Benefit Consultants Blog

By David Anttony

Definitions of English words often change quite rapidly these days. In the not-to-distant past the definition of words was often set in concrete. Today the meaning can change in the blink of an eye. With new and faster ways to exchange ideas and with wider and more culturally, socially and educationally diverse groups connecting together - words are put back on the hard anvil of evolution and transformed into something new and more reflective of current life and living.

There is a growing global movement where consumers are asking businesses to take care of the things that they care about. The request is mainly tacit and despite it being an ironic request it non-the-less signals that we are in a time of change. Consumers these days want their ‘goodies’ but they don’t want the environment to be destroyed in the creation of their ‘goodies’. They want very cheap products but they don't want any workers to suffer to create them.

It doesn't seem there is an answer to this conundrum and yet one does exist. It exists in the recoining or reforging of a single word. This word is a simple one – GET. Today a new movement of people who want to get but give at the same time are reforging it. It is being transformed into the word GIVE.

Every day automated email notices arrive from Google Alerts for two keywords – B1G1 and BOGO. I see all the new places these words are being used on the Internet. I can now see that the new meaning of these words is coming alive ‘poco a poco’ -little by little.

The B1G1 and BOGO acronyms both stand for Buy One GET One free. You buy one and you get given an extra one for free.

If you look on Wikipedia you will find these definitions for BOGO (there isn't a definition yet for B1G1) -

* An acronym in the retail industry that stands for Buy One Get One. For example, you could say “Buy 1 DVD, Get 1 FREE!

* An acronym in slang British that stands for Britons Of Greek Origin or Greek Britons.

* Bogo, Cebu, a city in central Philippines.

* Norway, a village in Norway.

* Norway, a village in Norway.

* The mascot of the ITESM CEM.

* BogoMips, an unscientific measurement of CPU speed

* Bogosort, an ineffective sorting algorithm

BOGO light

There is an organisation in the USA called SunLight Solar founded by a gentleman called Mark Bent. He has created a special torch that not only is an amazing and robust solar-powered light, his company also gives a free torch to a family in need in developing nations for each one purchased. If you look on their website you will learn about their “BOGOlight”.

BOGOlight.com. – “The BoGo – our Buy one/Give one – program has successfully provided lights to many, many thousands of people in the developing world, changing lives because of your purchase and participation.”

Mark Bent has managed to flip the meaning of the BOGO acronym upside down. For Mark along with thousands of his customers, BOGO now means Buy One GIVE One. A flashlight is given whenever one is sold. Now each sale supports people in remote parts of the world who don’t have the benefit of electricity. They can now tap into solar power support themselves.

There are many other well known and less well know businesses now doing Buy One Give One giving or transactional giving as it is becoming known. Some of the famous ones are One-Laptop-Per-Child (OLPC) and TOM’S Shoes. Some of the less well-known ones (in the USA at least) are based in New Zealand, Australia and the UK - Earthstar Publishing, Maple Muesli, Blinds Couture, Figure 8 Body Chains, Sunsplash Homes, Honestly Women magazine and Thavibu Gallery based in Thailand are just a handful of special businesses that are heading the Buy One Give One movement.

There are many Buy One Give One businesses now uniting under the common brand banner of Buy1GIVE1 managed by a Singapore based social enterprise which is becoming the home of transaction-based giving. Any business anywhere in the world can now integrate Buy One Give One giving with ease. It’s like a ‘CSR plug-in’ allowing a business to instantaneously start giving from each and every sale, starting from just 1 cent. It’s also no longer about giving an equivalent product to someone else. Instead it is about contributing to a project that resonates with a company’s activity. For example a restaurant can feed a child, a television retailer can give a cataract blind person the gift of sight (Get Vision-Give Vision), a magazine publisher can plant a tree every time they sell a subscription and a property developer can build a low-cost family home for those in need (Buy1BUILD1) – the list is simply endless.

Something special is happening these days as more people switch onto giving and 'citizen brands' as a part of their regular everyday experience. The 2008 Edelman Goodpurpose global study of consumer attitudes reveal that almost seven in 10 (68%) consumers would choose to remain loyal to a brand during a recession if it supports a good cause, and 71% say that when they think about the economic downturn, they have either given the same or more time and money to good causes. This very same study highlighted some other major things as well like :

* Half (52%) of consumers globally are more likely to recommend a brand to others when it supports a good charity cause over one that does not.

* and 54% would champion a brand to promote a product if there was a good cause behind it.

* Globally consumers are voicing a distinct desire for marketers to associate their brands to social causes. Forty-two percent say that if two products or services are of a similar quality and price, commitment to a cause trumps factors like innovation, design and brand loyalty when selecting one brand over another.

Transforming Getting into Giving

The new concept of Buy One GIVE One is starting to replace Buy One GET One as the global giving movement led by Buy1GIVE1 ripples out. Right now if you search for the terms B1G1 and BOGO you will find that websites that do Buy1-Give1 giving are on the first page of Google results. Certainly with the large consumer demand shown for products from companies like TOMS Shoes, BOGO lights and OLPC – One Laptop Per Child, this tide is set to continue and spread.

I did a recent Google search to find the 25 top key words associated with the keyword BOGO. The results were very interesting in that none of them currently contained the word Give. I have displayed the results below. It will be interested to repeat this test in twelve months time and see what changes. Consumers are starting to drive major change and despite still wanting to receive free gifts (as in traditional B1G1/BOGO), they equally want to help others and the environment. This sentiment is validated by the 2008 Goodpurpose global study.

Keyword results :

Free, photography, blogging, discount, networking, African, boots, groups, music, dallas, togo themes, wallpapers, buy, applications, skins, values, coupon, gift, sharing, shopping, pics, join, prose

Transaction-based or transactional giving

Unlike traditional charity giving, Buy One Give One giving is transactional in that every time you buy something, you give something. In the case of SunNight Solar they happen to give a physical light for every light sold. However, in most cases, Buy1GIVE1 associated businesses give in a different way. At Buy1GIVE1, giving can start from just USD 1c contribution per sale and go up to thousands of dollars in the case of Buy1BUILD1. At 1cent almost every business in the world can afford to give from each sale especially when they know 100% contributed goes to the cause.

The actual amount given from each and every sale is not the point of focus with Buy1GIVE1 transaction based giving. It is not about saying ten % is contributed or 5 cents from each sale - instead the focus is on the story and sharing the simple and amazing joy of giving. In the end, if you think that 1c is not a lot to contribute and is not likely to make much of a difference think again and consider the following.

Coffee consumption has spread globally and Brazil is by far the largest coffee producer in the world producing on average 28% of all coffee grown. In 2006 Brazil grew enough coffee to brew 216,400,000,000 (216 billion 400 million) espresso coffees! If we were to make this calculation across global production amounts then we get an amazing number for the daily global consumption of around 2,117,416,830 (2 billion 117 million) cups of coffee – wow! The figures are not easy to find but if we guessed that around 40% of the world’s coffee is purchased in coffee shops then we would find that 846 million 966,732 cups are sold commercially each day globally – almost 900 million. This would equate to about 185 000 000 000 cups in the USA alone seeing they purchase around 21% of the world's coffee.

If we considered the powerful impact of the coffee industry alone taking up Buy1-Give1, imagine now that for every single cup of coffee sold a child in a developing region like Sub-Sahara Africa received clean drinking water from a well and it only costing 1cent to do this. Surely any coffee shop could afford to contribute this amount from the sale of a single cup of coffee. Imagine the different that this one action alone would make in the world.

Transactional giving is the story of the thousand-mile journey starting with that first single step. Digging a well costs a few thousand dollars so it’s a big barrier for communities in developing nations. However if you break the cost down it only takes the sale of a cup of coffee to give clean water to a single person for a day1. This is the power of transactional giving. It is like the compound interest of giving – a little turns into a lot very quickly.

Of course any company can do transaction-based giving with any of its products or services and do it on their own as some are like TESCO in the UK giving school uniforms to kids in Africa in partnership with Save the Children. And yet if companies choose to join together under a commonly recognised banner/brand they can have a powerful effect. The ripple that a single company creates is added to that of another and the ripple grows into a tidal wave of giving. This is the special power of giving and doing things together.

Everyone wins with Buy One Give One transaction based giving. The consumer wins – at no extra cost to themselves they have made a difference through their purchasing choices. The business wins in so many ways. And of course the charity cause wins because they are now able to receive small amounts from numerous sources aggregated and paid in a lump sum by Buy1GIVE1.

Starting fresh

If you go right now and check Wikipedia.com for the word BOGO you should find that a new definition has been added. And soon B1G1 will be added. It is time for a sea-change – a change from the focus on GETTING to focusing on GIVING. I personally added a small addition to Wikipedia’s BOGO definition that says this: “… an acronym in the marketing industry that stands for Buy One GIVE One.”

Simply imagine our world where every time you go and buy something you give something automatically and seamlessly – giving a gift forward to someone in greater need than you. This is the simple joyful magic of transactional giving.

This is the world I choose to be a part of.

And remember – you don’t ‘get’ giving till you get giving.

References :

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee
http://www.buy1-give1free.com/index.php/Partnering/Worthy-cause-charity-projects.html
http://www.goodpurposecommunity.com/
http://www.coffeepoet.com/2007/09/
http://www.scfnw.org.uk/site/article183.html
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee
http://www.coffeepoet.com/2007/09/

Footnotes: 1 Calculated by taking the average cost to dig a well, dividing it by its average expected life without major maintenance, divided by the number of people in the community benefiting from the well on a daily basis.

Buy1GIVE1 (BOGO) is now a global 'movement' led by Buy1GIVE1. Visit BOGO for updates.

A sound fiscal management enables one to increase business profits. Most of the time, companies and start up businesses overlook their everyday spending and can, for most of the time, be saving a significant amount of money if they did. These are called the ‘not critical’ aspects of the business, or certain things that can be replaced with cheaper and just as productive methods. There are entire companies that are devoted to this, called damage control.

 

The downfall of many business is due to their lack of control on their spendings including nonessential expenditures on employees and basic infrastructure. You need to investigate every aspect of your business and how your money is being spent. Sit down with your partners and your employees and bring out the accounting sheets, tracking every dollar down. It will definitely astound you just by looking at the figures that you could have scrimped. Some business have found that they were over spending in excess of $30, 000 a year – money that could have been used to increase the effectiveness of the management process or simply to develop the business further.

 

Another way to improve business profits is to diversify. Business models that are stuck in a single dimension paradigm often see profits stagnate because they are hooked on a single market and refuse to trying new things. Diversity, try new projects and even venture into riskier areas of the market. However, with that comes a risk. You need to have the ideals of effective money management and a good head for seeing threats on the horizons. Taking risks have been the mantra of the most successful, look at Microsoft, or Apple or Virgin Airlines, Google etc. They have been carrying the flag of taking risks from the first time they have started and they have diversified into every aspect of the market.  Think small scale and apply it to your business. If you do so, your business will definitely expand and your earnings will escalate due to the greater source of revenue.

 

The other way, and this is for the start up companies, is to get a virtual office. Starting a business is essentially starting a risk, regardless of how well-thought you plan is. Therefore, before you start signing a lease for a physical office and ordering office equipments, why not go virtual and see how your plan works out. If your product or service has phenomenal success and the response is brilliant, then you can think about getting a base of operations. Virtual office is a reliable medium for you to reduce the risk and at the same time allows you to test out your business plan in the real market before you jump into the wagon.

A business address is like the icon of success for any one who wants to start their own operations, and it is crucial for you to have one. The main reason for obtaining a business address is more for you to assure the consumers that they have not been scammed and your business is reliable rather than a place for you to do your business proceedings . First impressions last, and the quality of your business address is one of the factors that can sway the purchasing decision of anyone who views your carrier, your website or even your name card for the very first time.

 

Good real estate for business is actually very hard to come by and even if you do manage to cinch a prime district with gorgeous surroundings, the bills are enough to jack up your costs to undesirable amount. For example, if you are starting up, you would need to practice effective money management, and for money, having a sky high rent to impress potential customers is not an example of it. Further more, signing the lease which cost at least 5 digits is enough to drive you mental. So now you have your office space, but you have come to realise that its interior is bare – adding up to the cost of having to furnish you office.

 

The endless list of setting up the reception, furnishing, installing wirings, buying essential items such as paper, stationary, basic office equipment, computers, partitions etc can prod you to bankruptcy. You need to weigh your options carefully, especially if you are just kicking off your business and need to gain that impetus. Most of the consumers today are fast movers in the digital world, with a PDA in one hand and laptop in the other. The world of consumer capitalism has gone mobile, with greater preference for online correspondence. This is a good thing, especially for new businesses.

 

To combat the afferent experience that some customers may demand for when ordering, business are using advanced technology to attest satisfaction in the consumers. This inspires a level of confidence that is comparable to entering the shop and testing the product. You need to think about getting a business address inexpensively and you need to start thinking about a virtual office. A virtual office gives you all the frills of renting an office in a good business location. It provides a potent address, a receptionist to handle your business calls, fax and mail services and even virtual boardrooms for those times when it requires you to meet up with your clients. It is a great and very cheap alternative to renting an office and it is something all new business owners should consider before starting up on their own.