Vector Marketing: Legit or Scam? [2023 Review]

Is Vector Marketing a scam or a legit business to pay attention to in 2023?

Vector Marketing is one of those companies you encounter on the internet after doing a Google Search or hear about from your friends or relatives. You may have come across one of Vector Marketing’s recruitment tables. Whichever the case, when people talk or write about it, they tend to throw around the phrase “Vector Marketing Scam.”

Often, you’ll see someone say that Vector Marketing is a bad actor that is taking advantage of college students or using shady marketing practices and then later see someone saying how great it is and how helpful it has been.

So, you are left wondering what to make of the company.

In this review, we will be taking a closer look at Vector Marketing to establish whether they provide college students and other people who may be willing to join an opportunity to earn money. Is it a beneficial company or a predator you should avoid? Keep reading to find out.

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What Is Vector Marketing?

Vector Marketing is a marketing company that sells Cutco Cutlery products.

It is known for hiring sales reps that just came out of high school or are in college. They pay them a commission for each sale they make.

When you are hired as a sales rep, you are often referred to as independent contractors working for vector. Some people see this as problematic and we will get into that later. There are approximately 5,590 Vector Marketing distributors.

The way Vector Marketing works is when you become an independent contractor, your job will be to do in-home demonstrations showcasing Cutco Cutlery’s knives and other products. This means that you’ll have to knock on doors and visit people’s homes.

For your efforts, you are entitled to a base pay; they are paying you for doing the demonstrations.

As you’d expect, Vector Marketing encourages you to share the products with friends and family with the hope of selling them something.

When you make a sale, they pay you a commission for it.

Vector Marketing also trains its sales reps to improve their communication skills. This involves teaching you about their products so you appear knowledgeable as well as make the company look good.

You could argue that the communication skills they teach you will build your confidence and allow you to use that to build your career.

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What is Cutco Cutlery?

Cutco Cutlery is a manufacturing company based in Olean, NY that makes kitchen cutlery. It was established in 1949.

The name Cutco is derived from Cooking Utensils Company.

Cutco has more than 600 employees working on its factory floor as well as its headquarters in total, which means it is not a small company.

Cutco Cutlery Products

Cutco Cutlery makes a wide range of kitchen equipment and specialized tools. However, they also also make shears, utensils, cookware, flatware, and sporting knives. The company is known for its high quality products.

The most popular products they make are the knife block sets that often come with a “forever guarantee” and a free sharpening service.

The Ultimate Set and the Homemaker Set are the most sought-after.

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The Association Between Cutco and Vector Marketing

Vector Marketing is akin to a sales and marketing division for Cutco, a relationship that began in the eighties.

Cutco Cutlery has been around for many decades and for much of that time, it did not have a main direct sales company doing its bidding.

There were many independent sellers pushing its products. This was until 1981 when Vector Marketing Corporation emerged.

Vector was among the independent sellers for Cutco but it was outselling every other competitor. Cutco ended up acquiring Vector Marketing in 1995 and that’s how the two got linked (forming Vector Cutco).

Due to their association, you can’t find Cutco products in most stores. Although they still sell on Amazon or Costco.

The main avenue through which they sell their products is through in-home demonstrations by independent contractors, the official website at cutco.com, or through local events in places like Costco.

The point is, you won’t see adverts for their products in most conventional platforms.

Bizarrely, rather than advertise Cutco products, most of what Vector Marketing does is advertise for positions of salespeople and sales manager.

The focus is on people whom they can join Vector Marketing to sell their products in a direct sales model.

Most of their job adverts target young people looking for work (as I mentioned, they target college students and high school students).

They often frame their sales positions as not requiring academic documents or experience, which is enticing to young people looking for entry-level and part-time jobs.

So that explains the association between the two companies; Cutco Cutlery was a manufacturer that was around for decades when Vector Marketing was established. Then the latter did so well that Cutco acquired it to become its primary seller.

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How Does Vector Marketing Work?

When you show up for an interview and are accepted to start training, they teach you how to improve your communication skills. Then you are put out on the field soon after. They pay you a weekly check if you work.

You earn a base pay of $15 when you show Cutco knives to a prospect. Note that they don’t pay you by the hour, rather by showing the products to customers in a demonstration.

You can demonstrate how the knives work in person or via a virtual meeting.

Can you earn a living working for Vector Marketing?

Theoretically, you can earn a living by selling Cutco knives via Vector Marketing.

Notice that I said “theoretically” because in practice, it can be quite tough to earn a living selling those products.

Most college students and older high school students who join the program to earn money often complain about how tough it is to succeed.

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Is Vector Marketing a Multi Level Marketing Company?

Vector Marketing is not a Multi-level marketing company. It is merely a direct sales marketing company.

Why is it not an MLM? It doesn’t have levels like Mary’s System or Stay Home Profits where you’d have to recruit people to make money.

In a typical multi-level marketing company, the sales representatives are likely to make more money if they build their downline and recruit more sales representatives rather than focus on the product.

This is not the case at Vector Marketing where they recruit people in a conventional manner; they advertise jobs and they interview candidates. However, the don’t impose educational requirements and experience which means the bar is so low, anyone who is willing to join can become a distributor.

As a salesperson, you will be paid base pay and you will be paid when you “make appointments.”

This approach is lauded by some people as a smart recruiting strategy, but detractors consider it predatory and mistakenly liken it to a multi-level marketing scheme.

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Pros of Vector Marketing

Vector Marketing gives inexperienced young people an avenue to make money when they don’t have the experience often required in most jobs.

Vector marketing offers college students and high school students sales training. The experience they get working for the company often affords them career and professional development and skills that helps improve their CV and equips them for later roles (particularly a sales job).

Cons of Vector Marketing

Vector Marketing requires you to put in a lot of work generating leads yet the commissions are relatively small. This often leaves people frustrated because they feel that the pay does not commensurate with the work they put in.

You can strain relationships with friends and family if they feel like most of what you do is push a product on them.

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Is Vector Marketing Legit?

Is Vector Marketing A Scam?

Vector Marketing is NOT a scam.

It is a legit direct sales company whereby independent contractors make money by selling knives, kitchen cutlery and other Cutco products. Part of the business practices involves “job interviews” to recruit college students as sales representatives.

The main reason I think it is legit is because you can make money with this program, but perhaps not as easy as the company makes it sound. On top of that vector marketing’s BBB rating is A+. vector marketing’s revenue in 2019 was $273.8 million .

When you encounter a scam, you will probably end up losing a lot of money. A good example of this is a pyramid scheme that pushes for people to recruit new members. In a pyramid scheme, people are paid by the money made from registration fees and the focus is on the referrals and not a product.

But in this case, Vector Marketing has a genuine focus on Cutco products. Sure, there is a lot of work you have to do as a sales representative with no guarantee of success, but you can actually make money.

There are people who characterize Vector Marketing as an evil company because they feel that it is predatory and others who think it is the best company. The answer depends on who you ask. But objectively speaking, it is legit.

Lawsuits

The company has had lawsuits filed against it, usually about labor laws. For example, in 1994, Vector was temporarily requested to stop recruiting new members in Wisconsin due to deceptive recruiting practices.

A division manager at Vector Northwoods, the regional Vector Marketing division, said that the details of the Wisconsin lawsuit were a misconception. He said that a newspaper wrongfully advertised that Vector would pay $12.05 per hour instead of per appointment.

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What People are Saying about Vector Marketing

I stumbled across a Reddit thread where people were sharing their experiences about Vector and a few replies were actually quite informative.

The original poster was a college student who had just recently joined the program but was thinking about quitting. I’ll highlight some snippets of the long conversation to give you an inkling of what was happening.

Note that these are the student’s personal opinions.

They start off by saying:

The interview process was alright, was hired afterwards, and the training was just boring at the most. I’m okay with talking to people but I hate pressuring people into things. My manager seems like a genuinely nice guy, and i’m sure he is, he’s just very pushy. Constantly pushing me to make the most sales and appointments I can, even though I have other commitments in my life, like school.

Then they say this about it NOT being a scam although they felt they weren’t cut out for it:

I think the products are fine, I have older family members that actually stand by their products, so all in all I don’t really think it’s a scam. To be completely honest, I just think the whole thing is very pushy. Hey, maybe that’s what sales is, but I’m not cut out for it. I’m not really into pressuring my family and friends into buying knives I know they can’t afford.

Then they say this when asked about payment:

yep. $15 per appointment. it’s what they eventually told us in training. I know people who have worked it before and they still got paid. my only problem with the company is just how we have to go about sales, it’s just not something i’m personally comfortable with. I think if you’re okay with that and you want sales experience, it’s an alright job. some people are successful, some aren’t. i think the people calling it a downright scam or pyramid scheme are extreme. it’s just not as easy as they make it out to sound.

There are many other opinions by other people as well as Vector Marketing reviews. But the overall vibe you get is that it is not a pyramid scheme.

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Vector Marketing Conclusion

Is Vector Marketing an unscrupulous party that takes advantage of college students?

The answer to that is subjective because while some people brush it off as a pyramid scheme using deceptive recruiting practices, other people laud it as a great company that offers a unique opportunity for students to gain professional skills and experience while potentially earning some income in the process.

Detractors often say bad things about Vector Marketing because they feel frustrated for not having their expectations met. They likely join the company with lofty expectations only to have them unmet. For example, Vector Marketing promises to pay you $15 per appointment but some people read that as $15 per hour. They later realize that making appointments is not a walk in the park.

A majority of people who work for Vector Marketing later thank it for their career success even though they felt indifferent when they were working for it. You could say that this happens because when you work as a Vector sales rep, you are conditioned to have to push yourself to make decent money and later career experiences look easy in comparison.

I suppose it depends on your expectations and how you approach it.

Before you leave

If you’re tired of scams and want a real solution for making money online, check out my no.1 recommendation.

This is the best business to start in 2023 and made me over 27k last month alone:

Go here to see my no.1 recommendation for making money online