The Best Endorsement Of Marketing: Max Ki And Tom Shoes

In " social responsibility "Corporate citizenship" has changed from marginal discourse to a mainstream. fashion In today's discourse, entrepreneurs who have long been entangled in social responsibility and business management are often more interested in such an initiative: achieving "good business" through "doing good deeds". Such a statement sounds very beautiful, but in addition to those who are engaged in environmental protection related industries, they dare to claim that they are speaking for themselves. Blake Mcski (Blake Mycoskie) Tom Bbu Dal (Toms Shoes) will be the best endorsement of this path.

Max Ki is a natural entrepreneur. He describes himself as a "continuous entrepreneur" and "travel addiction". As early as sophomore year, Max Ki dropped out of school and opened a laundry to serve college students, and later involved in reality TV shows, outdoor advertising and other industries. By 2006, he had successfully created 5 pure lines. profit Enterprises of nature. At this point, he began to feel that it was time to do something meaningful besides making money.

In his schooldays, Max Ki saw from one of his predecessors that helping others, whether based on religious belief or human natural feelings, is the best way to make their lives more meaningful. This predecessor is Bob, a self-made billionaire. Dedman (Bob Dedman), the founder of the American Club company, which pioneered the modern club. When Max Ki, who was still doing laundry business, asked him how to do business, his answer was The more you give, the more you live. "The more you give, the more you get," which has always been a hidden belief in Max's heart. So where is the opportunity for capital?

In 2006, Max Ki came to Argentina to learn polo, tango and community service. There, Max foundation discovered that extreme Poverty, many children do not have shoes to wear, long barefoot in the local excessive silicon dioxide land, and suffering from a variety of foot diseases. So Max decided that making these children wear shoes is the most significant job at the moment. Instead of going to donate hundreds of thousands of pairs of shoes, he hopes to establish a long-term mechanism to keep the project running enduring. In June 2006, Max founded Toms Shoes with his own 300 thousand dollars in Santa Monica, Gary, and the "TOM" three letters were taken from the word "Tomorrow", meaning "for tomorrow's shoes". Unlike previously established pure profit companies, Tom shoes promise that every time a pair of Tom shoes is sold, the company will donation A pair of shoes is worn to all the children in need around the world. This is the company's famous "one for one" mode.

Tom cloth shoes, which are based on Argentina's traditional cloth shoes "Alpargata" as the design source, are guided by the minimalist design concept. The upper and the shoe are pure cotton, soft leather shoes and anti slip soles, which are very light and comfortable shoes. This makes buying shoes not only for good deeds, but also for good experience. So once launched, it soon aroused widespread response in the US market. Max's original plan was to bring two hundred pairs of shoes back to Argentina in the first year, and the result was 10000 pairs, that is to say, 10000 pairs of Tom shoes were sold in the first year. By the beginning of 2007, customers had gone far beyond the United States, from all over the world. Order Flying around. {page_break}

As an experienced and continuous entrepreneur, Max is well versed in the way of marketing. In April 8, 2008, Max Ki launched the "barefoot day" campaign, calling on volunteers to walk barefoot on this day and experience the feelings of poor groups without shoes. This movement is very popular, especially among young people. At the same time every year, one hundred thousand people in cities all over the world participate in this movement. In addition, the company has launched the "Tramp Tour" campaign, spreading its brand and ideas on various campuses across the United States. The popularity of social media in recent years has also provided the most effective tool for the spread of Tom's cloth shoes. At present, Tom cloth shoes have nearly 300 thousand fans in Facebook accounts, and about 400000 followers on Twitter. In 2009, Tom cloth shoes were very popular in Hollywood, and were widely sought after by many stars. By 2010, Tom shoes had more than 500 stores in the world, including mainstream retailers such as Whole Foods and Nordstrom, and sold more than 100 pairs of shoes, which means that it had already sent 1 million pairs of shoes. At present, its donation has been radiated to 28 countries, and this number is increasing.

Of course, Max foundation does not expect to rely on a cloth shoe to play the whole world. Enriching the product line will become an inevitable choice. In addition to the introduction of more abundant shoes, the company has also introduced T-shirts, ornaments, greeting cards and other products. The latest product is sunglasses. Whether these diversified products can provide a more solid guarantee for the sustainable operation of the company is still unknown. Moreover, it is doubtful whether the success of the American market with a well-developed sense of social responsibility can be completely replicated in other markets. In the Chinese market, as long as we look at Taobao's "original single" and "merchandiser" Tom shoes, people will be worried about their fate in the Chinese market. Of course, the formation of large scale fake products on Taobao itself illustrates this. brand Considerable success has been achieved.

Even if the crowd gathered, not everyone voted for the beautiful pattern of Tom's cloth shoes. Critics believe that if you look at charity, spend 44 dollars on a pair of basic Tom shoes, then let the company donate a pair of shoes, not to spend 20 dollars to buy a pair of shoes, directly to charity organizations to donate the remaining more than 20 dollars. Moreover, "no shoes to wear is not the only or biggest predicament faced by the poor". Therefore, in terms of charity, "one for one" is not the most perfect model. In addition, critics also pointed out that Tom shoes in some areas where labor rights have not yet been effectively protected, such as Ethiopia and China, are also hard to get rid of Americans' extremely sensitive "sweatshop" labels.

From the standpoint of pure charity, these criticisms are not unreasonable, but there are two factors that we must clarify. First of all, Max Ki never said that Tom shoes were a non-profit charitable organization. From beginning to end, he positioned the company as a "profit making organization" and, more accurately, "a profitable organization with continuous ability to do good". Max Ki said: "my idea is that Tom shoes will tell us that for entrepreneurs, making money and doing good deeds for the world will no longer be the other or the other choice. I want to prove that conscious capitalism is a viable business model for innovators all over the world, and entrepreneurs can be ambassadors of human nature.

Secondly, for consumers, "no objection to doing good deeds" and "willing to do good" are two different things. Tom's cloth shoes are inspired by "willing to do good". In fact, 85 of the company's staff and interns are customers of the company, which shows that this model has a charm that inspires people to devote themselves to it. Why is there such charm? Perhaps the answer is what a young customer said: "I would like to buy Tom cloth shoes. I think this is cool."

Indeed, for many young people, the simple design of Tom's cloth shoes, its cotton or linen fabrics, comfortable insoles, as a pair of shoes, has a "cool" element, and it will be even more cool when wearing these shoes becomes a good sign.