“If you’re the kind of person who tends to succeed in what you start, changing what you start could be the most extraordinary thing you do.” I previously featured this quote in a post about why society needs great marketers. If you’re a marketer interested in or working in the public and social sectors, maybe...Continue reading
Are you designing and distributing low quality charitable products? How do you know? Just because your clients may benefit from, and even rely on, products that are free to them doesn’t mean you can give them crap. It also doesn’t mean they stop becoming savvy consumers just because something is free to them. Your products...Continue reading
Can you do well while doing good? This is the ultimate question for marketer the social good. Doing well in the public and social sector means more than just money. Earning money leads to sustainability and scale, two qualities that communities desperately need and funders desperately seek.
The American Marketing Association definition of marketing centers on the concept of offerings: “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” A prime design question for this blog then becomes what should public and social sector...Continue reading
Michael Porter is a respected professor of strategy at Harvard School of Business. In this TED talk, he explains why profit is the key to scaling social impact.
The book The Business Solution to Poverty argues against non-profit development and for scalable, business-like approaches to end poverty. When I reviewed the book, I saw a lot of practical wisdom in the argument, but also wondered how many such approaches could live up to the challenge. I think Hello Tractor could make the grade.Continue reading
Distribution is most often considered something that a business does with its product. But distribution itself can be the product, as well. In remote, impoverished areas, distribution can also be a solution to poverty, illness, and other problems.
Michael Schuman packs a full agenda for fighting poverty and establishing fairness into one recent article for Time. And while his article not a direct response to The Business Solution to Poverty, I think it makes a good counterpoint.
I like how Paul Polak and Mal Warwick start The Business Solution to Poverty: Designing Products and Services for Three Billion New Customers focused on their target customer, the global poor who live on less than $2 per day. This is a massive customer segment: 2.7 billion people.
So far, my posts have been somewhat critical of The Business Solution to Poverty: Designing Products and Services for Three Billion New Customers, by Paul Polak and Mal Warwick, and I can think of at least a couple more critical points. However, I really appreciate their approach to marketing and design.