TOMS Shoes – Word Of Mouth Or Smart Marketing Gimmick?
There is quite some buzz from the word of mouth marketing people over TOMS Shoes. John Moore at Brand Autopsy’s headline is “Newest Poster Child For Word Of Mouth” and Church of the Customer says “Customer Evangelism Case Study“.
Here’s the skinny. TOMS Shoes makes some alpargatas (espadrille-type shoes), which are really low cost. Then they sell them to you but when you buy a pair TOMS donates to shoeless children in third-world countries. Each time a pair is sold, someone gets a free pair.
Sounds good right?
Now for my cynical spin on it.
The shoes are probably less than $5/pair to make. But let’s use $5 for a nice round number. TOMS sells the shoes for about $50 each to us. Then donates the free pair at their cost. So if my math is correct they lose $10 in actually cost plus cost for freight out to Africa.
But let’s just use $10 as a nice round number. TOMS Shoes then makes $40 per sale for a cheaply made shoe, that’s even uglier than Crocs (if you can imagine that). Add to that the fact that the shoe won’t last very long for kids in Africa. People in non third world countries buy them because they are different (some may say fahionable) not because they are sturdy.? These kids in Africa will rip through these cheap shoes quick.
TOMS has sold 200,000 pairs making 8 million dollars by my rough numbers.
So is the owner of TOMS,?Blake Mycoskie a real do-gooder making a HUGE profit or is he a smart marketing guy?banking on?Kool-Aid drinking people that?will buy into his marketing?gimmick?
What say you?
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August 12th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Scott … riffing off our prior discussion on the Brand Autopsy blog… the TOMS Shoes concept ain’t perfect as you point out. However, the “buy one, give one” approach does more good than bad. And that’s good enough in my book.
August 12th, 2008 at 11:45 am
Hey John, good points! I wish they would actually give these poor kids a good quality, sturdy shoe instead. Let’s face it, these cheap shoes aren’t very practical.
But as you say it does more good than bad I guess.
August 12th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Actually. The shoes they donate are not necessarily the pairs that you and I buy. TOMS Shoes has spent time and money to develop a shoe that will suit the conditions of the places they are giving away shoes. Whether that means a different sole, a different material. They also make a commitment to continue returning to the places they give shoes. So they don’t give one pair and check out. I think they’re doing much good. You should check out what they are trying to do to combat the disease Podoconiosis in Ethiopia.
August 12th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
I’ve been one of the many people helping Blake launch and grow TOMS Shoes over the last two years. If you choose to be a cynic, you should focus on companies that just give token donations or use cause marketing without actually fulfilling the promise made to the consumer. TOMS could just ship a box of shoes off to a 3rd world country but we actually travel to places that really need it to give shoes to kids – one by one, child by child, school by school, ghetto by ghetto, etc. I’ve put shoes on hundreds of children and its very personal. It’s not just about shoes — its about giving hope to people and making them feel significant and cared about. It’s a very intimate, humbling and emotional experience. TOMS may use cause marketing to sell shoes to consumers but those consumers should know that TOMS fulfills its promise. If you want to go on a TOMS Shoe drop, you can sign up at http://friendsoftoms.org/
August 12th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Wow Karina, that’s great to know! Thanks so much for the info. I don’t choose to be a cynic, I just enjoy being one at times. I’m what you’d call a rebellious fool. Then I count on smart people like you to show me the light.
These posts I make are made for people like you to explain to my readers exactly what’s going on. You’ve done a great job, again, thanks. And come back again to join the conversation.
August 12th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
@BIG Kahuna,
no worries ~ thank you for starting the conversation and giving us the opportunity to share the TOMS story… learn more about TOMS on MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and http://TomsShoes.com
October 18th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Thank so much for the information.
I went online today planning to purchase a pair of Toms. I showed them to my mother and she told me that when she lived in Argentina those shoes were worth less than $5 and probably still are.
January 16th, 2011 at 1:50 pm
do they still sell those toms in that picture anywhere?
July 23rd, 2011 at 1:29 am
what’s the name of the color/style of that shoe they’re using in the picture? i’m looking to buy them
September 8th, 2011 at 12:23 pm
Kudos to a company that gives back!
October 21st, 2011 at 4:57 am
What’s the name of the style and color of that shoes plz ?