Two Things that Bother me about Multi Level Marketing and Ionized Water.

pyramidThis site is all about providing information, so I don’t get involved in touting or bashing companies or brands.

Let me begin by saying that the Enagic 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.

Enagic has a good machine.  Enagic purchased the rights to a line of ionizers produced by the well respected Toyo corporation, 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. The Enagic SD501 sells for just under $4,000, which is 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 Enagic dealer talk about how the price got to be $4,000 at a demonstration, but if you appear interested, you will hear 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.

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 Enagic.

The second, and more important concern that I have about the about the MLM system in the water ionizer industry is that there is a wide discrepancy in the knowledge levels of the dealers. While water is very simple, it is also very complicated at a deeper level. Every Enagic dealer I have spoken to has had good intentions, but many, especially the new people 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 what we thought his disparaging remarks about competitive machines didn’t make sense when we did our homework. I don’t know about you, but hearing someone talk badly about competitive products 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 was selling a great product, I would just focus on my product and people would see my passion.

14 Responses to Two Things that Bother me about Multi Level Marketing and Ionized Water.

  1. I think you’ve done a very nice job on your blog, but just wanted to help you understand a couple of things, as I am certain you are referring to the xxxxxx and their business model.
    xxxxxx is NOT a MLM in the traditional sense of the word. There are no monthly auto ships, no annual anything. You simply buy a unit and that is the end of it, unless you care to tell friends and family or even work it as a business.
    Those of us that are passionate enough about sharing the xxxxxx do so and as a thank you the company rewards us. It’s not an easy thing to try and explain all that is involved with xxxxxx to the general public. Most people assume water is just wet and all water is basically the same. You and I know this is not the case.
    Every major business that sells a product has a typical 50-70% mark up for advertising, and marketing.
    That is how they pay the people that sell the products, be they be corp. reps, or the end Sales person dealing directly with the public and end user. xxxxxx does not spend the dollars in the advertising on TV, radio, print. Instead they take those same 50-70% profit dollars and pay people like me that are down in the trenches doing the work.
    If you’d like more information on that aspect I’ll be happy to supply it to you.
    I hope this helps clear up some of your confusion about the cost, and I’d be happy to send you any information that you might be interested in.
    Have a Water full day!

  2. I respect your “opinion” about other products compared to a MLM product. Do you know the commissions paid to dealers of those other products? Your reference to MLM is nebulous. You state “newbies” are scary – everyone is a newbie at some point – This industry is fairly new to the U.S. Also, we have found that a owner of this equipment can, without knowing all the technical terms, just share his/her water with a friend and find that friend gets results and wants to own a unit. The water does the work – not the person who introduced it. Everyone can access the training on live, nationwide calls.

  3. I agree with your response Marilyn. You have to look at why this person would write something like this. ***** is the best Ionizer on the market. Everyone that drinks our water through the ****** machine see results and things start changing.

    Hi Marilyn:

    I deleted the mention of the brand name as this site will never be about promoting brands or companies.

    It is careless and untrue claims like the ones that you have made, that provide a perfect example of why I don’t like MLM companies participating in this industry. You have no data to back up the claims that you have made. I have tested your machine and others in various conditions. While your machine is a good machine, there are better machines out there, and they sell at a fraction of the price.

    Those that have knowledge of the water have an important role to play in sharing the information with others. It is great that you are excited about the benefits that water ionizers provide. I’m sure everyone would love to hear about your personal story, or stories about people that you know. The stories would be helpful, but the sales pitch is not.

  4. Will you be able to give me a non-mlm reputable supplier name. I very much need a reputable alkaline ionized water machine. I am not associated with a business nor do I sell anything. Thank you so much.

    • Hi Tammy:

      There are many good brands in the market place. The brand that you purchase should suit your needs and budget. Based upon my testing, there is no “best” brand out there that does everything.

      One brand produces the best acidic water for antiseptic cleaning. Another brand works the best in soft water condtions because of the contents of its filter. Another brand has the best under counter unit. Still another brand produces the highest alkaline pH output which can be used for emulsifying the water, which will allow the user to remove the pesticides from fruit and vegetables. There are a wide selection of lower cost brands that will produce healthy drinking water with useful pH and ORP values.

      I don’t endorse any brands or companies on this forum. It is important to me that I actually remain unbiased, as opposed to appearing to be unbiased but having an agenda like all of the review sites.

      If you contact me directly at contact@waterfyi.com, I would be happy to share my research with you so that you can choose the right machine for your needs.

      Rob

  5. To the author of this blog: well done. Point well made.

  6. I had completed 1 year of research on the ionizer machines, simply for my own comfort level, after talking to hundreds of users and comparison reports, I found the company that uses the inhancer to achieve the lower levels of acid water and the high levels alkaline water, provided the best water for your body. I found the companies trying to achieve these types of waters, use filters that become clogged with bacteria and they have no way to monitor this process. This water has been used for 35 years in Japan, and the machine is only machines recognized by the Japanese Ministry of Health as the only machines used in the hospitals in Japan. Like all good products, the are companies that will try to copy the originals with knock- off machines built with inferior parts to sell at a cheaper price. The company I chose provides the best training and support for the health of my family. I have always found you get what you pay for.

  7. It would have been better had you not posted your opinion about the “MLM” company whose machine costs about $4000, because a lot of people know which company that is, so you have written against a certain well known company, though you claim to be unbiased. We all know that every company marks up their products, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to pay all the people involved in research, production, marketing, advertising, warehousing, technical support, etc., so my conclusion is their costs are a heck of a lot cheaper then the price they charge! No one sells a product at cost and stays in business! That is naive!

  8. i have tried selling different products from Multi Level Marketing and i can earn a decent amount of money from them.-,,

    • Hi Alexandra:

      I hope you enjoy the free advertising here. I don’t know what else to say.

  9. I’m in the market and I can honestly say that I will not pay $4000 for a MLM machine. But…I can find the Leveluk SD501 for $1500 locally. I’d also like to say that everyone says theirs is better. Here is a report from a test that was conducted.

    http://www.ionways.com/UserFiles/File/lab-report.pdf

    • Hi Michael:

      I bought a SD501 for $1,500 myself a few years ago for test purposes. I actually made a video comparing it to several other brands of electric water ionizers and one natural water ionizer. They all produced approximately the same results. After further testing, I sold the SD501 for $1,500 so it all worked out.

      I wouldn’t put any faith in the IonWays “Silver State” test results as it is so easy to manipulate the results. At one time, I thought IonWays were one of the “good guys” but time proved my belief in the company to be wrong.

      • so do you have a link to the video and which one did you wind up going with?

        btw, I was kinda thinking they are all close anyways, so then it will come down to price and maintainablity. I do like the auto clean feature on the ionways

        • Hi Michael:

          Here is a link to the only video I ever made: http://www.waterfyi.com/?s=video+comparison

          By the time I made the video, I had done hundred if not thousands of tests and had come to the realization that natural ionization was preferable to electric ionization. In the video, the natural water ionizer that I featured was from Alkastream. The science/technology behind the Alkastream made sense to me and the tests clearly indicated that it produced the same free hydrogen which was produced from ionization. When Vitev came along, I decided to help them as they were making products in America with much higher quality control.

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