Product Integration in the U.S.

What a great week! WIN has been busy developing and learning how to integrate an international product into our lovely U.S. market. Let me be the first to say that this is an absolutely AWESOME project! Okay, that is enough of my chatter; let's move on to the work I talked about sharing with everyone who follows our blog. 

Phase 1 Marketing:

We have been working on developing customs relationships with ports in Charleston, SC to eventually bring the product over to the states. However, we are not physically importing the product in bulk until we have proven there is enough interest in our market to take on this task. Therefore, our initial phase of marketing will be to introduce the shoes using viral and guerilla marketing strategies. 

As with any marketing campaign, you need to know who you are talking to and what to say to them. This product is geared towards an urbanized audience that is interested in music like emo, rock, punk, goth and bluegrass. Yes, bluegrass listeners fit the mold. You will see why later. 

Our audience is prone to be proactive for causes they believe in and have proven they act on emotion. Recent examples of our audience's drive to make decisions based on passionate beliefs are an increase in green energy efforts, increases in Prius sales, decreases in fast food use, increases in organic products and the recently elected President Obama whose platform of CHANGE encouraged an entire country to move into a new direction. 

Knowing this information, we have created a campaign based on charitable giving. The first shoes we will introduce to the U.S. market will be a special edition shoe that supports the Rain Forest. Each consumer who buys the shoes will have $15 go to protecting the Rain Forest and keeping Brazil BEAUTIFUL. 

These shoes will be as "green" as possible. The boxing will be made out of eco-friendly material. Does anyone have any recommendations for the most eco-friendly boxing we could use? There will be a big THANK YOU for supporting Brazil's BEAUTY on the box, so that consumers know what they are wearing is HELPING. 

We are in the box design phase right now, so I am uncertain exactly what the box will look like, but you I will be posting some samples to this blog once we have decided on a few to sample. 

We are also in the process of developing several micro-sites to attract the urbanized market and developing a strong viral/guerilla campaign to drive people to these sites. We will be sending street marketers to various concerts, events and locations where our audience lives. 

I will end our blog with the information that has been provided today, but please check in with us on Friday to see what we have been up to. Remember, our doors are open! Being open means that we WELCOME comments and constructive ideas. 

Have a blessed day! 

"By focusing on the processes of life, we allow God to handle the results."-WIN's motto