The biggest problem with the Liberty League sales model was that everybody knew nobody was paying those prices without the pyramid scheme business opportunity attached. Effectively you weren’t buying retail products, you were buying the right to resell the business opportunity you were buying into to others.

What this meant was that if you got in early and signed up enough people, you could effectively sit back and relax as qualifying products were sent to you as the bottom level of your sales pyramid attempted to resell the opportunity to others.

With Polaris Media Group we’re apparently going to see a shift away from the business opportunity and instead more focus on the products.

After having a look at the new lineup of products, I can honestly say I’m not convinced Polaris Media Group is going to be any more sustainable then Liberty League was.

The reason?

The underlying problem is still fundamentally the same.

To understand my conclusion it’s important first to have a look at the new line of products. Prices have recently been released for the Polaris Media Group line of products, they are as follows (in AUD using current US-AUD exchange):

1. Know for yourself – $29.95

Know for yourself is available as single dvd for $29.95 or in a 10 pack for $299. At this point it’s not entirely clear whether there’s 10 separate components of the product that are also bundled in a ten pack or whether the ten pack is ten copies of the one disc in a bulk buy resale pack.

Polaris Media group are marketing that they will be selling a range of 20+ products at launch so it could very well be 10 individual components.

The development of the personal computer and the explosive growth of the Internet is one of the most significant events in our history. However, living in “the information age” does not guarantee the information is true or unbiased. Learn how to Know For Yourself in this confidence building DVD.

The wording of this sales pitch is very important. Have a read over it again and you’ll see that it does two things:

  1. It asserts that information from Polaris Media Group about their own products is guaranteed to be true and unbiased.
  2. It places emphasis on the fact that after using this product, you will have better confidence (in the rest of the products).

There’s a reason Know for yourself is priced at $29.95, the sole purpose of this product is to allow Polaris distributors to fend off awkward ‘but I saw on the internet’ questions from prospective buyers.

Know for yourself is cheap enough for most people to just throw down the cash without too much hesitation (as opposed to the previous entry level Beyond Freedom’s $1495 price tag under the Liberty League model).

Know For Yourself is essentially the ‘media blackout’ component the old Beyond Freedom program, but in a much more affordable package.

Would you buy a marketing product from a company in any other industry that discouraged you from conducting your own research and presented itself as the only guaranteed source of true and unbiased information about its products?

2. Beyond Freedom Evolution: Departure – $875

Beyond Freedom Departure is the next product and is the first breakdown of the old Beyond Freedom program. It comes in three parts and can be bought as a whole for $875 or seperately for $350 each ($1050 total).

After watching Know For Yourself, Polaris distributors are counting on the fact that you now believe any information that isn’t put out by Polaris Media Group is negative garbage. It is now with Beyond Freedom Departure that the grooming begins.

Departure is your next step in your Beyond Freedom Evolution™. This three-phase multi-media learning system is your launch pad to self-reliance and personal freedom. Here you will learn vital distinctions which separate successful individuals from those stuck in a rut.

Departure is marketed as a learning system. Whereas previously you would be coached by your advisor, the abolishing of the training sales means naturally they don’t have the time to train teach you anymore.

With no training sales to pass up, by the time you’ve coughed up they’re too busy trying to sell the products to the next customer.

Again the marketing spiel is carefully selected to target those who feel they are ‘stuck in a rut’. These are the people most likely to subscribe the program and slowly work their way up to the larger ticket items.

Utilizing data from studying successful people, the Departure program will help you to dramatically increase your ability to Know For Yourself™, and help you gain confidence through examples from real-world achievers. Order today.

The second half of the marketing spiel is more obvious. The ‘succesfull people’ mentioned are the top earners under Liberty League – Polaris Media Group will attempt to sell you the idea of making it based off the success of those who started the Liberty League pyramid scheme eight years ago.

So now Polaris have convinced you everybody else is full of crap, you’re stuck in a rut and can be like the top earners if you continue with their program. So what’s next?

Note: Total investment at this point is $1174 or $1349 if Departure is bought separately.

3. Beyond Freedom Evolution: Decision – $1575

The second part of Beyond Freedom Evolution also comes in three parts and is $1575 bundled or $1785 separately.

Aptly named ‘decision’, by this stage Polaris figured you’ve invested enough to continue and if you’ve gotten this far in the program are pretty much willing to believe anything they spoonfeed you.

They’re cleverly crafted the image of success in your mind (and you thought you were getting a bargain at $29.95) and now it’s time to commit.

In this three-phase series, you will learn the values of decisiveness and what it takes to make personal choices resulting in improved self reliance and certainty. See for yourself how your past decisions are impacting your life today.

In business and in life, leaders and entrepreneurs are decision-makers. Learn how to be a leader in your own life with new found self confidence in decision-making.

“In the past you’ve made bad decisions and look where you are, you’re not one of us earning six figures now are you? Let us convince you to make the decision to be one of us and *mumble muble something something* income disclaimer *mumblehgnngngng* WELCOME ABOARD!”

BFE: Decision is nothing more then a fluffed out three part series with the sole purpose of convincing you that you’re making the decision to commit on your own. I mean if all these great top earners made the decision to commit and made millions of dollars the next day surely that could happen to me…right?

4. Beyond Freedom Evolution: Action $2240

So you’ve decided to commit and then here comes the ‘action’. Beyond Freedom Action is again a 3 part program and bundled is $2240 or  sold separately for $840 ($2520).

Action is the bridge between philosophy and results. You will learn the keys to managing activities and getting more done in less time leading to more personal freedom. Learn true prioritization and how to overcome procrastination that is influencing your decisions.

‘Action’ is buying into the program, ‘philosophy’ is the brainwashing training you’ve received from the previous products and ‘results’ are the dollars you now think you can earn.

‘Procrastination’ is everything else you do in life when you’re not buying Polaris Media Group products.

Here, you will develop new habits which help make you achieve success. Once completed, you are on your way to achieving success and be prepared for the Beyond Freedom Evolution™ advanced courses.

Note that we’ve long since abandoned the prospect of gaining confidence and enriching your life, now it’s all about the sell. Polaris Media Group will “make” you have success and the only way how is to keep buying our products.

The marketing spiel at this point doesn’t need to be as flowery as it was when you were paying $29.95 a disc. Let’s face it, at this point you’ve invested just under $5000 into this business.

You’ve long since forgotten about the self help component of the products, now you’re in it for the business opportunity.

5. The Conferences

Polaris Media Group have distanced themselves from Liberty League’s infamous conferences and now call them ‘live events’. This is no doubt just one component of the overall strategy of shedding the business opportunity image in favour of the ‘helping people for $29.95’ mantra.

5,000 into the business and determined to be a top earner this is what you’ll be coughing up:

a. Foundation $2,373

b. Sovereignty $13,993

c. Influence $22,743

Under Liberty League the most expensive conference, the Summit set you back $16,628. As you can see under Polaris Media Group that higher end cap has now jumped by over $6000.

The people behind Polaris Media Group have been doing conferences for eight years, how drastically different do you think the Polaris conferences are going to be? You’ll still go there to hear people speak, they’ll probably throw in some ‘life-changing’ activities for everyone to do but at the end of the day the message is the same.

Get out there and sell as much of this crap to as many people as you can.

Now that you’re familiar with the products Polaris are offering, here’s why nothing has changed. At the end of the day for the company to be successful people have to be making money. With the training sales pyramid scheme abolished, Polaris distributors will have to rely on their products to make any money.

With the exception of the conferences, none of the training products are re-occurring consumables, you buy them once and that’s it.

Now the conferences, where I assume like Liberty League the real money will be made, are re-occurring consumables in that they are one off ticket events. Given the price tags, with the possible exception of the Foundation conference (which is about 1.5 times the original Beyond Freedom price), how many people do you think are going to outlay $14,000 and $22,743 annually just to feel better about themselves?

We’re not talking chump change here we’re talking $36,743. That’s a years salary for some people.

In light of this I believe Polaris are going to have the same problems as Liberty League did, conferences filled with people selling the business opportunity.

The lower priced products certainly aren’t going to be pulling in six figure incomes for anyone and they all progressively lead to the conferences.

You don’t go to the expensive profit generating conferences unless you want to emulate the success of the top earners and resell the business.

See the problem here?

 

Polaris Media Group has the exact same problem Liberty League had, all they’ve effectively done is lower the entry point to hopefully catch even more people in their net.

Along with this they’ve also raised the top level product by over $6000 to try and compensate distributors for the lack of profit in the lower priced products.

Need more proof I’m not just making this up?

The just released Polaris Media conference call tutorial posted by Rod is clearly aimed at targeting people who might have previously walked because they couldn’t afford Beyond Freedom’s $1495 price tag.

Remember, it’s never a lack of money that prevents someone from getting started. It’s either that they are unable to see beyond their present time problem enough to believe they can have achieve a better future, there is something they don’t understand or they lack motivation and really were not a qualified prospect.

So, don’t buy into it being about money. With Polaris, anyone can get started. They can get started with Know for Yourself, as well as Beyond Freedom.

Note the language. On the outside Polaris Media market their products as tools to help people enrich their lives through personal development. Internally however prospects are still encouraged to ‘get started’ on the road to becoming a distributor.

This is where the profit comes from and in that sense nothing has changed from Liberty League.

Here’s even more proof, after reading everything I’ve explained to you listen to this training call from Polaris themselves and tell me it’s not about recruiting people under you.

Selling ‘retail’ products or suckering people in with a $29.95 dvd the premise remains the same, you need people under you to make money in this business.

The last point I’ll leave you with is the actual marketing of Polaris Media Group as an exciting new fresh opportunity.

The simple truth is it’s not.

Liberty League started it’s sales pyramid organically. The company, as CEO Shane Krider loves to point out started in a living room with a couple of people and began it’s infestation from there.

Eight years later those who got in early were used as posterchildren for new associates to aspire to despite the fact that this was nigh on impossible in a country with an established Liberty League marketplace.

Polaris Media Group is starting over again but this time it’s not organic. The official launch is next Tuesday the 9th and this time from the get go distributors are going to be competing with even more fierce competition due to the lower price point products and lack of training sale profits.

A pyramid scheme only works when you’re one of the first to introduce it to a new marketplace. Rebranding an old pyramid scheme and introducing it again into an already saturated market simply won’t achieve the same level of ‘success’ for those who believe they are getting in at the top.

These reasons are why I simply believe Polaris Media Group, like Liberty League before it will simply inevitably just collapse in on itself.