Balance Programme Reloaded: old promises, but who still believes them?

As the crisis surrounding Lyconet and myWorld continues to escalate, those in charge are visibly trying to keep the business alive. The latest Zoom call provided a prime example of the familiar mechanisms: motivation, big promises and repeated calls for action.

Hubert Freidl, who has increasingly taken over the presentation of the Balance programme himself in recent weeks, appears as enthusiastic as ever, with a missionary zeal and the clear goal of encouraging participants to make further payments.

A new concept? Not at all. A transparent system? Not at all.

The relaunched Balance programme is being marketed as a groundbreaking opportunity, but a closer look reveals familiar patterns: a lack of transparency, complex structures and vague promises. The mechanics remain an impenetrable construct of categories, units, rankings and processes that are difficult to understand, even for experienced marketers.

Newcomers in particular are likely to quickly lose their bearings. But that seems to be exactly what is intended: confusion instead of clarity, emotional appeal instead of comprehensible facts. The strategy seems calculated. As long as the euphoria is high enough, few people ask critical questions.

Is the lack of transparency part of the concept? There are many indications that it is. The communication strategy is clearly based on motivation rather than information. Participants are supposed to feel, not understand, and act before they do the maths.

This is not a new ploy: raising hopes, promising dream yields and pointing to a bright future. If the profits fail to materialise, there is always an excuse: the market, the timing, one’s own commitment.

The fact that such a system is being advertised with superlatives again, despite all the company’s known weaknesses, seems not only questionable. It borders on cynicism.

It’s the same old game: monthly packages as a permanent source of income

Once again, the principle of ‘activity’ is the main focus: anyone who already has balance units must continue to invest money or generate sales each month in order to have any prospect of income at all.

To this end, monthly packages are sold, as before, costing between €49 and €297 each. The more you pay in, the more units you can collect and the higher your subsequent profit will supposedly be. Up to three of these packages may be purchased per month, which can drive the monthly outlay up to €900.

Particularly alarming: In this context, completely unrealistic profit forecasts are once again presented. For example, the purchase of three premium packages is said to enable a yield of up to €40,000, provided that each unit is worth €162 one day. This figure seems to have been plucked out of thin air and lacks any economic basis.

The system is apparently aimed less at sustainable value creation and more at constant additional payments from participants – a business model that is strongly reminiscent of the typical features of systems built on structural distribution.

Such calculations are in no way comprehensible and contradict any reality. Similar claims have been made in the past, but in the end most marketers were left with their ‘valuable units’.

Can a Balance Unit really be worth 162 euros?

There is no evidence for this. According to Galler, each ‘Balance Unit’ is potentially worth 162 euros. Despite all attempts at explanation, we cannot understand exactly how this amount is arrived at in the end.

Urgency as a sales strategy

Another proven tactic is to create artificial urgency. Despite the lack of transparency, participants are led to believe that they must act now to secure ‘the best positions’. This is a unique opportunity that should not be missed.

‘Make your decision today,’ Galler repeats over and over again. Those who don’t act now will let others get ahead of them and have to wait longer for attractive profits.

Note: And as always, those affected are welcome to comment on this, or if someone has more or different information, they are welcome to share it with us. We are not interested in making false claims and our primary goal remains to provide complete documentation.