Gaining Exposure

Last night we were vendors at the Grand Opening to the new organic bar Sugar Cane. A couple of weeks ago, Lexie was on her way to meet Kirk at a trendy local bar to show them AS10, and she stopped into Sugar Cane thinking it was a health food store. Long story short, they were interested in our product, and made arrangements with Lexie and Jerry to be vendors at the grand opening. Of course, Lexie and Jerry invited us to join them at the AS10 table.

There were hundreds of people at Sugar Cane, and most of them loved AS10; they loved the way it tastes (kind of like a tootsie-roll pop), that it's an easy way to get your daily fruits and vegetables, and of course that it's all natural. We were next to an organic tequila vendor, so we had the opportunity to show people how well AS10 mixes with alcohol and share our hangover-free experience (even people who love organic seem to love their alcohol!). Turns out the organic tequila vendor also has connections with a major local restaurant chain, so Kirk was able to make a connection there. We handed out tons of business cards and Newsletters, and several people provided their contact information to get more info. on the products.

The organic wine vendor, two vendors down,  was giving Kirk a hard time about our company being an MLM. She was insistent that MLM = pyramid scheme (= bad), and even the fact that about 80% of our products are sold to non-distributors would not convince her otherwise. The MLM stigma is unfortunately strong for some. Despite this, she took our card because she liked the product. She also took a card and newsletter for a friend of hers who sells health products. So maybe the MLM stigma isn't that strong after all!

After the Training: Marketing

That covers most of the interesting points from that particular training. As I mentioned, I found it motivating. So Kirk and I left the training and went straight to work. Kirk had the idea to make door hangers for our apartment complex and the neighboring complexes to get our message to more people. We went to the local Kinko's, where we were informed that they do not do door hangers. They suggested a place across the street, which we searched for to find it had moved (and is not open on Saturdays). As it turns out, none of the local sign printing shops are open on Saturdays.

While we were driving around, we found several physicians' offices. Which, of course, are also not open on Saturdays. So we went home. 

When we got to our complex, we asked if it would be okay to put up door hangers. While we were there, we also checked in with a staff member who had tried our products. She said she loved them and asked about how to buy, so we directed her to our website. 

Back in our apartment, we found a store online that does cheap door hangers, and designed our hanger. We used marketing materials that are available to us through our website to create the door hanger, making sure to stay as true to their original language as possible, since I know it is legally sound. (I've been consistently impressed by the marketing materials available to us through AmeriSciences.) Then we submitted our design and requested a proof.

AmeriSciences: a product driven company

I recently came across a review of the AmeriSciences opportunity that listed as a fault that the AmeriSciences website focuses on the product and does not have enough specific information about the opportunity. After all, they reasoned, isn't the point of network marketing to recruit other distributors? Isn't that how you make the real money? This is, of course, the reputation of network marketing and MLM companies. And for many companies it may hold true. I have no personal experience with this, but Jerry shared with us last night that he does. He has participated in an MLM before where the push was to recruit distributors rather than promote a product, and swore he would never join a company like that again. That is one of the things he likes about AmeriSciences.

There's a reason why the AmeriSciences website focuses on the products and the science behind the products: the goal is to market the product. The creators of AmeriSciences saw that the vitamin and wellness industry was growing quickly. Demand was high, and quality was lacking. So they decided to address that gap by creating high quality products, products that people could trust to contain what they claim to, and to use a multi-level network marketing approach to get their product noticed (see my previous post about the public's perception of alternative marketing techniques). Of course the opportunity to be a distributor as well as a consumer can be a big draw for some people, and it is by no means overlooked in AmeriSciences. But distributors are encouraged to sell at least half of their poducts to non-distributors (i.e., people who only consume the product). The following link (which can, incidentally, be found on AmeriSciences website), discusses this point:

A Product-Driven Company, by Lou Gallardo, Chairman: http://www.amerisciences.com/media/library/v108_3.pdf

If a company's sole purpose is to recruit more people into the company, it is a pyramid or Ponzi scheme. A legitimate multilevel network marketing opportunity, such as AmeriSciences, does focus on the product.

As with the review mentioned above, most reviews that I've found have been written by people who have no experience with the company, have gathered minimal information from a cursory review of the website, and are intended to sell you something. They are a form of advertisement targeted at people looking into MLM or network marketing opportunities, and are designed to make you believe that either a) you need their product to succeed in your chosen company, or b) you should join their company, which is superior to whichever other one you are looking into. 

Insights about MLM and Network Marketing

Network marketing, and particularly MLM have a bad reputation. I came across a question online about whether people had had any luck in AmeriSciences, and the only response was that it was listed on scam.com. I searched scam.com, and was not able to find anything suggesting that AmeriSciences was a scam. It was only mentioned on a list of companies represented by a particular law firm. I tried to post this as a response, but my response was never accepted. Anyway, I digress...

The point is, that people have a negative preconception about MLM and network marketing. And I'm not really an exception to this. Which is why I was surprised to find out that Avon, Mary Kay, and Tupperware are all considered network marketing or MLM companies. Yet they all have decent reputations. Some relatively new companies without the MLM stigma have also joined the list, such as The Pampered Chef and Stampin' Up. Even Donald Trump is getting in on the MLM action.

It seems to me that any company or product that chooses to use an alternative method of sales and advertising is looked at with some skepticism. Take, for example, infomercials on late night t.v. I seem to remember a time when the products that were sold in this manner were considered a joke. After all, if these products were so great, why didn't they sell them in stores? Why did they use cheesy videos on late night television? Weren't they just trying to take advantage of the poor vulnerable people who were still up watching television at that time, with no other options? Yet several of these products are also now household names, and can even be found on store shelves  (e.g., Oxy Clean, Sham Wow, and Slap Chop).

The evidence seems to suggest that alternative marketing techniques, even MLM and network marketing, are viable options for quality products--although they may face more public skepticism--and can even work to turn products into household names (one of the goals of AmeriSciences).

AmeriSciences marketing ideas

As I was leaving the house this morning, there was a flyer from our community with information about healthy living. Although there were no advertisements in the flyer, it inspired me to think of new ideas for marketing our AmeriSciences business. When I got to work, I e-mailed Kirk my ideas. One of them involved holding "Health Awareness" seminars in our clubhouse, where we would introduce people to our products. Even as I was writing it, I was thinking, "I'm proposing we do something that I hate having done to me." That is, offer them information, then give them a pitch. But I wasn't sure how else to do it.

I had some time between patients, and did an internet search for network marketing ideas. Most of the sites that come up have the same basic format...they tell you that your MLM company is lying to you and doesn't want you to succeed, and that the methods that they will teach you are the TRUE keys to success. Then they either promise you free information if you provide them with contact information (I've learned this is called a landing page), or they try to get you to buy their product. If you get to a landing page and provide your information, you will get a lot of follow up e-mails, some of which may include useful information, and many of which will continue to try to convince you to join their company or buy their product. Although I avoid giving any information to most of these sites, I found one that provided enough content to make me interested in finding out what else they would send.

As promised, I received a free e-book about network marketing (along with many more e-mails trying to get more information from me, get me to invest in their product, etc.). This document talks about the effectiveness of doing seminars for people about health issues. Great! I'm on track. The author warns, however, not to make your presentation a pitch for your product. The basic point is this: Give people content. Provide them with information they will find useful, and mention how your product would fit into the bigger picture (e.g., talk about other ways of living healthy that don't involve selling them anything, as well as mentioning your product). The author also discusses the importance of having a strong internet presence, to market your product effectively and with less work in the long run.

Take home points:
1. Provide people with content they find useful
2. Develop a strong internet presence to bring customers and people interested in joining your network to you.