TY - JOUR
T1 - Marketing of belief
T2 - Intertextual construction of network marketers' identities
AU - Kong, Kenneth C C
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2001/7
Y1 - 2001/7
N2 - Network marketing, as an enterprise 'using' friendship to promote products, has been notorious for its exploitative use of interpersonal meaning. This study examines how identities are textually transgressed and manipulated in network marketing discourse, a nexus of business, interpersonal, and institutional relationships. Using Halliday's systemic-functional framework, a comparison of five director's messages, three from network marketing organizations, one from an ordinary business enterprise, and one from a voluntary social organization shows that network marketing texts are constructed intertextually and dialogically in sophisticated ways. It is argued that network marketing organizations (NMOs) do not simply sell their products; they also attempt to reconstruct their sales agents' identities to the advantage of their business operations.
AB - Network marketing, as an enterprise 'using' friendship to promote products, has been notorious for its exploitative use of interpersonal meaning. This study examines how identities are textually transgressed and manipulated in network marketing discourse, a nexus of business, interpersonal, and institutional relationships. Using Halliday's systemic-functional framework, a comparison of five director's messages, three from network marketing organizations, one from an ordinary business enterprise, and one from a voluntary social organization shows that network marketing texts are constructed intertextually and dialogically in sophisticated ways. It is argued that network marketing organizations (NMOs) do not simply sell their products; they also attempt to reconstruct their sales agents' identities to the advantage of their business operations.
KW - Critical discourse analysis
KW - Identity
KW - Intertextuality
KW - Network marketing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0035610289&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0957926501012004004
DO - 10.1177/0957926501012004004
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:0035610289
SN - 0957-9265
VL - 12
SP - 473
EP - 503
JO - Discourse and Society
JF - Discourse and Society
IS - 4
ER -