Shoes, Shoes, Shoes!

It's a beautiful day here in Tennessee and our Chicago office reports the same! I hope all is well with everyone following us at the WIN Firm! Today, we are going to get back on the topic of Keep Brazil Beautiful: our shoe marketing concept that communicates sustainability.

Previous posts on Keep Brazil Beautiful began with figuring design layouts, working with other groups in Brazil and developing a strong concept to communicate to the masses. Yesterday, I posted a topic on simple marketing, mentioning my trip to Chattanooga over the weekend. This trip was fun and very informative. In fact, I was able to shop a potential competitor and compare our concept with their concept to receive some qualitative feedback. The results were awesome for Keep Brazil Beautiful!

Realizing that we had first touched a good side of people with our initial concept of donating a portion of our shoe sales back to the Rain Forest, we have sought to strengthen this concept and have received great feedback along with some attention from other shoe companies in Brazil and here in the U.S. Therefore, our concept is fully dedicated to promoting a truly "Green" and "Sustainable" cause through reactive and proactive sustainability measures. This approach will enable our client to far surpass any competition that exists today.

We have mentioned that our marketing is for all to see. However, out of respect and per client request, we will not reveal the total sustainability concept to you in our blog, but don't worry: you'll see it all over the place soon enough! Just know that we do a lot of field research and through our research we have discovered key reasons why we as consumers buy shoes and how certain companies like, Tom's Shoes, successfully sell their shoes based on cause-oriented marketing concepts. Therefore, we have modified our concept to encompass complete, and whole sustainability. Did you know that when you buy our client's shoes you will be supporting economic development and growth? YOU WILL! Way to go! Way to support progress!

Your support will be shared by all those who wear our client's shoes and each of you wearing them will know that you have truly made a difference in the lives of those in-need. Our concept is not only reactive, meaning we don't merely wish to contribute to an existing problem. Rather, we wish to provide opportunities for growth through funding of prevention methods to problems/challenges. This is something our client's competitors are no where near doing and if they were to read this blog, they still would be far behind what we have developed.

Our marketing of these shoes will enable people to develop tools for future growth. We aren't simply going to help those in-need, we are going to EMPOWER them. Actually, YOU are going to be the KEY DRIVER to this empowerment. Just think! Your purchase of a wonderful shoe will not only make you feel good and look good, it will truly provide growth opportunities for our intended beneficiaries. Thanks to our good friend, Dan Oda, we have been able to see a much larger picture of the power we have to market this concept for our client. Therefore, we are proud to use our expertise and skills in marketing to promote PROGRESS! In fact, YOU are the answer! Congratulations for caring!! By the way, I hope you enjoy the shoes!

Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. Marketing
WIN Firm

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

Product Integration Updates

Good day to everyone following us at WIN! If you are a first time reader of our blog, you will find that we are sharing all of our marketing strategies on various projects throughout the year. For all of you who have posted comments and given us insight into our current Brazil project, I would like to say, "Thank YOU!" Remember, anyone is welcome to share some advice you may have or comment (respectfully) about our project. Okay, it is off to the updates!

Phase I continued: Rewarding the consumer
I posted two questions today on one of my LinkedIn Groups and will pose those two questions to you as well, but want to briefly explain what we seek to accomplish by asking these questions. We are trying to evaluate the best methods of rewarding our consumers for purchasing the shoes we are marketing. For now, $15 of your purchase goes to our Keep Brazil Beautiful fund, which is part of our marketing campaign: Keep Brazil Beautiful. Therefore, we are focused on making sure that consumers are fully confident in the shoe's brand and its efforts to support the Rain Forest.

By understanding the most effective ways of demonstrating where actual dollars (the $15 donated) are going, we can build trust among consumers. Too many companies have fallen into the "Green" trend only to fall flat on their face by not practicing what they market. We are not a firm that believes in these tactics; therefore, we are studying the easiest way to demonstrate and build a brand of trust among our customers.

Here are the two questions we would like to have answered, so please comment:

1. What can the company do to provide you with proof of your donation after purchase?

2. What recognition would you like to receive for your purchase and donation?

That's it for me today everyone! Please answer these questions and throw in a few comments of your own. Again, we are open and WELCOME you to follow our marketing journies. Have a great day!

Blessings,
Chris

Chris Teague
V.P. Marketing- WIN Firm

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