Bioceutica Review: Neutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals & retail
Bioceutica’s origins date back to 1996. Back then the company was known as Ideal Health and marketed nutritional supplements with an emphasis on customization.
In 2009 Ideal Health was renamed The Trump Network and paid Donald Trump a licensing fee to use his name.
Trump bailed three years later in 2012, with the Bioceutica website claiming the company was “facing bankruptcy” at the time.
The Trump Network was purchased that same year by Antoine Nohra (right), who promptly renamed it Bioceutica.
As per Nohra’s LinkedIn profile;
Mr. Nohra is an expert in the creation, expansion, acquisition and turnaround of marketing companies that support financial and retail clients.
He is the founder and Chairman of Credico Marketing Inc., a leading global network of independent sales offices partnering with clients to reach customers through face-to-face sales and marketing programs.
Credico has quadrupled in size since 2006, currently has 400+ offices in 16 countries, and its revenues have grown consistently.
Nohra himself doesn’t run Biocueitca however, with Candace Keefe serving as CEO since his acquisition.
Keefe began her network marketing career in Arbonne, eventually rising to the position of Senior Vice-President.
In 2009 Keefe (right) left Arbonne to co-launch Apriori Beauty. Keefe served as CEO of Apriori Beauty until her departure in 2012.
Stated Keefe at the time;
I chose not to work with the continued illusion that I held a title I simply did not. My partners voted me out of my title and the authority that the title held.
The “CEO” title in itself was of no importance to me, but the lack of ability to move forward in a positive and healthy direction was. It was simply not what I signed up for, and something I was not going to keep fighting for the rest of my life.
That was June 2012, with Keefe signing on as Bioceutica’s CEO a few months later in August.
Read on for a full review of the Bioceutica MLM business opportunity.
The Bioceutica Product Line
Bioceutica market what they refer to as “neutraceuticals” and “cosmeceuticals”.
Bioceutica classify their 70+ products into the following four key categories:
- My Vitamins RX – custom vitamins and nutritional supplements
- Silhouette Solution MetaReset – metabolism reset & weight loss management
- Intuitiv By Nature – skin, body and hair care
- Luminous – “ingenious cosmeceutical color”
Bioceutica’s product range is too voluminous to go through here in any great detail, however full product descriptions and retail pricing are available on the Bioceutica website.
The Bioceutica Compensation Plan
The Bioceutica compensation plan sees affiliates strongly rewarded for generating retail sales.
Residual commissions are paid out via a unilevel compensation structure, with a generational bonus providing an additional incentive.
Affiliate Ranks
There are six affiliate ranks within the Bioceutica compensation plan.
Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- District Manager – generate $100 a month in PV and retail volume, have a total accumulated retail volume of $200 and recruit two affiliates who each generate at least $100 in retail volume a month
- Area Manager – maintain $100 a month in PV, generate $300 in monthly retail volume, have a total accumulated retail volume of $1000, generate $5000 in retail volume across the first two levels of your unilevel team (includes your own retail volume) and recruit at least four affiliates who each generate at least $200 in retail volume a month
- Regional Manager – maintain $100 a month in PV, generate $500 in monthly retail volume, have a total accumulated retail volume of $3000, generate $10,000 in retail volume across the first two levels of your unilevel team (includes your own retail volume), generate at least $15,000 in monthly Personal Group Retail Volume and recruit and maintain at least four Area Manager ranked affiliates
- District Director – maintain Regional Manager qualification status and have at least one personally recruited Regional Manager
- Area Director – maintain Regional Manager qualification status and have at least three personally recruited Regional Managers
- Regional Director – maintain Regional Manager qualification status and have at least two personally recruited Area Director and five Regional Manager ranked affiliates
PV stands for “Personal Volume” and is sales volume generated by an affiliate’s own purchases and retail customer orders.
Personal Group Retail Volume is an affiliate’s own retail volume as well as that of their downline (counted to a Regional Manager ranked affiliate in each individual unilevel leg).
Commission Qualification
In order to qualify for commission payments, Bioceutica force affiliates to purchase 100 PV worth of product each month:
A Bioceutica Independent Consultant must personally purchase a minimum of 100 Personal Order Product Retail Volume (POPRV) [Effective January 1st 2016] in his/her Bioceutica Consultant Account every month to be paid monthly commissions.
Retail Commissions
Bioceutica affiliates are encouraged to make retail sales with increased retail sales volume attracting higher commission rates.
- $200 in monthly retail sales volume = baseline 15% commission
- an additional $1 to $99 in monthly retail sales volume = 20% commission
- an additional $100 to $299 in monthly retail sales volume = 25% commission
- an additional $300 to $799 in retail sales volume = 30% commission
- an additional $800 or more in retail sales volume = 35% commission plus a $50 bonus
Residual Commissions
Residual commissions in Bioceutica are paid out via a unilevel compensation structure.
A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):
If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates of their own, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.
If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.
Bioceutica cap payable unilevel levels at four, with commissions paid out as a percentage of sales volume generated by recruited affiliates.
How many unilevel levels an affiliate can earn on is determined by their Bioceutica affiliate rank:
- District Manager – 7% on level 1 to 3
- Area and Regional Manager – 7% on levels 1 to 3 and 4% on level 4
Regional Managers are able to extend commission payouts beyond level 4 of their unilevel team, vi a generation bonus.
The generation bonus is a 4% bonus paid out on each unilevel leg up until a Regional Manager is found in that leg.
If the first Regional Manager in a leg is found beyond the first four levels, a 4% bonus is paid out regardless.
Generation Bonus
The Generation Bonus permits a Bioceutica affiliate to earn on up to four generations within each individual unilevel leg.
This is a bonus percentage paid out on generated sales volume, in addition to unilevel commissions paid out.
A generation in Bioceutica is defined when a Regional Manager or higher affiliate is found in a unilevel leg.
This caps off the first generation, with the second extending down to a second Regional Manager or higher ranked affiliate.
If no such affiliate exists, the second generation extends down the full length of the unilevel leg.
Bioceutica pay down four generations, with how many generations an affiliate is paid on determined by their rank:
- District Director – 5% on the first generation and 4% on the second
- Area Director – 5% on the first generation and 4% on the second and third
- Regional Director – 5% on the first generation and 4% on the second to fourth
Rank Achievement Bonus
Bioceutica affiliates who qualify at the Area Manager rank receive a one-time $200 bonus.
The Bioceutica compensation plan also mentions a “Lexus Hybrid Bonus” for District Director ranked affiliates:
A bonus paid to ICs that have reached the rank of District Director and have submitted a valid lease or purchase agreement for any silver Lexus Hybrid model.
However as above, no specifics regarding how much is paid out are provided.
Joining Bioceutica
Basic Bioceutica affiliate membership is $89, which I believe is an annual fee.
Optionally, a Bioceutica affiliate can sign up with one of the following affiliate starter kits:
- The Personal IC Kit – $299
- POP START Ingenious Cosmeceutical Color Starter Kit – $339
- The Business IC Kit – $499
The prime difference between the above kits are included Bioceutica products (up to $1150 at the Business IC Kit level).
There’s no mention of commissions paid out on the kits in the Bioceutica compensation plan, so it is assumed that the above kits are not comissionable.
Conclusion
Bioceutica offer a great retail orientated compensation plan, with affiliates encouraged to generate higher retail sales with increased commission margins.
Unfortunately the company stuffs things up by requiring affiliates to purchase a mandatory 100 PV in products each month.
What’s worse is this is appears to be a recently introduced requirement, with the Bioceutica compensation plan dating the change as of the 1st of January, 2016.
Why is Bioceutica forcing affiliates to purchase products? I have no idea.
What makes even less sense is that the 100 PV requirement only covers an affiliate’s rank requirements at the District Manager level.
Usually an MLM company will force affiliates to purchase products to the point where said purchase qualifies them for commissions at any rank. Bioceutica however enforce additional retail volume qualifiers (both at the direct and team levels), so why they continue to force affiliates to purchase product each month is a mystery.
Theoretically a Bioceutica affiliate could be generating thousands of dollars in sales volume each month, but if they fail to purchase products themselves – they don’t get paid for thoe retail sales.
By all accounts Bioceutica should drop the mandatory affiliate purchase requirement ASAP.
Other than that, I was pleasantly surprised to see such attention to retail sales qualifiers present in the compensation plan. Not only are there personal retail volume qualifiers, but an affiliate’s downline must also be generating retail sales if they wish to advance in rank.
On the product side of things I might be a bit weary if the focal point was still the customized nutrient supplement line.
Quite obviously Ideal Health was in financial trouble when it rebranded as The Trump Network, and the Trump Network itself courted bankruptcy before Antoine Nohra bought it out.
How marketable the extended range of Bioceutica products are will be determined by an affiliate’s drive to market them, but at least they’re not solely restricted to the nutrient supplement lines.
All in all you’ve got a pretty solid MLM opportunity here, sadly let down by recently introduced mandatory affiliate purchase requirements.
As discussed above, the purchase requirements make little sense with respect to the Bioceutica compensation plan as a whole, so here’s hoping the company drops them sooner rather than later.
