Let me begin by saying that a Multi Level Marketing company has done an admirable job of creating interest in ionized water during the past three years, and that is a good thing in my books.

The MLM company even has a decent machine.  They purchased the rights to a line of ionizers produced by a well respected manufacturer from Japan and began marketing in September 2004.

However, I’m not a fan of MLM in the water ionizer industry for two main reasons.

The first reason involves the price/value equation. Their machine sells for approximately twice as much as the other leading ionizers available on the market.  When asked about why their machines are double the price of everyone else’s machines, typical responses include: our machines are the best, OR, our machines are made in Japan which makes them better, OR, our machines have big plates, OR, our machines have alot of power, yada-yada-yada. But, you will never hear an MLM salesperson talk about the 8 levels of commissions that are responsible for the high price.  If you appear interested, they will generally launch into a discussion about the “business opportunity” available to anyone that purchases their product.

Maybe it is just me, but when my wife and I were trying to decide which ionizer to purchase, I wasn’t happy to learn that there were eight levels of sales commissions being paid on the unit that we were looking at.

The MLMers arguements about plate size and power seemed to provide some merit, but a quick survey of the market showed us that other leading brands were also producing great products that performed as well or better that the MLM product.  Further research and testing proved to us beyond a doubt that the industry had advanced beyond the technology offered by the MLM product, and that others provided significantly better value.   Needless to say, we didn’t purchase an ionizer from a MLM company.

The second, and more important reason that I don’t care for MLM in our industry, is that it appears that many new MLM sales people have good intentions, but are simply not well trained. A lack of training or experience can lead to false claims being made, or incorrect information being spread about other products. People that have just paid $4,000 for their machine are often enticed by the potential to earn the money back that they spent.  They are encouraged to contact their friends and family to buy a machine despite the fact that they have little or no knowledge of how or why the machines work.  Their passion is a good thing, but their lack of knowledge can be downright scary.   Water effects everybody in so many ways.  It only makes sense that someone should learn as much as they can about a topic that is so important before they start imposing their will on others.

The gentleman that introduced my wife and I to their MLM product was very knowledgeable.  He was a real pro in every way, other than the fact that he only had bad things to say about competitive companies.  I don’t know about you, but hearing about how great his machine was, and that all competitors were inferior really turned us off.  In fact, the negative stuff acted as a springboard for us to start researching other companies in the industry in much greater depth.  If I had the best product on the market, I wouldn’t even talk about other companies.

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