Multilevel direct selling: socio-demographic profile, reasons for entry and personal strategies of affiliated Mexican female workers

Abstract

This research presents the socio-demographic characteristics and investigates the reasons for joining and the marketing strategies implemented by a sample of women working in the Multilevel Direct Selling (MLV) business. The work is descriptive with a qualitative approach and a Configurational perspective. Twenty women affiliated to two VDM companies in Querétaro, Mexico were interviewed in depth. Some of the results of this study show that: a) the interviewees have a high level of education, which is a relevant difference with respect to other research in Latin America and the world; b) the most important reason for entering this industry is to consider it a “good business”; c) five main types of marketing strategies developed by the participants were detected. Although the VDM model could be considered a “good business model”, the findings show that it generates significant risks (economic, psychosocial, among others) for the affiliates. Thus, the VDM model reinforces the vulnerability of women for whom not even high schooling is a guarantor of a decent income and non-precarized working conditions.