Day 14: Everyone loves a puppy

Observation: Puppies are an irresistible force of nature and people flock to them wherever they are.

Opportunities:

- Amongst inner city urbanites (particularly those of 'coupling' age), many pine for a dog but simply can't fit or commit to them. Why not have a 'puppy for a day' service - either a fully fledged rental business or in combination with the a local shelter as a revenue raiser? Surely more puppies would find a home this way too.

- Create a joint project between a pet shelter and local community / mental health groups to enable people who need to connect more to the community to take a dog for a walk, for half a day. It will gently help them interact with others in a safe way.

- Joint project with The Big Issue - creating a calendar images of homeless people and their dogs for sale. Homeless people form unique bonds with their dogs that is clear when you see them cuddled tight together, calm and together as a unit.

Day 9: Why does trade look like trash?

Observation: Donation or fair trade support bins are often placed near bins. In fact, they often look like one too.

One of the major issues for not for profits (NFPs) is the cost of disposing of all the rubbish and un-salable items that are placed in bins, as recently reported for donations to disaster-stricken Tokyo. This is a cost that directly reduces the positive impact of these activities. If it is a $1 per day to feed a child...and a dollar a bag to dispose of rubbish, a rough guess of 5 children don't get fed per load.

Yes, there are practicalities such as theft, commercial abuse and handling to consider, but there are opportunities too.

Opportunities:

- Start a premium donation service. It is clean, nowhere near the bins, easily accessible and really clearly branded. There are simple, positive messages to get people to do the right thing re. donations and maybe even a tracking service for people to see (roughly) where their donations end up. Potentially could work with a retailer.

- Start another tier of waste management. There is clearly a tier of waste that is perceived as too useful or too good / expensive for people to throw away that is not being addressed right now. This could be pitched as a business idea by a council, with a small grant to some bright local business students for a trial.

- Do away with bins altogether and do a deal with mail providers to ship the donations.

- Build a global street-swap party idea. It already exists as clothes swaps, car-boot sales and charity shops. Why not make it local and have one huge central table down the street, a bit of a party and a $2 donation to participate - both donating and being able to select items to take away or 'swap'.

Sounds like fun to me... :)

Observation Day 5: Community noticeboards are crap

Observation: Community noticeboards are in general, rubbish. Tatty, ill-maintainted, bad locations and even worse content. This is a prime example slapped to the side a a building.

By all accounts, it is healthy for the community and individuals themselves to be involved with others in the community. So how do we get to this goodness with such woeful tools?

Opportunities:

- Co-source subsidised community wi-fi for the neighbourhood, gaining discounts for people and importantly a central, literal, home page where people can organise events, lobby for change or discuss isssues.

- Have a community van. Like an old-fashioned ice cream van, it comes round with music playing, but people can come learn about things in the hood, meet with others there and it can even sell things to be self funding or more. This could be extended into a business where this concept is run across multiple councils.

- Create easily programable and extremely robust digital versions to increase engagement and updates. Could include on location at popular local bus stops.

Observation Day 2: How to shop when you can barely walk?

Observation: An old man pausing with his shopping on a bench outside the supermarket. Standing there with his eyes closed clearly marshalling himself for the next stage in the journey home.

How to get food when you can barely walk, have a tight budget and are from an era that pre-dates popular use of the net?

Opportunities:

- A meet your neighbour community programme where you get to know your elderly neighbours and once a week walk with them or drive them to get their groceries. Get sponsorship from a major retailer so you both get 10% off and they get more traffic.

- Retailers to create a specific community support programme for the seniors in their area, offering free home delivery and on pension days arranging a volunteer roster to shop and walk home with them. Heck, why not make it an outing day, going for a picnic or sight seeing once a month followed by a shop for heavier items with all people dropped off home at the end.

- Have a limited-time window concierge service each week so all those in the area with limited mobility can have a pick-up or at least a drop off with their groceries.

- Design a super-light weight, inexpensive and easy to operate shopping buggy (cross between child buggy and A frame) that requires limited finger mobility and requires limited bending over to use.

- Retailer to offer loyalty shopping carts (the fabric covered kind) for senior customers - they get a stamp per shop and from 20 stamps they get a branded cart.

Imagine the good, the publicity and the brand loyalty.

Image credit: Amelia PS

Can we do it in reverse?

Microloans and microbusinesses are an incredibly powerful force for positive change in developing countries. Pioneered and brought to scale by Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank (for which he won a Nobel Prize in 2006), the model has now been used in many developing countries by both aid and private organisations.

New models such as Kiva, The Acumen Fund and OrphanIT are harnessing this principle with new technologies and localised action to effect further positive change.

I wonder - could we do it in reverse? Can we use the same methods to help people in need in developed countries too?

Some examples could include:

• Microloans - A gap-filling micro-loan service tied to a major supermarket chain. A friends micro-bank, like they do with circles of women in Africa, supprting positive, repsonsible money management with minimal charges. In effect, acting like an extended family network.
  
• Kiva - replicate the model directly, for micro-businesses and supported with mentors, meet-ups, private social networks. Could be country based or local community based.
• OrphanIT - Grown from an abundance of both orphans and IT skilled people in India in particular, what do you have a local abundance of that can work reciprocally to improve a local need? Is it apple trees and young teenage mums - why not create Mother's Own pure natural apple juice?
  

The great thing about all of these models is that they all support positive, smart and responsible behaviours likely to not only breed success but stability for individuals and their families.

You? How could you reverse the models and help your community?

Image credit: Visual Photos

Embracing the trends: Random Acts of Kindness

Cited as one of Trendwatching's 2011 major trends, Random Acts of Kindness (RAK), is part of a plethora of trends such as Generation G (Generosity), crowdsourcing and indeed the entire social media hive can be said to be in part driven by the desire to give and share.

So - how are you embracing this trend for your business?

Random Acts of Kindness can be a way to express your brand, gain awareness and loyalty with target customers and actually give back at the same time. Businesses with Corporate Social Responsibility programmes have been shown to have better profitability and staff retention, so this is a multi-faceted approach for the business.

Here's 5 ideas to get you started:

1. How do you make a difference in people's lives - is it the supply of stationery so they can communicate, the supply of energy so they and their family stay warm? Find people at the edges of this - those who show a small struggle to pay their bill or those who love pink pens and surprise them with a little extra based on this. A family pack of slippers, a $10 credit, a pack of pink notes to go with the pink pens? Vodafone once surprised me (mid-contract) with a 3 month magazine subscription, which highlighted their unique brand position and definitely increased my brand preference.
2. If you have a supermarket product - ask your merchandising team to buy a random customer one of your products that may be suitable for the customer and give it to a random stranger.
3. If you have a service, catch up with your customer over coffee and ask them 'what else'? What else would they really like to do if they had the time / resource? Then work with them to make it happen, maybe with a free-start to help them achieve it, maybe making some calls to find other supporters to split the cost. A coffee, a few calls and it may make a world of difference!
4. Find your best customers. Surprise them with a hand-written thank you card.
5. Find a not-for profit that people in your team believe in (there will be one) and volunteer your team for a day. Invite some of your customers to join in the fun.

Interflora and KLM have great examples (covered in the original Trendwatching article). One brand that is defined by their Random Acts of Kindness? The Ritz Carlton. Employees going above and beyond for guests is the stuff of legend, the stories being told again and again.

The above ideas may not be completely random, but do build support and give permission for spontaneity. The rest is up to you and your fantastic team!

You? What Random Act of Kindness will you do today?

stop talking.

Recently there has been discussions, presentations and articles (check out the interesting link to the Age of Singularity from @RyanMacJones here) upon the notion of 'brand purpose'. Essentially, this is a re-badged blend of a good old fashioned brand vision and corporate social responsibility (CSR) marketing.

My challenge: stop talking about it to your peers and do good things.

As a marketer we need to sell constantly, to our management, our sales team and our peers to get our ideas across and implemented. Taking the principle of brand purpose at it's base level - the whole point is to do good things. And do so in a way that sustainable for your business (i.e. delivers profitability).

So now that you have sold it in - stop talking, start doing.

You? What are some of the great brand purpose initiatives you are initiating?

Image credit: Zami.com

Are we looking the other way?

Thinking about corporate social responsibility in particular this week. And I wonder, are we looking the other way?
With all the focus on ROS, ROE, ROI....are we looking at things in reverse?

Sure, we need to find money to support change initiatives and do so sustainably. But who has REALLY ever changed behaviour because of their head, logic and the company's money. I think we are looking the wrong way....with all the focus on return.... we are missing the point.
It is good. It feels good. It helps. It makes others feel good.
And that feeling is what really drives sustained engagement and change.
Money shmoney. If people (who make up companies) believe and it is their hearts that are engaged, they will find a way to make it sustainable financially.

What do you think? Are these glasses too rosy?
photo credit, the very cute Derek (lilbuttz)

positive social impact from marketing

If marketing is spreading the word about a certain product, service or issue, then surely this power can be equally harnessed for good as it has been for over-spent, over-produced and over-analysed advertising campaigns?

If you take marketing to its most BASIC principles, it is about discovering what people want and need, and giving it to them.

Right now, there are many people who are in need. Perhaps even more than are in want.

I believe marketing can induce positive social impact in many ways. These are the (arguable) top 3:

1. Spreading the word. Knowledge and understanding are the first steps in creating change. People don’t donate or contribute to a cause if they a) don’t know about it and b) do not understand it.

2. Engaging people. Marketing uses tools to help people connect with brands, companies and organisations. The more engaged people are, the higher propensity they have to donate or volunteer. Each new person who is engaged can then lead to many more eventual contributors.

3. Understanding. Marketers have skill sets developed to understand customers and their potential revenue. This skill set can also be applied to understand the needs of communities and their stakeholders and the potential impact of a project. Instead of potential revenue as a measure, there can be education level achieved, small businesses started or simply happiness! If a country, Bhutan, can do it…

Some amazing, world changing organisations that are using the power of marketing to spread positive change include Kiva, Project H, Ted and Akoha

Or marketing campaigns such as Buy Pink and Red

This thinking is not new. However, I feel that the last people to actually realise this power are marketers themselves.

Do you have any great examples? Disagree?

(13 April, 2009)