Talk:Direct selling/Archives/2014

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There is an assertion that this is not the same as direct marketing but I fail to see the distinction nor is it explained in the article. -- Whpq 13:19, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

This page is essincialy the same page as Multi-level marketing but written from an employers point of view - 00.26 GMT 28 May 2010

I don't see the essential similarity. Please add it to the article.

Also, if I sell vacuum cleaners or magazine subscriptions, by going door to door, and I'm in business for myself with no downlines, then how would that be MLM? --Uncle Ed (talk) 19:18, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

While I agree it is the sources that are the problem here. Just look at how many either state or imply direct marketing is Direct selling:

"About half of all direct sales are made via MLM..." (Black Enterprise - Dec 1992 Vol. 23, No. 5 Page 76)

"Mary Kay Cosmetics, Shaklee Products, Primerica Financial Services and scores of other direct-marketing companies rely on MLM plans." (Black Enterprise Dec 1993 - Vol. 24, No. 5 Page 67)

"The Commission took its first concerted action against pyramid schemes in the 1970's during a boom in home-based business and MLM or direct selling." (FTC)

Merrilees, Bill; Miller, Dale (1999). "Direct Selling in the West and East: The Relative Roles of Product and Relationship (Guanxi) Drivers". 'Journal of Business Research 45 (3): 267–273. doi:10.1016/S0148-2963(97)00238-5.

To critics and turned-off erstwhile customers, MLM conjures up images of being hounded by door-to-door salesmen... (Kiplinger's Personal Finance Vol. 51, No. 3 Mar 1997 Page 102)

"One of my favorites, particularly for new entrepreneurs starting out, is Direct Selling, also called Network Marketing and sometimes referred to as Multilevel Marketing (MLM)" (Pilzer, Paul Zane (2007) The New Wellness Revolution Page 186)

“We're seeing a much more highly educated group of people coming in,” said Neil Offen, president of the Direct Selling Association, an MLM lobbying group." (Walsh, James (1998) You can't cheat an honest man Page 184)

"Such marketing-also known as MLM, direct selling, or network marketing..." (Macchiette, Bart; Abhijit Roy (2000) Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in Marketing pg 27)

This random sampling shows the problem trying to shows this article isn't a WP:CFORK faces--the sources that confused the two far outnumber those that clarify the difference.--BruceGrubb (talk) 07:51, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

I don't care how confusing the proponents or opponents of MLM want to get. If the fact is that direct selling is a sometimes (or even mostly) done in the MLM way, it's still distinct. I'm still trying to figure out to what extent MLM actually involves purchase by people other than the salesmen themselves.

Again, if I go door to door selling stuff to strangers, that would (I suppose by "direct selling") since I'm going to them; they're not coming to a retail location, ordering from a catolog, or browsing my web site.

If MLM says that it involves direct selling, that's one thing. But it seems there is a difference between diret selling (which is uncontroversial aside from a few people not liking to have a stranger appear at their door) - and MLM, which has attracted huge amounts of criticism (not to mention legal challenges). In contrast to direct selling, MLM appears to make more money from signing up salesmen as "downlines" rather than actually selling any product.

One of the excellent and useful things about writing an enyclopedia article as that all terminological confusion must be cleared up. If there are people using different terms (either accidentally, or because they want to blur the distinctions), we WP writers can help clarify things. --Uncle Ed (talk) 19:29, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

As I pointed out over on the Talk:Multi-level_marketing page we need the majority of reliable sources to point that out. We have the Journal of Business Research and the FTC both saying they are the same thing so we need more current reliable sources that say they are different.--BruceGrubb (talk) 05:07, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

In practice, most of the direct selling that goes on today is multilevel marketing, but historically, that was not the case, and the definition of them is distinct; multilevel marketing is a subset of direct selling. I think this article at Entrepreneur.com accurately makes the distinction and meets the reliable source criteria: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/62058 ScottAllenOnline (talk) 16:38, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

direct selling

in most cases direct selling is a one on one verbal presentation of a product,unlike other forms of advertising it only involves direct communication with the seller that is one of the advantages of it to consumers they get to ask questions about the product which you could never do with the other forms e.g direct markerting. consumers get an opportunity to get the information they need about the product — Preceding unsigned comment added by Manqoba mkhabela (talk • contribs) 11:17, 15 September 2014 (UTC)