RebekahStellar
- 17 Feb 2004
I'm certain that no one has stated that "it's illegal" and I'm not "defensive". I just like to paint a company with the correct brush instead of how I want to see them. In a true MLM you do not make money off of the sale of products. As a matter of fact you don't make any money at all unless you recruit and even then it's very difficult to make money. You will make money based on the "sale of product" meaning you make money based on how much your volume order is from the company...But you don't make 50% profit that's for sure (at least I haven't found an MLM that does that). You just hope and pray that you are able to move the product to reinburse the purchase of such product. Or that you are able to shop at their stores and not go bankrupt. Not quite the same thing, Laura. Because some on the internet like to think of MK as a MLM (and they seem to feed your desire to believe that also) doesn't mean that they are an actual MLM Company. Hey, I've already explained this in my first post, so no need to continue.
Also, I haven't found any mention of Amway/Quixstar at Harvard.....I have MK...but not true MLM's. I could be wrong though.
RebekahStellar - 17 Feb 2004
Hey Rebekah, Bunny here, and sorry to jump in on your response to Laura, but bear with me here, if you will, as I have zero direct experience of any other network marketing companies, so I probably am asking about issues that are already well-understood to many others here:
I think when Amway and Quixstar and other network marketers say that they are taught at Harvard (or anywhere), I think they must mean that the CONCEPT and fundamentals/mechanics of network marketing are discussed/taught. And, by extension, as exemplars of businesses employing that form of marketing, these companies feel that they can safely claim - and they do! - that they are "taught," too.
And do I understand you correctly to say that MK is not an mlm because it offers a higher than average (for network marketers) profit percentage on product sales?
My understanding is that most network marketers offer approx. 27% on product sales ... I never knew that there were any companies/organizations who offered no percentage at all on product sales, and I must say that seems as if it couldn't work, really, at all. I mean, at the end-consumer point of purchase, the seller has to have some mark-up, or how could he/she conduct business?
Or did you mean to say that the consultant in such cases MUST initially buy a specified quantity of product outright (no product ordering for customers, either from a catalogue, or based on product demonstration), open for business with their own customer base, charge whatever they can to cover costs, deliver product from their own "wholesale" inventory, pay a percentage of profits back up the recruiting line, and then look for people who will be "below" themselves so they can get these percentages paid to them on sales, too?
So the difference, basically, would be that the consultant must purchase stock outright, and no payments are made from/through the larger company? Is that, then, a "pure" - or, "true" - mlm? But then, from what Stephanie says in the following opinion (133), most mlm's are no longer true mlm's because most of them now pay from/through the larger company.
I've seen some network-marketed product lines offered in retail store environments, too, so that would be another difference, I suppose.
Am I getting this right? I'll tell you the truth, this is confusing and the differences are not at all clear to me.
Thanks,
Bunny - 17 Feb 2004
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Revision r1.2 - 18 Feb 2004 - 06:37 by BunnyWatson
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