Mlm... Beauty skincare products...

[Gardinia]

So. A family member, my sister has become an ambassador for a previously unknown to me brand of skincare products,.... First it was a mysterious comment on Facebook about some exciting new opportunity and next is a Facebook invite to like the said brand .... Suddenly my sister is obsessed with this brand she absolutely believes in..... She's had to fork out just less than 200£ on product but says it's as she really loves and believes in the product her friend recommended to her.....I didn't like the page at first as I hate endorsing companies and products I know nothing about but feel pressured to like to show support. I held off for a while but then her daughter kept sending me reminders to like... I caved in, liked the page to show support, within ten minutes I get the phone call I'm dreading... She's going to flog me a product I neither want or need.... We chatted generally for a while (I've not heard from her for weeks). Then the product selling or what she calls sharing starts.... Isn't it all just sales??? I jokingly said isn't this just sales and then came this out of character spiel about her just wanting to share these wonderful products so others could experience.. All totally natural not tested on animals anecdotal comments that friends claim better than clinique.. So how do I turn her down gently or do I go in blunt which is my usual way... ..... The product is really expensive and I know enough about ingrediants used to make cosmetics to know that none are totally natural but clever wording on packaging can hide the synthetic nature of some necessary additives to make products work and be safe....even animal testing claims can be misleading , so trying to put her off seeing me as a sales target I tell her the truth about how cynical I am about marketing ploys,..... But she is so brainwashed she will have non of it claiming how different the products are and that it's not a pyramid scheme... I left the conversation feeling bad... I should just buy a product and maintain support and keep my thoughts to myself..... But I just can't keep my gob shut and after I got a text from her daughter coming out with all the product worshipping I had to carefully choose my words as any negativity from will get passed to my sister and they will fall out with me..To make matters worse they've now roped my mum in and she's buying this wonderful product.... Don't get me wrong, it might be a nice product but it looks very overpriced... I looked into the company and its an MLM.... I feel my family are being sucked into this organisation and whatever marketing sales ploys are being used to get people on board it surely can't be ethical..it just feels so wrong from what I've read about mlms... Are they really so bad? By the way I am not easily sold by brands especially ones not in high street shops but I am not totally averse to buying expensive brands but I object to paying for brands that operate like this as I feel they are exploitative to those lower down the pyramid who market a product for free and only get paid commission on what they sell or on recruiting others...seems like a well planned marketing scam and I don't want to be part of it.... Now I'm getting product advertising feeds into my Facebook about these sickeningly over priced beautycareproducts I neither want or need...wish it didn't wind me up

Oh these MLM schemes are such a pain. There are some good exposés out there on how they work and how people get sucked in. (Check out Elle Beau and #poonique).

I think Elle's advice is to stand your ground and not but anything from a friend caught up in such a scheme. The sooner people fail to make money, the sooner they get out.

Buy* not but!

Note to self: proofread!!

From a feminist perspective, I believe it is Elle who makes the point that there is a whole workforce out there of untapped potential. A lot of women, often mothers, work extremely hard in trying to get their MLM 'businesses' off the ground. They want a job that fits around their kids, but they put in a lot of hours trying to make sales and build a viable income stream.

The problem is, most workplaces don't want to know and it's only the pyramid schemes that take advantage of these women.

You have my sympathy, gardinia. My sister has been involved in 4 of these. She never made any money.

Tropic?

Yeah, it's cringeworthy. I've had a message twice this week from someone I like but haven't actually spoken to in about 12 years.

Coronation Street are tackling this with the Double Glammy storyline

It's in so many families - presumably the isolation of lockdown has expanded the target audience? I'm being pestered by a cousin for one and my DD is being hassled by my (lovely) SIL to join one.
Neither of us are going to buy or get involved but it's so hard saying no to someone we love.

You have my sympathies OP. Remember the Mumsnet mantra = "No is a complete sentence".

This is the thing these type of organisations prey on women who need flexible working but sell it to them on the guise of being in control as a small business owner when really they are an unpaid worker unless they sell something.... I worked in sales for a legit company when younger but I was paid a decent basic salary and got a pension and employment rights....I didn't have to buy stock, I just sold it as a pair employee. I also been on a zero hours contract as a lecturer which I didn't mind as it suited me at the time but I got paid well for every hour I worked which covered me for sickness and holiday pay. Initially I had to register as self employed but that to me didn't make me an entrepreneur, it just means I wasn't on payroll . The mark up on these products will undoubtedly be extortionate to cover everyone's commission from the downline upwards... I guess I'd rather pay for and support products which the business model is more ethical, who market the products by paying for advertising and distribute via retail outlets which provide real part time jobs for women which are paid and have employment rights... Albeit it's less glamorous than the image of bossbabe... The only bossbabe in these schemes is the person at the top raking in the dosh at the top as they determine everything about the business and have found a means to market and sell their products by selling a dream job whilst not actually paying an hourly rate....I hope my sister doesn't get burnt by this scheme but I fear she will as she at the moment would not be happy to hear any objective criticisms or questions about the scheme..

Yes it's Tropic....how did you know... The strange thing is a sales pitch from my sister seems so false... Now it's hard to trust..... Did she really not want to sell both her and her daughter claim it isn't sales but it's a small business...did she ring me for a chat or to flog product. Did the daughter contact me genuinely or was it to slip in a statement about her mum owning an online business and how these products are wonderful and a great reputable brand... I'm a trained buyer I can spot a sales pitch and false flattery of product claims a mile off.. I find it a bit insulting really being targeted as a potential customer but think maybe I'm taking too seriously...I've also bought and sold to cosmetics producers... No end product in my belief can be 100 percent natural if it has any kind of shelf life as it wouldn't be safe. Plant derived doesn't mean it's natural ingrediant straight from a plant like distilled essential oils, it may have been extracted chemically. But I guess it's what people want to believe which marketeers and clever branding capitalise on... As for saving the planet claims.. Just buy less unnecessary product and stop flogging products.
They claim its about sharing a wonderful all natural product which I just no doubt have to try..... Sly non direct sales pitch trying to create a consumer need to be part of the product worshipping clan.... or am I being cynical?

Don’t buy anything, once you do she’ll never stop, quietly unlike the page in a bit and mute it. The whole business model is exploitive of women.

There’s various threads in other parts of MN on Tropic

Yes I will have to mute the page and unlike it eventually... Just don't want her to be exploited but I guess it's not for me to tell her as she will take offence....I love her but will find it hard to say no without being too brutally honest but already it's making me feel uncomfortable in case subject comes up...

I gave what I thought was a reasonable excuse for not buying or becoming a rep for one of these things. I'm vegan and the company isn't.
My so called friend hasn't spoken to me since. Not even a congratulations when D's was born. These things are the devil- you actually want to hope it implodes pretty quickly as if she makes any money she'll become wedded to the idea.

I'd try to brush it off with a breezy yet firm comment about making it a personal policy to never ever buy from mlm pyramid schemes since you've seen too many friends have fall outs and get exploited.

As with most people, I unfriend or mute anyone who starts on this stuff.