XanGo founder Joe Morton has built a huge multilevel-marketing company around its mangosteen-based juice, which it promotes as an immunity booster. Morton was on a business trip in Malaysia when he
saw mangosteen, a white delicacy wrapped in a blood-red leathery shell, on the dessert menu.
From that introduction, Morton and his partners have capitalized on a new brand category of
liquid "super-fruits" that is "doing gangbusters," says Jeff Hilton, a partner at Integrated Marketing Group, a branding and packaging consulting firm. XanGo still hasn't proved
mangosteen's health benefits--which it says could improve joint function--to skeptical experts. "It's a 'Wizard of Oz' story," says Anthony Almada, president and CEO of GENr8, a marketer of sports
nutrition dietary supplements. "The industry is built on storytelling, and because they do it one-on-one, without advertising, they don't incur the wrath of the FDA."
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