BBC blows lid off Younique & Nu Skin UK recruitment schemes
BBC journalist Ellie Flynn has gone undercover as part of an investigation into Younique and Nu Skin.
Flynn’s documentary, titled “Secrets of the Multi-Level Millionaires”, examines the success of both companies in the UK.
In doing so, it is inadvertently revealed that retail sales appear to be virtually non-existent.
I don’t want to give too much away as it’s worth a watch, but I will go over the two highlights of the documentary for me.
At certain points in the documentary Flynn (right) goes undercover at Younique and Nu Skin events.
What she realizes is, after signing up, is that the focus quickly switches from a retail pitch to recruiting.
States one Younique affiliate in a marketing video;
RITA, R-I-T-A; recruiting is the answer.
And you will not become a six or seven-figure earner if you don’t build a team.
You can’t do that just on selling. You can’t, it would kill you *laughter*
Flynn herself tries to retail Younique products and hits an exhaustive brick wall.
As far as I was aware, this was a company where I’d be selling some makeup on Facebook.
And now suddenly I’m being told if I want to make real money and make a real success of this business, I need to try and recruit a load of people to my team.
At an official Nu Skin training event held in the UK, Blue Diamond Tayla Blue tells the affiliate audience;
So a lot of people get confused with this business… because it is a beauty business they think they’ve got to sell products.
But actually this is a recruitment business.
The actual bones behind this business is in recruiting, so that’s actually bringing people into the business.
That is where the big money comes from.
At another Nu Skin training event, an unidentified speaker tells the audience;
It’s all about recruiting, okay? Because the recruitment is gonna give you these high incomes.
It’s about us doing a little bit. In fact, I’ve only ever used products. I don’t even like retailing product.
One idea Flynn explores is the cult like behavior often exhibited by MLM companies and their distributors.
At the center of this mentality are the companies owners and management.
In footage from an official Younique UK event, CEO Derek Maxfield is compared and grouped in with Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Princess Diana, Abraham Lincoln and Jesus Christ.
Princess Diana, don’t we all love her?…
…and last but not least, Jesus Christ… and there’s one more person that I want to talk about. That I think comes definitely under this category (of people).
You all might know him, I love him dearly.
Derek Maxfield. What a guy! I love him!
Other themes explored in Flynn’s documentary include
- disturbing aspects of “mindset training” associated with MLM opportunities;
- similarities between MLM companies and the Mormon church;
- what is actually marketed by MLM companies; and
- predatory targeting of women on social media, in particular new or expectant young mothers.
Towards the end of the documentary Flynn approaches both Younique and Nu Skin in her capacity as a BBC journalist.
After several attempts via email and phone to set up interviews with Younique and Nu Skin executives fail, Flynn flies out to the US to try to secure appointments in person.
Both companies’ management refuse to speak with her.
I think that says it all.
People have lost everything to these companies. They’ve lost hours of their lives. They’ve lost money, they’ve lost friends, they’ve lost family.
And when you come here to try and question the people who are responsible for that, no one acknowledges it.
And I think that’s the reality of what happens. People are buying into the dream, and when it all goes wrong nobody cares.
Both Younique and Nu Skin did eventually send Flynn canned pseudo-compliance written statements.
As Flynn reads them out, it’s hard not to appreciate just how hollow the rhetoric is in light of what appears to be actually happening in the UK.
Secrets of the Multi-Level Millionaires aired on BBC Three on April 27th, as part of Ellie Flynn’s “Ellie Undercover” series.
Having a ‘Dream’ in MLM/Network Marketing is a very dangerous thing.
The sad part is she did the story on two of the most legit MLMs there are, most of them are no where near as good as this, I mean, at least you end up with a garage full of makeup you can use if you ever decide to become a clown.
Thanks for sharing the video. Very interesting and well done.
If it’s about recruiting… It will always only profit a select few at the top.
To be honest I think it’s a very narrow approached documentary and quite also manipulative from the reporters side.
Being involved in MLM myself I agree there is no serious business when you don’t retail the product, that should always be the emphasize in any direct sales or MLm network.
But on the other hand recruting and giving people the opportunity isn’t a bad thing on itself if you learn and train them how to make money retailing and having real consumers, meaning people outside the network that don’t participate in the earnings structure.
Where I believe it’s a bit of one way showing, the way they show ho people are targeted to sign-up or even buy.
Isn’t that the case with any product today out there? Showing you what you want to see or believe or taking you on your weaknesses>
I do agree that the company shown has an approach of “not having to retail anything, just recruit and you’ll get rich” and that is bad, because that shouldn’t be the business model at all.
But hey these companies still have products, customer that love the products compared to the scams out there in the fake coin or investing industry and I don’t see them making any BBC show of an hour about that.
My guess is that this reporter was put onto these specific companies by competitors in such a way that she already has a prejudgement before she started.
On the other hand the fact that none of bot companies wanted to meet her isn’t the right thing to do neither as that comes out as a real negative.
come on dear people ‘you gotta believe’ in these self consuming recruiting deals, those business people in Utah make on Sunday good deals, they start companies and buy shares in each others companies, and help with funding…
there is zero competition amongst these Utah company owners, one peace / one love / one religion!
praise the lord for mlm…
thank you BBC for opening our eyes.
Clearly retail sales isn’t the focus of either Younique or Nu Skin in the UK.
Agreed but when recruitment is the focus, recruiting just becomes endless chain-recruitment.
“Having products” is neither justification for the operation of a pyramid scheme.
She’s an investigative reporter with active social media profiles. Female, 20-30 yo… no need to come up with conspiracy theories.
I agree to some point with you OZ that when only recruiting is the focus it becomes an endless chain.Like I stated focus needs to be on retailing.
But as an investigative reporter to my opinion and I state “my opinion”, she only shows what she believes is the negative sensational side. She could have shown also the fact that people get trained on products, that is of course if Younique and Nuskin do them after all 🙂
Thank you for admitting to the inherent flaw in MLMing.
-Why would you recruit your own customer if retail customers are the main focus? Why would you create your own competition for those customers by adding another affiliate who will steal them?
-Why would a customer pay full retail if they can just sign up, save money, and maybe make some money?
-Why do affiliates need to buy the MLM product if they are “sales people”?
The list goes on. What people “should” do means squat when flaws are inherent. How many times must it be proven?
There are definitely flaws inside everything.
You recruit certain customers because they have a bigger potential of just being a customer is one of the reasons and a healthy one besides just giving them some discount on their next orders because they referred some customers to you.
Why would any customers pay full retail everywhere, when you ask for discount often 1 out of 2 retailers will give you a discount outside the sales discount regulated periods per year? I identify the profile of the customers and if all he wants is to use and consume products he will be a customers, I won’t sign him up.
Not in every company, although most have that to me unfair and illegal rule, you need to buy products. But that’s mainly to qualify for bonusess what is often referred to as pay to play, and should be banned. Why couldn’t sales people use their own product to your opinion ? Can’t a mercedes sales guy drive a mercedes then neither ?
What people should do counts everywhere and not only in the mlm environment !
Going on about retail customers is all very well, but not when the documentary clearly showed recruitment was the focus.
There is no point in willfully ignoring the content of the documentary and going on about about hypothetical retail customers.
They can. The problem in MLM is when this makes up the majority of company-wide revenue. That’s when it becomes a product-based pyramid scheme.
Mr. Mercedes isn’t getting paid to recruit people who buy cars, who recruit people who buy cars etc. etc.
This is why trying to put what happens in non-MLM companies within the context of MLM is pointless.
When you have top trainers in both Nu Skin and Younique in the UK declaring the business is all about recruitment, non-existent retail is a given.
I’d bet the house if an FTC style investigation was done into either company in the UK, there’d be little to no genuine retail sales taking place.
@OZ I am not saying that what was shown in the documentary about those 2 specific having no retail focus isn’t right or the truth.
My point is that you can’t generalise it for everyone. When the majority of sales (you could also call it product buyings) are indeed done by their own distributors to me you are running an illegal scam.
Aren’t some just trying to compare what happens outside MLM in the context of how it is done inside an mlm company. We weren’t speaking about recruiting, we were talking of using and buying your own product as a sales person of a certain brand because that is what some already seem to dissaprove as well.
If the FTC would go after 75% of the MLM companies of today especially the ones I believe with a binairy pay out stucture, they would indeed find there are no sales but only autoship consuming.
That’s why obligated autoship is another red flag to why some companies are to me on the edge of being illegal or not.
Yes you can.
Every MLM product is more expensive than a competitor of equal quality, or lower quality than a competitor of equal price.
The cost of myriad commissions and administering the Byzantine commission structure does not come from a magic money tree, it requires a gigantic markup over any non-MLM rival.
No MLM product has a magic competitive advantage that gives it an edge over the market (like a patented drug that no rival firm can produce or a computer GPU that is faster than any other).
Anyone who has developed such a product keeps their excess profit for themselves and doesn’t share it with an army of MLM recruiters.
In the short term you can con someone into paying more than the going rate for a product.
In the long term genuine retail demand collapses to zero, and what you are left with is people buying the products in order to take part in the “opportunity”, i.e. a pyramid scheme.
These are not vague generalisations, this is a rigorous economic model. There is no MLM scheme in the world for which this model is not an accourate description. There is also no MLM scheme to which the economic laws of physics do not apply.
The only difference from one MLM scheme to another is how effective the participants are at pretending this isn’t going on. Younique is, as others have said, one of the best at putting on an outwardly legitimate face, and even then the pretense is paper-thin.
With the documentary focused on the recruitment side of MLM I found it a bit disappointing she didn’t contact or interviewed people like Eric Worre or Frazer Brookes who is from the UK and featured on stage in one of the Younique event videos.
Both are heavily focused on the recruitment side of MLM.
Asking the right questions, confronting them with “the opportunity”, the horrible 0.0 something success rates, and that it makes no sense recruiting your competitors who in turn.. etc.
Women being targeted/preyed on ? Mwoah..
They (and men too) are being preyed/targeted on on a daily basis by the L’oreals (you’re worth it!) and Garniers of this world by marketing trough fear and promising beautiful lifestyles (and yes I know!..no recruitment there.)
MLM is a scammy industry and breeds a pyramid of marketers who think its fine to lie about poor quality products.
Anyone defending MLM is a fake scambuster. Yeah, I am referring to you Scambuster789, you sound like a scammer prick trying to disguise it.
There is NO LEGIT MLM. If you can do math, 95% of people lose money and that 5% are the scammers.
You’ve missed the point. Take away all the sales of product bought by the “sales force”, and what is the company left with?
Chapter 7. The affiliates are it’s main customers.
It is quite simple, MLM is pyramid selling with those at the top earning from those recruiting all the way down to the bottom, Now turn the pyramid upside down and you will see.
Sell a product as an affiliate and recruit at the same time is not MLM.
But you must work hard to advertise on myriad safelists and paid for advertising to reach out to tens of thousands of people in order to get a positive earning response. That is working around 5 hours a day +
If you were a person not interested in recruiting but only in selling the product, Chances are because of the crazy product markups, you would starve to death trying to make any sales.
These products are only the lure to get you to “begin your recruiting career”.
Speaking of women who look like clowns, Mary Kay is also one that appears legitimate.
I’ll bet the farm if the FTC investigated Mary Kay in the US, they’d find that most of their “sales” went to consultants. In fact, Mary Kay doesn’t even track non-affiliate retail sales. Can you guess why?
Spend some time on PinkTruth and you will see the tragedy taking place to the tune of thousands of dollars lost per individual, and a room full of expired product.
Mary Kay is also guilty of using religion to lure their prey, only they aren’t Mormons. They are “Christians” based out of Texas – another hotspot. Ironically, Mary Kay herself is also revered as a Jesus.
In fact, and I’ve followed MLM for many years, Mary Kay competes as one of THE worst I’ve seen. They’re all bad just to different degrees like all felonies.
Is it me, Char, or do you just totally dislike the network marketing profession? When is the last time you have sold some Mary Kay products?
By the way, not ALL network marketing companies are bad! You may mess up a little and find one that is dishonest, BUT there are some EXCELLENT MLM companies out there!
Gosh, does EVERYBODY on here HATE the network marketing profession that much?
Let me guess you are in a “good” one?
Just let us in on which ones are the ones you fully support or have joined?
I got an idea, you get us a film where the recruiter pitches the thing as “you can recruit if you want, but the big bucks are in retail sales” and we’ll talk about that.
Until then, and I’ve never seen that one either, we’ll point out what we do have MANY examples of.
I have a challenge for anyone who thinks any MLM is a better way to sell products for less. Look for anything sold mostly by direct marketing on E-bay.
There’ll be plenty of it, and almost all of it cheaper than the affiliates are paying to have it auto shipped, because people ran out of room in the garage.
Network marketing “profession” ? Seriously a “profession “? Every sane person knows it’s just bollocks. There is no “profession” nor “industry” in network or multi level marketing.
Nothing but a fraud in every single MLM or network marketing as sheeple likes to call it, a recruitment scheme with pyramind/ponzi elements.
Best description for MLM is and will always be a multi level manipulation or, even better, a multi level mafia.
What a bizarre question. “Is it me, or do you just totally dislike wasps?” “Is it me, or do you just totally dislike gouging your eyes out with a rusty spoon and pouring arsenic in the sockets?” No, it’s not just you who can tell that Char is rational.
All MLMs pretend that it is a feasible way for people to achieve financial independence. This is dishonest as 99% of MLM participants will lose money. An honest MLM scheme does not exist as no-one would join it.
How many MLM openly declare, openly and upfront, with equal prominence to their claims about financial independence, that for every one person who succeeds, 99 people will fail and in doing so fund that one person’s lifestyle? Income statements buried on their website do not count, it has to be equal prominence to qualify as honest.
MLM-ing is an inherently flawed method/act and a definition unto itself. It doesn’t matter what company you do it with. Just like you cannot improve lying, drowning, robbing, murdering, stealing, and MLMing. It is what it is. Your thinking, that joining one gang of thieves is more ethical than joining another, is part of the MLM con and your ignorance.
What is written on paper in theory vs. what happens practically is the issue here. The video says it best:
R.I.T.A.
I saw a version of this on anti-MLM reddit:
In a legitimate company, money to it’s subordinates flows from the top down. With MLMing, the money flows from the BOTTOM UP and OUT of the pockets of it’s subordinates.
LMAO, there isn’t any ignorance here, Char! There are various stats though that SHOW which MLM companies are TRUTHFUL and then it states which companies people should not enter into!
It’s not often that you find rational sources that actually do the research and have a TRUTHFUL analysis of the various companies that are legit and which aren’t!
I will state though that Ellie has done some excellent journalistic work!
I especially liked the part of the video where she shows the income regarding each company, which was very informative!
@Brandon
What stats ? Made by who exactly ?
No MLM companies are truthful.
No MLM company declares, with equal prominence to its claims about “financial independence” and “working for yourself”, that 99% of participants will lose money.
Well, both NuSkin and Younique are listed as Direct Selling Association members which is your “industry’s” biggest representative. Any comment?
Any comment about what, Char? I’m not even in NuSkin or Younique! WTF are you talking about? You stating shit that I already know! LMAO!
What the stats don’t show is that probably of the 90% of those whose don’t make any money, it is likely that almost all of them work less that 10 hours in total.
That’s one of the clear problems of MLM. It’s generally very low cost and risk to get involved and therefore a to of reps don’t value it or work as hard as they should as if they had started the business themselves.
The programme and video were I thought very disappointing.
Why focus on just two companies?
Why not look at all product based MLMs?
Why go to the USA, when some of the biggest crooks are in the Far East with their crypto schemes?
Too narrow a brief and a missed opportunity.
Weeconomy has been exposed on Behind MLM a few times and Flexkom too.
Newer technology based scams need exposure on main stream TV.
Also some failed ones like LTW and Saivian.
What are those former owners now doing to scam people?
Then we have Kedros Formations and newer WRS – another scam promising riches through becoming a Nominee Director.
Oz has previously mentioned the lightness of checks by the UK Companies House.
So too narrow and missed an opportunity.
MLM is direct sales – no sales of products = no turnover and no profit.
Simply recruiting fails to deliver turnover and profit.
Now why would I want to do that? Case in point, here’s a brief excerpt from the newest article on PinkTruth. 9K in debt in just under a year. FTR, lying/stealing from others for financial gain is what I hate.
Mary Kay is the perfect example showing that it’s about the system regardless of products. The ability to endless-chain recruit your own customers is the very definition of MLM and it’s inherent flaw; and this leads to a whole cascade of problems.
R.I.T.A., and when that is the answer, you are just recruiting money as the product only serves as a cover for the scheme. That’s mentioned in the video as well.
‘The Guardian’ reports on Younique and a few more DSA members. What a joke the DSA is. It might as well stand for Drug Selling Association or some other illegal activity.
Nice to see they quoted Dr. Taylor:
theguardian.com/fashion/2019/jun/01/online-beauty-schemes-selling-social-media-younique-arbonne?CMP=twt_b-gdnweekend