What is Network Marketing All About?

chillibreeze writer — Percy Rahman

Financial freedom, income based not on linear but geometric growth, working smart not just hard, leveraging other peoples time & efforts to achieve your own goals- all of which gives you both the time & money to pursue your dreams & aspirations- change your lifestyle. In the rough & tumble of the big bad world of business- welcome to ‘network marketing’.

Consider this- a bottle of coke that costs one rupee to manufacture costs ten rupees to the final customer. Ever wondered why? It is because there is a distributor, wholesaler, retailer & marketing & advertising expenses- including celebrity endorsements that all add up.

Let us consider products with a long shelf life like a TV or a fridge. These can be warehoused & shipped when required. But what about products with a short shelf life- like apparel with a shelf life of a few months or food with that of a few hours?

After achieving considerable success in their area of expertise, manufacturers of food items wanted to reach out globally & to circumvent the parameter of short shelf life of the product the concept of ‘franchising’ was born.

In ‘franchising’ the ‘franchisee’ duplicates the success of the ‘franchiser’ & thus shares in the success at different locations. The most prominent of a successful franchisee arrangement is that of McDonalds- where right from the façade of the restaurant, the interiors & cooking equipment to the staff uniforms, the menus, recipes & even the paper napkins & toothpicks are standardised. So much so, walking to an outlet in North Carolina would be the same as one at New Delhi.

Analyse this- what if you wanted to make the whole globe your market place without actually setting up shop there? To make this a reality was invented the concept of networking that has become possible with the aid of the Internet.

Networking is the logical extension of franchising. It is essentially harnessing the power of word of mouth communication- something that we have all experienced at sometime or other where our friend has told us about that great movie or nice restaurant that has impelled us to experiencing it.

In network marketing the customer is the marketing catalyst. He communicates the power of the marketing plan, the potential of the business, credibility of the company & the value of the products for which he gets compensated. And the compensation comes from savings on the wholesale & retail expenses by the parent company.

So what does it take to be a good net-worker? Communication skills- if you can communicate the power of the marketing plan & its ability to change lives effectively then you can be successful.

Just as in a franchisee arrangement the success of the franchiser is duplicated, in networking the net-worker duplicates the success of the leader up-line whose life has been changed by the business.

Over the last few years network marketing has spawned more millionaires than any other form of business & the success has been prominent in the Asia-Pacific rim. Countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia & the Philippines have witnessed economic miracles- thanks to network marketing.

What are the advantages of network marketing?

you can work from your home- all you need is a computer with an internet connection & hence avoid the overheads of running an office
need not hold inventory or handle or ship the product
you can leverage the international scale of the business

Now that you have got what it takes- can you take all what network marketing has to offer? Well, that’s the million dollar question!

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—About our writer:

Percy says, "I have done my Masters in Design - and work in the area of Interiors, have an interest in writing, playing golf and chess. I have written on golf tourism and about the game in general, some of which have been published in 'Golfline' which is a national publication."

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