🤘🤘 BIC - When Simple Sells More Than Innovation

Howdy!

In this week’s newsletter, I am looking into:

• How BIC runs their ad campaigns

• Why NGO’s should look at Kiva for inspiration

Lezzgo!

Dejan - @dgajsek

When Being Simple is The Best Differentiator

Most companies will stand on their hands and shout how they have the best features, their products are cutting edge, and they’ve been constantly investing in R&D to beat the competition.

In some cases that’s necessary, especially if you’re in tech.

Some brands take the opposite approach.

BIC Example

Penmaker BIC have been leaning on their indifference and ‘lack’ of innovation.

At least some campaigns did.

BIC has been consistent in making amazing ads.

This campaign shows that something that is already good rnough doesn’t need a change. They lean into being a default commodity product.

But their new product in the “lighter industry” has a different approach.

With EZ Reach, they’ve partnered with Martha Steward and Snoop Dog to segment their buyers and “Recommend” the product for different needs.

Martha’s audience will light candles.

Snoop’s audience will light massive blunts.

BIC went ahead with the full broad audience reach with this lil’ light hitter — you can get it in Classic, Snoop Dogg, Martha Stewart, Bob Marley, and Camo designs.

I Don’t Trust Charities - Except for This One

I’ve been on Kiva’s platform since 2015.

And as a skeptical guy (probably an immigrant trait) I don’t trust most of the companies. Scratch it off to a shred of cynicism, but also most of the NGOs when you research them, are super inefficient.

Did you know that 35% of donated funds goes to admin costs?

That’s normal. NGO workers, logistics and infrastructure need to get paid.

And there’s taxes, performance management systems, internal & external audits, legal fees, insurance,… I get it.

But knowing that half of your money or more doesn’t go to the person in need doesn’t feel right.

And some are even worse, taking more than 70% of donations for their admin costs. Here’s a list of 25 of them with more than 80% of funds going to admin costs.

That’s crazy.

Btw, If you want to explore, go to GuideStar and look for Charities Under 5 percent overhead.

I love Kiva.org and I think you’d like it too.

They are different than 90% of other NGO’s.

• You support individual entrepreneurs with loans

• You know exactly who and where your money goes

• You get informed on how your money is being used

• You get to know the progress you’re making in your lender’s life

Real Use Cases

Trust is one thing.

The other and bigger one is the narrative approach.

You’re not donating money to “green cause” or “battling cancer”. It’s too vague.

We love stories and we get to sympathize with individuals with real setbacks.

I've participated in "funding rounds" for:

• Bon for purchasing cows

• Aida to fat up her chickens

• Thy for buying a new carriage for his Tuk Tuk business

• Ojo for buying fertilizers and compost for his coffee crop

• Mauricio for buying manure and pays for labor costs for his coffee plantation

Who says, I'm not an investor :D

My return is in karma points and it feels good.

If you are considering signing up as a lender, go to kiva.org.

Takeaways:

• Make it transparent

• Share the impact of where donated money went

• real stories, real impact - case studies work, especially in aggregate

Spicy One

The King of Trolling, Elon Musk, never misses the opportunity to dunk on competitor’s mishaps.

On March 5th, Meta’s had issues with Facebook and Instagram — some users couldn’t get access to the platforms.

Elon came out with this lil’ zinger 🤣 

Join Healthy Competition

Andy’s Healthy Competition community is one of the best online places to be if you’re in product marketing and competitive enablement.

If you’re looking for a tight-knit group of tech professionals, eager to help, share, and support each other - go check it out at healthycompetition.co

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Have a great week!

Dejan

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