Alliance in Motion Review: Nature’s Way via MLM?
Alliance in motion claim on their website to have launched in 2006, however the company’s website domain (“allianceinmotion.com”) was first registered in September 2009.
As per the Alliance in Motion website,
Alliance In Motion Global, Inc., is Nature’s Way exclusive multi-level marketing company product distributor in the Philippines and other countries in the world.
With its head office in Pasig City in the Philippines, Alliance in Motion primarily appears to target the local Philippine market.
On their website Nature’s Way claim to be ‘America’s leader in herbal medicine for over 40 years‘, however the exact nature of the relationship between Alliance in Motion and the company is unclear. I found no mention of Alliance in Motion anywhere on the Nature’s Way website.
I thought perhaps the Alliance in Motion “Disclaimer” might yield further information on the relationship, however when I clicked on the disclaimer link on their website all I got was this:
Heading up Alliance in Motion is CEO and President, Eduardo Cabantog (right). On his Alliance in Motion corporate bio the company writes
Eduardo Cabantog is a graduate of Medicine from Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, a pioneer, leader, and model institution of higher learning in the Philippines.
After acquiring his license as a Medical Doctor and serving as a company physician in one of the well-known local medical and clinical services provider for a couple of years.
He ventured into the networking business and joined other networking companies before instituting Alliance In Motion Global, Inc. in 2006.
What MLM opportunities Cabantog was involved in prior to Alliance in Motion is not clarified. I was unable to find any further information myself as there’s no online information on prior to 2006.
Read on for a full review of the Alliance in Motion MLM business opportunity.
The Alliance in Motion Product Line
Despite claiming to be the ‘exclusive multi-level marketing company product distributor‘ for Nature’s Way in the Philipines, what exactly Alliance in Motion sell product wise is a bit of a mystery.
When I visited their website, this is what their “our products” page currently looks like:
The Alliance in Motion Compensation Plan
The Alliance in Motion compensation plan pays affiliates directly on the recruitment of new affiliates, as well as residual commissions on the volume generated by recruited affiliate purchases.
“Retail” Commissions
Alliance in Motion affiliates are able to buy products from the company at a 25% discount. The company claims that affiliates are then able to sell purchased products at a 25% markup, pocketing the difference.
As revenue entering the company itself is only sourced from affiliates, this is not true retail.
Recruitment Commissions
On their website, Alliance in Motion state that one of their packages contains a business kit, website/webpage and “technology services”. No price is quoted on the cost of one of these packages.
The Alliance in Motion compensation plan advises that affiliates earn ‘$10 per package sold to a new distributor‘.
Binary Matching Bonus
Alliance in Motion pay out a matching bonus on the volume generated by an affiliate’s recruited downline. They do this by using a binary compensation structure.
A binary compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of the structure, with two teams directly under them (left and right).
Volume (via affiliate purchases and recruitment of new affiliates) generated by both teams is weighed up each day, with the company paying out a $30 commission per 1200 points of volume matched on both sides of the binary.
Alliance in Motion cap Binary Matching Bonus payouts at $480 a day.
Unilevel Commissions
Alliance in Motion offer 5-10% residual commissions on the sales volume generated by recruited affiliates, paid out down ten levels of recruitment.
Level 1 (personal recruits) pay out 10% with levels 2 to 9 paying out 5%.
Stairstep Bonus
The Stairstep Bonus is poorly explained and I don’t really understand what it is. Here’s how Alliance in Motion explain it in their compensation plan material:
It appears to have something to do with sales volume, paid out via percentage according to an affiliate’s membership rank, which in turn is based on group volume.
Royalty Income Bonus
When an Alliance in Motion affiliate reaches the Global Ambassador membership rank (1000 GV), they earn 2% of the earnings of recruited Global Ambassador ranked affiliates in their downline.
The Royalty Income Bonus is paid out down five levels of recruitment (with all affiliates required to be at the Global Ambassador rank).
Profit Sharing
Paid out to qualifying Global Ambassadors, Alliance in Motion pay out ‘a percentage‘ of its global sales volume to Global Ambassadors who generate at least 2000 GV a month
- Level 1 – be a Global Ambassador generating at least 2000 GV a month (1 share?)
- Level 2 – recruit at least three Global Ambassadors who are generating at least 2000 GV a month (2 shares?)
- Level 3 – recruit at least five Global Ambassadors who are generating at least 2000 GV a month (3 shares?)
Alliance in Motion don’t explicitly mention how
shares are allocated in their profit share, however they do stress that affiliates must have “good moral character” to qualify. They must also have purchased at least two packs each month for at least 12 consecutive months.
Travel Incentives
No details are provided on the travel incentives Alliance in Motion offers their affiliates, with the compensation plan only listing Hong Kong, the US and an “Asian trip” as possible rewards.
Joining Alliance in Motion
Affiliate membership to Alliance in Motion appears to be free, however the company’s compensation plan material states that affiliates must first ‘choose a package and sign up as a distributor‘ if they wish to participate in the MLM business opportunity.
No prices are quoted on the Alliance in Motion website, how Alliance in Motion affiliate websites peg affiliate membership at P$8680, which equates to roughly $200 USD.
Conclusion
Upon perusal of the Alliance in Motion website, it becomes clear that this is not an opportunity that is designed for random members of the public to stumble upon.
Crucial sections of the website are missing (products?) and the company’s compensation plan material is woefully inadequate in terms of explanation and presentation.
Rather it appears the intent is for Alliance in Motion’s affiliate’s to “spread the word”, and preferably offline seeing as the company’s own website is rather lacking.
This is reflected in the Alliance in Motion compensation plan, which ignores retail in favour of affiliate recruitment. Unfortunately every commission paid out by Alliance in Motion directly is simply the recycling of affiliate funds.
What’s worse is that affiliates are able to purchase multiple positions in the compensation plan, which is used as a marketing point by Alliance in Motion themselves.
Here you can see the projected income of an affiliate who purchases three positions in the compensation plan:
And then seven:
Whether or not there is a cap on the amount of compensation plan positions an affiliate can purchase is not specified on the Alliance in Motion website, however it is clear that these positions are what’s really being purchased rather than any attached products.
Retail in Alliance in Motion is non-existent and when coupled with recruitment commissions and a recruitment-driven profit-share (paying out a percentage of funds paid by affiliates according to specific recruitment criteria), Alliance in Motion squarely fits the definition of a pyramid scheme.
Affiliates buy into the scheme by way of “packs”, which the company provides no information on in their website or compensation plan material.
Affiliates then go out and recruit new affiliates who do the same (purchase packs), with the hope being that over time an Alliance in Motion affiliate will have enough recruited affiliates under them purchasing packs each month to earn a sizeable income.
Once the recruitment and affiliate funds being pumped into the scheme stops, so too do the commissions.
Update 8th February 2018 – The compensation component of this review is outdated.
BehindMLM published an updated Alliance in Motion Global review on February 7th, 2018.
Update 3rd August 2021 – BehindMLM has revisited Alliance in Global for an updated 2021 review.
Alliance in Motion is still a product-based pyramid scheme, however the opportunity has deteriorated significantly since publication of our second review.
According to a Filipino skeptic, this Alliance in Motion Global is a sound-alike to a real Filipino conglomerate called Alliance Global Group. If you look at the logo of AIMG from afar, you’ll notice you can’t really read “in motion”. It appears to be capitalizing on the sound-alike name to borrow legitimacy and taking advantage of people’s naivette.
http://supersawsaw.blogspot.com/2012/03/alliance-global-is-not-affliated-with.html
This is what we we call a legitimate pyramid scheme , quick get rich.
My question is how much does AIM Global earn from each distributor registered in their company? If the distributor pays one package, the company already earns the profit from each package they paid and from that amount each package paid, they have the money to pay a distributor who recruits another two distributor.
So, the company is using the money of each distributor to finance their company and pay the commissions from their distributors. if example, you buy a package worth 8000, they will give you P6000 worth of products, insurance and scholarship certificate and medical check up.
The company is not crazy to give all without them earning profit, they already included the profit and commission to pay you another two you recruit or your what they say left and right downlines.
I’ve heard of these… apparently you can buy them ready-made at Walmart. They’re between the unicorns and flying pigs.
Whatever’s leftover after the revenue-sharing has been paid out. It’s likely to vary each month, depending on how much affiliate money was paid in.
Calling Alliance in Motion a “legitimate pyramid scheme” is like saying someone is a “little bit pregnant”
I must congratulate you for trying to explain the plan. There were some aspect you missed out. If you call alliance in motion a pyramid scheme, then all MLM businesses are pyramid schemes.
Please if you want me to explain some part you missed I would gladly do so. In anycase your site is informative. since I discovered it, I have always used it as part of my parameter to determine a legitimate MLM business.
What kind of dumbass logic is that?
Why does Alliance in Motion pay recruitment commissions?
Do you mean that any MLM that pays out recrutement fee is a pyramid scheme?
Because most of the big MLM companies in US pay recruitment fee. Yet the government have not gone to shut them down.
For example when you register with SYNTEC GLOBAL a US based MLM you have your product, and the person who brought you in gets a commission for bringing you into the business. Same aplies to Alliance in motion.
So registration comes with products that are in high demand. There after you can reorder products and earn comission. I have sold over 30 of their flagship product within two weeks, likewise my downlines, and I have earned commission from their sales because the matching bonus from the binary is not limited to registration alone but include reorder.
So that means that if recruitment stops I can still earn matching bonus from my downlines reorders. In my country right now, Alliance in motion products are becoming the fastest selling products because of its efficacy.
The money used to finance the company and paid to distributors comes from product sales that comes from registration and from reorders.
There are also those who have not brought in any one after their registration but they are making retail sales and making profits. Can you call that a pyramid scheme?
Typically yes, as it frames the core of the business.
Horseshit. And the “we’re not a pyramid scheme because we haven’t been shut down yet” argument won’t get you very far on here.
You’ve got some reading up to do – https://behindmlm.com/companies/the-syntek-global-review-no-recruitment-no-success/
Yet if there was indeed “high demand”, you should have no trouble selling the product to non-affiliates. Thus the recruitment commissions (the business opportunity) is what is really “in demand”.
Theoretically, but they eventually stop reordering when they can’t recruit anyone and decide they’ve wasted enough money.
And if not your downline, then eventually whoever is at the bottom when saturation hits and recruitment dies.
If you were selling the products to retail customers, this wouldn’t be a problem. But you’re not (at least not in any significant number), so it is.
It comes from package purchases, which are bought by affiliates. This is defacto recruitment commissions, otherwise known as “pseudo-compliance”.
Only if the revenue they bring into the company is significant versus affiliate recruitment commissions. Given the complete lack of retail focus within the company, I find this scenario hard to take seriously.
I can only answer for myself, a general answer not directly related to Alliance in Motion. “YES, if that is the primary function of the business, otherwise NO”.
Recruitment clearly has a function in business. Payment for work clearly has a function in business. But it must be based on something more solid, the busieness must have additional functions to be a real business.
The people who join recruitment based opportunities know it too, after the first few have collapsed. I have looked at several of the solutions designed to prevent individual downlines from collapsing each time an opportunity collapses. But those solutions usually have their own problems.
I don’t see headhunting rewards as a problem in itself. It’s commonly accepted in many businesses and will usually have a function. But people can clearly MAKE it become a problem.
Therein lies the problem.
What you “can” do is overidden by the fact others “can” concentrate almost entirely on recruiting as the source of their revenue and AiM has done nothing to prevent it happening.
Now you’re left with two problems:
1) Recruitment based MLMs are illegal
2) Legal or not, recruitment based MLM pyramid schemes are guaranteed to fail BECAUSE they are pyramids.
So, if you think you can buck the system and be in the up to 10% of pyramid scheme participants who statistically will turn a profit, have at it.
It’s your money and your time after all.
From all the comments. I will only summarise.
1. The products are suplement that are highly consumable and have high retension value. So there is no way reorder will dry up.
2. The company pays also on unilevel plan as explained buy oz and that takes care of commision paid on reorder.
3. I personally does not have to sell bulk of product to earn good commission since it is a team effort.
3. They also pay you based on rank. Since each products have volume point this further encourages you to sell.
4. If enough revenue does not come in the company would not have lasted. its over 7 years old now.
1 repeat, big MLM companies in US Pays recruitment fee in disguise(I am an active member of Synteck global and Iknow the plan very well). That’s one of the best incentive in growing an MLM. If you take away that incentive most will colapse.
What is one of the ways of determining the legitimacy of an MLM. There are two questions to ask.
1. If you join without bringing anybody will you make money.
2. If you are the last to join will you make money without any one joining you. If the answer is yes and yes (as a result of retail sales of products you got during your registration and product reorder).
Alliance in motion scale through the test.
If Syntek is your yard-stick for MLM legitimacy, we have a problem.
This is really quite simple, how many products do you sell to retail customers?
How much revenue does Alliance in Motion make from retail customers each month vs affiliates?
I am only using synteck as an example. There are others. Oganogold, Venma, Thaisan NONI, Trevo etc.
I sold 10 lasr. I have sold over 20 this month. My target is to average 100 every. The reason being that tue products have hgh retension value. My markup profit from sales is atleast 25% and am happy with what am making in retail sales alone.
As per the company’s revenue I would not know. I am pretty sure that the reveniew ratio is higher than affiliate because at registration products are given to you to consume and to sell. There is also high rate of reorders by distributors with purpose of selling. (for example like myself)
That doesn’t mean anything.
How much of your monthly commission is from the sale of product to retail customers, versus that of recruited affiliates?
Of course not.
That’s not retail.
That’s also not retail.
So ultimately I take it you receive no commissions from retail.
You know l cannot disclose my earning its against the rule.
How can you say I dont earn comission from retail sales. What about the products my downline have boought from the company and have been retailing.
Please check the unilevel plan you explained earlier on, you will see how much commission you can earn from retail sales by you and your down line through 1st to 10th generation
I don’t want you to disclose your earnings. What percentage of your commissions (last month, last 6 months, last year, take your pick) was paid out of sales to retail customers, versus that of recruited affiliates (and/or passive).
Nope. Affiliates buying product != retail sales.
If I buy a Big Mac for $5 and sell it some random down the street for $3.5 million… what, McDonalds gunna add that to their bottom line?
Retail sales are made to retail customers at the company-end. Affiliates paying for anything is affiliate revenue.
I’m not interested in what you can earn, I’m interested in what’s actually happening.
…and from the sounds of it and the excuses, this is typical of a company with little to no retail activity.
You are an outsider in this business while I am an insider. And I am telling you whats happening inside.
It’s just like a father who gets into a place comes out and tells his son whats happening and the son says no its something else that is happening. Well everyone is entitled to his own opinion.
The business is over 7 years old and it is still growing stronger. Time will tell how long. If it colapses I will be the first to publish it if I get to know before you.
Your “insider-ness” is apparently not enough to address your inadequacy in explaining the stuff. Or the company has hogtied you in regards of what you can say. Or is there some other possibility?
So what? “Appeal to age” fallacy. Try again.
@Phil
Irrelevant. The business model and comp plan remain the same, irrespective of whether you’re in Alliance in Motion or not.
No you’re not. How much revenue company-wide is generated via affiliate purchases versus retail activity?
Pyramid schemes always collapse. You mean “when it collapses”…
Opinion-schmnion. Front the retail revenue facts or get off the waffle train.
In compensation plan explanation there are some things you said you dont know about that I know. Perhaps you would have clearified these with someone that knows probably an insider. For example a section of the stair step, what makes up the pack, the travel incentive.
The only thing that matters are the recruitment commissions, which we both know.
…who cares?
And how does this affect the root definition of a pyramid scheme, i.e.
a) a scheme where
b) you pay to join
c) and in return you get to recruit others who also pay to join
d) and you are PAID by the amount of recruiting you do
Burnlounge and Omnitrition cases already ruled that having a “free” level where not all benefits are enjoyed and very few people use is not a defense. You’re trying to imply those “insider” details somehow makes AIM not fit the Koscot test (as outlined above). Explain your logic or you’re just trying to obfuscate the issue.
It would probably have been wiser to post the information DIRECTLY (what you claim to know), rather than posting “I know something you don’t know”? 🙂
You have made several claims like that, about having a type of inside information that is needed to fully understand the program. It looks like you’re following a script or something, a script for communication, e.g. “How to communicate when you don’t have any good arguments”. 🙂
COMMUNICATION TRAINING?
You have mostly used methods that will allow you to avoid or deflect direct questions, and yet you’re asking direct questions yourself.
You have tried to give the impression that other people don’t have correct information, and that you have all the information needed. But you have been rather vague about the details.
You have tried to direct focus AWAY from the company reviewed here by bringing in other MLM companies, and have asked general questions like “Do you mean that any MLM that pays out recrutement fee is a pyramid scheme?”.
My impression is that you’re practising some type of “communication training”, probably by following a book “by the letter”. You have already got the training we’re willing to offer, so I don’t believe you should ask for more.
If it had been important, you would probably have posted it DIRECTLY. I don’t believe anyone will be interested in the vague information you have to offer, it doesn’t seem to be very important.
You guys are talking as if the company does not have product. The company have solid products manufactured by the number 1 food suplement company NATUREWAY America.
We have 7 produts: C24/7, Complete phyto energizer, Coleduz, Restorelyf, Mychoco, First alkaline coffee in the world. These are the products that comes with your registration pack.
You can google them and see the value. Their efficacy is second to none
Let’s cut through all the BS. If your company has little to no external sales to customers, it’s an illegal pyramid. If you have a tool scam, it’s also RICO fraud. Period.
@phil
Instead of trying to frame the recruitment issue so that it fits your “pyramid scheme excuses 101” handbook, how about instead look at what is actually being said.
Having a product isn’t good enough, you need to be selling it to retail customers.
There appears to be little to no retail activity in Alliance in Motion.
Since you guys did not take my word that we have enough retail sales. Lets look at the aspect of recruitment.
When you are recruited you have products that goes with it. That means you are not only been recruited you have equally purchased products based on the ampunt you parted with. What happens to the products?
you consume some or you sell them for profit or you sell some for profit, For those who have multiple account will have more products. What happens to these products too? You sell them and make a profit. Are these not retail sales.
And these happens often. Except you have another definition for retail sales
Unless each account is restricted to X amount of product (i.e. quota) that can be purchased for resale having multiple accounts makes absolutely ZERO sense except as a pyramid scheme.
And if each account is restricted to X amount, they don’t need sales people at all. They can’t make things fast enough to need them.
Apparently you don’t think about this sort of contradictions within your own statements.
So? Products being purchased for recruitment is still recruitment. Never heard of defacto recruitment commissions?
So? Still affiliate revenue with no retail to speak of.
You don’t need multiple accounts in legitimate MLM, only in pyramid/Ponzi schemes. Multiple accounts = multiple positions in the scheme.
No. Money going into the company is from affiliates, what happens after that is irrelevant.
If revenue generated by the company is from affiliates, it’s not a retail sale. There’s no “definitions”, only the definition of a retail sale.
A retail sale is a sale to an external customer. I don’t have an issue with the distributor buying the products first, but they have to be able to prove a big chunk of those products were sold to external customers. Otherwise, it’s an illegal pyramid.
The legitimate MLM companies I mentioned earlier and a lot of others have the above. No MLM company will pass your test As such they are all illegal including Alliance in Motion
Legitimacy by association is a fallacy.
Only the pyramid schemes you evidently surround yourself with.
l thnk you have made an important point. There have been a lot of external sales. I was at the office to supervice the purchase of a large chunck of purchase and transportation of our product to the eastern part of my country.
Each time I get to the office I see people buy product. Now if this company does not have real valuable product, I would have given up.
Why are retail customers buying “from the office”?
Sounds like Herbalife with its affiliates purchasing from the office.
PS.
That you just made up because you saw randoms at the office (who were likely affiliates)?
Cmon now.
MLM is a legitimate business opportunity! It is a referral business opportunity! It is a word of mouth business opportunity.
Every company is set out to make profit and alliance in motion shares it’s profits with their dedicated distributors.
MMLM operates like franchise companies. Get educated guys!
MLM is the next trend in product distribution. MLM has produced more self made millionaires than all industries combined.
These two sentences contradict eachother.
When profit being shared is affiliate fees, you have a problem.
AIM Global is a legitimate company, most of their products are very effective, just like whitening soap and lotion and many more (which is very in demand here in the Philippines).
There are millions of people buying different products from this company due to its effectiveness and yet some of the buyers are not even a member of Aim global, some had joined but the only reason why they have joined is that they wanted to save money, if they become a member of AIM they can buy any products at lower price.
I am not a member of this company either but I like their products, and they are also giving scholarship to the members (newbies) who wanted to go to college which is a good thing right?
Most of the MLM companies here in Philippines works the same at all, though some does not provide such opportunities like what AIM had to offer.
Again AIM isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme as you really have to work hard to build your network, it’s a business, if you want to earn more money then you selling products is a must, invite if you can invite but don’t brainwash your invites and tell them you’ll become a millionaire with Aim global without hard work.
This is where most MLM companies fail, they don’t usually tell people during the seminar that you’re not going to become a millionaire in just one night, that you have to work hard because there isn’t free money in this world.
If you want to become a millionaire then work hard, get downlines but don’t forsake your downlines instead help them build their business too.
Perhaps MLM is for sales people who knows what kind of product they are selling and to whom they should offer it. It’s like having your own business everything’s won’t happen over night but if you work hard you will be successful with your business.
“Some of the buyers” didn’t sound like “many buyers”.
“Some have joined because they wanted to save money” didn’t sound like “many” either.
And the rest of your post made it sound exactly like a recruitment driven MLM, where the primary focus isn’t on selling products to consumers but on building downlines.
In normal business, you will need many times more external customers than sales people. If the sales people themselves are the only customers, only a few of them will make any money (at the expense of the others).
You actually made it sound exactly like a “problem company”, even if you had the opposite intentions.
“Problem companies” will usually sell “The Dream” = the dream that if you work hard for a couple of years building your own organization then your organization will eventually generate residual income so you don’t need to work so hard to earn money.
That dream can only work for a few, if they can get others to believe in the same dream. It cannot work for the many.
There’s nothing in the compensation plan indicating a “good” company, but it isn’t among the “worst” ones either. It seems to heavily reward recruitment, and it doesn’t seem to reward retail sales.
Every scam company, esp. TVI Express, said that before they closed.
The problem is are you working hard to recruit, or actually working hard to sell stuff, and which one are you getting paid for?
I don’t think ANY of the product based MLM companies are trying to sell that “get rich quick” idea?
If you use “not a get rich quick opportunity” as a measurement to separate between “good” or “bad”, you’re probably on the wrong track.
“The Dream” CAN be about getting rich quick for some people, but it isn’t about that for most people. Most people will EXPECT that it will require some hard work to make any substantial amount of money.
It doesn’t mean “not a get rich quick” is any better, it will only mean it has been designed for another type of people. It can be just as bad or even worse than a “get rich quick” opportunity (e.g. some downlines in Herbalife had much higher average losses than some plain frauds).
I can find some “acceptable points” in the compensation plan, e.g. the $10 recruitment commission seems to be “fair enough”, even if “starter kits” normally shouldn’t be commissionable.
I must commend you guys for defending what you know and stand for.
However, I will tell you that I have known a few other “pyramid schemed” companies and all of them fail 5-6years at max.
But this same company has survived 8 years in the industry, so I guess we should rather focus our attention on how to help the larger world population know and appreciate this Industry rather than condemn her surviving companies.
@Vic
How long a scam runs for is irrelevant, unless your looking to measure how many people get dragged in.
The business model is all that’s relevant here, stop making excuses for a recruitment-driven pyramid scheme.
“Appeal to age” fallacy. If it survived this long it’ll live forever… not. Look at Madoff and it should be obvious.
You can’t use that as a measurement either.
FHTM was shut down after 10 years. Some schemes clearly can survive for many years, e.g. because of a slow regulatory system or multiple jurisdictions. Some collapse locally but not as a whole. Some jump from country to country.
Some are rather closed societies similar to cults, i.e. rather opaque societies with rather “brain washed” members.
The only thing I stand for is “try to identify it as correctly as possible”. And your idea didn’t reflect the realities.
Though coming in late I see some debaters are here to defend their company. The truth is that an MLM plan whose structure does not encourage long term residual income is a farce.
Like the op said, there is no where the actual amount for travel or education is said anywhere.
Most people who AImGlobal are ignorant and don’t appeal to reasoning. They are deceived and want you to be deceived.
That fact that you earn few dollars in the beginning does not guarantee long term profit. Sustainability is the key.
Correct me if I misunderstood something here.
If the qualification to retail product is to purchase samples of said product and commissions are paid up from the sale of these samples, is that being called affiliate fee profit?
Suppose moreover that a minimum point value is required to qualify for commissions, which can be by personal purchase or sales and profit is paid up from those purchases, is that being called affiliate fee profit?
In any sales organization there are minimum goal requirements and commissions paid up on that basis, whether it is one level or multilevel.
Since actual product is being exchanged for money there is value going down as well as up and even if those at the bottom when saturation occurs are unable to earn commissions, they are still getting value for their money.
As such a company is sustainable on that basis. The real litmus test for any scheme to be considered legal is simply that. Value being returned for payment.
No one is ever guaranteed success at any stage of a network marketing company, whether saturated or not. New products and innovations in bonus structure etc.. can prevent said saturation in any case so really saturation is a moot point and any company that collapses on that basis is not thinking through their business model.
The real issue is what the focus is. If it is the product and sales thereof then really the fact that any paying customer can also refer others for commission is secondary and again no success is ever guaranteed.
It is only when a token product of no value commensurate with payment (or not product at all) that the scheme becomes definable as a pyramid or ponzi scheme. But as long as there is value in the product it must be deemed a legal plan regardless.
So if there are affiliate fees to be paid in order to do business (such as there are in Real Estate offices) those fees must be at par with the value of payment. eg Order processing services, bookkeeping, website maintenance etc.. No profit should be made there.
But setting minimum quotas for commission profits is not illegal and generally standard practice and cannot be called affiliate fee profits.
The problem I see with this particular company is rather the incentives given for Front end or Inventory loading which is a clear no no in the business. It contravenes the balance of value down for money up since such inventory is difficult if not impossible to retail or consume.
My own opinion is that the purchase of any product at all should never be a requirement to participate in an MLM though some costs as mentioned before may be required, again with the proviso that no profit should be made nor therefore commissions paid for those services.
It really is not necessary to be a customer to sell a product. The fact that Sy Sperling was also a client might have helped his credibility (despite the furry little toque he wore on his head), but many Feminine Hygiene companies are run by men.
Travel Agents are offered incentives to do some traveling on their own, but it is not a requirement. However I digress.
I think the objections here come from too a too literal and extreme adherence to some definition of a pyramid that missed the essential point. If a company sells a decent product at a fair price in reasonable quantities, and it gives incentive to customers to profit by referring others, it is not a pyramid scheme.
So again, correct me if I am wrong because I do not see anywhere (other than incentivizing Inventory Loading) that any profit is being made from affiliate fees.
Thanks
If the majority of revenue is raised by affiliate purchases, it’s defacto chain-recruitment = pyramid scheme.
Close to 100% affiliate-only purchases reveals a lack of viability (retail value). Thus affiliates are only purchasing products to qualify for commissions. (see FTC’s Vemma litigation)
If it’s an MLM company and there’s no retail happening, yeah it is.
So is that some legal definition or your own interpretation? Cite your source.
I can see if it is a case of inventory loading. But not if its individual use purchasing. You cannot presume to be a mind reader to say that anyone in a program who buys personal product is doing it solely for qualification to earn income or because they actually want the product.
It’s an either/or. So we have a sales organization or a group of buyers with the same result if the amount being encouraged or incentivized is personal use only. And anyway what is your objection to that?
Why should anyone being part of an MLM be retailing when to sign people up amounts to a sale for commission anyway? Is a member simply selling positions for profit with a product to cover the legal bases, or is he selling a decent product to which is added a referral incentive to sell more product?
We are talking consumable health products here which many attest to be of personal benefit and who consider the price to be fair. So to simply arbitrarily say it must be an illegal (ie unethical) scheme just because there is little impetus for pure retail, that does not also include an opportunity, is sheer and utter nonsense.
All members have the benefit of both product and opportunity. So what is wrong with that except for some hairsplitting literal interpretation biased against most every MLM ever, and critics screaming Pyramid Ponzi Scam at even a hint that the business might not be retail, as if that were a definitively good thing.
Again and to get back on topic the only problem I see with this particular business plan is the incentive to front load inventory which can easily leave members with a stock of unsold and unsellable product and an empty bank account. (and incidentally the unsellability would be directly due to it being for retail!!)
In the case of Vemma it was more a matter of not only unsellable excess product but also unconsumable amounts. So your example rather makes my case.
But to underscore my point: Imagine if the product is a magazine subscription set at a standard price. And to subscribe to a magazine also qualifies a subscriber to sell subscriptions for commission and overrides.
So long as there is no reward in place to stockpile magazines (for retail sales!) and higher levels are due simply to referrals and their referrals etc… what is the problem with that?
It is not a pyramid or ponzi scheme. No one is losing their shirt. If all you get out of it is a magazine but no one to sell it to.. you got a magazine. You lost nothing. Where is the crime? What is unethical there?
Only in a case where “retail sales” and therefore inventory loading is promoted does it become unethical and people get hurt. So get your head straight here and forget this retail bias and nonsense interpretation of what is and is not a pyramid.
If commensurate value comes down as money goes up and there is no incentive to load inventory (ie for retail sales) it is not a pyramid ponzi scheme but a legitimate business.
Most all the reviews I have read in this blog are predicated on similar false ideas, unwarranted assumptions and erroneously literal interpretations (often inverted from the truth) reflecting a general bias against MLM in general. As such it is basically of no use except as an object lesson of how not to appraise MLM businesses.
See litigation pertaining to Vemma, FHTM, TelexFree and Zeek Rewards. That’s what happens when you don’t have retail in MLM.
As above, with particular attention paid to Vemma and FHTM.
You can when their purchase qualifies them to earn income. It’s called play to play and is a strong indication of a pyramid scheme.
Because MLM compensation plan shouldn’t be modeled on zero retail. Fixing that is the onus of the MLM company.
All the more reason to only count retail volume as a commission qualifier. If the products are in such demand as you claim, shouldn’t be a problem.
Or you’re full of shit and mandatory affiliate purchases for commission qualification is the only real driver of sales.
Vemma had a lack of retail, with a combination of the above defining it as a pyramid scheme. You don’t need to have unsellable excess product or unconsumable amounts to definitively be a pyramid scheme, a lack of retail volume alone will do.
That’s pay to play and in MLM would be a chain-recruitment scheme (assuming the absence of retail subscriptions).
You’re shilling the “we have a product, it’s not a pyramid scheme!” argument. This is outdated, as evidenced by every major Ponzi/pyramid bust over the last decade (again, see Vemma and FHTM litigation).
Nope. Irrespective of how much they’re spending, if only affiliates who purchase product are driving sales, then sooner or later that recruitment will dry up. Mathematically the vast majority of participants will lose money
Within the context of correctly identifying this as a pyramid scheme, how much they spend is entirely irrelevant.
Our history speaks for itself. Compare any major MLM litigation brought by a regulator and compare it to a BehindMLM review (typically published upwards of a year prior to the regulatory action).
The issue of a retail requirement in MLM is a non-issue, in that it’s not up for debate or circumventable via excuses. You’re in an MLM company that doesn’t have retail? Congratulations, it’s either a pyramid scheme, Ponzi scheme or worse a hybrid combination of the two.
Or just continue to talk out of your arse in an attempt to justify pyramid schemes and your scamming. Your call.
(Ozedit: Offtopic derail attempt removed)
You failed to cite your source for where there is any legal definition such that not pushing retail makes a plan necessarily illegal. Especially when so often pushing retail results in devastating financial loss due to inventory loading.
It’s contradictory that any legal restriction that demands retail sales also at the same time prohibits Inventory loading. (See below where I ask how to retail an intangible service).
And If I am buying a product for my own use or consumption then whether or not I ever refer anyone or refer dozens of people.. I have not lost one penny!! So where do you get that idea that money is lost? See above paragraph re Inventory loading for where money is actually lost.
Plus you leap off into completely biased assumptions about how anyone is probably full of shit if they refer anyone to any product for which they get a referral commission rather than selling “retail”
What if everything you every bought had a tiered referral bonus incentive in place as implicit in the purchase?
Would you demand then that every purchaser/member should retail? I find it rather appalling that such an implicit opportunity is not a part of every purchase. Just by using the product I am advertising it after all.
Oh and by the way: Aren’t you the moron who thinks a membership to an array of services cannot be considered a product?
And how the hell would you retail for example, a bookkeeping, or accounting or advertising service anyway? Ever taken even one business course at all? A service is a product.
i appreciate your effort to make a genuine argument here, but you are missing the point because your’e slightly off track.
how sir, will you determine the ‘commensurate value’ of a product?
only a product sold in the free market, shorn of any possibility of MLM rewards, can prove if it has commensurate value. ie the product has to prove its value through retail.
how much retail an MLM needs, to prove that it is not a product based pyramid scheme, will depend upon its MLM marketing plan.
any plan which promotes inventory loading via front loading or autoship, will generally have to show high retail stats to prove its product has a genuine market.
even an MLM plan with no inventory purchase requirements, needs some retail to explain that its distributors are actually purchasing the product for self consumption, and not for the possibility of some rewards.
also your supposition that distributors have to load inventory in order to retail is misplaced. a genuine MLM opportunity will allow you to retail without stocking the product yourself.
like oz suggested, better read up some case law like FHTM, burnlounge and vemma, to clear up some of your ideas. your’e almost there.
@raan
I cited four (FHTM, TelexFree, Zeek Rewards and Vemma). Try reading champ (protip: reading is not selectively discarding facts and then claiming there were none).
Because I get the feeling that you’re too lazy (and/ or a dumbass) to go look up the relevant litigation, here it is from the FTC:
The FTC clearly differentiates between “consumers” and affiliates through “Your income is based mainly on the number of people you recruit, and the money those new recruits pay to join the company — not on the sales of products to consumers”.
Also the notes about mandatory purchases is applicable. And if you’ve got doubts about how you want to interpret any of that, again refer to Vemma and FHTM litigation. Both of those were shut down for having next to no retail activity taking place.
consumer.ftc.gov/blog/telltale-signs-pyramid-scheme
Here’s the SEC:
Only earning from recruited affiliate purchases = natural emphasis on recruiting affiliates. The only alternative is sales to retail customers, which we’ve established doesn’t exist.
investor.gov/investing-basics/avoiding-fraud/types-fraud/pyramid-scheme
1. If you don’t refer someone, you should be a retail customer. Why did you sign up as an affiliate (access to the business opportunity)?
2. The majority of pyramid scheme participants don’t recruit “dozens of people”. Ergo they lose money via participation and when the scheme collapses.
If they’re referring someone to the business due to the product, the referral should be a retail customer. Otherwise they’ve clearly recruited based on the business opportunity.
Nonsensical hypotheticals are a waste of time. Let’s stick with facts.
Not in MLM.
If it’s not MLM, don’t know and don’t care. Any further offtopic non-MLM crap will be marked as spam.
There are precedents and guidelines but no clear legislated law that says there must be retail consumers otherwise it is definitely an illegal pyramid. Thus you could not cite any source for that but threw dung at me instead.
(Ozedit: Offtopic derail attempts, failure to address multiple regulatory lawsuits centered around retail in MLM and excuses for pyramid schemes removed.)
Retail was cited in regulatory lawsuits against FHTM, TelexFree, Zeek Rewards and Vemma.
Next you’ll be trying to convince us none of those court-sanctioned shutdowns were based on the law.
Oh here’s one for you wise guy.
A member joins into a program and (Ozedit: if you wish to discuss “programs”, do it elsewhere. This review is about Alliance in Motion and the inherent lack of retail it has. Offtopic hypotheticals removed.)
You can continue to come up with hypothetical situations a long as you like, it doesn’t alter the fact ponzi / pyramid / endless chain recruitment schemes are 1) illegal 2) guaranteed to cost 90+% of participants lose all or most of their money.
How you moron ????
I buy a product I use it I’m happy… no money lost (only spent on something I wanted) others buy it through a link to which I referred them and they are happy no money lost they refer others to their link and so forth and we are more happy since we are getting commissions and overrides. Eventually we reach saturation and I sell to one last person.. they buy it use and they are happy.
So who lost money here??? In what way is that unethical?
(Ozedit: Offtopic derail attempts about “other companies” removed.)
some high voltage namecalling going down folks! 🙂
by all means, be as happy as a bumblebee when you buy a product and use it, and refer it.
BUT, for your business enterprise to be deemed legal and not a closed false economy, you need to show that your happiness generating product can give happiness to even those who cannot earn referral commissions, and are buying the product for pure uncorrupted happiness. get?
show the pure happiness quotient of your product via retail! how does the world know whether your’e happy with the product or happy because of the referral commissions the product generates?
Switching your strawman argument from “illegal” to “unethical” doesn’t alter the fact ponzi and pyramid schemes are illegal, as are recruitment based MLM schemes.
@raan
Whether you are happy or not is irrelevant to the fact that an MLM opportunity that forces affiliates to purchase product for commission qualification and has insignificant retail, is a pyramid scheme.
If people are happy with the product, you should have more than enough retail customers then. Yet here we are.
Whether you keep repeating it or not the sale of a product that includes an opportunity to earn commission for referrals is not illegal.
And you business naivete is astounding. Sure if the product is good then it would be popular is nonsense! Network marketing is just that.. Marketing!
If something is marketed well enough people will buy. Using terms like illegal is an obfuscation since there is no one clear legislation or definition.
It has to be shown that a plan is unethical causing harm etc before action is taken. I already came up with a few plans that do not follow your own blinkered narrow notions which were summarily dismissed and hidden but are legitimate businesses that do not have retail to any customers but you know-it-alls don’t need to even look.
That’s fine.. I think anyone who reads for any length any of these reviews will quickly see how biased and asinine they really are.
yes there is no ‘pyramid law’ per se, and since there is no pyramid ‘law’ there is no law that says MLM retail is mandatory.
but the ‘guidelines’ from the SEC/FTC clearly underline the need for retail.
‘precedents’ established via MLM case law in the US, also cite the lack of retail as a determinant of a pyramid scheme.
name one case law precedent that found a zero retail, product based MLM to be legal? no? then hush.
At the expense of sales to retail customers, it is.
And if you’re not marketing to retail customers, with your company having significant retail volume throughout, you’re in a scam.
Insignificant retail sales = pyramid scheme = victims = for reference see Vemma, FHTM, Zeek Rewards and TelexFree litigation.
You love pyramid schemes, we get it. Just own it son and stop trying to defend them.
(Ozedit: Copious amounts of abuse removed)
Looks like we’re done here. Pyramid scheme lover Raan has given up defending pyramid schemes and resorted to abuse.
Bottom line, no retail in MLM = pyramid scheme. It’s that simple.
I merely reiterated what was said to me and then provided a case example that proved my point. (Ozedit: Offtopic derail attempts and abuse removed)
Providing examples of pyramid schemes with no retail proves… that pyramid schemes with no retail exist. Herp derp.
In other news, MLM opportunities with no retail are still pyramid schemes.
Convenient you censored the actual example:
It is an MLM that provides a Service which any Business 101 student knows is a Product. So how do you propose someone Retails a service? Especially an online service. But as a product it is eligible to be promoted legally through a Network Marketing plan. So it is a clear example in that contradicts your assertion.
Just saying it is an illegal pyramid proves nothing and the onus is on you to prove it especially since the company was founded in 2000. The proof is in the pudding pal.
(Ozedit: Offtopic derail attempt removed)
To retail customers (non-affiliates), herp derp.
If you’re in an MLM company that has no retail sales volume, you’re in a pyramid scheme.
I can assure you there is retail in AIM my friend.
@Philippe
Unfortunately your assurances don’t trump Alliance In Motion’s compensation plan.
Affiliate purchases are not retail sales.
Oz, AIM Global has recently modified their binary plan, going from a 50/50 plan based on points, to a 1:1 pair binary (which is even worse!), but in order to make it look better than it is, they’ve upped the cap in binary pay to $704 USD a day/$4,92 USD a week, which is one of the lowest “caps” in the industry.
Of course, they do this in order to convince people to buy 3 or 7 positions as a way to make more money, which we know isn’t the case most of the time as 99% of people will never max out one position!
The real reason they promote the purchase of multiple positions, especially 7 positions, is to create a “front end load” and pull $1800 USD out of people instead of $250…
Thanks for the heads up, I’ll flag Alliance in Motion for a review update.
9 years Later since this review was fast made and Alliance in motion stands strong. BEATEN OFF ALL COMPETITION.
Doing well in Africa. Couple of guys making 100s of thousands of Dollars in Africa alone…. the products work that’s how Africans are able to sustain an MLM that long.
When I wrote this review and our updated 2018 review, Alliance in Motion was primarily focused on SE Asia.
That seems to have completely died and, like so many pyramid schemes, Alliance in Motion has opted for easy pickings in Africa.
Alexa traffic rankings show whatever recruitment activity there was in Africa has peaked and is now in decline.
The products never meant anything in Alliance in Motion, otherwise there’d still be business in Asia. Sorry for your loss.