Network Marketing is MLM is Multilevel

I don't know who they are trying to fool, but some companies swear they are not MLM or Multilevel marketing or even Network Marketing Companies.

I can see why they want to distance themselves from those terms. In the past much fraud has been committed by companies called MLM companies. It has gotten a bad name. Here is my take on it: If you are paying commissions on more than one level, that is multi-level. If you are marketing a product, that is marketing. Put those together and you have, surprise, multi-level marketing.

Distributors of some companies are brainwashed to believe they are "Referral Marketing" and not MLM. Ok.. look, they pay a multi-level commission, they refer others, which is networking. Who are they trying to fool? These folks are so entrenched that I've gotten into arguments about calling them network marketers. They don't even like the term "distributor".

It doesn't really hurt anything to call them as they wish to be called. We all can refer to them as "referral marketers" , and wink wink, we know what that means.