To this day, I still see people who like to obfuscate and hide the Amway name when recruiting others. I believe this tactic has been a major factor in why Amway has a bad reputation in North America. When I was recruited, I was lied to as well. I was invited to a "beer bust" only to find out it was an Amway meeting. To be polite, I never complained about it during the meeting, but I went home that night thinking WTF was that? They lie to us and then expect us to join the business. And to this day, I believe this practice continues.
Over the years, IBOs have tried all kinds of ways to disguise the Amway opportunity. It was network marketing, e-commerce, online shopping mall and the corporation even changed Amway in North America to "Quixtar" at one time. Sadly, the name change to quixtar did not work, probably because the same tactics were used when recruiting new IBOs into Quixtar. Amway eventually changed the name back to Amway. I believe this bad reputation in North America is why Amway seems to be enjoying the most business growth overseas where people either do not know the Amway name, and likely because there haven't been enough former Amway/AMO victims to soil the name in other countries. But conversely, Amway sales tanked for a while and apparently only started a minor recovery recently.So, Amway IBOs, how can you expect someone to trust you and do business with you if you are deceitful or outright lie about the Amway opportunity? Are you ashamed of the Amway name? If you are ashamed or scared to drop the "A bomb" on people, how will you ever be able to show any plans, let alone sponsoring anyone into the business? My former sponsor used to tell our group that the biggest challenge is overcoming the name Amway. To be fair, Amway the corporation is not the only reason for the bad reputation. It is the unethical and bad behavior of IBOs that lead to a bad reputation buy on the other hand, it's not the like Amway police have been cracking down and visibly taking action against the violators so Amway is also guilty to some degree.
Conversely, people who come right out and talk about Amway are unlikely to net any decent results either because of the past reputation. It's an almost no-win situation for IBOs and prospects. For these reasons, I believe it to be nearly impossible to build and maintain a group, especially if your goal is to reach diamond. It seems as if more diamonds have left Amway in recent years than there have been new diamonds. I believe this to be spot on for WWDB, my former LOS. So IBOs, are you ashamed of Amway? If not, why are there still so many IBOs using trickery and deception in recruiting prospects?
The Amway Corporation of Ada, Michigan, is in a real bind. Changing the name of something won't change its reality. Being "terminated" is still being fired. A "sex worker" is still a whore. Being "mentally challenged" is still being a moron.
ReplyDeleteWith a company name, the problem is this: when the name has been around since 1959, and has become well known to millions of people, changing it is difficult and fraught with pitfalls. You can't hide the fact of a name change, so people will naturally ask why it was done, and what you are trying to conceal. And those who are being introduced to the company with the new name will not be able to find out anything about the company's history, and will be tempted to think that this is some newfangled operation that has no reputation.
Amway found out all of this with the "Quixtar" experience, which turned out to be a major mistake. People immediately asked why a name that had been around since 1959 had to be changed, and anti-MLM blogs had a field day making fun of the change, and pointing out how rotten Amway's reputation had become. "Quixtar" became a joke in the MLM community, with people calling it "Quick-switch" or "Quick-scam."
So Amway did a really stupid thing, in a vain attempt to "have it both ways." They went back to using the old name Amway, but they ordered IBOs to avoid mentioning it during the recruitment process. This was like trying to get people to join a band of bank robbers while not ever mentioning the words "bank" and "robbing," and instead talking about "unofficial withdrawals from cash depositories." Of course it hasn't worked, but Amway continues to promote this silly policy of hiding the company's name, even though it makes the entire business look stupid and suspect.
A company's name, once established and with a solid reputation behind it, is a priceless asset in the business world. Coca-Cola or Heinz or Campbell's are NEVER going to change their name. But the problem with Amway is that it simply doesn't have that kind of well-established name (except in the minds of propagandized IBOs). The company is an MLM with no presence on the stock market, and with a weird way of selling its products. Too many stories of failure and abuse are connected with the name of Amway. Too many people have had bad experiences with it. So Ada, Michigan, can't depend on the name of "Amway" to resonate positively with the general population, the way "Coca Cola" does. But if they try to change it, that will only confirm the bad stuff that people constantly hear about it.
Wise advice for everyone considering a business opportunity: if you are not prepared to wear a t-shirt or cap advertising your association with what you are selling, then reconsider.
ReplyDeleteIf you have to talk around it when asked, then run.