Recently I got this email (valid contact details removed) about Agel, something I had not heard about before:
-----Original Message-----
From: *********@********.***.**
Sent: Friday, 6 April 2007 10:56
To: robinz
Subject: agelHi Robin,
Have you heard of the agel phenomenon?.
I would like to share this opportunity with you.I would like to send you a free copy of the dvd. Or you can conatct me for more information at *********@********.***.** .
I look forward for your reply.Thanks *****.
A bit of searching found lots of sites about Agel (http://www.agel.com/) and this video, I presume the DVD is the same, on Google Video. It’s 30 minutes and goes into a lot of detail on the Agel business model, rather less detail on the products which appear to be “Suspension Gel Technology Nutritional Supplements”.
While watching it I took these notes and added [my comments]:
- 01:03 – People are either;
- Scraping by
- Making a living but no life
- Making a nice income & have a life – the dream for all of us [Guess which one Agel will provide]
- 01:51 – Residual income stream in 5 – 10 hours/week [Little work, extra income is standard Multi-Level Marketing pitch]
- 02:00 – Network marketing is $100 billion/year in 100 countries [It’s the 1% of China argument]
- 02:20 – Network companies fall into 3 categories
- Established – Too late
- Money Gainers – Scams…
- Low Growth Slow Growth – Party Plan, High turnover of sales people
- Emerging company that will become established leader – Agel [Are you surprised?]
- 04:25 In business since 2005, 41 countries [Strange never heard of it before but whatever]
- 05:00 – Products
- Innovation in product delivery not new product (Mouth-wash/Breath-strips?)
- 06:32 – Delivery System Breakthrough creates wealth.
- Nutrient supplements needed because;
- processed food has no nutrients
- large portions, no food value
- Makes up for the 5 fruit/veg per day because you don’t eat them – [Um, why not just eat fruit & veg then? It’s cheaper, takes no less time and tastes better]
- People buy pills but they don’t like taking them. [True]
- Agel has created “Suspension Gel Technology”. Putting the “Vitamins” into a solution that taste good [Fine but does this create enough point of difference to the 1000’s of pill, powder, drink supplements out there?].
- Products:
- FIT: Weight loss [potion targets all those obese people you know/see/are]
- EXO: Antioxidents
- MIN: Vitamins
- OHM: Increased Energy [all food will provide this?] and mental focus [?]
- UMI: Super immune booster with Fucoidin [You’re encouraged to look up Fucoidin – I found various claims for Immune response, anticoagulant properties, antimicrobial effects]
- FLX: Joint pain with Glucosamine, Condroitan, Celledrin, MSM
- When you look at the website there are many “may” statements:
- May help…
- May increase…
- May assist…
- All their product pages have this disclaimer;
-
“These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”
- 11:44 – Business Model:
- 30 pack/box, $60/Box – Avg family uses 4 boxes month [Who spends $240/month on vitamins & supplements?]
- Talk to friends.. Are they
- Curious about the business & want to know more [A prospect to sign up]
- Use the products don’t want to know more [A prospect to flog product to]
- Not Interested [I’d add have more sense…]
- 13:47 – His 40 contacts said yes, they connected to 400, they connected to 1000… became 10,000 buying 30,000 boxes/month – All with no drama… [You’d have to get in early with this sort of math, I sense a push to get in early, “now is the right time” coming…]
- 14:26 – Ever expanding self perpetuating network… [Till you run out of people in the world]
- Getting started;
- Use & share business model. You must sell 2 boxes/month – they are auto-shipped to you.
- Personal Pack – $250 for 4 boxes [barely enough for one family for one month if you believe the earlier statement]
- Executive Kit – $1000 for 16 boxes, but you can use the extra to “seed new prospects”
- Getting Paid; [Not fully disclosed in the video as you are also referred to the person contacting you for more detail which I didn’t bother to do]
- Retail Product – Sell the product or Sign up person as preferred customer so they can order direct (you get commission)
- Fast Start – One time commission you get on sign up of a new prospect. $35 for $250, $200 for $1000 sign up
- Team Volume commission; You build two teams & get a commission based on the performance of the lesser team – up to $25,000 but there is a way to triple that not mentioned as you must ask the person who contacted you
- 19:50 – Leveraged matching bonus – People you involve are directly connected to you and you, as their sponsor, get up to:
- 1st Generation: 50% of their TVC in a month
- 2nd Generation: 8% of their TVC in a month
- 3rd Generation: 8% of their TVC in a month
- 4th Generation: 8% of their TVC in a month
- 5th Generation: 10% of their TVC in a month
- 6th Generation: 10% of their TVC in a month
- 7th Generation: 6% of their TVC in a month [Huh? I won’t pretend to have fully understood the compensation model, watch the video and see for yourself]
- Opportunity for massive potential income!
- Testimonials;
- Melanie Mills: 13 Months $12,000 [per month/year?? not really stated]
- Peter & Hillary Webb: a few Months $8,000
- Lorrie & Les Harrell : 18 Months $11,000/m
- Jennifer Cummings: 3 Months $20,000/m [there are more, I presume these are real but haven’t followed up]
- Support;
- Agel provide Support for: Operations, Technology, Warehousing , Regulatory, Product Development, International expansion. [The make the product, they ship it, and try & grow their network]
- “You just help people find Agel” [Sounds more like a religion]
- 30:00 – Timing – You get the chance to get in early if you act now. “It’s your turn now” [“now is the right time” Thats a surprise….]
Having waded through all that I’m not happy with several aspects;
- Selling supplements to compensate for poor diet is not good.
- Agel are certainly not alone in this but I think it would be better to concentrate on the problem – poor diet, bad food – than just add expensive supplements.
- Should any family, especially the average income one, be encouraged to spend $60/week on supplements of any sort?
- I wonder why so little of the pitch is about the products. They talk about the delivery mechanism but little about the actual product you are supposed to be selling.
- Why is more time spent on the business & commission model than the product, or is the business model the product?
- Why is the commission model so complex?
- Why does it seem to favour Agel, you only get commission on your worst performing team…
From what I can see Agel is not a scam. Not in the sense of confidence scams where you send off your money & that’s the last thing you hear. It’s a real company, with real products, and from what I’ve found on-line, has got lots of real people excited. If you send your money you’ll get the gel packs and marketing bumpf
But is it worth it, is it good business? Not for me. If I was going to spend my time trying to improve people’s diet, nutrition & health I’d be selling them fresh fruit & vegetables. They are cheaper, proven and the business model is rather simpler!
PS: As all the dollar amounts are presumably US dollar at the time of writing you can multiply all the values by about 1.4 for New Zealand dollars.
