The acai berry has become very popular over the last few years, mentioned on Oprah and being named by Dr. Oz as a wonderful supplement for the body.  Acai  berry juices seem to be popping up all over the place.  You can get them at your local health food stores or through network marketing distribution companies.  Monavie is a network marketing company selling one of these juices.  In the network marketing world there are numerous companies selling some variation of a health juice.  The question on the table is simply does it really work?

A few years ago I was involved with one of these companies and I used their product which was an acai berry product.  Like Monavie, which retails for about $39 per bottle, there were plenty of testimonials about the validity of the product such as increased energy, lower blood pressure, helping with diabetes and even eliminating arthritis pain.  I myself used the product and the first time I took it I got some buzz.   After that whenever I drank it that buzz was gone and I don’t know if it made any difference. 

The problem with Monavie as it is with all of these companies is the claims that people make are never evaluated by the FDA.  Just so you know I am not an FDA evangelist.  In fact sometimes I wonder if the FDA is really interested in endorsing these types of products because I believe the FDA is married to the drug companies.  I personally don’t believe the FDA will endorse a product that has the potential to take money from the drug companies.  Because of this most of these Monavie claims go unverified.   Usually with most of these companies it is usually excited reps who testify to the greatness and validity of these products and my personal opinion is Monavie falls into that category.   So does the product work, I believe the jury is still out on that but if you go to purplehorror.com you will get the complete scoop.   

On the other side Monavie is a network marketing opportunity with the possibility of earning an income by selling the product and building a team.  Here is where the waters get really muddy when talking about Monavie.  Generally when you are selling a product that product is sold to an end user, generally not associated with the company who will use the product.  With Monavie, as with many network marketing companies, the majority of people consuming the product are the reps who purchase it to qualify for their commissions.  According to Newsweek, only 1 percent of reps qualified for commissions and only 10 percent made $100 per week.  So the big money that people are making is coming from reps just making their monthly auto-ship orders.  If you have enough people on your team, your overrides from these auto-ship orders will create big earnings.  But, is this an effective business model?  According to that same Newsweek article, over 70 percent of distributors drop out of the business, and remember those reps are the primary customer base.  Unfortunately without a legion of loyal fans with no ties to the company who are purchasing the product this is not a sustainable business model.  If you eliminate the reps you eliminate the Monavie business.

The bottom line is Monavie falls in line with most other network marketing companies.  There is nothing unethical about the product and it’s not a scam, however in this industry only 5-10 percent of the people ever make any real money.  I can’t tell you whether or not you should join this opportunity but if you do at least you can go in with both eyes open.