it’s sad to watch a company start off with a strong product and retail focus deteriorate into a mere numbers game. Whoever is in charge of Javita’s marketing arm clearly have an agenda and that’s to get their existing members to recruit as many new members as possible.

As I said earlier, not a negative goal to have in itself, but when it’s your only growth and success strategy, consistently month after month, then alarm bells start ringing.

As far as I know a launch date hasn’t been set for Javita’s Car and Star Bonuses, but I imagine they’ll be implemented sometime in September.

Will Javita continue their trend and ramp up their recruitment efforts even more in October?

I guess we’ll have to wait and see.