BNI sees Rs 20,000-cr referral marketing opportunity in India

Mumbai, Feb 19 (PTI) The world''s largest businessnetworking organisation, BNI, sees rapid growth in thereferral marketing industry in India and it is now targetingthe business of Rs 20,000 crore in the next 10 years.

BNI offers its members the opportunity to share ideas,contacts and most importantly, business referrals.

BNI has ambitious plans for India, where it sees Rs20,000 crore referral marketing opportunity. It has 37chapters in India with over 1,200 members generating more thanRs 20-lakh worth of referral business.

After its pan-India presence, BNI India is nowtargeting 100,000 members generating over Rs 20,000-crorereferral business in the next 10-year period, BNI FounderChairman Ivan Misner told PTI here.

"Word-of-Mouth marketing is a lot like farming, it''sbased on slow, nurturing care. Word-of-Mouth may be one of theoldest forms of advertising but a new variation on the themeis producing remarkable results for businesses...What we aredoing is putting in place a structure and training people tonetwork," Misner said.

The organisation has over 5,800 chapters throughoutevery populated continent of the world. Last year alone, BNIgenerated 6.5 million referrals resulting in USD 2.8 billionworth of business for its members.

IT has also launched the BNI Business Index in India.

Created to gauge the ever-changing economic state of businessworldwide and based on quarterly global survey results, theindex report is the pulse of entrepreneurs around the world,BNI National Director Niiraj R Shah said.