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

Campaign Concept

Good day to all following WIN's work! I hope each of you have been blessed with a wonderful day. Again, thank you for following our work; we hope it is benefitting your marketing approaches as well. As always, I want everyone to know that our doors are open and we at WIN believe marketing should be shared instead of kept as some secret art form. We want to turn marketing into more of a science than a guessing game, so our blog is designed to be collaborative effort with all of you to ensure we are taking the proper steps that benefit our clients. Okay, here we go!

Keep Brazil Beautiful

Since our shoe company is based in Brazil, we want to give back to this beautiful country. The shoes we are marketing are the tool to be used to help raise awareness for our cause to replenish the Rain Forest. As David Pennington commented on our blog last week, wearing your shoes shows everyone you care. Therefore, we are going to take the shoe's brand to a new level of social awareness. The company and brand will be known for its social consciousness and be seen as a brand that represents YOU as caring. 

There are several causes that companies have used to promote their products and we have studied or discovered several amazing campaigns thanks to those of you who have been following us and others. We are currently posting questions all over the web and have received SUPER responses! If you responded, "THANK YOU!" 

We are taking these responses and comparing them to similar campaigns based on social causes so that we can fully understand what works. We believe marketing is a science of discovery and want to go away from the art of guessing. Our clients do not pay us to guess, so we make sure we focus on the processes needed to ensure we are not guessing; thus, this campaign is all about using what works and will work. 

We have designed the Keep Brazil Beautiful concept as an offering for other companies and you to see our brand as one that helps to replenish what it uses. How do we do this? We will operate as many non-profits do, raising money for a cause, but giving you something COOL in return; a comfortable, urban and professional looking shoe that shows YOU care. 

We are even going a step further than most companies by establishing a non-profit foundation that uses the shoes as on of its fundraising efforts for earth preservation. Our brand will connect with all those who have a heart for change and progress, but will also connect with those who want to feel good about the products they buy. These shoes are designed to be marketed around this concept of: Doing equals Caring. Keep Brazil Beautiful is about Being Beautiful. 

Come back Friday for more! 

Blessings,

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