13.
Re: The good and bad of Network Marketing Nov 22, 2007 4:08 PM

in response to:
CorpCons08
I'm assuming you are referring to MLM type of network marketing?
Many large Fortune 5000 companies use network marketing... so I can' see how that includes "poor desperate people who usually are in debt."
For instance the Advertising and Public Relations industries both work offsliding scale percentages that often feed several layers down through vendors and affiliated business partners. The usual percentage in the advertising realm starts at 15% for referrral business, which trickles down into everything from online sales to national newspaper campaigns.
Network Marketing is also used by street salesforces with a high-turnover rate. For instance when I was at Verizon we had a salesforce of four to five thousand nationwide. Every single salesperson exposed us to a personal and professional network ranging from 50 to 5000. Basic math told us we had an inherent network of 200,000 to 25,000,000 word of mouth contacts in the circuit at any one time.
The MLM model used by companies like Amway (Quikstar) or a variety of other businesses often does present itself to people who are targeting the wrong demographic, but the successful salespeople and marketers within those groups have extraordinary professional networks. If you ever network with the diamond level of Amway for instance, they often have an inner-circle of succesful six-figure incomes representing a wide variety of industries.
If you look at the online model of network marketing (affiliate marketing) sites like commission junction have large groups in the tens of thousands of users working as MLM structured business networks. It is one of the fastest growing areas of online marketing due to things like blogging and online communities.