The health & wellness and beauty & personal care industries have a lot of multi-level marketing and network marketing company that exists in them. I have reviewed a bunch of them on this website recently, including companies like Seint and Farmasi. For the most part, they have fairly decent products sold at prices that sometimes matches those available on stores. But some of them are slightly more expensive. Unlike those name-brand products whose profits go directly to the company that makes them, network marketing companies in those industries offer up an opportunity for you to earn money by selling their products directly. The companies still reap most of the profits of those sales, though. Some people who take part in these scheme, while others don’t. Not for a lack of trying, mind you. But the system is not fair to everyone.
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Arbonne is one of many beauty and personal care companies that have a network marketing aspect to it. The company was founded by a Norwegian by the name of Petter Mørck. Petter had some experience working in the skincare industry prior to founding his company. Petter decided to look for greener pastures in the United States where he founded the company in 1980. The name comes from a village in Switzerland called Arbon, known for it’s lush greenery. Petter had a very direct approach to handling the company all throughout the years until his death in 2008. His son Stian serves as the company’s Vice President and Brand Ambassador, while Tyler Whitehead serves as the company’s CEO.
Because of Petter’s experience in the skincare industry, it’s no surprise that one of the company’s products are skincare products. The company has since expanded to other products like cosmetics and even nutritional supplements. It is interesting that most of the products that Arbonne sells is catered more towards women. And I sort of get it. Like, women are a lot more pressured by society to look good. It’s kind of fucked up, to be honest. I guess some of the skincare products and nutritional supplements might work on men?
Like a lot of network marketing/multi-level marketing companies that exists in this space, you have to pay for a membership to become one of Arbonne’s “independent consultants.” It’s very interesting to see how many companies will try to gussy up the term “affiliate member” to make it sound appealing to possible recruits. Independent consultant just has that certain oomph that affiliate member doesn’t have. It’s fancy. It costs $49 to purchase a welcome kit. But the company will nudge you a little to buy actual products so you can start your journey as an independent consultants.
The compensation plan for Arbonne is pretty similar to most MLMs. In order to qualify for compensation, you must recruit people to become independent consultants while also maintaining a personal sales volume and a group sales volume every month. Since you’re the one who recruited these independent consultants, you get a percentage of the commissions for every product sold. You will also get commissions from those recruited by your recruits.
It’s very hard to sustain a career in network marketing or multi-level marketing. You have keep selling your product consistently. You probably have recurring customers at this point. But the revenue stream is bound to stop somewhere. Not all of the people who get into MLMs find any kind of success in it. According to a study made by the AARP, 47% of the people who join MLMs tend to lose money from it, while another 27% just breaks even. How much money they put into it, that’s how much they get back.
It’s not for a lack of trying, per se. Is that the system in place really leaves so little space to succeed. At some point, you are bound to run out friends, family members or even neighbors to recruit or become a recurring customer. 39% of people who join MLMs leave because they have ruined so many relationships because of the product and services they sold to them. That’s a lot.
I really do not recommend any type of network marketing or multi-level marketing for anyone, regardless of how good the service or product they provide are. It just doesn’t seem worth all the time, money and effort you’re going to put into a scheme where earning money isn’t really guaranteed.
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