HBSA

Arbonne is a network marketing company that provides skincare and health and wellness products via network marketing.

The products, by nearly everyone’s standards, are fantastic.  You can read about what some others have thought of their products here:

Arbonne Product Reviews

I’ve used their products before myself, and I like them.

They are high end (meaning, not cheap), but it’s pretty good stuff.

The reason Arbonne is controversial is their distribution model – network marketing.

Network marketing is where you sign up product purchasers and other distributors “beneath”, so that you receive a commission on all the product that is consumed in your own distribution channel.

This means that there is a business opportunity attached to Arbonne.  You can become what they call an “Arbonne consultant”, and you can re-sell their products for commission, and recruit others who sell their products for commission, etc etc.

This in of itself isn’t a bad thing at all.  What become sketchy are some of the side-effects of this model, which can be:

1.  Front-loading – Where new sign-ups are encouraged to “front-load” and purchase a ton of product, and then attempt to re-sell the product for profit.

2.  Warm-Market Marketing – This is where new enrollees are encouraged to sell products to their warm markets, i.e., their friends and family members.

3.  Hype – This can include exaggerated product claims (It can cure cancer and AIDS!) and/or exaggerated income claims (I signed up 3 weeks ago and I’m making six figures!).

Now, that’s not to say that Arbonne endorses these policies – they don’t.  But over-eager distributors can become a bit over-zealous, and in their enthusiasm, end up saying some pretty stupid stuff.

There is plenty of Arbonne information on their website:  www.Arbonne.com

When a new rep signs up, they are introduced to “Arbonne University”, where a consultant can educate themselves on Arbone products, skincare in general, the Arbonne compensation plan, and even (ahem) their “marketing plan”.

The only weird thing with Arbonne is that it can get a little “cultish”.  Some people who get involved become convinced that the company can do no wrong, that it’s doing the world a favor by simply existing, that you should never question any decisions that come from their “upline”.

I can tell you this – Arbonne is in business to make money.  They have a great product, and a cool business opportunity, but at the end of the day, they treat their business as a very “for profit” organization.  So much so that they do something very few retailers do – they charge sales tax on shipping, and the jury is still out on whether that is legit or not (for a great discussion on the subject, check out The Great Tax-On-Shipping Debate)

My only recommendation would to be prepared to find other creative ways of marketing beyond your friends and family members.  That gets old in a hurry.