Market America has become synonymous with a scam for no reason. The article below delves deeper into this topic.
Market America is basically an ‘unfranchise’ network marketing business. It is unfranchise, in the sense that it offers all the benefits of a franchise, but does not involve the initial investment and expenses that come with a franchise. It is a pyramid scheme of a business and follows business ethics. Unfortunately, the term ‘Market America scam’ is searched more than ‘Market America unfranchise’ on the Internet. This company is associated with scams and hoaxes for no feasible reason.
The Company Profile
- Market America is a network marketing company based in Greensboro, North Carolina.
- It was founded by James Ridinger, a former distributor for Amway, in 1992.
- Market America does not have a product line of their own. They mostly market products of third party manufacturers. Hence, this company is also referred as brokerage firm in mass customization.
- The company performs customer surveys to identify which products are in demand.
- As per the results of the survey, manufacturers are enlisted to research, develop and produce a product.
- Market America products cover a range of categories from beauty and skincare to health and nutrition. It operates in hundreds of countries through millions of distributors.
The Process
- Market America’s business model is based on the business model of any other Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) company, except it is unfranchise and a little complicated.
- The business works by becoming the owner and then recruiting more people to run the business, who in turn, recruit more people. The chain goes on, with the people on the higher hierarchy gaining more profits.
- In order to qualify for becoming the owner of the unfranchise, you need to buy products worth 200 BV. BV is about 80% of every dollar spent. Thus, products worth USD 120 amount to 100 BV.
- On the same basis, you need to purchase products of about USD 350 in order to score 200 BV. After that, every month, you have to maintain your BV between 50 to 150 by buying products of the corresponding amount.
- Then, you start creating your ‘right leg’ and ‘left leg’ by recruiting more people to your business. As your business grows, you start accumulating points.
- When you reach a certain BV on each leg, you start gathering paychecks depending upon the ‘downline’ created by your followers. As you can see, no illegal or malpractices are involved in this business.
Is it true that Market America is a Scam?
- Even though this business follows all ethical practices, there are certain facts about this business marketing that some people find hard to digest.
- To grow your business, you need to recruit more people and then encourage them to buy your products. As a result, you have to excessively socialize by hosting social gatherings, throwing parties, meeting people one on one, etc.
- Most of these people are your friends, family, or close acquaintances.
- Since you have to motivate them to buy your products and recruit more people once they join, they may feel burdened. As a result, people may start avoiding you, once they come to know the real motive behind your parties.
- You might come across as a conniving businessman who forces people to join him. This notion can hugely work against the growth of your business.
- Also, some representatives might shy away from socializing and incur losses in their business. Since this type of marketing excessively relies on making social contacts with others, people who are averse of socializing might not make any money at all. Moreover, you might even lose money as you must buy products worth certain BV every month.
- Another notion that goes against chain marketing business is that only people at the top level make money, while those at the lower levels end up being broke.
- Although this may be partially true, there are many reasons why people at the bottom don’t make money.
- Most of them do not have the requisite knowledge or skills required for network marketing. Even if they do have, they are extremely impatient and often quit before a real opportunity knocks their doors.
- On the contrary, people on the top have a strong vision and knowledge regarding the business they are into. These skills along with certain MLM secrets fetch them more money than those at the bottom.
It is up to the person to be the judge and decide if Market America is a scam or not. There is definitely a money-making opportunity in this business, but then you ought to possess the above mentioned skills.
