Mormons tend run the companies and seed the initial demand.
Moms with built in communities are big markets. Wherever you have a big military, police/fire/prison presence you'll see these all over. Also certain church communities, certain freelancer type industries, (yoga contractors, photographers) etc.
I was raised Mormon since birth. I recently recovered from it a few years ago. But I can tell you that MLMs are INSANELY POPULAR among Mormons (especially the female crowd). I could go into detail about why, but it basically boils down to a few key factors:
- Mormons have huge community networks.
- Mormons are gullible (this will feel offensive to current Mormons, but unfortunately it is true, the entire relgion basically requires you to believe in very crazy stories that are easily proven false if you question them even a tiny bit). And once a leader has been built up to be a "trusted leader" they are taught to follow them without question.
- Mormon women are mostly homemakers (the church largely enforces or "encourages" this), who are looking for ways to support their family or themselves. Work from home schemes that require little work are very attractive to them.
- Mormons have huge families with generally only 1 primary earner. So they often need the extra money. Get rich quick schemes tend to do well within Mormon communities for this reason.
- The Mormon religion is organized nearly identical to an MLM, with layers of free labor. The big worldwide Mormon "rallys" (called "General Conference") is almost identical to a rally for an MLM. If you have been to both, it is hard to tell them apart.
I have been involved in MLMs (through other Mormons in my area) before and the line between MLM and Mormonism is pretty blurry. Mormonism is basically an MLM selling you eternal life (just requires 100% obedience to their laws, and 10% of all pre-tax income you make during your lifetime). So for Mormons who have grown up that way, the MLM atmosphere is very comfortable and familiar. They trust it more than the standard corporate structure. MLMs roll through Mormon communities like wildfire for those reasons.
I have been personally invited to more MLMs as a Mormon than most people reading this even know existed. It is a pillar of Mormon culture.
I've noticed that "military, police/fire/prison" families and some church communities like to "support our own" and buy from "locally owned businesses". I think MLMs allow people to buy what they think is a locally owned business that they believe will return dividends to their own community.
Sadly the dividends that MLMs return are mostly negative (debt, friction of social bonds, etc).
> I think MLMs allow people to buy what they think is a locally owned business that they believe will return dividends to their own community.
This would be the sane selling point for people who aren't susceptible to cult following. I was tricked into going to one of these meetings and at first I thought this is what it was. I was envisioning a sort of Amazon meets Costco scheme where you can get greater discounts with the more bulk that you buy. That's not keeping money in the community, but at least it's saving money in a community buying pool.
The first speaker at the meeting even got into a small business presentation which had nothing to do with MLM. I thought he did great. Then came the preacher, and everything fell into place. This is some sort of scam.
I would have been fine with the thing if it would have been a group buying thing where you save money AND stuff gets delivered to your door. I never did get far enough to see if there would have been any savings though.
They also have shift work husbands and are more likely to have a female spouse at home when kids are young. Pension systems make it very difficult to get out of the job after a few years.
If you go to a police or fire station and ask, easily 30% of the wives are nurses, as it’s a job with super flexible schedules. MLM gets pitched as a way to make some extra dollars.
Moms with built in communities are big markets. Wherever you have a big military, police/fire/prison presence you'll see these all over. Also certain church communities, certain freelancer type industries, (yoga contractors, photographers) etc.