Are you a compassionate consumer? How do these efforts play with you?
Posted by joe
More retailers are getting on the sustainability and social responsibility bandwagon. TOMS is a pioneer; it gives away a pair of shoes to a needy person for each one it sells. Now Skechers is doing the same thing; its BOBS line of shoes gives away two pairs of shoes for each one sold here (how obvious can a knock-off strategy be?). This article in Bloomberg Businessweek, “Skechers Chases Toms Seeking to Woo Do-Good Millennials” (August 2, 2012) describes a few different retailers and producers engaging in compassionate consumerism. The appeal seems to resonate well with millennials. And a larger company like Skechers can get even more shoes for the needy?
Is Skechers BOBS strategy a good business strategy? How does it feel to you as a consumer? Is BOBS as authentic as TOMS? Does that matter to you? Why or why not?
This entry was posted on Saturday, August 4th, 2012 at 3:41 pm and is filed under Ethics, Social responsibility. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
If Marketing is more than advertising like we all like to think it is then I believe an organization/ pioneer like TOMS is not only satisfying their customer needs by providing a comfortable shoe that slips on your feet like socks but they also give their customers a chance to give away a pair of shoes to a person in need. First, customers purchase TOMS mostly through their online website but there are selected stores that carry them as well. TOMS are not the most expensive but they could be considered overpriced. However, when you look at it from the perspective that you are buying two pairs for $44.00 (this is the price for the original canvas TOMS for women) then the price seems totally fair. Some will say, “I am actually only receiving one pair” but at that point then TOMS shoes/ store is not for them because they knew what they were purchasing before they paid for it. Hence, their slogan is “buy a pair and a second will be donated to the needy”. Furthermore, Blake Mycoskie started a new trend in the market world called “compassionate consumerism” (stated in the above article “Skechers chases Toms..”). I think this is a great opportunity for consumers to give randomly when purchasing shoes from TOMS. I honestly don’t know whether to say if BOBS is using good business strategy or not because nowadays no market is an 100% authentic market. And It doesn’t matter much to me because BOBS is not taking away the goal of TOMS, instead they also are engaging in the vision of “compassionate consumerism”.
September 3rd, 2012 at 8:19 pm