And were going to talk about that a little bit because they arent the cheapest. Product, price, place, and promotion. However, they also wanted very much to donate socks with those same properties. Their slogan is Bee Better, and that is exactly what Bombas is striving to do. Other brands just wanted to tout their organization's COVID response. In fact, actually, Ive, Ive spoken to a number of Bombas sock wearers just like you have, and interestingly enough, many of them didnt actually even know that they donated socks. And you could see this controlled growth, both in their advertising and marketing, as well as in terms of product line expansions and extensions. The company is fairly young (2013), but it encapsulates so well. In other cases, they donate other items that arent exactly comparable. Now I get it, thank you. When Randy Goldberg and David Heath heardthat socks were the number one requested item in homeless shelters, they had an idea: What if they could start a company that brought awareness to this issue and elevated socks from a fashion commodity to a fashion statement with a mission? As of late 2021, which is about the time of the case, they had crossed nearly 250 million in annual revenue, had 180 employees and had donated their 50 millionth pair of socks. ELIZABETH KEENAN: So, I first heard about Bombas actually from one of my students in class, several years back had mentioned that Bombas, they had worked for Bombas and understood what my interests were and thought that I would really like this company. Bombas has built a network of around 3,500 giving partners across the country. But at least for Bombas customers, buying one pair of socks and donating a pair to someone in need makes them feel good. Once they had their sock tech figured out, Bombasstill had to answer the question of whether socks for the homeless would be a mission that resonates with consumers the way glasses (Warby Parker) or shoes (TOMS) have been. Sign up for Nicks ICYMI newsletter and get each episode delivered to your inbox. Bombas was started in 2013 with a dual mission: to deliver quality socks and donate much-needed footwear to people living in shelters. It all felt so incredibly tone deaf.". Their joint mission of making a difference in consumers' lives leads to a rewarding, team . ELIZABETH KEENAN: So, one of the founders, David Heath had actually come across an infographic that indicated the number one requested item from homeless shelters is socks. They were thinking about canned goods, paper towels, toilet paper, sanitary items, etc. And that means that you, my friend have leverage. I don't believe you can build a successful brand on a mission alone. So they have an amazing marketing strategy (business model) and high-quality socks, now what? Once customers find an emotional attachment to your brand, theyre likely to buy more, care less about price, recommend you to everyone and most importantly, make you millions. Mission-based marketing is dependent on a cause that helps customers feel like theyre making a real impact. 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. A really successful businessman once told me something that blew my mind, If you know what you are doing, you can even sell sand to an Arab.. Bombas was started in 2013 with a dual mission: to deliver quality socks and donate much-needed footwear to people living in shelters. Talbot:To be a brand thats going to endure, that will be around for a long time, what kind of messages do you want your marketing to convey? This objective tends to come alive more easily in marketing strategy than in actual execution. Now, lets take a deeper look at Bombass strategy that made them millions and how you can do the same. And many of them stay because of the mission. They post them on YouTube and on Facebook. In the venture world thats like a bad word. BRIAN KENNY: Yeah. I know Ive talked to several people. Since socks are a wear-through item, theres a lack of them at donation centers. After releasing a performance line and putting out related media, consumers value quality over purpose. And, like most companies with a charitable side, Bombas tends to tug atthe heartstrings every once in a while. It is the integration of impact, quality products, customer service and meaningful storytelling that allows brands to gain a competitive advantage. ELIZABETH KEENAN: No, they dont. Basing your business model on philanthropy is a great way to garner attention from people who actively seek out opportunities to support a cause through mindful commerce. BRIAN KENNY: Ah, to what we were just discussing before? Get our best content on ecommerce marketing in your inbox 2 times a week ELIZABETH KEENAN: In this case, it seems to have been a good thing. Bombas used their social media presence and marketing to find a group of people who shared their passion. BRIAN KENNY: 50 million pairs of socks, which is amazing. Getting this buy-in from team members is important for a mission-based company like Bombas because they act as evangelists for the brand. I saw one guy take his shoes off and on one foot he had wrapped a bandana around his foot and on the other, he'd literally wrapped his foot into a plastic bag to stop the boot from rubbing against it.. Customers and partners are encouraged to share their purchases or donations using the hashtag #BeeBetter (a reference to their name, which is derived from the Latin word for bumblebee). I have three pairs and Im constantly washing them because I want them available. This is what our brand is built on, Heath declares. They may adopt it over time and due in part to any number of pressures, whether external or internal that drive the need for focusing in on a mission-driven purpose. Weve also specialized the teams more over time - we used to have generalists, but as Bombas' scale has increased, we've brought in people with more specific areas of expertise. How do you get the socks into the hands of the people who need them? I think its a lot harder to start marketing the social side of your business later. 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. BRIAN KENNY: And so, this is part of what the case identifies as the buy one, give one model. This is a huge recruiting tool. Everyone is onboarded. 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. Bombas associated their brand with a great cause of "helping someone in need" which not only gives the customer a feeling of accomplishment about the purchase but also builds a positive brand. How can you find and connect with your brands True Believers, even during volatile times? Bombas is not just selling high-quality socks, they are selling that amazing feeling you get about yourself when you help someone(emotions). They already had a firm, they were selling a product or a service, and then they adopted a purpose as part of it and many of them have done a great job now providing for that purpose. These employees can then take their knowledge of the company culture and back up the values that customers see in the real word. Bombas makes socks. I recently asked her to share some of what she does to align Bombas brand pillars and corporate values. And I think the components that really matter will be the product and whether or not you can actually sell a high quality product at a price that allows the margin for you to make the donation and also to manage and control the growth of the donation side of your business. They're out of business. Our thought is, Let's take a slightly lower margin if that translates into more sales, the cofounder explains. The top traffic source to bombas.com is Direct traffic, driving 46.32% of desktop visits last month, and Organic Search is the 2nd with 23.56% of traffic. I was always exercising my entrepreneurial muscle, he says. "Brand culture is so important for sustainable, whole brands," says Jimmy Keown, VP and Growth Strategy Director atBarkley. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Goldberg and Heath knew that socks were the most requested item by homeless shelters before starting their company. I dont know if thats a good thing or a bad thing. The company is fairly young (2013), but it encapsulates so well the long term results-driven power of Brand Culture. He and his team launched an Indiegogo campaign for which they created a video explaining how they would donate socks to homeless people and developed comfort-based improvements. By 2021, it had become one of America's most visible. They instead connected with their audience to let them know how Bombas was able to partner with groups that work with the homeless and with other companies to make a reaching, positive impactall thanks to the support of their customers. Thats a lot of socks and a lot of good that theyre doing, right? As Bombas grows, so does its impact and aspirations. My name is Brian Kenny, and youre listening to Cold Call on the HBR Presents Network. 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. Elizabeth Keenans research explores individuals pro-social choices and behaviors within the domains of charitable giving and environmental sustainability. This was great. In fact, you think corporations are causing most of the problems in the world today. And so that allowed us to get back to this conversation about ways of increasing willingness to pay in this space. / Can Bombas Reach New Customers while Maintaining Its Social Mission. Rather than having to "figure things out," who Bombas had become as a brand and culture led to a natural response. People started flooding customer service with questions about where their socks were. We started getting people posting online, saying, Bombas is stealing our money. ELIZABETH KEENAN: Absolutely. Theyve built aculture of volunteering and giving backto the community into their internal company values. We've significantly built out our internal team - specifically, the actual channel management and creative teams because we ideate and produce the majority of our creative assets in-house. So yeah so, the buy one, give one model which Bombas refers to as one purchased, one donated is a model in which companies will sell products, and for every product they sell, they donate one of those items to somebody in need or an organization in need. Heath watched other online retailers fall short of investor expectations. David finally felt comfortable seeking outside funding and raised $1 million in seed financing from private investors. ELIZABETH KEENAN: So, socks, generally, the commoditized socks that we think of that we buy multi-packs at times, theyre going for about a dollar to $2 a pair. I guess in this case, its a good thing. By utilizing the direct to consumer model theyre able to cut out the middle man. Before I raised a single dollar of capital, I wanted to go out and prove market validation, the pragmatist says. Its often a challenge for a marketer to weave both mission and product into the messaging. When Bombas does a campaign about hitting a donation milestone, customers prioritize the giveback. They did that by taking socks, a clothing item thats an afterthought for many people, and elevating them into something that customers would talk about with friends by attaching a social mission. Were now at more than 25M pairs donated and this video is still one of our best-performing pieces of creative. Their plan was to design the ideal heel, a honeycomb arch support, a seamless toe, a blister tab, and stay-up technology. Why? How did you hear about Bombas and what made you decide to write the case? It never ceases to amaze me the big difference we can make, with just a pair of socks.. Relationships over transactions. Your Next Move. More about Nick. I saw companies like TOMS and Warby Parker doing the 1-for-1 model and said, Maybe I can create a company where we donate socks.. Yet in our inboxes, you'll remember we were all receiving marketing emails saying 'Here's our new spring collection,' or 'Get outside and stay active with our new X, Y, Z shoe.' Buy a pair of socks for yourself, and Bombas donates a pair to someone in need via their community partners. This simple fact was the inspiration behind Bombas Socks, a startup that equips the buy-one-donate-one business model and pairs it with the perfectly designed athletic sock. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. If they grow too quickly, then all of a sudden they have a much more complex issue, both in terms of managing product sales, as well as now managing multiple versions of donations to potentially thousands of giving partners. Keown further emphasizes that the success of Bombas' brand purpose and culture are founded not merely by the opinion of decision-makers in a boardroom, but rather that the brand's culture-wide approach of 'Hey, this is what we all believe as a collective community' is what really connects Bombas' internal True Believers with the fans who buy its socks.