In This Issue…
Clean and Green Spotlight: An Avon Approach To Healthier and Wealthier Communities
Guest article by Olivia Khalili of Cause Capitalism, where this originally appeared.
The concept is simple and brilliant. When I came across Living Goods, my stomach flipped with the potential impact of the organization’s work. The mechanisms, intent and appeal match that of blockbuster social enterprises Kiva and charity: water.
Living Goods replicates Avon’s model of door-to-door selling, but instead of peddling lipstick and mascara to middle-class women, Living Goods’ Health Promoters sell affordable health products—from antibacterial soap to de-worming tablets to condoms to bednets—to the Ugandan poor. By providing a way for women to make a living by selling products that prevent unnecessary death from treatable diseases, Living Goods is fighting the double-headed dragon of mortality and poverty.
More than 10 million children die every year (pause for a second; that’s 27,398 deaths a day) from easily treatable conditions like malaria, TB and diarrhoeal disease. Products for prevention and treatment exist, but efficient and scalable delivery systems are lacking. Living Goods uses micro-enterprise and micro-franchising to get these products into communities and to keep them there. Health Promoters buy a business-in-a-box for $100-$250, which includes the products, as well as training, marketing and coaching. Living Goods and its partners—one of whom is the microfinance and development organization BRAC—provide affordable financing for the kits.
Malaria, as one example, deals a double blow by causing economic as well as physical suffering. Reoccurring and prolonged bouts with malaria prevent people from working. Living Goods is committed to inverting this cycle by incentivizing its Health Promoters (through profit) to make essential health products available to more people. The more a Health Promoter does this, the larger her profit and the greater the health impact she will have on her community.
Over the next five years, Living Goods aims to become financially self-sustaining and to replicate its model in other countries. Charles Slaughter, Living Goods’ founder and president, is very open to helping other social enterprises adopt or replicate the model. Partnering with the Poverty Action Lab* (PAL), Living Goods is tracking its impact through randomized control studies as it works to lower mortality rates for children under five by 15-30% in its target communities.
Child and community health, female economic development, financial sustainability, open-source replication, local support, microfinance micro-enterprise—these outcomes and mechanisms give me an adrenaline jolt. Why have I not heard of Living Goods earlier? If you’re as moved by Living Goods’ approach and mission as I am, you can sign up for its e-newsletter or make a donation. Living Goods doesn’t yet have a Twitter or Facebook presence (but I’m about to offer to help develop it for them).
*The New Yorker recently wrote a great profile on PAL and the organization’s co-founder Esther Duflo.
Friends Who Want to Help
Amazing $2500 Freebie from Sean D’Souza of Psychotactics
Of the many marketers I regularly follow and learn from, I consider Sean D’Souza one of the smartest (as well among the most entertaining). If you’ve been reading my newsletter for a while, you might remember I’ve referred to him often, and have posted several of his articles to my various websites.
Well, now Sean is giving away a 36-audio course he normally charges $2500 for—if you register for his excellent newsletter—I’ve been reading it for many years—by November 29. Not only will you get what promises to be a ton of useful information, you’ll get to listen to Sean’s quirky and enjoyable Kiwi accent (he’s a New Zealander) as he delivers it. I’ve listened to a lot of his audios over the years, and I always learn a lot about human psychology—and how we marketers can most effectively harness it.
This workshop, the Brain Alchemy Masterclass, explains why structure—not marketing—is critical to growing a business effectively.
Because he’s including so much material, Sean is rationing out the access codes over time, so he doesn’t wipe out his servers with too many people trying to download at once. (I signed up and I’m waiting eagerly for my code.) Here’s the link: http://www.psychotactics.com/free-goodies
The Best-Conceived JV I’ve Seen
Do you do Joint Ventures? As I hinted last month, I’m helping to orchestrate a particularly exciting one, involving celebrities, politicians, environmental education, kids, quilts and all sorts of other cool stuff that appeals to the media and will get you coverage and contacts. We’re planning ahead on this-want to get commitments this year for ramping up early next year and a launch that ties in with Earth Day next spring-but don’t wait to get involved. If you’d like to receive an invitation as soon as we’re ready, please use this link to tell me (and let me know if you think of yourself as more of a marketer, or more of an environmentalist).
Unfamiliar with Joint Ventures? Basically, we partner with you, you tell your own contacts (like the readers of your e-zine or blog), and if people make purchases from your link, you earn a commission.
Guerrilla Marketing Intensive – $1000 discount just for you
My co-author, Jay Conrad Levinson, “the Father of Guerilla Marketing,” has a few seats left in his next Guerrilla Marketing Intensive, at his Florida home, January 23rd-25th. 21 hours of training over three days. Normally $4997 (payable in up to four installments)—but Jay’s manager (his daughter Amy) has offered a $1000 discount to my subscribers. Limited to just ten people, so this is pretty in-depth. https://gmarketing.infusionsoft.com/go/Int/shelhoro/ If you want my opinion about whether Jay knows his stuff, read my rave review elsewhere in this issue of Guerrilla Marketing Remix.
To get this special rate, just click this link: mailto:olympiagal@aol.com?subject=Discount?cc=shel@frugalfun.com to tell Amy you want the $1000 off for Shel’s subscribers (Also tell her whether you prefer an online payment link or prefer to call in your payment info).
Coop-themed Poetry Contest for Middle Schoolers
Know a middle-schooler who likes to write? Cheese and milk co-op Cabot is doing a poetry contest for students in grades 5-8, on the cooperative spirit. Winner not only gets a cash prize, but his or her poem on a Cabot butter box. For details: http://potatohill.com/files/2011-PoetryContest.pdf
Hear & Meet Shel
November
December
January
Also remember—if you set me up an engagement, you could earn a generous commission.
Another Recommended Book: Guerrilla Marketing Remix
Another Recommended Book: Guerrilla Marketing Remix, by Jay Conrad Levinson and Jeannie Levinson (Entrepreneur Press)
I have read many of the Guerrilla Marketing books, and written one of them (Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green)—and I have to tell you this new “best of collection” is extremely impressive. It’s really two books in one, each of which is well worth reading (and taking notes on).
Through page 158, Jay and Jeannie’s summarize their key lessons after many years in the forefront of marketing innovation. And then in part two, they’ve culled some of the best wisdom from the numerous Guerrilla books co-authored with other experts.
The Levinsons have never been afraid to be heretics, and by page 15, they’re already very much against the grain. That’s where they tell us to beware of humor in advertising—because a key Guerrilla Marketing principle (as well as a core principle of traditional advertising) is repetition, but repeated humor gets old very quickly. By the third or fourth time, it starts to be annoying.
Other insights from part 1:
- Patience and planning, rather than miracles, are key to success
- A major purpose of a marketing funnel is to “broaden consent” and get buy-in for the next step
- Honesty is rewarded; phoniness comes back to bite you (something I emphasize in several of my own books)
- You get better customers when you motivate for positive gain rather than to avoid negatives such as hurt or fear
- Go back to the well; 34 percent of your previous customers will likely try you again if you take the trouble to court them, with respect
- Use clever strategies to drastically lower the cost of advertising, and maximize the leverage you get from it (such as the one on pages 93-94)
- Never confuse revenue with profit
This whole section is rich in practical, actionable advice—much of it broken down into easy checklists, like the 200 top marketing weapons (really closer to 150, as several are restatements and variations), 5 overarching strategies, 50 reasons to advertise, and 35 advertising mistakes.
In fact, the advertising chapter is so jammed with wisdom that I would recommend to any of my marketing clients considering buying advertising that they read it, read it again three days later, and then again after a week. It’s that good.
And then there are the riches of part 2. With collaborators like Seth Godin, David Garfinkel, Laurel Langemeier, and Alex Mandossian, it’s not surprising to find many gems But don’t forget to read the folks who are not household names. Some of the best advice came from people you may never heard of, like Frank Adkins and Chris Forbes, who did Guerrilla Marketing for Nonprofits, or Orvel Ray Wilson and Mark S.A. Smith’s incredible tips from Guerrilla Negotiating. Many of these contributions are very strong as well.
Full disclosure: I am a contributor to this book, and I fully hope that the excerpt from Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green will encourage new readers t buy my book—just as I will be looking to acquire several of the other books this marvelous volume exposed me to.
Highly recommended.
If you’ve been reading my newsletter for several years, you know I’ve been marketing through social media all the way back to 1995. These days, a lot of my social media goes into Twitter.
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