With its new venture, Indo-French Network Ltd (IFNL), it hopes to utilise the major USP of other direct marketing ventures like Amway or Oriflame India -- of making the customer also the distributor, while taking away the major problem -- lack of brand choice.

In the Amway- or Oriflame-type systems, initial customers are also appointed as distributors, who in turn can appoint more distributors to sell the products. To be appointed as a distributor, a certain amount has to be paid to obtain the stocks for selling.

The distributor gets stocks directly from the company. He or she earns sales margins from their own sales as well as sales effected by distributors appointed by them. While this system offers the potential of a virtually endless no-costdistribution chain, there is little to distinguish between a customer and a distributor.

IFNL director John Salvador, on the other hand, says what his company is doing is not direct marketing but `bring a super store to the doorsteps of the customer'.

Kicked off with an equity base of Rs 50 lakh, IFNL will market consumer products manufactured by other companies through its version of direct marketing.

The concept works the following way. There would be a main service depot (MSD) which would stock all the goods. Under it would be the customer service depot (CSDS). The latter will door-deliver the products as demanded by a customer. But for a customer to avail of the above concept he or she will have to become a member of IFNL, at a one time cost of Rs 1,000.

Members can order for any product - of any brand - from the CSD's, with discounts for some of the products thrown in. The company claims possible savings of up to 40 per cent per month on bills.

There are other benefits as well. Any memberenrolling a new member gets credit facility from IFNL up to Rs 1,000. With addition of five new members, the customer gets an IFNL `credit card' with a credit limit of Rs 1,000 along with gift cheques worth Rs 1,500. For ten new enrollments, the member gets the credit card with the option of either taking gift cheques worth Rs 4,000 or a Philips audio system. Fifteen new enrollments fetch the credit card and the option of gift cheques worth Rs 6500 or a Usha Lexus room cooler. And so on.

The customer need not worry about the absence of a particular product of a particular brand in a super store or elsewhere, claims Salvador. IFNL ensures that the product of the preferred brand is made available right at the doorstep, he added.

While the direct marketing concept pursued by some companies involves marketing of their own products, there is no marketing of products of either IFNL, or IFL he explained.

The company would be setting up MSD's in every state. Around 40 to 50 of them are envisaged in the entirecountry. The company's existing clearing and forwarding (C&C) agents would also constitute the MSD, Salvador said. There will be at least 30 CSDs under MSDs. The number of CSD's would differ from state to state, he added. Both MSD & CSDs here to pay IFNL a certain undisclosed amount for stocking the products.

The company is targeting a client base of 30,000 and a turnover of Rs 5 crores by the end of the current financial year. Salvador maintained that already 1500 customers have enrolled with the company as members.