Vemma, the energy drink and other "health" products MLM company has been shut down by the FTC for running a pyramid scheme. This is great news since it might help shed some light on ACN as well, since it gained attention recently for being endorsed by presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Read more about the FTC's ruling here : FTC Acts to Halt Vemma as Alleged Pyramid Scheme
Friday 28 August 2015
Thursday 13 August 2015
ACN 2016 Asia expansion plans
So it seems that the plan for ACN is now to expand their business in Asia. Like for any company, it is a good thing to try and grow your business in order to maximize your income and power. The more your grow, the more money you get, it's simple.
But in this case, expansion is not a good thing. It will expose even more people to the dangers of ACN. It will be interesting to see how this plays out for them. If you remember the Enron saga, you know it didn't turn out so well for them when they tried to enter the asian energy market. In that part of the world, there is simply no need for what ACN is offering. Their diet & health products are targeted at mostly first world countries while their telecommunication services prices are among the lowest in the world (once again, the "favors" will have to be used in order to gain customers because they won't be able to offer competitive services).
It's interesting to see all the reps getting hyped over this expansion and showing it off on social media while they have no idea of the business side of things (even if they're calling themselves businessmen/women). The buzzword "expansion" is enough to get everybody hyped and to fuel their circlejerk.
We'll see how this plays out.
But in this case, expansion is not a good thing. It will expose even more people to the dangers of ACN. It will be interesting to see how this plays out for them. If you remember the Enron saga, you know it didn't turn out so well for them when they tried to enter the asian energy market. In that part of the world, there is simply no need for what ACN is offering. Their diet & health products are targeted at mostly first world countries while their telecommunication services prices are among the lowest in the world (once again, the "favors" will have to be used in order to gain customers because they won't be able to offer competitive services).
It's interesting to see all the reps getting hyped over this expansion and showing it off on social media while they have no idea of the business side of things (even if they're calling themselves businessmen/women). The buzzword "expansion" is enough to get everybody hyped and to fuel their circlejerk.
We'll see how this plays out.
Wednesday 29 July 2015
Trump endorsement numbers revealed
A recent story by The Daily Caller has shed some light on what Donald Trump is earning from ACN. According to their findings, Trump has touched $1.35 million since last May.
Monday 22 June 2015
Rapper Redman's involvement in ACN
We all know that Donald Trump's involvement in ACN is the reps' favorite argument in order to showcase the legitimacy of ACN. As I explained in another post, this is nothing other than a paid endorsement. I was contacted about a month ago by someone claiming the rapper Redman "joined" ACN and is now involved in the business too. At first I thought this was hard to believe and the only evidence available were a couple pictures of himself with some successful ACN reps.
Fast forward to last week-end and it was ACN's San Jose training event taking place. I got tweeted a video showing Redman doing some sort of motivational speech in front of the whole crowd and now I have no other choice but to realize he is indeed involved in this company. Here is the short video (the sound quality is low) :
To me it still looks like an endorsement. If you look at his Facebook and Twitter pages, there are no mentions whatsoever of ACN or any sort of opportunity. Why's that? When people are involved in ACN, the first thing you will see them do is promote the business to their friends and family through social media. I think the simple answer is that, since it's an endorsement, Redman will do everything he can to hype the crowd, as he would at a rap concert, but outside those walls he's not involved at all in the business and has no reason to share it with his fans and people following him.
As an example of why having big names is important to ACN, here is a Facebook post from a rep using this as a way to prove the legitimacy of his "business". This is how these endorsements are used and why you shouldn't always believe what you might be told.
Fast forward to last week-end and it was ACN's San Jose training event taking place. I got tweeted a video showing Redman doing some sort of motivational speech in front of the whole crowd and now I have no other choice but to realize he is indeed involved in this company. Here is the short video (the sound quality is low) :
To me it still looks like an endorsement. If you look at his Facebook and Twitter pages, there are no mentions whatsoever of ACN or any sort of opportunity. Why's that? When people are involved in ACN, the first thing you will see them do is promote the business to their friends and family through social media. I think the simple answer is that, since it's an endorsement, Redman will do everything he can to hype the crowd, as he would at a rap concert, but outside those walls he's not involved at all in the business and has no reason to share it with his fans and people following him.
As an example of why having big names is important to ACN, here is a Facebook post from a rep using this as a way to prove the legitimacy of his "business". This is how these endorsements are used and why you shouldn't always believe what you might be told.
Tuesday 16 June 2015
Donald Trump for president!
Today, June 16th 2015, Donald J. Trumps has officially announced that he is running for president in the 2016 United States elections as a Republican candidate. Now I'm not here to tell whether he'll succeed or fail, but I can already predict one thing : the ACN fanboys will be (and probably are) all over this news.
I wish the best of luck to Mr. Trump, but let's not forget one thing : he is a businessman, not an ACN representative or even executive. He is a paid endorsement by ACN, a poster boy like Michael Jordan was for Nike. The exception is, Jordan actually used the product, Trump is not. But he showcased ACN's video phone on his Celebrity Apprentice show! Well sure he did, because he received a very good amount of money to do so. It's called product placement. In the event that Mr. Trump becomes president (let's be honest...), I am eager to see what will happen between him and the company; will they continue doing business together, or will he cut the ties?
To be continued..
I wish the best of luck to Mr. Trump, but let's not forget one thing : he is a businessman, not an ACN representative or even executive. He is a paid endorsement by ACN, a poster boy like Michael Jordan was for Nike. The exception is, Jordan actually used the product, Trump is not. But he showcased ACN's video phone on his Celebrity Apprentice show! Well sure he did, because he received a very good amount of money to do so. It's called product placement. In the event that Mr. Trump becomes president (let's be honest...), I am eager to see what will happen between him and the company; will they continue doing business together, or will he cut the ties?
To be continued..
Tuesday 9 June 2015
ACN Europe Team Trainer fee
So it seems that ACN Europe dropped the Team Trainer fee (the initial sign up fee) to £48. It is unclear at the moment if this is a temporary or permanent change to ACN Europe's program, and also if it is going to spread to other countries. At the moment, ACN Canada, U.S., Australia and New Zealand still all have prices ranging between $400-$550.
If you know anything about this, feel free to let us know. In the meantime, we're looking into this and have updated the website with the appropriate notice. We'll make sure to do an update once we know more.
This is a good step taken towards making ACN a more respectable company but I think they are only doing this in order to reach more people because they've ran out of potential reps willing to pay $500. If they want to keep the cash flowing they need to get new people in the scheme. $50-$75 is still a fair amount to throw away that goes into the pockets of people you put your trust into
If you know anything about this, feel free to let us know. In the meantime, we're looking into this and have updated the website with the appropriate notice. We'll make sure to do an update once we know more.
This is a good step taken towards making ACN a more respectable company but I think they are only doing this in order to reach more people because they've ran out of potential reps willing to pay $500. If they want to keep the cash flowing they need to get new people in the scheme. $50-$75 is still a fair amount to throw away that goes into the pockets of people you put your trust into
Sunday 31 May 2015
Wake Up Now
If you are not familiar with Wake Up Now (WUN), it was basically the same business model as ACN but with different products, and shared many similarities with them. If you wish to read more about this company, feel free to make your own research.
I recently stumbled upon a very interesting This American Life radio broadcast about the now defunct Wake Up Now. It is very interesting and I strongly suggest that anyone interested in ACN and their practices take at least a half hour to give this very informative piece a listen.
From the beginning, similarities arise between the two MLM companies. First of, WUN mainly geared their efforts toward recruiting students and people of color, as does ACN. The main problem with recruiting these groups people is what they have in common : they're struggling with money. Students still studying or coming out of college, thousands of dollars in debt, looking for some extra income and immigrants / less fortunate people looking for a way to make it in America (also Canada, Australia, UK, etc). It is very sad to see those people get lured into these types of schemes, being promised the world but "failing"* because from Day 1 new recruits are part of the 95%+ of IBOs never making a significant income from MLMs.
* Note that they don't fail, the system is simply made against them, so ACN can easily put the blame on the rep for not putting enough effort. If you wish to read more about this technique, see Part 2 of The ACN Scam.
Then you have the various meetings where it's not clear what everybody is actually doing there, other than listening to gurus shouting buzz words and playing loud techno music.
I could go on for hours listing everything wrong about both companies, and how ACN is bound to fail like WUN, but I will let you listen by yourself. I have also included a report made about ACN exposing the shady practices and cult-like techniques used by reps.
WUN radio broadcast :
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/543/wake-up-now
ACN report :
I recently stumbled upon a very interesting This American Life radio broadcast about the now defunct Wake Up Now. It is very interesting and I strongly suggest that anyone interested in ACN and their practices take at least a half hour to give this very informative piece a listen.
From the beginning, similarities arise between the two MLM companies. First of, WUN mainly geared their efforts toward recruiting students and people of color, as does ACN. The main problem with recruiting these groups people is what they have in common : they're struggling with money. Students still studying or coming out of college, thousands of dollars in debt, looking for some extra income and immigrants / less fortunate people looking for a way to make it in America (also Canada, Australia, UK, etc). It is very sad to see those people get lured into these types of schemes, being promised the world but "failing"* because from Day 1 new recruits are part of the 95%+ of IBOs never making a significant income from MLMs.
* Note that they don't fail, the system is simply made against them, so ACN can easily put the blame on the rep for not putting enough effort. If you wish to read more about this technique, see Part 2 of The ACN Scam.
Then you have the various meetings where it's not clear what everybody is actually doing there, other than listening to gurus shouting buzz words and playing loud techno music.
I could go on for hours listing everything wrong about both companies, and how ACN is bound to fail like WUN, but I will let you listen by yourself. I have also included a report made about ACN exposing the shady practices and cult-like techniques used by reps.
WUN radio broadcast :
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/543/wake-up-now
ACN report :
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