One-for-one brands workonly if customers buy into the cause. Simple, but when you've got different channel managers in their own lane, it's important to have a good feel for how all the channels are working together. Do whatever you can to make your brand and product as simple as possible to help the consumer understand what your mission is, Heath recommends. And thats what this company represents. When we talk to customers, they tell us that while they love the mission and that's a key driver in their purchase, the quality and comfort of our socks, and now other products, is the primary motivator, especially for the first purchase. Having a good pair of socks on your feet hopefully translated into you feeling valued and dignified, Heath says. All In for Bombas' One-For-One. About Bombas one-for-one business | by From the beginning, Bombas' business model included a giving component. Daymond John, one of the sharks, ended up investing in them. They also needed to determine what role that mission should play in their marketing. And in fact, the name Bombas is Latin for bees, and its beehives and bees work together in concert. However, after some of that early growth, they did start to engage in short-term partnerships with some retailers and eventually they created more long-term relationships with a few of those retailers though the bulk of the sales still are through their E-commerce site. By figuring out how their product could have the most impact before moving forward, they were able to build a community of like-minded customers faster. Bombas CEO: We could easily be a billion-dollar brand in the next 5 years And they reached out and they called Hannahs Socks and asked, Do you want some socks? And they said, Wait a minute, youre just offering us socks for free? And they said, Yes. And so, that was one of their first giving partners, but it wasnt just a giving partner, it became a collaborator and they ended up sharing knowledge, important knowledge about the space of homelessness and the need for items like socks and what aspects and features of those socks would be important. And just the reaction alone of somebody looking at him and saying, how did you know, how did you know this is exactly what I needed, convinced him that this was an important space. The State of SMS Marketing in 2023 report is live! Where homelessness might not affect a customer directly, supporting LGBTQ+ rights or donating to underfunded schools or a local womens shelter might. Inside Bombas Marketing Strategy - Forbes And so they looked at that market and realized some of those innovations could actually be used and transferred to these everyday socks that we wear. Before I raised a single dollar of capital, I wanted to go out and prove market validation, the pragmatist says. From the start, Bombas' co-founders knew an inspiring mission wouldn't be enough to drive sales. It never ceases to amaze me the big difference we can make, with just a pair of socks.. This not only results in a company that creates positive results for communitiesand the world, but also a company that consumers will be more likely to take notice of. Expert on Youth Culture Trends & Sustainability, While other brands were trying to figure out how. Heath watched other online retailers fall short of investor expectations. BRIAN KENNY: Yeah. This business showed me that the true gift and purpose in life is to give back. A great example of a time when purpose was more significant than product was when COVID-19 first hit. The reason I love doing that is the local nature of our mission, which is really powerful. (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); Mission-based marketing is dependent on a cause that helps customers feel like theyre making a real impact. By 2021, it had become one of Americas most visible buy-one-give-one companies, with over $250 million in annual revenue and 50 million pairs of socks donated. The name, Bombas, is Latin for "bumblebee" bees work together to make the hive a better place. Thanks in part to a successful Indiegogo campaign (950% of goal raised) in September 2013 and an appearance on Shark Tank a year ago, Bombas has made strides in the specialty retail market. At that point, there were 14,000 people that had complained to customer service. After releasing a performance line and putting out related media, consumers value quality over. And contrast that then with TOMS and the way that they went to market, it felt like TOMS was much more out front about what they were doing. Sign up for Nicks ICYMI newsletter and get each episode delivered to your inbox. By the end of 2013, Bombas had reached $400,000 in sales. It helps them feel motivated and personally connected to the mission, Heath says. It was a nightmare. Heath says. The sock market hadnt really seen innovation in decades, so it offered a perfect opportunity for Bombas to stand out by creating a better product. BRIAN KENNY: Lets talk a little bit more about their socks, which weve already acknowledged are not the least expensive socks you can buy. Feel free to stay in the loop if you want to use this knowledge to reach one step closer to your own financial freedom. And they were the leaders in this space, and in fact, some of the inspiration for the Bombas team to start their business. Business Insider Meet Bombas, the cult-favorite sock startup that's donated 25 million pairs to homeless shelters since launching in 2013 News Sep 13, 2019 Business Insider The best no-show socks for men and women News Sep 5, 2019 Entrepreneur Magazine Conscious Capitalism: Are You Driven By More Than Just Money? According to Keown, when an organization's brand culture is healthy and thriving, the brand wins itself a competitive advantage: employees become true believers and super advocates for the brand's purpose, with the potential to engage consumers and other external audiences in truly authentic ways. Their joint mission of making a difference in consumers' lives leads to a rewarding, team . It boosts the reach of their message and supports the idea of Bombas as a socially conscious brand. In the past year, Bombas donated more than 40 million pairs of socks and shows no sign of slowing down. You can easily tell the story about both the need in homeless shelters, as well as the connection of these products in terms of what you do every day. Your Next Move. We've worked to reach customers across a wide variety of touch points and that's also meant that no single channel constitutes the majority of our spend, which sets us apart from some of our DTC peers. Now, most of the sales for them have been direct to consumer. Were now at more than 25M pairs donated and this video is still one of our best-performing pieces of creative. I don't believe you can build a successful brand on a mission alone. Balancing priorities of product and purpose: The two pillars of our company are a high quality product and a great mission, Bombas cofounder says. 1. Can Bombas Reach New Customers while Maintaining Its Social Mission? It could be related to the brand and things of that sort, but in this case they were selling something more and they were selling a social benefit. And you can actually leverage both to help the other. Theyve taken these values and transformed them into a $50 million business. And at that point they created a video about their mission and the founding of Bombas and how it started. We buy limited edition new cars, expensive dresses from big brands, we work and give back just to fulfill those emotional desires and get that amazing feeling about ourselves. Im going to ask you to start by telling us whats the central issue of the case, and whats your cold call that you use when you start the case in the classroom? So initially all of their ads pretty much were product focused, given that they had needed people to become aware of the fact that they had socks and thats what they were selling. One of our giving partners in North Carolina said that in the four years we've given them socks they've been able to save enough money to send two kids from their community to college. The partnerships and ripple effects scale impact. The direct to consumer apparel brand donates a pair of socks for every pair they sell. I want to talk about that a little bit later, and again, with the attitudes of gen Z and millennials in mind. But maybe you can talk a little bit about why quality mattered in this case. And so they felt like they could play in that space a little bit. But maybe you can start for people who arent familiar with Bombas, now they know they sell socks, but how was the company created and why did they land on socks as the central product? I dont know if thats a good thing or a bad thing. I actually hadnt heard that term until I read the case. How can you find and connect with your brands True Believers, even during volatile times? We also took a test-and-learn approach to new channels, especially in the earlier days where we were a very lean team. The Audacious Email Strategy That Helped Launch Bombas Emotionally connected customers are 52% more valuable than highly satisfied ones.. Why is it that Bombas was able to outperform other companies in the same niche who have been in the business for longer than them? Their one-for-one model is only as successful as it has been for Bombas because their customers continue to spread the message to their networks. After confirming that they had the community to support their cause, Bombas doubled down on their efforts. And that means that you, my friend have leverage. And companies like Bombas have found a way to do this that seems sustainable, where they can actually do well and do good at the same time. "We were really set up to weirdly take advantage of everything that we've done to react to the pandemic," says Heath. In the process, theyve built a thriving, $50 million/year business. The 4 P's of marketing are price, promotion, place, and productthe four key factors every marketer should use to guide their campaign strategy. How that looked for us is that one person on the team would do some initial testing and research around a channel, then if there was traction, we'd work with an agency to scale it. ELIZABETH KEENAN: Thats a really good question. Bombas was started in 2013 with a dual mission: to deliver quality socks and donate much-needed footwear to people living in shelters. We spent over two years on research and development, to improve upon everything about the commoditized productfrom the toe seam and the materials used, to arch support and the way the sock wore and washed, cofounder and CEO, Heath toldForbes. So, theyre getting all this up and running, theyre figuring out how to get the socks in the hands of the people that need them, and then COVID hits, the pandemic hits. And were going to talk about that a little bit because they arent the cheapest.