Network Marketing Consultants not the same as Independent Consultants

It seems like in the world of network marketing (aka MLM), the term 'consultant' is being tossed around quite freely. More and more, I am stumbling across network marketing blogs or articles where they refer to the reps as "consultants". In some network marketing companies, that is the actual title of the reps. Mary Kay for example, refers to their reps as 'independent beauty consultants'.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. For years, the network marketing industry has struggled with legitimacy issues. Naming the representatives 'consultants' does add a certain level of legitimacy to the name. And when someone asks a Mary Kay Rep what they do for a living, I suppose "Independent Consultant" sounds much better than Mary Kay Rep.

However, not all consultants are associated with network marketing companies. Not by a long shot. There are many other kinds of "Independent Consultants" out there. I would also argue that a Mary Kay rep is not truly an 'Independent Consultant' because they are bound by certain rules created by the company. In most cases, this argument would apply to any network marketing company because the reps do not truly have a independent business. In fact, they are 'dependant' on many factors outside their control: such as the compensation plan and structure. A true independent consultant would not have such constraints.

So I think the network marketing companies might be ok with calling their reps 'consultants'. But independent? I don't think so. What do you think? Any network marketing consultants want to chime in?