As more companies like www.toms.com and www.oneforone.nl start becoming successful, it's amazing to see how WILLING people are to help others -by buying certain products!
The concept is simple: Buy one for you - and you also give the same or simular product to somebody in an development country. Love this concept - and love the impact it has on the people involved!
I remember trying this concept myself in a similar way. By selling CD's in Brooklyn, NY.
The idea was simple. At that time I was starting www.1moreChild.org, together with Bosco Mukiibi. A simple charity - raising money for school fees for orphaned children in Uganda.
At the time I was member of this CD club that did crazy offers. Buy one get 3 free (not 3 for a child in Uganda by the way! 3 free for me!)
I would ask friends and co-workers if they were interested to buy CD's "for a very low price", promissing that HALF the money would go support the orphaned children in Uganda!
Every semester I was able to sell enough CD's to support about 16 children. It worked!
Buy One - Get one Free for an other is a great proposition for any business wanting to make a Social Profit!
Well - maybe not every business. I think you need to keep the flowing things in mind:
If you want to run a success full 'One for One program, you need to:
1. Have a great PRODUCT to sell! Duh! You can't just assume that people are going to buy your product, simply because it also supports 'an other person'.
2. Make a 'connection' that makes sense! I admit - my 'CD' example is not even a great 'one for one' example because I was not giving away 'cd's' in Uganda. But I was able to pretty much keep the 'one for one' model. Every ONE cd allowed ONE child to go to school for about ONE month.
But a much better fit could be:
- buy this pen, and a child in the dessert of Ethiopia will be given a pen as well.
- buy this bike, and a bike will be given to a young entrepreneur in Kenya who can now reach all his customers
- buy this set of POTS AND PANS, and a widowed mother in Russia will receive a set to help feed her hungry children.
3. Go beyond the expectation. I think that some examples are actually weak...
How come you can only give ONE to a person? They money you are making on your product... could it possibly buy TWO people the same item? What if you didn't just have the item given for free - but have the person make a small contribution? Could you then give TWO the item?
That's what we've done with our childrensbook 'the Birthday party'. For every book sold, we're able to give TWO birthday books to children that never had their birthdays celebrated - en especially never have been given THEIR OWN BOOK!
4. Make it very visual and share-able! I find that many people LOVE to tell./show their friends they did something nice to somebody - especially if they also enjoy the fact you just sold them a GREAT product. So make sure you really encourage your buyers to 'share' their experience with you! It's worth every time you ask somebody!
5. Show pictures after the fact has taken place. I love www.charitywater.org - because you can really see where you money has gone. You can follow the process of their projects here.
People want to be able to SEE if they did the right thing when they trusted you. Did you really give the other gift to the person you said you would! I can do much better at this by the way!
So when looking to create a One for One project - keep these 5 things in mind! I know you might be very surprised about the amazing results you can get!
Is there any link between your product and a product you help somebody else with? Could you make it work? How? Tell us!
The concept is simple: Buy one for you - and you also give the same or simular product to somebody in an development country. Love this concept - and love the impact it has on the people involved!
I remember trying this concept myself in a similar way. By selling CD's in Brooklyn, NY.
The idea was simple. At that time I was starting www.1moreChild.org, together with Bosco Mukiibi. A simple charity - raising money for school fees for orphaned children in Uganda.
At the time I was member of this CD club that did crazy offers. Buy one get 3 free (not 3 for a child in Uganda by the way! 3 free for me!)
I would ask friends and co-workers if they were interested to buy CD's "for a very low price", promissing that HALF the money would go support the orphaned children in Uganda!
Every semester I was able to sell enough CD's to support about 16 children. It worked!
Buy One - Get one Free for an other is a great proposition for any business wanting to make a Social Profit!
Well - maybe not every business. I think you need to keep the flowing things in mind:
If you want to run a success full 'One for One program, you need to:
1. Have a great PRODUCT to sell! Duh! You can't just assume that people are going to buy your product, simply because it also supports 'an other person'.
2. Make a 'connection' that makes sense! I admit - my 'CD' example is not even a great 'one for one' example because I was not giving away 'cd's' in Uganda. But I was able to pretty much keep the 'one for one' model. Every ONE cd allowed ONE child to go to school for about ONE month.
But a much better fit could be:
- buy this pen, and a child in the dessert of Ethiopia will be given a pen as well.
- buy this bike, and a bike will be given to a young entrepreneur in Kenya who can now reach all his customers
- buy this set of POTS AND PANS, and a widowed mother in Russia will receive a set to help feed her hungry children.
3. Go beyond the expectation. I think that some examples are actually weak...
How come you can only give ONE to a person? They money you are making on your product... could it possibly buy TWO people the same item? What if you didn't just have the item given for free - but have the person make a small contribution? Could you then give TWO the item?
That's what we've done with our childrensbook 'the Birthday party'. For every book sold, we're able to give TWO birthday books to children that never had their birthdays celebrated - en especially never have been given THEIR OWN BOOK!
4. Make it very visual and share-able! I find that many people LOVE to tell./show their friends they did something nice to somebody - especially if they also enjoy the fact you just sold them a GREAT product. So make sure you really encourage your buyers to 'share' their experience with you! It's worth every time you ask somebody!
5. Show pictures after the fact has taken place. I love www.charitywater.org - because you can really see where you money has gone. You can follow the process of their projects here.
People want to be able to SEE if they did the right thing when they trusted you. Did you really give the other gift to the person you said you would! I can do much better at this by the way!
So when looking to create a One for One project - keep these 5 things in mind! I know you might be very surprised about the amazing results you can get!
Is there any link between your product and a product you help somebody else with? Could you make it work? How? Tell us!
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