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One company in the US adopted "Buy one - GIVE one free" as its core business philosophy, and went on to become a huge marketing success. On a visit to Argentina in 2006, Blake Mycoskie saw a number of children walking and running barefoot - they couldn't afford footwear. When he went back home to the US, he set up Toms Shoes (now simply called Toms - http://www.toms.com/) with a simple philosophy: for every pair of shoes that he sold, he would donate one pair to a needy person.
Ordinary products - extraordinary sales
Toms shoes were not really trendy in terms of fashion - in fact the business started with only one style of fairly ordinary looking shoes. A recipe for disaster, you would think - except that the message this ordinary looking shoe came with was so powerful that it caught on like wildfire all over in America. When you bought a pair of Toms shoes, you knew that you had enabled a poor child somewhere in the world to experience what it means to walk with shoes.
The "One-For-One Company"
The company was now in serious business, much to the amazement of competition. It expanded its range of shoes, brought in more colours and styles - but all the time, kept its basic message to consumers the same, and soon became known as the "One-for-One Company".
http://www.toms.com/
CSR - from corporate social responsibility to consumer social responsibility
Blake started using social media very intelligently from 2009, to promote the philosophy of his business. His proposition was strikingly different and resonated with consumers across the country. People had found a "cool" way of giving, they felt nice about themselves when they bought a pair of Toms shoes.
Toms shoes attracted quite a fan following, with many celebrities including Julia Roberts, Keira Knightley, Scarlett Johannson, Anne Hathaway and many more finding it cool and trendy to buy a pair of Toms shoes and promote it on social media. Business was on a roll for Toms shoes. Many companies have active CSR programs and give a lot. What Toms shoes did was to redefine CSR from corporate social responsibility to consumer social responsibility - it directly linked every purchase by every consumer to a social responsibility target that it had taken on itself. CSR was no longer the company's responsibility - it became a target that every consumer owned and gladly undertook.
Toms shoes has provided more than 35 million pairs of shoes to children in 70 countries, including India.
More than a business - now a movement
Tom's has stayed focused on its goal and has steadily expanded its product suite and by extention, the number of lives it touches every day. Toms shoes has provided more than 35 million pairs of shoes to children in 70 countries, including India. In 2011, the company introduced a range of sunglasses, with a promise that every purchase would enable someone in the world to get a much needed pair of spectacles. Toms eyewear has restored good eyesight to over 275,000 people across the world. The company introduced coffee powder, with a proposition of donating clean and safe drinking water to the coffee growing communities, that had no access to safe water. Toms takes the giving aspect very seriously - with stringent audits to ensure that its giving programs around the world adhere to strict guidelines set by the company.
Toms is not just a multi-product company - it is a movement now.
What can advisors imbibe from Toms?
You don't have to be a large corporation to imbibe the spirit of what Toms has done - every IFA in this country can replicate this model, if they desire, and find a great way to grow their business and at the same time serve the community.
Think about this: inform all your clients and prospects that you have introduced a new program - for every Rs.50,000 SIP they start, you will start a Rs.100 micro SIP for a needy person nominated by them, and pledge to continue the micro SIP for as long as their SIP continues. You would have launched your own version of "Buy one - give one SIP" program!
That eats away 20% of your earnings from your client's SIP - but do you think it will be an additional "feel good" factor that can swing larger SIPs for you? Do you think continuity of the micro SIP would add its bit to encourage clients to stay invested for the long term, and not stop a SIP at the first sign of market volatility?
Make "Buy one - GIVE one SIP free" your business driver
Once you've executed your first 5 "Buy one - GIVE one SIP free" investments, put up pictures and real life stories of these 5 families on your website, share these on social media, include them in your brochure. Encourage some of your prominent clients who sign up for this initiative to come out with a message: "I gave a SIP - have you?" Learn from Tom's shoes and replicate those learnings in your own communities. You will find that giving up 20% of your earnings to launch this program turns out to be one of your smartest marketing ideas.
All content in Marketing Wiz is created by Wealth Forum and should not be construed as views of Kotak MF.
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