Consider these facts:
The business of network marketing worldwide is able to produce more millionaires than any other industry.
Over more than a hundred thousand people all over the globe sign up, either part-time or full-time, to be network marketers each and every week.
As of today, there are currently over 50 million network marketers (or networkers) in the world.
Global network marketing sales have reached the 90 billion dollar mark.
The lure of network marketing is increasingly getting stronger. Thus, this is the perfect time to understand and know what network marketing really is all about. One network marketing guru puts it succinctly, “Network marketing is about people. It’s people for people”. If I may add also, network marketing may also mean “people and opportunities”.
The definitive explanation for what network marketing is can be stated as “a strategy for marketing which is not the usual marketing plan, since it has the ability to empower prospective clients and customers to produce sales; thereby, increasing profit exponentially and creating a sales network, invariably”.
Difference between Direct Selling and Network Marketing
The two major points which differentiate network marketing from direct selling are territory and the kind of gain. Network marketing is global rather than direct selling’s territorial exclusivity. Second, network marketing promises products and services which can be presently marketed and sold, thus, has no need for added incentives and commissions which may be said of a few of those agencies dealing with direct selling.
My initial curiosity of what network marketing (the more familiar term, of course, is multi-level marketing, MLM) really is led me to many online leads. Some are dark alleys of criticism which place network marketing as an exploitative guise of the illegal pyramid schemes. Most websites offer the simple and plain truth about network marketing. MLM, as it is fondly called, is considered by many to have taken its roots as far back as the 1920s, with the pioneering brands Nutrilite and California Perfume Company (which was later on re-named as Avon Products).
Other websites offered some insights about network marketing. Of course, one of the most revealing and not so good discovery is that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission strictly sent out a warning to all and sundry to “steer clear” of multi-level marketing plans that pay out commissions for recruiting new network distributors (the so-called down line). The FTC warned that these kinds of schemes are, in reality, pyramiding schemes, which are high-risked, leaving the member with the losing end of the network marketing stick.
With this reminder, I carefully sought through the internet the more reputable websites and highly-regarded players of the MLM industry.
Top 10 MLM Websites
A few of the top MLM organizations which have consistently cropped up online are the MLM powerhouses like Avon, Herbalife, Mary Kay and Tupperware. These are just some of the named brands which use MLM strategies.
Let’s take a look at Avon, for example. The organization founded by David H. McConnell had been in business for more than 120 years already. The Avon Lady is already recognized as an American staple in the MLM industry and by far, the standard bearer. As a pioneering organization, it has empowered the women sector and has been recognized for its efforts to battle breast cancer. Some of its recent awards are part of the 100 Most Innovative Companies in 2011 by Forbes Magazine and listed down in the 2012 Top 25 Global Corporate Reputation Index which was presented at the World Economic Forum at Davos.
