Friday, May 29, 2009

Tools for Communication

Brasil...Que BELEZA! Bem vindo a gente! What did I just write? Well, I basically wrote that Brazil is Beautiful and welcome to our blog. On behalf of all those hard workers here at the WIN Firm, I say, "THANK YOU" for following the blog. I want to share with you some of the tools we have chosen to communicate our concept: Keep Brazil Beautiful.

Selecting the appropriate tools for communication is very important, and we like to use all the tools that work. Would you like to build a house with a hammer and nails alone? You might, but we at the WIN Firm don't take those chances. Therefore, we are not going to put all of our energies into only using the trendy new media of today to reach our audience. What? We are not going to start a FaceBook fan page and play on Twitter everyday? Nope, those things don't really make anyone money and our clients want to get paid. We are about producing results through careful processes and procedures.

The first tool we want to use is the good ole television. Yes, people do still like T.V. in the states and we will use a creative commercial communicating the concept of caring and be proactive. We will develop a commercial series that grabs you and puts you into a group you feel comfortable belonging to. Do you ever see beer commercials with one person drinking by themselves? Don't think so. We all want to be part of something, so you will get your chance with this campaign.

The next tool we are going to use will be events. We want you to experience the thrill of giving and receiving, so all of you will be invited to partake.

The third tool revealed today will be a customized web-site unlike any other charity based site. This site will allow you to personally see where your money is going and give you the opportunity to dictate how it is spent. You will be amazed!

That's it for today. Catch us next time...Same place...Keep BRAZIL BEAUTIFUL!

Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. Marketing
WIN Firm

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

It's All About YOU!

Wow! We are already in the middle of the week! I am pleased to report that our concept: Keep Brazil Beautiful is continuing to grow and everyone here at the WIN Firm looks forward to launching the promotional program and seeing our client reap the rewards of being socially responsible. Well, let's dive right into the work...it's awesome!

With all the hype around green marketing these days, we have really nailed a concept for our client that is going to change the way they sell shoes and bring them a greater reward than sales. What is this reward? Our client is going to build a connection with YOU, and YOU are going to build a relationship with our client. The marketing strategy behind Keep Brazil Beautiful is centered around continued growth and longevity. While short term sales are going to please our client's CFO and various Product managers, the future WIN is building through this marketing campaign is going to deliver something better than mere ROI numbers; we are going to connect YOU with our client for life.

Was that previous sentence a bold statement or what! I stand behind that statement and will do so as long as this campaign continues. Why? My reason is that Keep Brazil Beautiful is not just a sales or marketing ploy to make you buy shoes, though the client's intent is to sell lots of shoes. This campaign is truly about helping the environment, producing sustainable growth and empowering students to be socially aware. Keep Brazil Beautiful is designed to go beyond the traditional non-profit model of charging for services to react to a given need; rather, our model is going to proactively strive to reduce our global footprint along with reacting by replenishing rubber trees.

It's all about YOU! Yes, we at the WIN Firm realized that Keep Brazil Beautiful is one of those causes you are going to be proud of and support; it's not merely a marketing concept. We are turning our client's shoes into a vehicle that promotes caring. Of course marketing this concept is going to make our client money, but the non-profit side of this concept is about giving and receiving. Is this green marketing? Well, maybe; but, we are striving to grow and green marketing is merely a trend right now. As we all know, trends die, so our marketing is about future growth and causes are the future. In fact, causes are the past, present and future. All we are doing from the marketing side is communicating this concept in a manner that fully engages you and prompts you to take action. Our client saw the value of this concept as soon as we presented our canvas, and we are thankful to be working with such an astounding and responsible client.

Are we the first to realize that marketing based on a cause is the way to go? Of course not! However, you will see that our strategies and methods for communicating this cause are effective. One of our followers of this blog asked a question about the research we did over the past ten years on non-profits. J.R., here is your answer to the research. Non-profits that are able to mobilize and raise millions of dollars are the ones who know how to communicate. A simple answer yes, but I will elaborate. United Way communicates very well. Using visual images that not only inform us of what they are doing, but give us a direction to follow, the United Way has mastered the art of speaking to our conscious or I should say, subconscious. Have you seen a thermometer posted on a street corner displaying the amount of money raised up to a certain point? Did you realize the goal was not met and have a sudden feeling that you should give? Were you relieved to know that you held on to the letter your boss sent around about their participation in United Way as a company? Whether United Way knew that this visual image would successfully communicate the urgency and importance of giving subconsciously or not makes no difference, the point is that this simple way of communicating to you on the surface and penetrating the surface works.

The WIN Firm uses studies like United Way and other successful studies from today's leading non-profit organizations to learn how effective their communications are at reaching you. Twitter, MySpace, FaceBook and all of that social media jazz is the "thing" to do today if you want to stay up with the times. Yes, this new way of communicating is important, but organizations that keep their brand and last know how to use all available tools of communication to fuse the art and science of marketing that works for them. These companies and organizations are the ones that may struggle finacially during difficult economic times, but their image never tarnishes; thus, their perceived value remains strong. We at the WIN Firm use this knowledge so that our marketing strategies go beyond the short-term, quick fix solutions that many businesses get caught up in, and we provide them with the tools to achieve the short and long term successes that keep their fire burning.

As I end this blog for today, I do want to say that everyone who has commentted and provided WIN feedback is great! THANK YOU! Dan, we will be talking later this week and your ideas are right on target with where our firm wants to take clients. I hope everyone has enjoyed this post today and that you be blessed in all you do!

Blessings,
Chris

Chris Teague
V.P. Marketing
WIN Firm

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Working because we Care!

Good day everyone! I hope all is well in your world today and thank you for keeping up with us at the WIN Firm. Our CMO, Catherine Poole, is going to begin posting a motivational blog for everyone on our blogspot called, The Thursday Kick! I am very thankful to have such a dedicated team of marketing gurus to work with and our cohesiveness produces wonderful results for our partners/clients.

Are you ready to discover how things are progressing with the concept: Keep Brazil Beautiful?

First, before we begin, I want to thank Dan Oda for a wonderful conversation about more giving opportunities related to this campaign. Dan, "OBRIGADAO, VIU!" The beauty of not being secretive and allowing others to view what we are working on has proven to be a great business model for WIN. This Wikinomics approach to working with doors open makes us much better marketers for our clients. In fact, I have received a suggestion to make a profile change and another regarding a spelling mistake on Exxon Mobile; both were great suggestions. See, this feedback is exactly what we need to be sharp!

Now, to the project! We mentioned in last week's blog that design and style were removed from our list of deliverables for time being due to further research needed on shoe-wearing consumers. Therefore, we began researching consumer behavior in terms of shoes being worn today and also spent the past week mapping out our course of giving models so that people truly know their investment is helping. We want everyone to not only buy our client's fabulous shoes because they are cool, trendy and comfortable; rather, we desire a stronger, more emotional connection to you, the consumer, than the simple thrill of owning some new shoes.

We have taken our giving concept to a new level, and Dan gave us some wonderful insight into being proactive in helping Brazil versus our original reactive approach. We decided that being proactive is what many non-profit organizations lack today in the U.S. It seems every grant I write for Second Harvest Food Bank is based on a reaction to an identified problem: hunger. What are we doing to prevent hunger? This question led me to think harder about our Keep Brazil Beautiful concept. What can we do to truly bless the country that gives us so much rubber for the shoes we wear? What about being even more environmentally aware while promoting education as well?

Yes, we are going deeper into our concept. Why? We work because we care for our clients, and we develop marketing concepts for clients who care for you, me and the environment. Thus, there is a new development of giving. Dan posed a great idea of tree planting that involves partnering with Google, using its mapping software along with cross-promotion efforts to implement an "Adopt a Tree for Brazil's Children" campaign. You would continue buying these wonderful shoes, knowing that your money is going back to replenish the Rain Forest, but you will also be able to provide ongoing support that truly Keeps Brazil Beautiful.

By adopting a tree, your investment will go to the future of Brazil. We will start a tree forest on a University's property that is close to the Rain Forest. We are now working on the logistics of making this idea a reality and furthering our campaign, so more information is to come around this new development. Imagine, you will help the environment through specific tree placement and planting as well as help provide work opportunities and education to University students. Imagine a campaign like this in the U.S. Wow! Working because we care is not only going to sell a whole lot of shoes for our client, but we are also proactively taking care of people and the environment. Maybe we should be a non-profit marketing firm! I hope you have enjoyed today's post! Please comment.

Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. Marketing
WIN Firm

Thursday, May 7, 2009

The Movement

Welcome to today! Welcome to the movement! We at the WIN Firm enjoy seeing the care, compassion and creativity people today are displaying all over the world. I hope those of you who are following our work find what we do to be inspiring. Yes, we said INSPIRING! Our goals are to share marketing concepts that help us all be more active in caring for this world we live in and its inhabitants. Okay, I will stop with the humanitarian rant for now, because you came to read about our progress on the concept we have developed: Keep Brazil Beautiful.

First, let me applaud the efforts of my colleagues and all of you who have contributed to our development of this exciting marketing concept we call Keep Brazil Beautiful. Now, I would like to dive right into what we have been doing the past few days since I last posted our work.

We have recently changed a bit of direction in our development and feel that the designing of boxes and possibly changing the design of the shoes is going to be put on hold due to the research we have gathered up to this point. Want to know what we have learned and are learning? We have discovered that people all over the place are wearing cool, hip and comfortable shoes. So, we want to know why people prefer the shoes they are wearing without the usual response of price or style. Rather, we are developing research to understand that subconscious reason why you wear the shoes you wear. Therefore, we have arranged plenty of field observations to be conducted and will report those to you.

One activity we have been doing is meeting with other marketing professionals and designers and sharing our concept with them. We have received valuable insight and feedback to our concept and are constantly learning more everyday. One marketing group shared that their clients are moving to communicating more eco-friendly products to consumers. In fact, a recent study done by Home Depot revealed sales increases by products that communicated their friendliness to the environment despite the lower priced competitive product. Home Depot is just one example of many, but it has proved our social cause marketing concept is right on track.

We embrace this social consciousness people are demonstrating and have designed our campaign to let them display their caring through the use of a practical item, shoes. Imagine walking into a board meeting seeing the CEO of Exxon Moblie wearing these "friendly" shoes you have been hearing about. Would that change your perception of this massive oil company? Just think, these shoes are part of a movement and you can be part of that movement: The movement of caring.

I know this blog has been pretty short, but I wanted to post an update for our faithful followers and anyone interested in seeing what marketing looks like behind the scenes.

Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. Marketing
WIN Firm

Friday, May 1, 2009

Doing our Homework Pays Off

I hope everyone following the WIN Firm is having a fantastic day and I wish you well this weekend! Today's brief topic covers the importance of doing your homework. Our teachers had right all along: we will always have homework! Well, that is true for my colleagues and me at WIN. Are you ready to learn what took us several years to learn in about five minutes?

What we have researched, studied, reviewed, analyzed...or whatever we were doing, has enabled us to develop a strong strategy to delivering our shoe concept. Keep Brazil Beautiful is not a campaign that we sat around singing camp-fire songs one evening and came up with. The social cause of our marketing concept arose many years ago when our executive team began serving on various non-profit boards, because we wanted to make a difference. Guess what we learned over the past 10 years or so serving on these non-profit boards: You want to make a difference too!

I will not bother you with statistics today, though I am sure some of you are interested in data sets. Rather, I will summarize what we have all learned over the span of 10 years: People care about giving, and those who have, do give. Corporations who give see the biggest return for their efforts too! Don't believe me? Have you been to Wal-Mart lately? Did you see all of those shoppers? More important, I hope you noticed how the employees and have taken notice to the non-layoff of employees while other "Big Fish" are downsizing to no end. Wal-Mart gives more than any other corporation and they seek to truly make a positive impact on their communities.

Our shoes are designed on giving back. We know that you care and that you are still buying shoes even if you won't buy that designer outfit. Therefore, our concept is backed by over a decade of actual and direct research, observation and participation. Thanks for reading and please help us Keep Brazil Beautiful.

Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. Marketing-WIN Firm