School is back in session and dorm room refrigerators are once again stocked with energy drink favorites like Red Bull and Monster.
But in recent years, a third brand, Verve, is trying to elbow its way into student life.
The brainchild of Benson K. Boreyko, the founder and CEO of Vemma, a nine-year old multilevel marketing company, Verve is two years into a marketing plan that focuses on young people selling the caffeine-rich drinks.
While Vemma is far from the first company in the $30 billion direct-selling industry to enlist college students to hawk their product, its marketing strategy of trashing college as a pathway to success may be.
Boreyko also uses fancy cars like BMWs and Mercedes to lure students. He has top salesmen arrive at recruitment meetings in the flashy wheels and the message is clear: in just a short period of time, you, too, can be driving this car.
“College doesn’t guarantee anything but students loans,” 23-year-old Alex Morton, one of two salesmen who launched the college drive about two years ago, told a Las Vegas recruiting session last spring.
“You can be driving a new BMW within 90 days,” Boreyko boasts in a YouTube video. Vemma gives its top distributors, which it calls brand partners,” a bonus of $400 towards a monthly payment on BMW, Mercedes or a mini-Cooper.
Boreyko told The Post the college-focused marketing campaign amounts a young people’s revolution of those unhappy with this “crappy economy” who are willing to try a new approach to making a living.
He declined to give the total number of participants, but said 745 people have earned the car bonus.
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