Asheville News

Asheville, have you jumped on the MonaVie bandwagon?

Jason Sandford November 2, 2008

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

Asheville, have you heard of the MonaVie drink and its networking sales strategy? If you haven’t, you probably will soon. There are several sellers in Asheville, and they’re looking to recruit more believers. And my recent post about interesting business that have incorporated recently shows that someone is planning to sell some juice.

MonaVie contains the super-hot super-food of the moment — the acai berry. The acai berry is one of a number of ingredients in this drink, which is non-alcoholic and sells for $40 and comes in fancy bottles that look like wine bottles.

Oprah has apparently endorsed the acai berry as a food that’s helped her. It grows atop acai palms in the Amazon forest and is reportedly like a cross between a raspberry and chocolate. There’s even a web site dedicated to all kinds of acai berry news.

The way MonaVie is sold is the part that has people a little freaked out. You can’t buy it at stores. The business model is to recruit regular people to sell the drink and encourages people to build sales trees so they can take a cut. The company tag line: “Drink it. Feel it. Share it.”

Newsweek has a good story examining the MonaVie trend.

So, is it hype in a bottle or a miracle berry? Anybody know who is selling this stuff in Asheville? Have you tasted it? Tell me.

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

Geek out at GIS Day

Check out this Knight News Challenge idea

6 Comments

pierre June 12, 2010

Dear postee:
be careful. I would not associate MonaVie with Oprah. She has never endorsed this, only the fruit. To make any health or income claims about MonaVie company shows poor taste and irresponsible. MonaVie speaks for itself, no need to make claims. Iam disappointed at this blog.

Reply
AM November 4, 2008

I didn’t care for the stuff myself, but if you want to try it for yourself I can get you a bottle.

Reply
Josh Rosenberg November 3, 2008

One of the Adult Men’s Soccer teams is "MonaVie". I assumed it was a bar. Jack of the Wood, Brew and View, Greenman.. all sponsor teams. Now I know better!

Reply
Celo November 3, 2008

We don’t seem to have evolved beyond thinking there’s a quick and easy fix to all of our health problems. The same people who would poo-poo stories of their grandparents buying Dr. Wilson’s Magic Snake Oil elixir are probably dropping cash on Mona Vie.

Reply
Arwen November 2, 2008

My friend gave me a bottle. She is one of the distributors here. I tried making a champagne / Monavie cocktail. Wasn’t crazy about it.

Reply
Gratuitous November 2, 2008

Ugh. I thought people have had enough of the multi-level ("pyramid") marketing schemes. You know, where the top 1% of the recruits make any money at all, while the rest struggle to break even or end up in the red. Hmm… sounds sorta familiar…

Maybe there is some benefit to consuming the Acai berry. Almost all edible plants do. Regardless, the way this is being marketed raises red flags. For example, do a google search on the berry. Note all the bait-and-switch "warning" ads. As for actually informative sites and reviews, well, I suspect it might take a long time to find one that doesn’t have a financial incentive. Wiki seems thorough but, well, it’s Wiki, so grain of salt.

$40 for a bottle of vitamins isn’t new, just as so many have accepted the idea of paying $5 for a cup of coffee made with fancy milk. Just please remember, it seems highly unlikely that what you’re paying for is giving you a fair return on your hard-earned money. It’s okay to end up paying for a few of the middle-men; the ones who deliver the products from their source to your life. But do you really want to unnecessarily pay for dozens of middlemen?

I’m sorry I’m so long-winded; I’m just so weary of dishonesty. I’m not saying the product has no health value; it probably does. I’m saying I don’t trust the marketing, simply because there’s deception involved, and therefore it’s a scam on some level. We’re all feeling a little short on trustworthiness. After all, isn’t this why we’re working so hard to elect Obama?

Reply