Response to: “Buy one, Give one Free: TOMS Shoes”
Mar 12th, 2012 by chrischoi
The article, “Buy one, Give one Free: TOMS Shoes,” explains clearly why a company that aims to help society can be a successful one.
As a proud consumer of TOMS shoes, I really liked the idea of being to help another person out by also benefiting personally from it. TOMS has definitely built a good brand reputation by incorporating giving into their business model. Why this works is that people want to be part of something greater. People want to be able to give back to society. This way, TOMS is able to attract customers, opportunities, amazing employees and partners to all be part of something meaningful. More importantly, they are able to “attract the interest of mainstream media starting with Vogue, Time and People magazine.”
In one case, Blake Mycoskie (the person who came up with this idea), saw a girl at an airport wearing a red pair of TOMS shoes. The girl, without knowing who she was talking to, starts telling the story of these pair of shoes. Blake was surprised to hear that the girl knew the entire story and would remember it. “When a message is a mission, people will tell the story to anyone who will hear it, even to a random stranger at an airport. And by doing that, they become your strongest advocates in marketing your product.”
