Marketing Hack – Have a Socially Responsible Marketing Strategy

Combining a social action with your marketing/sales can prove beneficial for your startup. It leaves a positive image of the brand in the minds of the customer, resulting in word of mouth for your brand. Linking such an activity to your sales is a good way as it makes the action ongoing and sustainable (as it comes out of the profit).

WarbyParker is a lifestyle e-commerce startup selling eyeglasses which has successfully done this. It runs a ‘Buy a Pair, Give a Pair’ campaign. In this campaign, the startup tallies the total number of glasses sold in a month and contributes to it’s non-profit partners in developing countries. The contribution covers the sourcing of the glasses and an amount which is used to train men and women in developing countries to give basic eye exams and sell glasses to their communities at affordable prices. This has worked as a major factor in ensuring that this startup has sustained in the past few years, when we have seen a lot of lifestyle ecommerce stores closing down.