A friend of mine recently rescheduled a meeting with me because she had to attend this very important meeting in Surulere. I curiously wondered which meeting was more important than mine and so i asked. She said her aunt was introducing her to a business called “forever living”. A couple of days later I was with my bankers and one of them also asked if I was interested in selling forever living products. This aroused my curiosity the more and at that moment decided to ask questions.
I was told that all I needed to be a member was to buy products worth about N140k for starters. On buying the next batch of products I will be getting a discount of about 7%. Furthermore, if each buyer I sell to turns a seller as well, I continue to earn points on their subsequent sale thus creating a multiplier effect as each sale feeds on the other. A revolving cycle that can pay as much as N1m a month if I have a massive network of buyers and sellers. I was amazed.
This wasn’t about the products or its benefits health wise to the buyer. No one talked about its effectiveness or ability or indeed inability to do what it is meant for. It was all about selling!! Not to be confused or thought off as a fraud as this is definitely no ponzi or even pyramid. Ponzi’s don’t have a product base in reality. Ponzi was all money backed up by fictitious assets. Forever Living Product was Network Marketing at it’s best. From what I learnt this guys have been in this business for about 3 decades.
But why should any company have a marketing structure that is based on the ability of the product to sell by feeding on the inherent greed of the common man to make money rather than on the real demand of the product for it’s effectiveness. As it seems the owners of the product really don’t care if end users of the product really use them or if the product can perform some of what it’s touted to do. The buyers and sellers ( dealers) also don’t care about the products too which is probably why they tell you more about the money making aspect of it rather than the potential health benefits if any.
I’d suggest regulatory authorities such as Nafdac and the Standard Organization of Nigeria look into their activities more closely. Whilst this may be viewed as a way to financial independence especially by women who mostly sell it, one should also look at the corporate responsibility of the manufacturers.
There are certainly lots of questions to ask the company. But one hypothetical question I beg to ask is, if everyone ends up turning into a seller of the product who then buys It? In business supply has always had a way of outstripping demand especially if the underlining product is neither inelastic or life saving. Forever Living Product might be lucrative business, but ask yourself what is the true worth o the product you’re selling.
Thanks for your comments, it is indeed a thought provoking write up.
Thanks for your comments Oriyomi. Its something thats been raging through my mind for sometime so II had to blog about it. Ask real questions
Hi Dre … nice write up. The real essence of getting involved with Forever Living Products is not to end up as a product hawker, but to use them and recommend to others, more like touching lives with the testimonies from the usage. You know how we turn things upside down in 9ja … people always look for shortcuts to success against the ideology of the business system creators. Who ever starts off with N140k will definitely experience product dumping cos that makes the dealer a hawker as against the actual company recommended start-up of N60k. Things will self-correct in due course, but there must casualties along the way.