There are not many companies these days that can do $400 million in sales and remain relatively anonymous.
Yet Beachbody, a private company, grossed nearly as much as Groupon did last year and very few people talk about the robust engine that is behind exercise workout programs like P90X, INSANITY and Turbo Jam.
Under the leadership of co-founder Jon Congdon and Carl Daikeler, the company has developed a business model that seems to be Teflon, turning successful converts of its programs into network marketers who ensure that the brands flourish.
Many multi-level marketing companies are based on building a network of sellers and distributors getting rewarded based on the size of their network.
Most often, the people who have gotten in on the ground floor reap the greatest benefits while those late to the game struggle to make money.
What makes Beachbody’s network of distributors, called coaches, so successful is that these people have done the programs and are often in incredible shape. Their testimonial and therefore their business relies on how good they look, not whether they tell friends that a certain superfruit drink helps them have more energy or cures their stomach problems.
It seems like, more often than not, network marketing thrives on results which can’t be verified, but if my fat friend shows up with a six-pack, I’ll be more likely to believe he was doing an intense workout program.
Since starting the network marketing program three and half years ago, Beachbody now has 51,000 coaches who take a cut of videos and nutritional products they sell. Beachbody coaches sell $1 million worth of nutritional shakes under the brand’s Shakeology name a week. And it’s not cheap at around $120 for a month worth of servings.
“We could have built this company’s sales a lot faster at retail by selling at Walmart and Target,” Daikeler said. “But selling it through direct television (infomercials) and through our network works better for us.”
Daikeler says that his coaches serve as walking billboards and salespeople who want to help their family and friends by helping them lose weight through the company’s exercise programs. This is unlike many other multi-level marketing companies that solely rely on building a network to make more money.
And Daikeler doesn’t have to pay for testimonials, a common practice in the infomercial business space he plays in.
“The standard network marketing doesn’t work with our model,” Daikeler said. “This is not a ponzi scheme where if you’re the last one in, you don’t have a chance to do well.”
While the average lifespan of a multi-level marketer is three months, Daikeler says his coaches remain in the system an average of 18 months. It’s why he’s confident that by the end of 2011, there will be 150,000 coaches.
“We don’t promise it will replace your every day job,” Daikeler said. “That has been the case with about 1,000 of our coaches. But what it does for others is it keeps them in shape. In order to continue to have credibility selling, you need to continue to keep up. And so, it allows the people who want to fight obesity, to be motivated by the fact that they have skin in the game.”
By continuing to have more and more videos – P90X led to a harder workout, INSANITY, and that program is leading to The Asylum, which will come out in a few weeks – I don’t see Beachbody slowing down any time soon. And the non-traditional, more patient route of using those converted to the brand by really using it is a smart approach that I think will pay off nicely down the road.
By:
CNBC Sports Business Reporter
Beachbody Grows Exponentially Thanks To Network Marketing: http://bit.ly/ihVcvM <-article & more abt BeachBody -> http://bit.ly/i1GMXa
Recently Google announced that they introducing a new social aspect to their listing, called “Plus One”, which is their way of adding another social element to the web.
Just like ‘liking’ in Facebook and showing support by tweeting, Google is giving people the option to vote “Plus One” for articles, websites, videos, etc. that they like. The “Plus One” button will also give users the opportunity to share content with their friends.
Here is a video from Google that explains their new Plus One concept:
Google’s Matt Cutts (head of ‘anti-spam’ at Google) has made it clear that his position is that when someone votes for something, it’s a good indicator on the quality of the content. If they ‘like’ it, it must be good. This is consistent with some of the other moves that Google has made recently to take notice of social indicators such as Twitter for their rankings.
One thing that I will do (as soon as it’s available) is to add the Plus One button next to each blog post, along with the ReTweet button. As you can see I’m already using the Wibiya toolbar below which helps readers to vote and share my content.
When you think about it, it makes sense really, as by adding more social interaction into the search results, means in theory, that better results will show up by people voting it there. Currently, well actually for a while now, backlinks have been the main “voting” mechanism for determining what is the content, but it will be interesting and worth while to see how the new Plus One feature evolves and effects things in the SEO/SER world.
I imagine that it will take time, but I imagine that it’s online importance will increase with time.
I think the social aspect of the web is only going to continue to keep growing and these moves by Google are a clear indication that they are aware of this and that they intend to harness the power of it to give them the best results in search.
Let me know what you think and predict below. Your comments and ‘tweets’ are always welcome
