Multilevel Marketing Has Reached China
July 2, 2008 - The other day I was contacted by a Chinese woman that I recently met at a networking event in Shanghai. She asked to meet with me to “discuss business”. We agreed to meet at a Starbucks.
With my limited Chinese and her equally bad English, it took a while to get to the point of what she wanted to discuss. She kindly pulled out some paper print outs of her company’s description written in English. As I read on about the company being a reputable producer of Networking and Healthcare technologies, I noticed her pulling something else out of her bag and laying it on the table in front of me. I looked it for several minutes before realizing what it was. As it turns out, it was a pack of sanitary napkins. She was making a direct sales pitch for a revolutionary new sanitary napkin that she wanted to sell both to the local and expat female markets.
Now I was completely confused. When I first met her, she told me her company produced mobile phone components. How she moved from mobile phone components to feminine napkins is beyond me.
She continued to explain how this was a very lucrative business opportunity and the market for sanitary napkins was growing exponentially! She hoped to capitalize on my network of expat friends and business associates to help her distribute her product. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that most women (at least most expat women that I know) probably wouldn’t use the product and that in fact it would be extremely creepy for her to approach any one of them at a networking event.
I let her finish her pitch. However, when she mentioned that she would arrange for a special demonstration at her company’s office, I then decided this was a perfect time to end the meeting. I respectfully declined her offer and wished her the best of luck with her investment opportunity of a lifetime.
