Cause Marketing

Send Me Something Nice, I'm for Sale Well, it's happened. I've now officially sold out my integrity as journalist blogger. Yesterday I got a package from TOMS Shoes with the handsome alpergatas loafers on the left with a nice note from Blake Mycoskie, the founder and CEO of TOMS Shoes. I've twice posted on the great appeal of TOMS’ no-nonsense cause-related marketing; when you buy a pair of TOMS Shoes, another pair goes to a needy kid in someplace like Africa or South America. It's a great approach that puts shoes on kids’ feet generates scads of word of mouth for TOMS. In my posts I made a few suggestions about other things they could do to keep the momentum going. In gratitude, Jake from TOMS emailed me and asked me if I'd like a free pair. And in a momentary lapse of ethical propriety, I thought, what the heck? So go ahead, Montblanc, Rollex, Steinway, send me something nice. Especially something that can be easily liquidated (such gifts are taxable in th...

TOMS Shoes of Santa Monica, California has taken a page from MAC Cosmetics and created a strikingly straightforward cause-related marketing promotion. When you buy a pair of their shoes, another pair is given to a kid who needs them. Here’s the language from the TOMS website : “you buy a pair of TOMS and I give a pair to a child on your behalf.” The shoes are Blake Mycoskie’s more fashionable take on the traditional Argentine slip-on shoe called an alpargatas . Mycoskie, who didn’t have any prior fashion or shoe industry experience before starting TOMS, found alpergatas on a trip to Argentina. He also found a lot of Argentine kids running around shoeless. He loved the shoes and put the two notions together. “I said, I’m going to start a shoe company, and for every pair I sell, I’m going to give one pair to a kid in need,” Mycoskie told Time Magazine . The shoes are modestly priced and come in a range of materials and colors. TOMS and Mycoskie get tons of publicity. The shoes are sold...