Most MLM advertising is usually geared to new MLM startups. Companies that are either in pre-launch or have just recently launched need to get the word out there and establish brand recognition fast. This usually means they actively engage in a wide range of marketing tactics in the hope they go viral.

On the other side of that coin you have the established MLM companies. These are heavyweights that have been around for years, are well known and have thus far stood the test of time.

Monavie is one of those companies. Monavie retail a wide range of juice products containing a ‘wide array of antioxidants, vitamins, and phytonutrients, as well as other beneficial ingredients like Wellmune, plant-derived glucosamine, and plant sterols‘.

You probably don’t know what half that stuff is and neither do I. Despite that however Monavie have been around the MLM scene for five and a half years which for an MLM company is impressive.

Joining an established company however isn’t always a promise or guarantee of replicating success. Today I want to look at the top 5 marketing challenges of joining Monavie.

1. Market Saturation

As I stated previously, Monavie have been around now for five and a half years and in 2008 had a reported 80,000 active distributors worldwide.

This means that if you’re thinking of starting up a Monavie business there’s a good chance there’s already an established distributor servicing your area.

Obviously with the jazz of internet marketing any Monavie distributor from around the world could be supplying customers in your area but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t research. Even if it’s just a quick Google search of where you live and ‘Monavie’ you’d do well to try and establish if there’s an established distributor servicing your area.

Demand for a product is always finite and if there’s a successful distributor who’s been advertising in your area for a while now, chances are they’ve already tapped into the existing market. Given that you’re going to be retailing the exact same product line at the exact same prices, the chances of you obtaining any new customers is probably slim to none.

All of which is information you want to know before you commit to the business.

2. Competition

I’m not sure what the active distributor numbers for Monavie are in 2010, but as mentioned earlier you were looking at 80,000 competing distributors back in 2008.

That’s 80,000 other people all trying to market the exact same products to the exact same niche market worldwide. You’re just one of them.

Sure you’ll have your replicated website and you can do leaflet drops and even advertise locally if you’re trying to capture the local market, but at the end of the day that’s 80,000 people who got the jump start on you.

Oh, and then there’s all the distributors from all the other wonder juice companies out there too…

That’s not to say it’s impossible to establish a market for yourself but just know what you’re setting yourself up against. Any customers you gain are going to have to be new to the product and that means having gone five years without hearing about it. Let alone overcoming any prejudices or existing conceptions your new customer(s) might have about the MLM industry.

3. The Price

If you’re like me, ten seconds into the marketing spiel of any product and I’m sitting there wondering what the price is. For me this is the bottom line. I don’t expect a premium juice offering to compete with what I can find in the supermarket, but if I can’t rationalise the price difference then I’m not going to buy it.

Monavie juice comes in 750ml bottles and sells between the range of about $30 a bottle (when bought in a 4 pack case), to nearly $40 when bought individually.

Meanwhile at my local supermarket I’m looking at a few dollars a litre, maybe less on special.

The biggest challenge here is justifying to your potential customer that this massive price difference is totally worth it. We’re not talking a slim premium price here either, we’re talking quite a massive difference of around $25 at least. Your challenge as a Monavie distributor is convincing a customer that Monavie really is worth the extra premium price they’re going to be paying, but additionally that there’s no better priced option in between.

The first things I’m thinking when I hear I’m going to be paying at least $30 for a bottle of juice is that

a. I can finish 750ml of juice (and do so daily) in less then 30 minutes and

b. Surely there’s an alternative product priced somewhere between $2-$3 and $30-$40 that is of comparable health benefit and quality?

This is a wide open price gap and has not surprisingly given new wonder juice MLM companies a lot of leverage in pricing their products to competitively compete against Monavie. Something you’d be naive not to take into consideration if you’re thinking about joining Monavie.

4. Selling juice to sustain a fulltime income

Sure a lot of people consume juice regularly but is there really a market to sustain a full time income? Personally I drink over a litre of juice a day, varying in taste from apple, pomegranate, peach, mango, pineapple, watermelon, strawberry, kiwi and whatever else is on offer. Having said that though there’s no way I’d be making the switch over to Monavie at their price point.

I’d bankrupt myself  in just a few short weeks.

Many people consume juice regularly but the market for wonder juices, whether they contain acai berry or some other active ingredient, is always going to be a niche market.

Presumably juice consumption for this market is in small quantities once, maybe twice a day. At $110-$130 retail or so a box per month of juice, that’s a hell of a lot of juice that needs to be sold to sustain a fulltime income.

These figures are reflected in the Monavie business itself. Taken straight from Monavie’s current compensation plan income disclosure, in 2009 97% of distributors took home an annual (yearly) paycheck of $3985. Additionally 50% of Monavie distributors took home an average paycheck of just $1214.

Monavie claim that the 50% bracket of distributors worked on average 4 hours a week. This works out to 208 hours a year and pay rate of $5.83 an hour.

Top marks for transparency from Monavie but the numbers are hardly inspiring.

Acai juice at Monavie’s price point is never going to be a mainstream commodity and I imagine the bulk of revenue earned by Monavie’s top distributors is earned via their vast downlines they’ve recruited over the years.

I suspect that unless you have access to an untapped market full of people wanting to sign up as distributors under you, then you’re going to have a hard time making any real money by retailing Monavie’s juices alone.

 

Monavie is an interesting company to look at given that it’s been around for a few years now. By this stage usually an MLM company has reinvented itself a few times or disappeared completely.

Due to the length Monavie has been in business it’s easy to get caught up in the claims of it’s top earners. What’s important to consider though are the above four points.

With the age of Monavie’s business opportunity, long gone are the days of a level playing field. Distributors entering the market these days can expect a saturated playing field full of other distributors trying to sell the same products at the same price point you are and ever increasing pressure from your upline as they too try to replicate the top earners success.

Top earners who have most likely been with Monavie since the beginning or close to. As a new distributor know what you’re up against and seriously consider all angles of the opportunity before you commit to anything.