An sadly widespread advertising and marketing tactic amongst MLM promoters is hiding firm names from potential recruits.
The first goal with this system is stopping customers from conducting impartial due-diligence into the corporate.
Whereas it’s not unprecedented for MLM corporations to unofficially incorporate the misleading technique into their advertising and marketing, it’s uncommon for it to be formally sanctioned.
Enter 7K Metals and its The Vault advertising and marketing funnel.
Briefly, The Vault is a company-run personal FaceBook group set as much as funnel customers into 7K Metals.
There may be after all nothing fallacious with that however the deception lies in how 7K Metals makes use of The Vault to deceive customers.
The Vault is a key piece of a brand new technique to assist new folks see the worth of gold and silver shortly. The method begins by sharing a brand new 1:47 pique video designed to drum up curiosity.
After folks watch the video, they’re invited to affix The Vault on Fb, which is full to the brim with feedback and testimonials from others who’re reaping the advantages of valuable metals.
The Vault additionally supplies two guides—one with movies and one other with articles—designed as instructional instruments for constructing a strong understanding of what actual cash is, how folks can get it, and the way it helps construct legacy.
Individuals who see the imaginative and prescient are then primed to affix the 7k household. However a part of the fantastic thing about The Vault is that group members gained’t even hear the title “7k Metals” till they’ve realized the worth of stacking metals; in truth, current members are requested to not point out 7k in any respect.
“The Vault is only a neighborhood to speak about gold and silver,” mentioned chief gross sales and advertising and marketing officer Blake Davis.
If The Vault exists to “prime folks to affix 7K Metals”, then clearly it isn’t simply “a neighborhood to speak about gold and silver”.
And that’s additional confirmed by how 7K Metals pitches The Vault to its promoters;
Be taught extra about this new course of by becoming a member of our Monday-night calls. Chamberlin will present coaching on this new system and how you can leverage it as you construct your 7k enterprise.
The Vault is a advertising and marketing funnel. A recruitment software. A manner for distributors to construct their 7K Metals enterprise.
Luring customers on the premise of simply “speaking about gold and silver” when the precise intention it to rope them into 7K Metals is misleading and, dare I say it, predatory.
Part 5(a) of the FTC prohibits “unfair or misleading acts or practices in or affecting commerce”.
Once more, making a FaceBook group to make use of as a advertising and marketing funnel isn’t misleading. 7K Metals pretending in any other case to deceive unassuming customers into taking part within the group is.
“Misleading” practices are outlined within the Fee’s Coverage Assertion on Deception as involving a fabric illustration, omission or follow that’s prone to mislead a client appearing fairly within the circumstances.
Ditto not being upfront concerning the group’s affiliation with 7K Metals and explicitly prohibiting group members from mentioning or discussing 7K Metals.
7K Metals is a valuable metals themed MLM firm co-founded by Zach Davis, Josh Anderson and Richard Hansen.
BehindMLM first reviewed 7K Metals in 2016. Primarily based on 7K Metals’ enterprise mannequin, we concluded it was an autoship recruitment scheme.
BehindMLM revisited 7K Metals in 2018;
7K Metals does its finest to create the phantasm of retail exercise, with out truly paying commissions on retail gross sales.
In a professional MLM firm, retail clients are simply that. They buy merchandise and don’t have anything to do with the compensation plan.
In 7K Metals the phantasm of retail clients is used as a “concern of loss” advertising and marketing software.
In impact, 7K Metals hides generated commissions behind a month-to-month paywall.
Seeing as there’s no true retail inside 7K Metals compensation plan, associates can’t qualify for commissions through retail gross sales.
This creates a closed-loop of affiliate cash funding 7K Metals’ enterprise mannequin, which in MLM is indicative of a pyramid scheme.
As of October 2024, SimilarWeb was monitoring ~38,000 month-to-month visits to 7K Metals web site.
47% of 7K Metals’ web site site visitors originates from the US, adopted by 33% from Germany and 22% from Canada.