They say "those who can not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." I fear that we are on the precipice of repeating one of the biggest marketing mistakes of all time...Network Marketing (aka Multi-Level Marketing).
For the benefit of those who may be unfamiliar with network marketing, the concept is predicated on the theory that a company can best market their product by having their consumers promote and sell it directly to their family members and friends. These are the most sacrosanct of all human relationships, and organizations involved in this practice sought to exploit them for financial gain.
What these companies failed to realize was the negative impact such a strategy had on the very relationships from which they were so anxious to profit. As the product continued to dominate their consumers' daily discourse, their audience would quickly lose interest and gradually sever their association.
As distressing as the egregious misuse of the term "marketing" is when used in this context, even more repugnant is the deliberate abuse of a person's social circle inherent in the implementation of such a tactic. While a consumer's network was considered a terrible thing to waste from the perspective of the organization, access did not come without a very high price. The consumer ultimately lost their friends and family members while the company lost these formerly very loyal consumers and all their future sales. Eventually society came to this same conclusion, and the concept of multi-level marketing quickly lost favour amongst most marketers (although small movements still exist which endeavour to restore this practice to its former "glory").
Today, while not specifically called "network marketing" or "multi-level marketing" some organizations are attempting to implement what can be only be characterized as online network marketing...the exploitation of social networks to sell products/services to friends and family...a rose by any other name still has thorns, and I would caution people to avoid getting pricked again!
I find it astonishing and rather disturbing that companies would attempt to blatantly violate the trust of these relationships and exploit these social networks for commercial gain. They actively recruit employees with extensive social networks and a familiarity with the most popular sites to achieve their goals. Do they honestly believe that if their employees and other members of these same online communities write/blog/tweet/digg etc. about their product that this will somehow compel anyone who reads them to go out and buy it? Have they considered how they would they feel if their friends or family members discussed a product incessantly and tried repeatedly to sell it to them? Has history taught them nothing of the disastrous implications of pursuing such a course of action?
There is, however, a solution for those organizations looking to incorporate social network marketing into their overall marketing strategies. In the same way that people tell their friends/family members about a song on the radio they really like, marketers today need only to ensure that the audience hears their hit song, and allow listeners to spread the word virally throughout all the various social networks. The most successful social network marketing strategies are those which are driven by internal compulsion and not external pressures.
Quotes provided by http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_history.html
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