From: abulloch@garnet.berkeley.edu (Anthony Bulloch)
Newsgroups: sci.med.nutrition,sci.med,misc.entrepreneurs
Subject: Re: vitamin/nutrition product and pyramid marketing scheme
Followup-To: sci.med.nutrition
Date: 15 Sep 1992 07:02:25 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: garnet.berkeley.edu

In article <BuLrsH.EJB@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> 
georgen@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (G. Ng) writes:

>An old acquaintance of mine has tried to persuade me to attend some sort
>of meeting on some new vitamins (and perhaps additional nutritional products)
>made by some firm in Provo, Utah. .........

The company is Interior Design Nutritionals, a new division of Nu Skin
International. (It opened in the US on June 18 this year.)
>
>- is pyramid marketing legal in Canada?  From what I understand, it isn't.

Yes, multi-level marketing is legal in Canada, as it is also in the US.
Both countries have pretty strict regulations to ensure that MLM
companies operate ethically, and US regulations distinguish between
multi-level marketing, which is legal, and pyramiding, which is not.

> ....why not market it through retail/department stores.....?

The answer to this is long, and there are various opinions on the
subject. One major factor is that for goods and products retailed
through stores a major part of the final price charged goes toward
advertising costs (for many products the advertising comprises 50%
or more of the price); MLM companies have virtually no advertising,
since word of their products or services is spread by word of mouth.
Another reason, for Nu Skin, at any rate, is that the multi-level
approach works: Nu Skin has gone from nothing in 1984 to sales of
$500 million in 1991 (and has always been debt-free) - the company
clearly has no reason to change its marketing methods.
>
>- is there some regulatory body controlling the sale/usage of vitamins?
>I assume there isn't.  Either the FDA in the states or Min. of Health/Welfare
>in Canada?  .......

Yes, both countries have bodies which regulate production and sale of
vitamins etc. In the US the FDA directly approves the production, sale
and use of drugs; it also establishes standards that have to be 
followed in the preparation of food products to assure their safety
and proper representation to the public, and has labelling and
packaging standards. (Note, though, that the FDA does not give
specific _approval_ for individual nutritional products.) Canada
also has stringent regulations. IDN is currently in process of
securing approval to market its full range of products in Canada -
the nutritional drink 'Appeal' was given the go-ahead just over a week
ago, and the other products are expected to be approved by the end of
this year.
>
>-is there really anything special about any one type of brand-name vitamin
>that sets it/them apart from any other than the type of vitamin(s) it
>contains?

Big issue! The replies which will follow this post will probably
exhibit the full range of opinions current. A couple of things are
worth noting about IDN:

1) what they are offering is a whole range of products and a whole
(non-diet) weight management program, not just a few vitamin pills:
this includes, for example, a personalised analysis, with advice on
regimen and specific menus, performed by UCLA (not IDN), nutritional
whole-food supplements such as 'Appeal' mentioned above, healthy
snack-bars, specifically targetted supplements to provide the vitamins
and minerals found in a serving of each of the main food groups etc.

2) the supplements they offer contain not just vitamins and minerals,
but also ingredients such as chelated minerals, chromium picolinate,
I-carnitine, antioxidants etc.
>
>Unfortunately, I haven't got any other information about this product
>or the company itself, except that they also have some skin care product(s)
>called "Nu-skin" or something like that.
>

IDN's program and product line doubtless contains some
controversial items, but they have based themselves on scientific
research done at two of our leading institutions (UCLA and U Texas
at AUstin), and they maintain a big research department. They also
have a physicians advisory board, and several hundred doctors and
surgeons have already enrolled in the program and signed up to
become distributors, including some leading physicians in Detroit
and Houston; so too have many leading athletes and sports coaches.

Your friend should be able to give you plenty of information about
IDN and the parent company Nu Skin. (Yes, they do have an extensive
range of personal-care products.) Ask him to show you a copy of the
Company Brochure, for example; and if you want a really good
introduction to the rationale and scientific basis of the IDN
program, ask him for a copy of the audio tape 'The Doctor's Choice'
by Dr. Jack Pfeifer (currently director of research at Providence
Hospital in Detroit). There are also several video tapes available.

Anthony Bulloch
abulloch@garnet.berkeley.edu

Newsgroups: sci.med.nutrition,rec.food.veg